Meet Siti Lu: Animation Director, story artist, animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Siti Lu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Siti, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
The most helpful thing I always tell myself is that finishing is better than being perfect . That helped me get stuff done. I figured human brain is a super critic and it already wants more. It’s important for me to get stuff done if I just tell my brain that finish is better than making something perfect. Another habit that helps me the most is always focus on what I’m doing in the moment. Difficult task becomes much more easier if I take it step by step and only focus what I am doing now instead of thinking one million steps in my mind. Starting by doing something small, and focus on each small steps, eventually I turn back I’ve already climbed a mountain.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I always like to draw as a kid. But I never think that will become my career until my high school art teacher encourage me to apply to art school. My parents are both engineering background. My dad thinks I should keep art as a hobby since I did good in academic high school. While my mom has always been supportive. I finally decide to apply to art college. I got into the animation school of Communication University of China, one of the best animation schools in China. After graduation, I come to US to continue my animation dream. I love my experience here and I really appreciate all the opportunity provided by our school. In my second year of CalArts. I got a job offer to be a storyboard artist at Cartoon Network. So here I am, I’m a fourth-year character animation student at CalArts and also a story artist at Cartoon Network. This might sounds like a very easy path but it actually takes so much hard work and patience, I’m afraid to fail, I always try to work as hard as I can..

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take them to the mountain; to the beach; to the forest anywhere that’s closer to the nature. I also would take them to a beautiful town like Pomona. I grew up in big city of China. I’ve only seen towns like Pomona in fantasy European movie. The towns morning starts with family owned bakery and farmer’s market. And there are also many little shop that you have no idea what they are selling. It’s such an amazing experience I’d love to visit again anytime soon. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people that helps me become who I am today. In my darkest period, Sadhguru is the one that helped me get out of the nightmare I created for myself. I’ve never known spiritual plays such an important role of our life. It doesn’t just simply make you happy it help you realize what life really is about.

Website: https://sitilu.weebly.com/

Instagram: @sitiluart

Image Credits
Chloe hsu