NeverEnough.Want

Type : 2D Animation, Motion Graphics

Collaborator : Joyce Liu, Arthur Ferrazh

Role : Animator

Year : 2025

This project marks my very first collaboration with the incredible Joyce Liu—an illustrator whose storytelling through visuals is both intricate and deeply emotional. Joyce is based in Washington, and this series is a dialogue between her drawings and my animation, rooted in one of the most profound texts in Buddhist philosophy: the Heart Sutra.

Joyce's visual storytelling gave me a strong emotional base to animate from. I approached each element with care, crafting movement that enhances her narrative without overshadowing it.

As with all my personal work, the animation loops seamlessly. That added a layer of complexity—every interaction had to serve the story and loop cleanly, creating a visual mantra that could run infinitely.

The first chapter is titled NeverEnough.want.
This one explores something we all deal with—the constant craving to feel validated. Not just from other people, but from anything outside ourselves. It’s about that endless loop of needing more just to feel enough.

Behind the Animation

At first, it felt like standing in front of a mountain. Joyce’s work is dense—so many elements, packed with layers, details, energy. But once I started animating piece by piece and saw everything click into place, it was pure joy.

As with all my personal work, the animation loops seamlessly. That added a layer of complexity—every interaction had to serve the story and loop cleanly, creating a visual mantra that could run infinitely.

The sound for this piece was crafted by Arthur Ferraz. Each panel in the series has its own unique tone, like an instrument in a larger piece. You can listen to them individually, but when played together, they form one full composition—just like the visuals.

Shattered Crystal

Originally, Joyce's crystal isn't shattered, this is my idea to enchance the story in this piece. Because the story here is about someone reaching for wealth, blinded by greed. The moment the hand tries to grab it, the crystal shatters itself. It's not just broken—it refuses to be owned.

Star Transformation

This one? Total happy accident. I was messing with path transforms for a simple star reveal, and boom—got this slick morphing motion. Loved the vibe, kept it. Sometimes mistakes know what they’re doing.

Flying Cars

I had this silly idea to add hovering car for car that Joyce made. the idea is coming from a cheat that I often use in GTA vice city, where we can make the car go into water.

Car Rigs

I made a simple rig for the car in After Effects using DUIK to make the car turn.

Ribbon to Chinese Text

I saw the opportinity to make interaction between the ribbon and chinese text, by transform the ribbon to text as they share same colors.

I made the rough animation for the ribbon in Callipeg on ipad. For me its easier to figure out the shape when animating frame by frame.

Coin Karma Blob

The blob on the boin is animated in callipeg first, then I clean it out in Moho.

The idea to dissolve the "likes" elements is added after the I finished the coin blob animation.

Coin Interaction

Initially, the "like" hand and the coin were separate ideas. But as I animated the coin flipping into frame, it hit me—why not make the hand flip the coin? That one connection brought more rhythm to the whole loop.

Head Turn

I made the headturn animation in moho then brings it into After Effects to be retimed and connected with other elements.

FIVE

After asking Joyce what the Chinese characters meant, she told me: “Five.” As in, five emotions. So I designed a shape that reads like the Latin number 5, and then morphs into the Chinese character. From Western to Eastern symbolism in a single move.

The Key

I put some additional elements by myself to enchance Joyce's "key" elements. I treat Joyce "key" elements as a keyhole, so I design a key that goes into the keyhole.

I animate this little elements carefully even though its only have small portion on the whole piece, as this elements is there on all 6 panel. So I treat it as an important element.

Key Sketch

Here you can see the sketch for the design of the key. I take the keyhole design and make the key have similar traits as the keyhole, so like it is belongs together.

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