Aaron Le on the project proposal behind Ring Race

In the short film Ring Race, a couple’s marriage proposal over dinner is meant to be – but only after a few hiccups! Aaron Le directed the short as his thesis film. The project was the culmination of his four-year animation degree at California State University, Fullerton. 

Ring Race premiered on YouTube on December 21 and in just three weeks achieved over 400,000 views. We caught up with Aaron to learn about his experience in the animation program, the inspiration behind his film, and the process of making Ring Race as part of a team of students. 

Hi Aaron! How did your interest in animation get started?

Aaron: I’ve been interested in animation since I was a kid. I grew up watching all sorts of cartoons, especially on Cartoon Network. They were like a safe space for me, I would binge every show I could get my hands on.  

At some point in the early 2000s they started doing behind-the-scenes videos of making the cartoons, and this opened up a world to me that I didn’t even know was possible. I hadn’t realized that animation could be a career path. 

So over the years I practiced drawing, and eventually animation and storyboarding, and now I’ve landed here! I always knew I wanted to work in 2D because I love drawing so much. 

What drew you to the California State Fullerton animation program? What was your experience in the program like?

Aaron: I had a lucky opportunity in high school to take some animation classes. A student teacher at my high school who had graduated from Cal State Fullerton talked a lot about the animation program, and they opened my eyes to educational paths into animation. 

When I started college I was pursuing a double major in engineering and animation, but I eventually decided I had to focus on one thing. I ended up choosing animation, and I’m so glad that was my decision. I switched schools to do an animation degree at California State Fullerton, which is south of Los Angeles. It's a four-year degree program. I’m in my last semester currently, so I’ll be graduating this fall. 

I’ve had an amazing experience at Cal State Fullerton. Part of what’s made my experience so invaluable is that there is such a strong sense of camaraderie among students. Over the last few years, the buildings our program uses have been under construction, and so we’ve had our classes in makeshift classrooms. My classmates and I have sort-of felt like the underdogs because of this. But through it all, the program staff and faculty have been super helpful, working under whatever constraints we had.

What inspired the story for your film, Ring Race? 

Aaron: During our production classes we had to draft 15 to 20 pitches. Making our student films was on a tight timeline, so when we were scrambling to come up with ideas, my team and I went back to look over our old pitch ideas, and pitch them to each other.

My original idea for Ring Race was bare bones, and so we took that simple idea and together, through an amalgamation of all our ideas, we shaped it into the full story that you see in the film. Our goal was to create a story that was a combination of my love for slapstick comedy, a little touch of emotion, and our experiences as being LGBTQ. We love that the finished film is silly, but still has a heartfelt message.

Can you share a bit about the team behind Ring Race, and how you put the team together?

Aaron: Our program was really flexible about how we approached our student films. We were allowed to make them solo, or as a group, with no strict guidelines on the process. Our team came together because we were all friends and knew we would enjoy working together. 

The core team included:

• Zayad Abounnaja (he/him)
• Helix LeMaster (they/them)
• August Gawiran (he/him)
• Mimi Tran (she/they)

We storyboarded Ring Race, and worked on the story together. I directed and did visual development for the film, August, Zayad and I worked on animation, and Helix and Mimi did a lot of colouring.

Can you describe the visual look of the film, and what inspired it?

Aaron: I would say the look of the film represents my regular art style, which takes inspiration from series like Adventure Time and Cucumber Quest, and a bunch of other types of media. However, I wanted to find a style we could all draw in. 

I love simple art, and so the style leans into that. For example, one of our main characters has only 5 lines for his head. This approach was borne out of loving simplicity, and also gave the different animation members a chance to tap in a bit to their own style. And of course, the simple animation style made us faster and more efficient, too. 

Could you describe your approach to the pipeline for the film? Did you and your team encounter any challenges?

Aaron: It was our first time working on a storyboard collaboratively versus alone, so there was a learning curve in that stage of production. We divided the story into different acts and split it amongst the three of us. It was difficult at first because we had different voices for the characters, and the story went in different directions. But as soon as we had our first draft it got easier and easier to refine it, cut jokes, move things around, and make adjustments to the story. 

One of the challenges I ran into throughout the production pipeline was leadership. I’m not trained in leadership, so it was tough making sure everyone knew exactly what was needed, working with everyone’s schedules, and doing tons of meetings, all while balancing other classes. I hadn’t anticipated that aspect. 

In the last few weeks of production, I shifted my mindset from working on Ring Race with friends, to working on it with coworkers instead. This helped me a lot, and ultimately led me to learn strategies for managing a team. For example, we came up with schedules to manage everyone’s time.

Which features of Storyboard Pro were your favorite, or most useful, for boarding Ring Race?

Aaron: Storyboard Pro was really helpful. The vector lines and the ability to select individual lines to skew them saved us so many times. That's how we did a lot of the animation, just doing slight adjustments to individual lines. It's such a simple feature, but it has such a huge impact. 

Aside from vector lines, it was just so simple to edit things, animate things, do sound effects, and drag and drop voice lines. Something else that saved us was the ability to directly import into Toon Boom Harmony and have those voice lines at the ready. I truly have no idea how we would have made the film without that. 

What were the most exciting parts of the filmmaking process for Ring Race, and the most challenging?

Aaron: The first time we saw the finished film together was definitely the most exciting part of the whole process. It wasn’t a glamorous moment or anything, I think it was 2:00 AM, and we watched it over Discord. But it was just such an amazing feeling to see it all put together. You don’t really know what it will look like when the film is all pieced together, until the very end. 

Our first screening was exciting, too. Hearing other people not involved in production laugh at jokes we had written 6 months before was so validating. And seeing your work on a projector in front of so many people is an unbelievable feeling.

In wrapping up your California State Fullerton program, what advice do you have for people who are interested in studying animation?

Aaron: My biggest lesson from going through the program is to not be shy. Early in my education, I was told by one of my peers who is a few years older than me that the animation industry will eat up people who are shy. I think this is true.

It’s so important in this industry to reach out and talk to people. Be friendly and build relationships. There are so many opportunities that people don’t take advantage of because they haven’t created relationships and a network. It's all about talking to people and making connections. 

What’s next for Ring Race, and for you in animation? Where can people see the film? Any upcoming projects, big or small, that you’d like to share?

Aaron: Our film was recently screened at the Chinese Theatre for the Animation Is Film Festival and at the Eastwood Performing Arts Center for the Los Angeles Animation Festival, where it won an award. We’re planning on releasing Ring Race on YouTube on December 21st. I’m currently working on another short film, which I can’t share much detail about yet. Aside from the new short film, I’m spending lots of my free time working on my personal web comics.

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• Want to see more from Aaron Lee? You can find his Linktree at @doginacafe. And you can find portfolio links from all of the crew behind Ring Race in the film's official credits.
• Ready to get started on your thesis film? Students can get up to 84% off on licenses for Harmony and Storyboard Pro.