Taiwanese creative Howard Chen (陳人豪), who won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation earlier this month, said the cartoons of his childhood growing up in Taiwan planted the seeds for his career in the US.
The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, one of the US’ biggest honors for television programming, were held in Los Angeles earlier this month.
In addition to major awards for acting and directing, the Emmys also present creative awards recognizing the work of artists behind the scenes.
Photo: CNA
Chen won for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for his background design on the first episode of The Mighty Nein on Prime Video, entitled “Mote of Possibility.”
Chen is one of few creatives born and raised in Taiwan to win an Emmy. He moved to the US at age 13 with his mother and later studied at the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles.
He struggled in school when he first got to the US, as he did not speak any English at all, he told the Central News Agency yesterday in an interview at his alma mater.
After graduating in 2011, he worked with the production company Motion Theory before beginning his career in animation with Titmouse animation studio.
He has worked in character and background design over the past 15 years, participating in many different styles of animated productions.
Chen’s passion for animation began when he was a child watching cartoons on TV in Kaohsiung.
He said he would check the newspaper every day to see what cartoons were playing on the three TV stations he could watch at home.
“Back then I just thought cartoons were interesting. I never thought I would work in animation,” Chen said.
He was a fan of Japanese manga and anime when he was young, including Doraemon, Dragonball and Yu Yu Hakusho, as he admired how manga told stories through drawings, without relying heavily on text and dialogue.
Animation is appealing, as “a team works together to create an imagined world,” Chen said.
In his work on Episode 1 of The Mighty Nein, he created the setting in which the story’s main characters appear.
Since background design is like world-building, Chen said he studies the script and where the characters appear, while also considering the world’s history, culture, geography and building materials.
He also considers how the characters move through the space and how each scene would be framed.
Backgrounds should enhance the storytelling without grabbing attention, Chen said, adding that they should blend seamlessly into the story while ensuring they are culturally and historically accurate to the setting.
After years of working behind the scenes to create backgrounds for animated stories, Chen stepped into the spotlight to accept the Emmy, saying he felt surprised and grateful for the recognition.
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