Writer: Po-Hsun, Yuan | Editor: Ming-feng,Chiang

This talk featured director Huang Yun-Hsien, founder of Rhino Original Design Studio, who spoke on the topic: “Does Taiwan have the capacity to sustain a stop-motion animation industry?” Drawing from her team’s hands-on creative experience, she examined the current state and challenges of producing stop-motion animation in Taiwan.

Director Huang pointed out that because the puppets, sets, and props in their projects are all handmade — and she even traveled to Iceland to refine her puppet-making techniques — the production timeline becomes extremely tight, with constant time and budget pressures. To balance quality and efficiency, the team often uses recycled materials, second-hand toys, spray paint, hot glue, and similar items for prop fabrication. When asked why she doesn’t sew clothing details with actual stitching, she explained the trade-off between effect and process by citing the time required for sewing and alterations. She candidly said, “Telling a good story matters more than the puppet’s details,” showing that her creative focus lies in narrative and emotion rather than a form-driven production philosophy.

Given the race against time, “efficiency” has become the studio’s primary guiding metric. The speaker shared her team’s creative principle: constantly experimenting and revising to push the work forward, echoing the studio’s motto: “Work fast! Fail fast! Fix fast! Fail again!” With a laugh, Director Huang remarked, “One stage saves ten seconds; with six stages, that’s a whole minute,” emphasizing that only through continuous output can the work be considered true creation.

Beyond production, Director Huang also shared her experience of being selected for the César Awards in Paris, reflecting on how different countries value art and culture. Using Italy’s fresco traditions and France’s view of cinema as a cultural responsibility, she illustrated the concept of “the cultural strategy timeline,” showing how different nations develop their arts on different timelines and with different priorities. These comparisons hinted at potential areas where Taiwan could improve.

Using the “three levels of culture” framework—material, institutional, and ideological—the speaker further examined the bottlenecks in Taiwan’s animation industry. Although Taiwan has creators with both creativity and technical skill, the market is small, grants come with complicated requirements, and talent continues to flow abroad. These factors make it difficult for the stop-motion field, and the animation industry in general, to form a stable ecosystem. Working with corporations can bring funding and exposure, but it also requires adjusting themes and formats to meet client demands. Even then, time and budget are still far from abundant. She noted that Taiwan’s animation industry mostly serves commercial functions, and original work remains constrained by market realities.

Despite these challenges, Director Huang remains optimistic about the future of stop-motion animation in Taiwan. She believes the field faces relatively little competition domestically, and its unique qualities give emerging creators opportunities, platforms, and even advantages.
The talk concluded with her remark: “Animation is a service industry; it serves the director in telling the story.” She encouraged the audience, expressing her hope that despite the harsh environment, they would find like-minded partners and, through collaboration and dedication, create works that truly move people.