Yukai Du

Profession

MA Character Animation Alum

College

Central Saint Martins

Person Type

Alumni

Biography

Yukai Du is an illustrator and animation director, originally from Guangzhou, China, currently live and work in London. She studied MA Character Animation at Central Saint Martins.

Interview

Why did you choose to study MA Character Animation at Central Saint Martins (CSM)?

I wanted to learn more about graphic designs and visual communication after my BA animation degree in Guangzhou, China. So I ﬁrst applied MA Communication Design, however, I realised I couldn’t achieve what I wanted to do in my ﬁrst year, later I transferred to MA Character Animation where I picked up my love again – animation and illustration.

What have you been working on since graduating?

I started as an in-house junior animator full time. As my portfolio was building up, I got another job as a junior animation director. I have been establishing and developing my works both in illustration and animation, now I’m a freelance illustrator and animation director represented by Making Pictures, Hornet and Final Frontier, working with diﬀerent studios, brands and organisations.

What was the most interesting project you worked on during your time on the course?

My ﬁnal ﬁlm ‘Way Out’.

When I did my ﬁrst year in MACD, I spent a lot of time to research about the relationship between human and technology. It gave a very good foundation of my ﬁnal project. After transferring to MACA, I was able to bring my research and story to life. I spent nine months alongside with other projects on my ﬁnal ﬁlm, it was the ﬁrst piece of work in my career I found an illustration and animation style which has made me who I am today.

What important piece of advice would you give to students thinking of studying this course?

There’s no shortcut to be a good animator. Be prepared that you will need to put some hard work in to achieve something. And don’t think you will only study in one course, once you are in CSM and UAL, there are so many resources, workshops and collaborations, be open- minded!

What was the highlight of your Central Saint Martins experience?

The highlight was, I won a comic competition in CSM in my ﬁrst year, the competition was sponsored by my all time favourite publisher NOBROW. As the winner, I got £100 voucher in CassArt and an opportunity to publish one of my illustration with Nobrow. It was like a dream come true!

What is the most important thing you learnt on the course?

Asking questions. Being a Chinese, I grew up and studied in a very diﬀerent culture, asking question was never important in my previous study. When I was in CSM, I realised I missed a lot of information and most of time was because of the language barrier. Slowly, I learned that I should just ask, there’s no shame and questions are in fact a part of our thinking process. They help us to understand briefs, projects in our way, it will solve a lot of creative blockages. I still found it very useful these days.

Links

Check Yukai’s Website
Check Yukai’s Instagram
Check Yukai’s LinkedIn
Check Yukai’s Vimeo
Check Yukai’s Behance
View the MA Character Animation course page

Yukai Du

Biography

Interview

Links

Central Saint Martins

Contact

Address