Class 107

Circle of Life
- Chulmin Oh

There are so many different animations in the world. I didn't know anything about animation. My knowledge of animation was limited to who the main character was, some special moves they used, who their colleagues were, and who their rivals were. Through this work, I had an opportunity to learn and study animation more deeply. In particular, I was able to learn how to work, understand workflow, and get tips from active workers little by little, to put them in my head and learn them in my hands.
Becoming a comic book artist was one of my dreams when I was a child. This is the first animation I completed in my life. Life seems to be really long and short. I tried to express the flow of life in animation. The painting is crooked and not very good, but I am happy that I have completed this animation and thank the school for giving me the opportunity to submit my work to these exhibitions.

Materials: digital animation

What’s in their Bags
- Akiyo Fushimi

What's in their Bags is a project that is built with multiple elements: character designs, digital drawings and life-size props. Since my future goal is to be a prop artist for films, I took this opportunity to try and enjoy my imagination for creating props. I designed two characters who belong to the historical culture of my country and built details to show their personalities in the props. These two characters have two completely opposite characteristics. For example, one is from Japanese Buddhism hell, and the other is from Japanese Buddhism heaven. This contrast between them is one of the points I paid attention to when I was designing.

Materials: Adobe Illustrator, Clip Studio, paper print, acrylic paint, toy gun, lighter, candy

Note: VFS has a strict policy on the use of weapons in student projects. The guns you see in this project were made using toy guns with approval in advance from the VFS Foundation program.

Masks for Protection
- Joseph Li

During the pandemic, we wear COVID masks. But the following three masks provide greater protections:

"Protected from War, Violence and Injustice" is inspired by the statue of Lady Justice. Her eyes are blindfolded to show that she treats all people equally. Other signs imply "banning nuclear and biohazard weapons".

"Protected from Surveillance and Facial Recognition" is inspired by the news that China has the world's largest camera surveillance network. CCTV cameras are everywhere and people can easily be recognized by AI. This reminds me of "Big Brother is watching you" in 1984, written by George Orwell.

"Protected from Totalitarian Dictatorship and Police Brutality" is inspired by the tragedy of a female first aider who got shot in her right eye by a bean bag bullet used by Hong Kong police. During the Anti-Extradition Law Movement in 2019, Hong Kong protesters demonstrated peacefully against police brutality and totalitarian dictatorship from China.

Materials: paper and acrylic paint

Alien in 2021
- Yang Yuncheng

For gamers, a scene that can clearly show meaning in the third person is enjoyable. Perhaps this scene may only roughly contain a few elements in the game world or movie world, but the audience or players can try to figure out more details and gain a sense of accomplishment through this scene.

Materials: Maya 2019, Maya renderer

The World Distance

- Zi Hao (Kevin) Xue

Distorted Truths
- Christoph Wi

The sculpture ‘Distorted Truths’ is about a problem of social media. I have seen a lot of examples of fake news and even I misunderstood many times because of it. So I chose the problem of social media for this project. Tentacles are a metaphor for truth and information. You can see that tentacles are passing through the iPad, which represents media. The tentacles that look realistic and boring mean pure truth and information that has not passed through ‘Media’ yet. And the tentacles that look beautiful, interesting and ridiculous mean distorted truth and information that has passed through ‘Media’ already. I want to give the message ‘Media makes truth become distorted, exaggerated and interesting, which is totally different from the original truth’.

Materials: wire, polymer clay, cardboard, acrylic paint

The Collaterals
- Ritoban Biswas


When a ship goes down, the first people that are to be saved are the children, women and elderly. These three demographics drew my interest and I tried to find similarities between them. I've also wanted to enable people to come up with their own interpretations. I wanted to touch on some serious topics with my artwork and send a message with my paintings. The first being Child Neglect. Children are the future. If a child is neglected their true potentials are exhausted,
The second topic I wanted to highlight was the Domestic Abuse of women in all walks of life and how they're controlled by different aspects of society.
Lastly, I wanted to show how some people are completely aloof about the state in which their parents might be in, resulting in the Elderly being mistreated.

Materials: canvas, acrylic paint

Cosmic Traveler
- Chantal Chan

Curiosity is the essence of our existence. Approximately only 4% of visible space has been explored by scientists around the world. Having experienced living in multiple countries since my adolescence, I constantly struggled to find a sense of belonging in every place I visited. Whenever I feel homesick, I look up to the sky for guidance from the universe. As time passes by, I have developed skills to identify major stars. No matter where I am in the world, I am still under the same sky, led by the same shimmering constellations. I believe that everyone carries a universe inside them, which is a symbol of growth and prosperity. Just like the vast galaxies, my potential and creativity are immeasurable - for endeavors to come.

Materials: polymer clay, acrylic paint, cotton, LED lights, cardboard

Young vs. Old
- Nicole Low

Since I have lived about a third into my life, I want to reflect on my life and imagine what my life will be in the future. I wanted to see how I might look 60 years older. I took a childhood photo and recreated it with pencil, paper, and pencil crayon. I used a snapchat filter on a photo of my present self and recreated it with the same materials. I also researched how people’s faces age physically to see how my own face might change with age.

Materials: paper, pencil, pencil crayon

Digital Mannequin
- Daniel Newton

My story that I convey here is one about personal struggle and being an artist. I have never been one who is an amazing illustrator, but I am working on making sure my skills get better over time. The same can also be said for me doing 2D animation. I decided to try and make a cohesive narrative while using the physical mannequin as my character, but put into a digital space. Animating this way pushed me out of my comfort zone and let me learn about my own creativity, which is reflected in the mannequin itself. The narrative is one about feeling stuck and sad and combating those feelings by being creative and making things. The wooden mannequin is something we use for learning to draw, so I figured it’s only fitting that the mannequin does the reverse and learns to draw as well.

Materials: digital animation