We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eugene Moon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Eugene, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
The way I keep my creativity alive is by being open to various possibilities and ideas. What I mean by that is I try to take in and be exposed to a variety of external and internal events, such as traveling to another part of the city through a subway, reading a book, daydreaming, to even mistyping text messages. By being open to these happenings, they stimulate interesting ideas where I can visualize scenarios or create stories. The method I try to be open is through active and passive exposures. The active method involves making an effort to search for creative ideas, such as asking “what if” or “how about” questions to existing ideas or questions. For example, I would ask “what if a hat is light enough to get blown to another city?” I would play with that question by asking myself more questions or scenarios that could expand into a story that may be worth using or discarded to make way for another set of questions to find new ideas. Another active method that helps me find creativity would be reading either books, articles, or texts. I love reading history and literature. I not only learn a lot about the topic but I often visualize those stories as if I were watching a movie. I would think about shot composition, character designs, choreography, staging, and cinematography all in one as I read through the text. Written accounts are perfect for me to visualize my own adaptation of work as films, especially so as a storyboard artist, which I usually like to create personal boards based on history and literature.
The passive method is another good one that can give fascinating and possibly bizarre results. Being exposed to something when not thinking about anything creative is another good way to get ideas. I would watch movie, take a walk, etc. and witness an event that may happen unexpectedly or stumble upon a phenomena that has always been present and they trigger an inspiration. Another common one is daydreaming and even shower thoughts as some call it. I would sometimes let my mind wander, and it can conjure images or thoughts I may not expect that can be a eureka moment to my creative process. Like daydreams, dreams are another great source of inspiration, especially when they’re not restrained by logical structures. I usually try to write down dreams that I find impactful, such as songs or emotional scenes.
Another very interesting creative method that I never expected to be helpful is mishearing and mistyping words. There are days I mishear people and hear a combination of words I would not expect to encounter. I usually do not find much inspiration from mishearing people but there have been very few times I find one or two to give me great if not surreal ideas. Mistype or autocorrect is the more interesting method of the two. I would type an innocuous sentence on my phone and for some reason, it would be autocorrected into a strange phrases as if they came from a dada poem. I find a lot more interesting ideas from these mistypes since they are so bizarre that they can create great prompts or settings to a story.
These methods are one of the ways I try to maintain and inspire my creativity. I would also add practicing drawing, writing, music, etc. are another way to keeping that creativity alive but also maintaining the skills in those mediums. The exposure method is one of the larger motivating factor in not only inspiring me to create art but also to keep my mind inspired and constantly creating images, ideas, and stories. Not only does it make me create ideas but it helps me be receptive to many things that can allow me to engage others by listening to them and sharing stories and ideas. Which that in turn also inspires me to create new ideas and stories. Without that, I would not have found my voice or find the motivation to maintain that creativity.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a storyboard artist aspiring to break into the animation industry. I enjoy storyboarding and visual storytelling as it has been my new medium and art practice for the last few years. I have actually wanted to do storyboarding for a long time but did not have the confidence in myself to do it. It was until a few years ago I decided to transition into doing animation and was trying to decide which area to specialize in, I thought about doing storyboarding, and was encouraged to do so by a timing director I knew. I took a class on storyboarding and it opened up a whole new world for me. I found it very enjoyable, and the art made so much sense to me that it became my new artistic medium and practice. So far, I have done a few storyboarding gigs, taken storyboarding courses, and made new friends along the way. I hope to be able to break into the animation industry as I learn new skills and connections. Aside from that, I have also made an animated commercial for LA Artcore, did art exhibition in galleries, and involved with gamelan (Indonesian music) performances and ensembles.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The closest I can think of in terms of knowledge that has impacted my life in the broadest way would be visual art, history, and music. Much of my life and interest has revolved around those subjects. I have studied at Calarts for Fine Art and became involved with music, ethnomusicology, and gamelan, and met with many artists and animators there. I have also combined music and art together by creating musical instruments and sculptures, which I have used to exhibit in galleries, collaborations, and artist residencies. My interest in history strongly informs my practice and interest. I enjoy reading history for pleasure as well as research and themes. It led me to explore histories in various parts of the region and how interconnected various places are. It allowed me to explore and delve into ethnomusicology, anthropology, and art history as I learn and discover more things about ancient to modern art, music, and the social aspects and stories involved with them. In short, these knowledge are strongly interconnected to each other and led me to various opportunities and paths like a web with many doors rather than a single linear path. Those knowledge and interest have been so ingrained within my life that it is hard to imagine my life without them. And I am grateful for that they led me to where I am now.
My advice for those on their journey would be to be open and receptive to different ideas and explore your interests. See where your interest can take you and reach out to organizations, meetups, and people who share in those interests. Those people usually come from multiple backgrounds. Engage with them so you can become friends where you can expand your shared interests. They can even give you opportunities to another field or career path that you may or may not be looking for. Definitely take the chance for any opportunities that interest you. They can connect you to other interests and ideas that can open you up to more opportunities.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I think it is better to be well rounded to improve on areas you are not strong in. The way I see it, you should improve on a certain set of skill that relates to your target interest or career. For example, in storyboarding, you have to know how to draw anatomy, backgrounds, perspective, camera placements, staging, and many more. It would seem obvious to many people to be good in storyboarding is knowing how to draw panels quickly and understanding film language. But to really excel in storyboarding is knowing how to write and direct. I am currently taking a storyboarding class taught by Andy Cung where he taught us to how to study and analyze scripts and scenes as well as writing out our own script. Most storyboard artists would recommend to study a scene by watching a particular scene and draw out the scene or reverse-board it as some would call it. Andy Cung would suggest, in addition to that, to break down and analyze the scene by writing out the lines and beats as if it were its own 3 act story, which he termed the Umbrella Method. He usually have his students analyze a scene using the Umbrella Method to understand the impact of each line and beat in order for the artist to know when and where to draw and transfer the visual impact to the audience.
Before taking his class, I would usually thumbnail (draw quick sketches) my storyboard and it usually becomes very long. My storyboards were very long that they were more like storyboards for an entire film rather than a scene. I was fortunate to understand aspects of storyboarding like camera shots, movement, and perspective, but I struggled with making a story or scene that had the right length and not too long. It was after taking Andy Cung’s courses that I understood that the 3 act structure does not mean the entire story but in everything to an image, a scene, even an act itself. It is like a fractal. Now I have a better grasp of story structure and story beats that I am able to make my storyboards shorter. And I also use the Umbrella Method on every movie and tv scene I watch.
Because I was able to focus and work on my weaker aspect of skill, like scene and script analysis, I improved my understanding of it. Which in turn helped improve my skill in storyboarding. I believe all things, even those that appear unimportant, are all connected. Working and building up on every aspect of those skills can make your skill or talent stronger than just solely working on your strength.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eugenekmoon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kc.sketches.3/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugene-k-moon/
- Other: Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/kcsketches3.bsky.social
