Meet bolin zhou

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bolin Zhou. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bolin below.

Hi Bolin , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I think Resilience is about bouncing back from setbacks and staying strong through the ups and downs of your career. The quicker you recover, the tougher you get, and overtime it thickens your skin. In my work, I always aim to deliver extraordinarily high level of work to boost my portfolio in my career. Success in the creative world means consistently producing exceptional work. I always remind myself: go hard or go home. Being an artist means striving for perfection, not being afraid to start over, and always giving your best and do your best damn work. It’s about staying strong, not giving up, and focusing on one thing at a time while trusting the process. Like Bruce Lee said, “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” Experience and learning from mistakes matter. Every project, especially the ones that don’t go as planned, teaches valuable lessons. Over time, these experiences build resilience by showing that setbacks are opportunities for growth. I remember once facing a layoff due to underperformance, which was caused by tough living conditions, budget issues, a negative environment, my legal status being tied to my job, and personal health concerns. These factors hit my well-being and performance hard. My experience taught me the importance of mental resilience and workplace performance. I have learned to keep my energy levels high to boost my creativity at work.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am an award-winning freelance motion design and VFX artist with 10+ years of working in the advertising and commercial industry. I’m particularly drawn to the realm of commercials, branding, and advertising. Captivating designs and typography that catch my eye ignite a passionate fire within me. In motion design studio, I’ve work with art director, house designers and amazing illustrators, following the direction and then animating style frames and bringing the scene to life in after effect. I also specialize in VFX shot with live footage creating rotoscoping, 2D tracking, with additional skills in 3D like modeling, texturing, and camera tracking, mixing 2D or 3D animated objects with it, and then polishing 3D renders using multi-pass layer images, a robust pipeline from 3D into compositing. I am very detail orientated, and have a keen eye for design, and always looking something exciting to work on.

I’ve done work for well-known brands like Netflix, Spotify, BET, and CNN, iHeart, among others. I worked on multiple TV show trailers, network rebrands, and streaming platform social media content. I had the opportunity to work on the website WhoIsMrRobot.com for all four seasons of USA’s Emmy-winning series, Mr. Robot. This project went on to win 1 Emmy Award, 3 Webby Awards, and 1 Shorty Award for Outstanding Interactive Extension Of A Linear Program in 2020. These awards were specifically for an Alternate Reality Game built into the site for the show’s final season.

Recently, I helped a friend who is also an amazing filmmaker Htet Gyaw, with his short film “The Killing Dream” by working on some VFX shots creating rotoscoping, 2D tracking, UI animation, and screen replacement and so on. The 00:46 second trailer is out already, and it’s thrilling to see my name in the end credits. Htet will be submitting the film to bunch of international film festivals, and we’re hopeful it will get some nominations, and recognitions, and win some awards too.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Set some boundaries. When you’re passionate about something, you put in the hours and grind it out. But you gotta make sure you’re not getting exploited by anyone, company or studio. Avoid drama and learn to say no. Speak up and do what works best for you. Be transparent and straightforward. One time at work, I had to tell a coworker, “You can’t depend on me to do your tasks, I don’t like that you act like you have authority over me, Nothing comes for free without hard work, and no pain no gain.” first of all I’m grateful for the freelance gigs and projects I’ve worked on, but sometimes you gotta deal with folks who might try to undermine you or dodge their responsibilities, expecting you to handle everything. They act like they’re not part of the collaboration and then asking you to finish tasks last minute. This can be a nightmare. It can be a huge daily struggle and pain in the ass in the industry sometimes, and you have to beware of workplace toxicity like that.

I get that we all have different working styles. Some might have control-freak mentors, and they’ve picked up those habits. When these issues pop up, it’s necessary to bring them up with your manager or HR to keep things running smoothly. Sometimes, it’s more efficient for one person to handle a task rather than two people, which can lead to waiting around or doing nothing. I prefer working solo while the other person handles something else, boosting efficiency and accuracy. Having a small talk with the manager, don’t just complain about everything. You don’t want to dump all the problems on your manager or be the first to blame others—it might make you look bad. Your manager might think it’s your problem that people don’t get along with you. Instead, 1. State your demands. 2. Present your solution. 3. Explain the benefits and synergies. Frame it as a work-related issue. Your goal is to show that one person can handle the task more efficiently, making the workflow smoother.

