Meet Ze Sean Teo | Character Technical Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ze Sean Teo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ze Sean, why did you pursue a creative career?
Animation and video games were a vital part of my childhood and heavily influenced my interest in creating art. Although I was drawn to the colorful visuals and memorable stories of both mediums, I was always amazed by the characters I saw on screen. Whether it was from a show or game, I would always study and look up how these characters were able to move and convey emotion in such a believable manner.

I was very shy when I was growing up in Malaysia, especially with distant family members due to the age gap and language barrier. However, we were always able to overcome the awkward situations thanks to our shared interest in cartoons and video games. This enabled me to build my confidence and was the main reason why I was able to come out of my comfort zone and make friends.

Thanks to those moments, I decided that I wanted to pursue a career that could bring people together despite the language they spoke or cultural background. Combined with my passion in both art and technology, a career in animation and video games aligned with all of my goals.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
So far throughout my time in school and during my professional career, mainly working on animated commercials and video games, I’ve held the responsibility of various roles such as technical director, 3D artist, and stop-motion animator. These diverse disciplines exposed me to a multitude of skill sets that contributed to my growth as an artist. I also learned a lot from the talented and inspiring people from these projects, who showed me that no matter what medium you worked with, art is still a universal language. I collaborated with a few of my friends to create both live-action and animated content that went on to not only win a few awards at school, but they received local and international recognition as well. This definitely prepared me for the fast paced industry.

After professionally working on commercials for titles such as Apex Legends, Clash of Clans, and Cricket Wireless, I was fortunate to be brought onto PlayStation as a character technical director. This transition into the video game industry led me to my very first AAA video game credit on “The Last of Us Part 1”. It was a game that meant a lot to me, not because of its high production quality or memorable story, but because of the bar it set for video games even when the original game launched back in 2013.

Although the projects throughout my career challenged me in many aspects, the most difficult challenge I had to overcome was the decision of pursuing an education in 3D animation. Despite having a great interest in animation and video games since I was a kid, I was not good at drawing and was close to failing my art classes in school. My grades for Math and Science subjects were looking much more promising to my parents, which led me to consider a career in engineering instead. But after a long discussion with my parents, we decided to take a leap of faith and they encouraged me to enroll for a semester at the local art institution and see if animation was still something I wanted to take seriously.

It was a really tough journey because I always felt overwhelmed when I saw how talented and skillful my other classmates were compared to me. But instead of feeling demoralized, I was really fortunate to make great friends in school who further motivated me to improve and understand my personal strengths in art. After trying out dozens of specializations in art school, like graphic design, fine art, photography and animation, I eventually realized that my personal strengths leaned towards the more technical aspects of the 3D workflow. It proved to me that I could still have a career in the art industry even if I wasn’t amazing at drawing or painting.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’ve gotten tons of recommendations from my friends and co-workers and I have a whole list of places to visit and food to try. Although I like theme parks like Universal Studios and Disneyland, my favorite places for sight-seeing in LA so far are The Getty, LACMA, and Griffith Park. I’ve been enjoying the museums in LA a lot and Griffith Park was where I went horseback riding for the first time. I would also recommend Malibu and Huntington beach if my friends wanted to relax by a beautiful beach, get a sun tan or try out surfing.

As for food and drinks, I’ve been trying out different cuisines with my friends every weekend and some of my favorites have been Mediterranean, Japanese, Korean, and Cuban food. There are too many restaurants to name, but I’ll quickly give a shoutout to Dr. Sandwich, U-Zen, TGI Korean BBQ, and Versailles Cuban Restaurant respectively. As a Malaysian, my favorite restaurants that temporarily take me back to home are Ipoh Kopitiam in Alhambra and Simpang Asia in Culver City, and I always bring my homesick Malaysian friends to both of these restaurants. For beers, I’m not too big on going to loud clubs and bars, but Monkish Brewing Co. in Torrance is my go-to spot for trying out new drinks and catching up with friends.

LA has so many fun events and concerts happening every week. so always keep an eye out for your favorite bands tour dates because they’ll most definitely stop by LA. The vendors at Melrose Trading Post and 626 night market are also something I would recommend people to visit at least once. Besides the dozens of fancy malls you can find like your nearby Westfield, I had a great time shopping with my family at Citadel Outlets since most items were cheaper than what it would normally cost outside of an outlet mall.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family and close circle of friends are extremely important to me as they’ve always supported and encouraged my artistic journey. They are the people I think about everyday and they act as a constant reminder of why I wanted to pursue a career in the animation and video game industry in the first place. From having family movie nights to online video game parties with friends, these were the moments that brought us closer. It has even allowed us to spend time together despite our location, even if we are half-way across the globe from one another. I also wanted to give a shoutout to the talented friends I’ve made throughout my time in animation school and from work, both in Malaysia and the US. While working on some amazing projects with these people, I’ve learnt crucial lessons in the past few years that taught me how to be a valuable and fun teammate to work with in the industry.

Website: seant3o.artstation.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seant3o/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sean.Teo.Art

Other: https://vimeo.com/seanteo

Image Credits
For the photo of the fighting game project, the one with the health bars at the top, I would like it to credit “Project: Metal Fist by Dayniel Deguzman”