Asians in Animation

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Asians in Animation

The leading representative organization for Asians in the animation industry.

Asians in Animation is a global non-profit dedicated to advancing the visibility, professional growth, and equitable representation of Asian communities in animation. Founded in 2020, Asians in Animation (AIA) is an international organization dedicated to the celebrAsian and support of the Asian animation community.

AIA is committed to Education, Inclusivity, and the Celebration of Asian stories, Asian-led work, and the many cultures that span the entire continent of Asia and its diasporas.

08/21/2026

From Storyboards to Soundtracks: Our latest milestones!

The Story Team has officially wrapped, after many weeks of creativity, collaboration, and countless iterations. Following the Rough Pitch, they refined those ideas and began to clean up their storyboards: sharpening the acting, staging, and cinematography while incorporating feedback from each weekly review.

The Design Team has been hard at work developing the beautiful backgrounds featured throughout the animatic and creating expressive character poses that capture each character’s dynamic personality, to help shape the visual identity of the project.

The Production Team is keeping everyone on track by taking detailed notes, coordinating meetings, managing everyone’s ever-changing schedules, tracking countless moving pieces at all times, and stepping in to solve problems before most of the team even know they exist.

The Music Team has begun one of the most exciting stages of the production process, laying the emotional foundation for the entire film through their beautiful music.

Art by Andy Xiaoxia Jiang and Juris Tungpalan
Character Art by Isa Kim and Kelly Xin Chen

To learn more about the Feature Program, check out the August update on our website. (Link in bio)

08/19/2026

✨ Production Milestone: Animation, Blocking and Texturing! ✨

With Rigging, 3D Modeling, and Set Layout officially wrapped, our CG Program has hit another major turning point as we transition into Animation, Blocking, and Texturing!

Our 3D assets are coming to life, while our 2D team finalizes color scripts and style frames to guide lighting and compositing in Unreal Engine and Nuke. Meanwhile, our asset and animation teams, alongside our editor, have completed all set layouts and blocking, and our sound team is shaping the auditory landscape.
Huge shoutout to Director Adnan Hussain and Rigging Technical Director Rashi Sinha for finishing all character rigs, including custom controls for fluid soccer tricks!

With just two months left until the finish line, our lighting, FX, and compositing teams are stepping in for the final stretch.

To learn more about the CG Program, check out the August update on our website. (Link in bio)

Art by Tiffany Pham, Olivia Lee, Yoona Hwang, Gaby Chiong

08/17/2026

With our Animation department officially launched, FOREST is now in production!

Thanks to editor Ian Logan, we have officially reached picture lock, meaning our shot sequence and timing are completely frozen and ready to go. This gives our crew a definitive visual blueprint for how the film will unfold.

Led by Heads of Animation Joanna Jiang and Lara Pascual, our team of over 20 animators is moving full speed ahead. They are tackling our four-pass pipeline, from layout and keyframes to rough animation, CUIB, and color. A huge shoutout to Grace Jung for delivering our very first approved rough animation shot!

Meanwhile, our Design team is fleshing out our lush world, with Art Lead Vanessa Nakasone curating colors, Background Leads Ivory Bi and Nick Pina wrapping up nearly 100 backgrounds, and Character Lead Laura Swalley bringing our cast to life. Looking ahead, our Compositing team led by Eric Wolford is getting settled, and composer Hunter Chang is gearing up for live recording sessions.

Animatic Board by Aloha Lee
Rough Animation by Grace Jung
Character art by Sarah Tran
Article by Sheena Santamaria

To learn more about the 2D Program, check out the full update here: https://www.asiansinanimation.org/prod-program-updates/category/2d-production-program

08/01/2026

Asians in Animation in August: A chance to level up your skills!

Take a look at our monthly events that may help you reach your goals this August:

Join our PAW and Story sessions to work on your portfolio, explore art projects that interest you, and keep your creative goals in mind.

Story Session:
Tuesday, Aug 11th @ 7pm PT | Discord

Portfolio, Art & Work Session:
Saturday, Aug 1st @ 5 PM PT | Discord
Saturday, Aug 15th @ 11 AM PT | Discord

Writer’s Group
Looking to level up your writing for animation? Come join AIA Writer's Group! Our Writer’s Group is a small, dedicated community of writers of all skill levels. Wherever you are in your writing journey, we welcome you.

APPLY HERE for our Writer’s Group (link also in bio): bit.ly/aiawriters

Want to join AIA and give back to the community? Check out some of our Open Roles:
Communications:
Assoc. Director of Marketing
Website Manager
Digital Platform Coordinator (China)

Partnerships:
Partnerships Assistant

Community:
LA Events Coordinator

Membership:
Co-Director (NY)
Co-Director (India)

Overhead:
Video Editor

Learn more about our open roles at:
https://bit.ly/AIAOpenRole (Link in bio)

Thank you to everyone who worked on this post:
• Contributors: Iryl Tan, Kyara Gandara
• Media Production: Lawrence Folsom, Kaitlyn Chen, Kelly Dizon
• Channel Management: Olivia Hall, Raphael Cardenas
• Comms Leadership: Anna Folsom, Elisa Lau

07/18/2026

We’ve officially entered an exciting new chapter of our Feature Program!

