Ep.120: Don’t fear anything, it’s your own journey with Steve Ahn

Hey, guys! In this episode, I am chatting with Steve Ahn, a Director and Artist behind Voltron Legendary Defender & Avatar: The Legend of Korra and Ben 10. In 2017 Steve released a pilot for his animated mini-series Blossom Detective Holmes!

Get in touch with Steve

Website: https://artofsteveahn.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofsteveahn/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/steveahn82

Art Side of Life Artletter

Key Takeaways

“Not everybody can draw as Leonardo Da Vinci. It’s your own personal journey. You have to make a step every day to improve and move forward”

Steve immigrated from South Korea with his parents and he never thought of himself becoming an artist. In his culture, being a lawyer or doctor would make the family proud. However he used to watch a lot of Japanese animation and he had the burning passion, the flame inside of him. He knew he wanted to make it in animation
Steve advises comparing your filmmaking skills to film history, e.g. my skills are now around the 1920s which means I still don’t know how to cut. Then if you want to learn how to use the camera lens, study 1960s, and 70s, etc.
After working on the TV shows, Steve realized his skills are on good enough level to venture out of the mainstream industry and create something of his own and he created a pilot short film called Blossom Detective Holmes and produced it from his savings.

Resources mentioned

Note: some of the resources below may be affiliate links, meaning I get paid a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use that link to make a purchase.

Steve’s Blossom Detective Holmes (anime mystery series) Kickstarter campaign
Inspiration:
- Japanese animation – Miyazaki movies
Books
- Studying art history is very important, philosophical – how ideas were transforming the art