Woei Jau Cheung is a freelance animator. As his parents are Chinese his animation is influenced by multi-cultural and ethnic themes. He is also interested in wildlife, science and technology documentaries, which acts as a major influence to generate ideas and storylines.
Woei has graduated at the University of Wolverhampton in 2006 with a BA Honours in Animation, where he studied for three years and gained a first class degree. At Wolverhampton he learnt to use a range of mixed mediums of animation techniques such as traditional 2D hand drawn animation, stop motion and 3D computer animation. Most of the styles and topics of animation were more abstract art than character based animation.
During 2007 Woei has taken more in-depth study through Post Graduate Diploma in 3D Computer Animation at Bournemouth University, which is part of the NCCA. At Bournemouth he developed skills towards the modelling, texturing and animation subject of 3D computer graphics. He has chosen to focus more on character animation in 3D by applying what was learnt from traditional hand drawn animation.
Woei has also attended a local short training course in Computer Character Animation, at the Light House in Wolverhampton, in the aim to further develop his understanding of 3D computer applications such as 3D Studio Max.
Woei’s skills are varied in both 2D and 3D software application such as Adobe After Effect 6.0, Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Premiere, Toon Boom 3.0, 3D Studio Max 8.0, Softimage XSI 6.01 and also Maya 7.0.
Woei’s animation methods and techniques also involve working with similar animation mediums such as silhouette cut-outs, sand, digital compositing etc.
Other fields of interest include character design, narrative & non-narrative themes.
Woei’s personal transferable skills include working in groups, for example Woei has collaborated with small groups of colleagues to create short animation projects. He is self motivated and responsible in carrying out and organising different tasks. He is also able to adapt to new skills as the industry is constantly changing because of technology, by self learning through researching online tutorials and forums. Numeracy and computer literacy is also important in his daily activities in computer graphics.
Woei believes resolving problems consists of creating alterative ways of approaching tasks. He can also solve most technical problems with computer programs, for example when animation rigs may not behave the way he wants it to, he would find alternative methods to gain the wanted results.
Woei’s future goals include being involved in animation projects that will generate an array of work that will enhance his portfolio of work. He looks forward to getting involved in projects, such as advertisement, character animation, animation shorts, visualisations etc.
