Xinlei Li 3D Animation Reel

Xinlei Li | 3D Animation Reel

Hello! This is Xinlei Li. I like sharing my understanding of people with diverse personalities and life experience through 3D animation. I focus on body language and facial expression to express characters' subtext within the story. Enjoy!

Progress & Stories Behind

(1) Gear Change

This gear change animation project is the last work I did at Academy of Art University. I was taking an advanced animation class, and found that I had many different opinions with my instructors of that class. It was quite frustrating to learn that we couldn't agree each other in some areas. This emotion reminded me of various teachers with their own teaching styles I encountered in other schools. Ultimately, I decided to convey my thoughts through this animation to my two respected teachers. 

Viewers, do you have similar experiences? Did this animation resonate with you in any way? As the creator, I'm very curious and excited if I could hear your story :)

(2) Dance

I always want to do a 3D animation work for a K-pop dance performance. I've been passionate about K-pop since I met my best Korean friend in high school, and, in order to understand her and her culture better, I started to learn Korean and its culture behind. 

Recently, a group called NewJeans has gained global popularity, and I'm one of their fans. Their song 'Get Up' published in 2021 doesn't have an official dance choreography. I found the original choreography by J-San & Rainnie on YouTube (https://youtu.be/DpntN1Zr8wg). I'm very touched by the details of their performances, which perfectly match the lyrics and melody. After asking for and receiving permission from J-San on Instagram, I created this 3D animation using Ji Eun rig by Wonderwell Studios.

(3) Two Characters Dialogue

This project was completed in a lip sync animation course at Academy of Art University, the school I mentioned earlier.

I spent my teenage years in different schools in several places. For a period of  time, grades and peer pressure were almost everything to me. When I heard the dialogue from a TikTok video, two distinct characters immediately came to my mind: one calm and intelligent, and the other always striving for high scores and recognition, but actually very insecure inside. I was able to perform the characters and finished my first blocking pass in just a few hours. After the whole animation was complete, I saw reflections of myself in both of the characters.

(4) Facial Expression + Subtext

In the past few years, we have experienced COVID-19. I believe many people have faced separations from loved ones at different times of their life. As a friend to those going through this, I often wonder what to say or do to comfort and help them. This is a question I'm still contemplating. As part of my thinking process, I created this animation. 

(5) Bird Animation

This is the most challenging project I've ever worked on because I have less experience observing and understanding birds' physicality compared to humans. I had to consider not only the birds' movement patterns, but also how to incorporate human-like behaviors to show the personality. At the same time, I wasn't able to enroll in any animal animation courses at school. Eventually, I went to the San Francisco piers to observe seagulls during weekends, recorded many videos, and combined these observations with my knowledge of human motion to complete this animation.

Thank you!

At the end of my reel, I've included the sources of the rigs and background music. I hope more people will use and support these creators. 

Finally, thank you to every viewer watching and reading this far. My initial intention in making animations is to express my observations and thoughts without verbal words, but I believe viewers, with their personal life experiences, will have different interpretations and opinions about my work. If your are willing to leave a comment and share your thoughts, I would be very happy!

Thank you very much :)

- Xinlei Li, 2024