The About Me Long Version

Who am I? And what is my story?

I was born in China. My parents are first-generation immigrants, and I guess that makes me one-and-a-half generation.

I’ve loved drawing since I was a kid. At home, we had a wall where my mom would put up all my competition drawings and little award certificates. Somehow, I always ended up in second place—guess there was always that one kid in another class who took first! But in first grade, I did win first place in a jump rope competition (haha).

Growing up, I was obsessed with cartoons, especially Japanese anime like Sailor Moon, Digimon, Pokémon, Doraemon, and later Naruto—and so many more. Back then, my dream was actually to become a fashion designer, because I loved playing with my Barbie dolls and making clothes for them out of old socks, paper, or even plastic wrap. My childhood was just great!

Later, my parents brought me to the U.S. Since they didn’t speak English, my English wasn't good either. I kind of stumbled my way through high school and eventually got into UCF (University of Central Florida). I changed my major a bunch of times—Aerospace Engineering, Finance, Hospitality Management—you name it! Looking back, it’s kind of funny. But at some point, I realized that art was what I truly loved, and UCF had two really solid programs: Graphic Design and Character Animation, both of which required a portfolio to apply.

So, I put together my very first portfolio—on a CD (not floppy disk, I gues I'm not that old.)—and applied for both. I got into both programs, but Character Animation seemed way cooler (plus, the idea of working at Disney one day was pretty exciting), so I went with that.

For the next two years, I focused on 3D modeling, animation, and VFX. For our senior project, my team created a 5-minute animated short called Farmer Glorp, about a four-eyed alien growing sunflowers on the sun and befriending a little fox-like creature. One of the coolest parts? Our film’s music was composed by Dr. Stella Sung and performed by the Dayton Ohio Philharmonic Orchestra. We even took a graduation trip to Ohio to watch the live performance with our short film!

The Character Animation program was such a memorable journey—it built a solid foundation for me and made me realize this was the path I wanted to take. Huge thanks to my professors—Darlene, Jo Anne, Cheryl, Phil—and of course, Stella for the amazing music. And my classmates? They were all insanely talented, and we learned so much from each other.

You know how people say, “Graduation means unemployment”? That hit me too. I felt like I still had a lot to improve, both technically and creatively.

Right downstairs from our department was FIEA (Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy), UCF’s Game Design master’s program. I went to their open house, and honestly, it blew my mind.

I grew up playing games—starting with Nintendo, playing Super Mario, Contra, and Tetris, then moving on to PC games like Age of Empires, StarCraft, Red Alert, and Chinese RPGs like The Legend of Sword and Fairy. Later, I got into online games like Audition Online, KartRider, MapleStory, and League of Legends.

Playing games had always been a huge part of my life, so the idea of making them sounded even cooler!

So, I put together my second portfolio and applied to FIEA. And that’s how I officially stepped into the world of games and real-time 3D. When I got into FIEA, I met so many insanely talented classmates and friends. The teachers were amazing, and the education was super professional. At the time, they had four specialization tracks for artist: Environmental art, animation, character art, or Technial artist.

The first thing I ruled out was Animation. Why? Well, after two years of studying it, I realized that being an animator requires strong acting skills, and… yeah, I just didn’t have that natural talent. I figured if I went down that path, I probably wouldn’t go very far. So originally, I was going to choose Environment Art. I’ve always loved architecture—I used to love sketching interiors, buildings, and admiring everything from modern skyscrapers to ancient temples.

But in the end, I went with Technical Art, and honestly, the biggest reason was my mentor, Chris Roda. Back then, Technical Art wasn’t as well known as it is now. It wasn’t super popular, and a lot of small studios didn’t even have this position. But Chris told me he saw TA potential in me. And what did he mean by that? He said I had: A problem-solving mindset—I liked figuring things out; A willingness to help others; A hunger to learn new things And looking back? He was 100% right. These three things are exactly what have kept me going in this field. Chris was an amazing mentor. We had one-on-one meetings every week, and he’d patiently listen to me ramble on about my dreams, my passion for VR and AR, and my big ideas for the future. He never made me feel crazy for dreaming big—he actually encouraged it.

