ABOUT ME
Hi, I'm Don. I’m a visual storyteller, virtual cinematographer, and animator. I’ve been fortunate to turn my passion for movies and animation into a career as a Previs · Sequence Artist, working across feature films, streaming series, and commercials since 2020—including major franchises like Star Wars and the Avatar sequels.
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I’m originally from Seoul, a country where going to the movies is a huge part of the culture. Growing up, I often went to the theater with my family or friends to watch the latest films. What fascinated me most were the visual effects. At the time I didn’t understand how they were made—I just knew they were magical. Years later I discovered that many of those moments were created with computers, and that realization sparked my curiosity about visual effects and animation.
As much as I loved movies, I was always an artsy kid. I loved drawing and creating anything visual. In fact, I spent so much time sketching in class that I probably didn’t listen to my teachers as much as I should have. Eventually my love for both art and film led me to pursue animation and visual effects in college. I wanted to study where the industry had grown the most, so I moved to the United States to attend Savannah College of Art and Design, where I earned my BFA in Animation.
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I initially started as a Visual Effects major, but I soon realized that I was more drawn to the artistic side of storytelling than the technical side. After watching Frozen, I decided to switch my focus to Animation. My time at SCAD was incredibly meaningful—I had the opportunity to learn from industry veterans, lead the animation team for my senior capstone film, and build lasting friendships with talented artists from around the world.
After graduating, I began my career at the Minneapolis-based VFX studio MAKE as an animation intern, gaining hands-on experience in commercial production. It was exciting to see shots I worked on eventually appear online and on television. A few months later, I received an opportunity to join MPC in Los Angeles at Technicolor’s Pre-Production Studio as a previs artist on a Disney feature, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Working on a Hollywood feature film had been a dream of mine since childhood, so I seized the opportunity and moved to Los Angeles.
At the time, I didn’t fully understand what previsualization was—I assumed it was mostly layout work. On my first day, I quickly realized that the role involved a great deal of animation, often at a very fast pace. It was challenging, but with guidance from supervisors and fellow artists, I grew quickly as an artist. The film went on to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie, marking the first time an animated film has won in that category, which made the experience even more memorable.
After that project, I joined the visualization studio Day for Nite to work on The Flash. With some previs experience under my belt, I felt more confident navigating the fast-paced production environment. Soon after, I moved to the renowned visualization studio The Third Floor, a company many previs artists cross paths with at some point in their careers.
At The Third Floor, I had the opportunity to work on The Mandalorian Season 3 and the Emmy-winning Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. The workflow used by the Lucasfilm team reminded me of a motion capture class I took at SCAD taught by ILM veteran Jeff Light. At the time it was simply called a mocap class, but later I realized it was essentially teaching previs storytelling—combining motion capture performances, camera work, and editing to create short cinematic sequences. It was one of my favorite classes, and working on these projects felt like a continuation of that creative process.
Later, The Third Floor gave me an incredible opportunity to collaborate directly with Lightstorm Entertainment on the Avatar sequels as a Sequence Artist. I worked with the team for nearly three years, adapting to a unique pipeline developed specifically for those films by director James Cameron and his team. The learning curve was steep at first, but over time I became comfortable with the workflow and contributed to sequence development, camera work, animation, and simulation.
One of the most memorable parts of that experience was being able to visit the set at Manhattan Beach Studios, seeing the production process firsthand, and working alongside artists from many different studios. I also had the opportunity to attend crew screenings at El Capitan Theatre for Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash. During this time, I was also promoted to Veteran Project Artist at The Third Floor in recognition of my work on the Avatar productions.
The Avatar experience was incredibly meaningful to me, and I believe I grew tremendously as both an artist and collaborator during that time.
Since then, I’ve continued working with studios across Los Angeles, focusing on cinematic storytelling through camera work, animation, and sequence development as a previs and sequence artist.
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Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to explore my portfolio, and don’t hesitate to reach out—I’d love to connect and chat about visualization, animation, visual effects, and filmmaking.