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Welcome to Making Animation 2025: Independent Voices from Asia

Thank you for being here. We planned this gathering with a simple aim: to listen closely to how work is actually made by hand, on screens and across languages, and hear why these stories matter to the people who make and share them. As platforms overlap and the use of generative AI becomes commonplace, Making Animation 2025 asks what animation can do now and what makers need to do it well. We look to independent practice for grounded methods and reflective storytelling.

The morning’s programme lays the groundwork. Gan Sheuo Hui (LASALLE) traces anime-styled filters and AI shorts to ask where replication ends and expression begins. Lim Beng Choo (NUS) considers noh and kabuki experiments with VR/AI while keeping performers and embodied practice central. Akiho-Toyoda Noriko (Niigata University of Health and Welfare) shares an occupational-therapy collaboration that uses animation to clarify holistic care. Usui Michiko (Kanto Gakuin University) revisits Utsushi-e, showing how voice, music and timing turn technique into story.

In the afternoon we turn to practice. Keynote speaker Yamamura Koji reflects on “invisible movements of light”, from hand-drawn films to VR (Japanese with consecutive interpretation). Lefty Julian (Malaysia) presents Making George Town, a documentary comics project rooted in community memory. NOvia Shin (Malaysia) shares Let the Map Speak, where layered media turn quiet observation into narrative (Mandarin with consecutive interpretation).

Students are woven through the programme as MCs, interpreters, photographers and interviewers producing special features for the school. Co-organised by LASALLE College of the Arts and the National University of Singapore, this programme is made possible by colleagues, students, volunteers and partners. Please listen with care and generosity, and may these independent voices renew your energy, show how observation becomes imagination, and how layered stories still move people.

Keynote Speaker: Yamamura Koji

Title of presentation: Giving Shape to Invisible Light

Full programme here.

Event schedule:

Symposium credits

Convened by:
Dr Gan Sheuo Hui

Advisors:
Associate Professor Lim Beng Choo, Head, Department of Japanese Studies, NUS
Chris Shaw, Head, Puttnam School of Film & Animation, LASALLE

Organised by:
Puttnam School of Film & Animation, Faculty of Fine Arts, Media & Creative
Industries, LASALLE College of the Arts
Department of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National
University of Singapore

Supported by:
Mitsui NUS Japanese Studies in Southeast Asia Endowment Fund
Niigata University of Health and Welfare
Kanto Gakuin University

Project Manager: Choi Eunji

Project Assistants: Azsmaan Zayne, Fu Meijo

Administrative assistants (NUS): NUS, Department of Japanese Studies

Administrative assistants (LASALLE): Karen Cheok

Copy Editor: Ailin Chin, Alex Soo

Technical support: Brian Hong Jaehyung

Poster design: Chris Shaw, Koji Yamamura

Consecutive Interpretation for Koji Yamamura provided by: Tomoko Shiga

Consecutive Interpretation for NOvia Shin provided by students: Chen Zijia, Lin
Tian, Qu Lemeng

Student Emcees: Larvett Chong, Lee Jungha, Qiran Ocean Abdullah Davidson

Student Volunteers: Ang Swee Tung, Averil Jodie Koh, Belyta Yip May Wai,
Duangkamol Kwek, Georgie Tng, Grace Tan, Katherine Lee Viryawira, Kim Jin Sol,
Lam Su Ting Charmaine, Leong Yi Shan, Madeleine Erlangga, Mayla Adisa
Nurulhana, Ruth Tang Ru, Ryan Goh, Sarisa Balqis Thampirak, Sim Pei Ksuen
Jessley, Tansha Surendra

Student Photographers: Althea Margaux Penaranda Desepeda, Jasmine Pandey,
Noh Heui Yong, Nuha Alia Binte Jaabir Abdul Khaaliq, Wen Caiwei, Yee Chern Nah

Videographer: Brian Hong Jaehyung