A lot of fans know Avatar: The Last Airbender as the award-winning animated series currently airing on Nickelodeon.  However, not many people are familiar with the Korean animation thumbprint that remains to be one of the reasons behind the show's success.

Korean native Oh Seung-hyun, who currently serves as Avatar's Supervising Director, has come a long way from his humble beginnings as a struggling artist. Now, he is partially in command of what Nickelodeon hopes to be a new generation in animated storytelling.

Like other successful animators, Seung-hyun grew up with dreams of pursuing a career in drawing.  Though opportunities were slim back then, he wasn't discouraged and even persevered harder to follow his passion.  He started off small, entering an animation production office in the Seoul business district of Gangnam.  And though his pay was meager, he committed himself to the art studio and embraced enthusiastically the late night wars that his profession called for.

"It was my passion for animation that kept me going," Oh Seung-hyun said when asked if he ever felt like quitting.  "I told myself that the moment I gave up, I'd go downhill from there.  I pulled myself together and pledged to see how my work pays off in the end."

Gradually, he started to emerge on the animation circuit, landing work on the computer animated movie Wonderful Days and earning the chance to seek the guidance of Shouji Kawamori, arguably the most influential animation director in the history of Japanese animation.  Soon, Seung-hyun worked on Avatar, taking on several staff roles like storyboarding, character design, backgrounds and directing.

At present, Seung-hyun's efforts on Avatar: The Last Airbender continues to shape the success of the series with its high ratings, publication and DVD sales, toys, video games and other merchandise based on the series.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Korea.net
(Image courtesy of Korea.net)