Animation Student Spotlight - Zhuolin (Rebecca) Liu

Animation Student Spotlight: Meet Rebecca, a feature animator expanding into game animation, mastering action, camera work, and technical problem-solving.

“I became more confident in my abilities to overcome challenges, both artistic and technical, and I have evolved into a more well-rounded and versatile animator.”

Meet iAnimate Student Rebecca Liu

Student Spotlight features Rebecca Liu, a Senior Animator with a background in feature animation. After starting as an animation intern at Pixar and contributing to several films at Illumination Studios Paris, she set her sights on a new challenge—game animation. With a passion for animating combat and a desire to expand her skill set, Rebecca embarked on creating an in-game cinematic. This project allows her to explore body mechanics, action, camera composition, and technical problem-solving—areas she didn’t often get to dive into during feature film production. Her journey is a testament to the power of continuous learning and pushing creative boundaries.

 Student Animation Journey

Rebecca Liu  took the following Game Animation Workshop at iAnimate: 

• Game Animation 3 with Ricky Wood (People Can Fly)

When approaching her iAnimate assignments and animations, Rebecca follows a structured yet flexible creative process that allows her to refine every aspect of her work.

• Idea Visualization – She starts by imagining several concepts in her head and brainstorming potential ideas for the animation.
• Rough Beat Boards – She sketches out rough beat boards to establish key moments and the overall flow.
• Layout in Maya – She creates a rough layout pass in Maya to block out the scene's composition and movement.
• Reference Gathering – She shoots multiple video references of herself performing the actions and selects the best moments. She also researches and integrates online video references to enhance her approach.
• Blocking Key Poses – Using the references as a guide, she blocks out the key poses on her characters while pushing the movement to make it crisp, clear, and engaging.
  Refining Timing – She continuously adjusts and fine-tunes the timing, experimenting until the animation flows naturally and serves the character and story best.

Through her time at iAnimate, Rebecca has expanded her skill set in exciting new ways. Working on her in-game cinematic has allowed her to dive into camera movement and composition—an area she had always been intrigued by but never had the opportunity to fully explore in feature animation.

“Camera work is challenging but fascinating to me. There is so much creativity that can be expressed through the camera, and when it's done right, it gives the audience chills and an unforgettable experience.”

In addition to refining her eye for composition, she has also experimented with new workflows that make animating more efficient and has trained herself in technical problem-solving. By stepping outside her comfort zone, Rebecca has embraced the challenges of game animation, gaining invaluable hands-on experience that strengthens both her creative and technical abilities.

[Rebecca's Current Reel]

You can reach Rebecca via:

Student Spotlight Q&A with Animator Rebecca Liu

iAnimate: What do you think of your Online Animation Instructor(s), and how do they help you?

Rebecca: While taking Ricky's course in game animation, I learned many useful things. He has very solid knowledge and experience in camera work and efficient workflows. During Ricky's lectures, he showed a lot of great camera composition examples from movies and games and demoed his techniques and camera tricks that were revealing.

iAnimate: How did iAnimate help you to evolve your animation skills as a character animator?

Rebecca: Working on this personal project at iAnimate allowed me to exercise my problem-solving muscles, such as technical troubleshooting, working around rig limitations, and trying out new styles and workflows. I became more confident in my abilities to overcome challenges, both artistic and technical, and I have evolved into a more well-rounded and versatile animator.

iAnimate: What kind of animator do you consider after taking your student workshop(s)?

Rebecca: I am an animator with experience in both feature film and game animation. I am highly proficient in working with Maya, and I also have experience with animating and implementing animation in Unreal Engine. I am able to quickly adapt to new software and workflows. I can be very flexible switching between different styles of animation, ranging from cartoony to realistic.

iAnimate: What kind of project do you want to work on?

Rebecca: I am interested in working on both games and feature films.