We are thrilled to share some major milestones:

Casting is officially complete! After nearly 50 incredible blind auditions and callbacks, we welcomed an amazing voice cast to our very first unforgettable table read.

Our design team has expanded the world with 80+ concept pieces, bringing our characters, environments, and sci-fi world to life.
Storyboards are officially underway! Our artists are transforming the script into an animatic as we prepare for our upcoming Rough Pitch.
We also want to give a huge welcome to the newest members to keep this production moving forward every step of the way.
Every milestone brings us one step closer to sharing this project with all of you. Thank you for following our journey, we can't wait to reveal even more as production continues! ✨
Read the full July update to learn more about the Feature Program and see more concept art in our bio!

07/17/2026

Our CG Production Program is officially halfway through!

This month, our Modeling team began bringing 2D designs to life in 3D under Asset Supervisors Angela Sae-Lam and Ali Daneshgar, tackling some exciting challenges, including designing a character made entirely of glass.

Our Asset, Animation, and Edit teams have also been collaborating closely on Pre-Vis, while Director Madison Lin has been guiding camera placement and movement throughout the story.

We're also thrilled to welcome our Music team! Composers Neel Agrawal and Michael Singh are already deep in development, drawing on their backgrounds in traditional Southwest Asian music to shape the sound of our film.

Soon, we’ll be launching our Animation team, which will carry us through the rest of production.

To read the full July update, check it out here: https://www.asiansinanimation.org/prod-program-updates/category/cg-production-program

Art by Betty Liu, Yoona Hwang, Kaylee Tan, Debra Rengga

07/14/2026

A major pre-production milestone has been reached!

Our 2D Production Program’s Story Department has wrapped production with a successful Clean Storyboard Pitch!
The Editorial team is now taking over to assemble the film’s very first animatic, bringing timing, sound, and movement to the screen for the first time.
We asked our Head of Story, Grace Park, to share a key takeaway from leading this fast-paced phase:

“I learned to stay flexible, adjusting the boards as we receive notes, but also to hold my ground sometimes, if I am convinced that my ideas could make the film stronger. It's a delicate balance...”
As we conclude this chapter of pre-production, we are thrilled to launch Joanna Jiang and Lara Pascal (Heads of Animation) and Eric Wolford (Compositing Lead) as they prep the pipeline for a massive wave of animators arriving this July!

Layout by Ivory Bi
Art by Michelle Wirono
Additional Art by Ashley Lam
To learn more about the 2D Program, check out the July update on our website! (Link in bio)

07/11/2026

AIA NYC Virtual Meetup: Hidden Gems of NYC ✨

NYC is such a vibrant and incredible place for art, but there are so many local hidden gems!

Do you have a place you love for gesture drawing? Or a library’s collection that never fails to enrich your animation knowledge? Know of an organization that presents free animation screenings? Come meet the new AIA NYC Regional Leads at our knowledge-swapping event where we will share local NYC resources for animation!

Date: Tues, July 28th
Time: 7:30-8:30 pm EDT
Location: Virtual over Zoom

Sign-up by July 26th (Link in bio): https://bit.ly/hiddengemsNYC

07/10/2026

AIA NYC Virtual Meetup: Hidden Gems of NYC ✨

NYC is such a vibrant and incredible place for art, but there are so many local hidden gems!

Do you have a place you love for gesture drawing? Or a library’s collection that consistently enriches your animation knowledge? Know of an organization that presents free animation screenings?

Come meet the new AIA NYC Regional Leads at our knowledge-swapping event where we will share local NYC resources for animation!

Date: Tues, July 28th
Time: 7:30-8:30 pm EDT
Location: Virtual over Zoom

Sign up by July 26th: bit.ly/hiddengemsNYC

07/02/2026

Leave some time during your summer plans this July for some AIA fun!

Summer is in full swing! Check out some of Asians in Animation's events that can add to your busy summer schedule.

Check out our upcoming AIA community events and opportunities:

Portfolio, Art & Work Session:
Saturday, July 4th @ 5 PM PST | Discord
Saturday, July 18th @ 11 AM PST | Discord
Join our PAW sessions to work on your portfolio, explore art projects of your interest, and keep your creative goals accounted for.

We are proud to recognize and celebrate the exceptional achievements, contributions, and dedication of Asian professionals in the animation field. Congratulations to our 2026 AIA Impact Award honorees.

Want to join AIA and give back to the community?

OPEN ROLES

Communications:
Assoc. Director of Marketing
Ambassador Manager
Website Manager
Production Management Lead
Digital Platform Coordinator (China)

Partnerships:
Partnerships Assistant

Community:
LA Events Coordinator

Membership:
Co-Director (NY)
Co-Director (India)

Overhead:
Video Editor

Learn more about our open roles at:
https://bit.ly/AIAOpenRole (Link in bio)

Thank you to everyone who worked on this post:
• Contributors: Iryl Tan and Allison Nantes
• Media Production: Lawrence Folsom, Kaitlyn Chen, Kelly Dizon (), Shivani Devi Gobalakichenin ()
• Channel Management: Olivia Hall (.overthinks), Raphael Cardenas ()
• Comms Leadership: Anna Folsom (.folsom), Elisa Lau ()

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Los Angeles, CA

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https://www.asiansinanimation.org/

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