Fresh Fish

Jeen Lee’s Fish, an extraordinary short that combines live action with CGI to tell the story of two roommates, is the newest winner of the Crackle Shorts Contest. Jeen took some time out from her work at PSYOP, an animation ad agency, to answer our questions about her deft pastiche of the real and the, well, aquatic.

Crackle: Have you been surprised at all by the success of Fish—or did you have a feeling that people would love it while you were making it?

Jeen Lee: I didn’t expect any success while I was making Fish. I am glad [for the] success because I feel like I am paying back all the people who helped me in this project. It was a fun process but it wasn’t an easy process. I could not have made this film without my teammates’ efforts. I was very glad every time I got recognition from festivals and contests. I am glad that people are enjoying Fish; that was what I was hoping when I made this film.

Crackle: Did you do the cool hand-drawn intro to Fish? How did you decide to open with this?

JL: My friend Chulhwan drew the illustrations for the introduction. He was very good at character drawings so I thought he would be the best person for this job. Another friend of mine, Chunghye, did the stylizing, coloring and texturing of the drawings, and Minchung, another good friend, did the slide show animation.

I thought the film needed some kind of feedback regarding the relationship between the Fish and the main guy. I thought the best way to explain the relationship in an interesting way would be the illustrations of Chulhwan, so I decided to make it into a short animated introduction.

Crackle: Your short does an incredible job mixing CG with live action—something Hollywood could take a lesson from. That said, what are the three movies that you think incorporate CG most naturally into live action?

JL: Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Host

Crackle: Your website says that Fish depicts the relationship between you and your friend Chulwhan. Can you take us a little deeper into how this relationship comes through in the film?

JL: I have one good friend who does not care about me – It sounds weird, but he really doesn’t – because [we’re] so used to each other, being together, and hanging out just like two good friends. Since I moved out to the Queens, away from Manhattan, [I’ve been staying at his] apartment [from time to time]. In between classes or whenever I finish my work late at night, I go to his apartment to relax, sleep, or just to hang out. I didn’t make up this story; this is a real story that represents our usual, ordinary interaction, except I placed a 3D fish character instead of me. Since I am a woman and he is a man, people often question why I always visit his place at night. I see him just as I see any of my family members. Gender doesn’t play a role. What’s important is our connection. It is important for other people to understand our unique relationship, and how we view each other.

In the summer of 2005, I was [doing research] for my senior thesis at the School of Visual Arts. As usual, I hung out a lot at Chulwhan’s place. We took many pictures for no reason; mostly for fun. One day CH took a picture from the ceiling’s point of view while I was taking a nap in his room. It gave me such a huge inspiration for Fish. I loved the picture; that picture made me realize that I should make a film about my friend and me.

Crackle: Can you go into the technical process of making Fish? How did you bring the fish to life?

JL: The most challenging part was the 3D Fish. I wanted to make the fish hyper-realistic. The 3D Fish had to be done by my friends in the 3D department. First, the fish had to be modeled, and it needed to be rigged. While my friends were animating the shots, it was textured, shaded (Sub Surface Scatter for the realistic fish skin), and lighted (HDRI photographs to match with the back plates’ lighting). When the texturing, animating and lighting was done, we rendered it out as 32 float .tif images.

While 3D teams were [bringing the fish to life], the 2D teams were making the clean plates. We did the shooting with the HD camera, edited the tapes, and 3D tracked for the final camera to render with the fish. Also, we tested the visual effects, such as the particles and the fog effects, for the final look of the film and color correction.

While the 2D and 3D teams were busy with their works, the design team was working on the title sequence and the ending sequence. A guy from Korea worked with me online to [write] the musical score.

Crackle: How did you originally get into animation? Has it been a lifelong passion?

JL: There are a variety of ways to express thoughts and feelings; I have chosen visual images. Since my childhood, I observed my environment through the rectangular frame formed by my fingers, and made picture diaries of special days. I believe this habit trained my eyes and brain to skillfully and attentively view my surroundings, which have constructed my life path so far.

After high school, I entered the department of Photography & Visual Arts at Kyung-won in Korea. After graduating there, I wanted to continue my creative learning and developing in the USA. I picked VFX because I wanted to see my still pictures moving. So I went to the Computer Animation and Visual Effects major in the School of Visual Arts.

Crackle: What projects are you working on now?

JL: I don’t have any personal projects that I am working on now. For now, I want to focus on learning and developing VFX skills so I can freely express my imagination later on without any technical limitations. I am working [for] a commercial post-production company called, Psyop Inc, and I am working on many different commercial projects, such as Infiniti, Pepsi, and Adidas.

For more on Jeen, visit her website.