Next, I believe social skills are very valuable skill to have. Improving your social game as a freelancer is necessary. Building and maintaining partnerships, especially with other creators, is key. You gotta keep in touch with people so that even if you haven’t seen them in a while, one day, out of the blue, they remember, “Oh yeah, that person is one of the best creatives available.” They remember you as one of the top in your field. This helps your career a lot. Make sure people remember you and understand that it’s a two-way street. While technical skills are important, your social skills are just as crucial. You need to “hustle those muscles” to stay relevant and memorable in your industry.

Okay! When you are booked with a new project, working with art directors and editor takes some serious soft skills in collaboration. You gotta understand what your art director wants and vibe with their tastes and preferences. I remember this one time when I got booked by BigStar, a killer motion design studio in the New York Hudson Yards area. They are known for their amazing work in TV broadcast and film design, and their work are impressive as hell. They booked me for two weeks had me working on a 30-second spot for the Project Runway Jr. Season Two Promo. Man, it was an unforgettable fun and exciting experience! It showed me what it’s really like to work closely with them. I had the opportunity working closely with the Creative Director, Josh Norton. Under his conduct, we broke down boundaries and orchestrated a Sea World like visual symphony that just came to life. Working with those people just levels up everything. It’s magical to see how the feedback evolves from the first pass to the final stages.

Lastly, Work-life balance, man. Taking breaks keeps you from burning out and keeps your mind fresh. Constantly grinding can be toxic. Sitting in front of a computer for eight hours and then another six at night? You are going to turn yourself into a zombie, especially if you come from a studio environment. The hours you put into small or big-budget projects can be insane. Taking care of yourself outside of work is crucial. Moving to a place where you can actually have a work-life balance lets you enjoy life and get inspired by things outside of motion design. Inspiration outside the studio is a big deal. It gives you more time to be grateful for other things, rediscovery yourself, and do what you love. Engage in hobbies, spend time with loved ones. When you come back to work, you’re energized and ready to go, not exhausted. That’s something I really appreciate.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

Despite facing challenges like dealing with tough living situations, tight budgets, a bad environment, and having my legal status tied to my job. Plus, worry about getting laid off for underperforming and dealing with personal health issues. Over time, I’ve toughened up, developed thicker skin, and built my resilience.

When I transition from full-time work to freelancing, my schedule became flexible, but the anxiety appears when I had to looking for the next opportunity, especially during the pandemic shutdown, companies and agencies changed their rules and policies, leading to layoffs and making it harder to find work, the anxiety just intensified, and made it even worse. I needed to break this pattern, or I would kill myself. Instead of waiting for things to return to normal, I try to stay proactive, optimistic, looking for other types of employment opportunities, being humble, learning new things, and embracing new challenges helps me avoid the anxiety of uncertainty and protect my mental health and well-being.

Having a support system of colleagues, mentors, and friends is crucial. They provide encouragement, advice, and different perspectives to help navigate tough times. Adopting a growth mindset and optimistic attitude, where challenges are seen as learning opportunities, builds resilience. Embracing change and uncertainty as part of the creative process helps maintain a positive outlook. Working on personal projects can brings joy and creativity, helping me stay connected to my passion without anyones pressure. Like reading, writing, editing, cooking, or taking a MBTI Personality Test online to learn more about yourself and rediscovered who you really are again. It can recharges my creative energy and gives me a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes it’s about channeling that anxiety into productive energy, using it to drive and push through obstacles while being careful not to burn out. Using perceived weaknesses, like anxiety, to fuel myself is something I’ve definitely grown into.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vimeo.com/user53566626
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bolin-zhou-88274a13/

Image Credits

Bolin Zhou