At FIEA, my skills leveled up like crazy, but more importantly, I'm not only so much more confident in myself but I also become a real team player. Not just working with other artist, but also working with producers and Engineers. The program was project-based, which meant I got to work on tons of different projects, both small and big. Some of them were: Small team prototypes like Polyatomic VR, Snowmaniac, and You Think You Know Art. Big capstone games like Master Key and Oracle These projects? They became my golden ticket into the industry. I honestly can’t thank my FIEA professors and teammates enough. They were all incredibly talented, and I learned so much from them. Looking back, FIEA was one of the best education and profession experiences you can ask for in a game design program.

After two years at FIEA, I graduated—again. Oh, and I totally forgot to mention, I actually got married right after my bachelor’s graduation!

After finishing my master’s, my husband and I moved from Florida to Connecticut, and with that came one of the biggest life changes ever—I became a mom. At first, I had no idea what that really meant. I didn’t realize just how hard parenting was, especially without any family around to help. No relatives, no backup—just us. And let me tell you, it was tough.

People always say that having a kid is a huge challenge for a woman’s career. Well, mine hadn’t even started yet, and I was already facing that challenge head-on. The early days? Absolute chaos. But little by little, we found a rhythm, and before I knew it, two years had passed.

That two-year gap? Yeah, it wasn’t easy. When I first started job hunting, it was rough—really rough. So I decided to go freelance, registered my own company, and was ready to go all in. I started getting some small projects, things were finally looking up… and then COVID happened.

Everything changed again. Daycares shut down, my projects got put on hold, and work became nearly impossible. Eventually, we made the decision to move to California, to Silicon Valley—partly because my husband got a new job, and partly because we were looking for more opportunities.

Luckily, about a year after moving, things finally settled down. I get together all the works from past experience. My 3rd portfolio is ready. COVID started to fade, life became more stable, and best of all—I landed a job at an amazing team : All Of It Now. When I first joined All of It Now, the company was just starting to grow. Thanks to COVID, the virtual production industry exploded, and—lucky for me—Unreal Engine became a key tool in this field. That’s when all my past Unreal Engine experience really came in handy.

During my time at All of It Now, I was super lucky to be part of so many high-quality projects, including: Encanto at the Hollywood Bowl broadcasting AR, Childish Gambino’s project, zkSync Racing, Tony the Tiger Twitch Stream, Meta XR Environments, and a lot more...

My skills leveled up in every direction, especially as a 3D generalist. Since the company worked on such a wide range of projects, one week I’d be doing VFX, the next I’d be building environments, and then I’d switch to character modeling and rigging. I even worked on motion capture setups for some projects.

I think my biggest strength for now is having a broad skill set—I may not be a master in one single area, but I’m solid at a lot of things. That being said, if there’s one thing I want to improve, it’s mastering one specific area. Right now, I have a broad skill set, which is great, but I’d love to take one of these skills to a true mastery level. To be honest? I’m not entirely sure which direction to pick yet. But what I do know is that life has a way of leading you exactly where you’re meant to be. So, I’m just going to keep learning, keep growing, and see where the journey takes me.

My three years at All of It Now were truly invaluable. When I joined, there were only three people on the Unreal Engine team—I was the fourth. Over time, the team grew… and then, unfortunately, last year, due to the industry slowdown, the company had to lay people off. Now I'm actively looking for opportunities. During my time at AOIN, I’m grateful for every single person I worked with. They were incredibly talented and amazing to collaborate with. I learned so much from them.

So, where am I now?

After getting laid off in November, I decided to take a break—a real one. I finally had time to do the things I’d wanted to do for so long. I traveled to Japan, went back to China to visit my family there, picked up photography again, and watched all the animated films I’d been meaning to see. By the way, DreamWorks' The Wild Robot? One of the most beautiful animated films I’ve seen in years. Oh, and I also chased the Firefall in Yosemite! They say this February’s Firefall was the best in 25 years, and I feel so lucky to have seen it.

Now, I’m in the process of rebuilding my portfolio—working on my demo reel (my fourth portfolio!) and actively job hunting. But honestly? If I don’t find a job right away, that’s okay too. I’ve been thinking about starting my own thing, and while I haven’t locked in a direction yet, I have a few ideas I’m excited about. Whatever happens next—the future looks bright. ✨

And if you made it all the way to the end of my rambling, thank you for reading!

If you’re also out there job hunting in this tough time—hang in there and don’t give up. We’ve got this. 💪