𝐀𝐧 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐊𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐳𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐢𝐦𝐚

Kuenzang Nima, a young and gifted animator, recently clinched the prestigious Golden Khadhar at the Beskop Tshechu Film Festival for his captivating work, “Waiting for Promises.” His journey into the world of art and animation began at the tender age of four, driven by an early passion for drawing and painting. Despite facing numerous challenges, Kuenzang’s solo efforts in creating his animation paid off, mesmerizing audiences with its poignant storytelling and stunning visuals. His victory at the festival has not only recognized his talent but also inspired him to further pursue his animation career in Bhutan with renewed determination.

Q. who motivated and inspired you into animation creation?
A. There isn’t exactly any fixed motivation or inspiration. I have been drawing since the age of four and my father is a very renowned traditional artist. So, I must have gotten the interest and wonderful art from him. The interest and passion for film making just came up as I was just drawing throughout the years. My father is my greatest inspiration.

Q. Can you share the storyline of your animation?
A. The animation ‘Waiting for Promises’ is very straightforward, and very simple. It’s about a chair who sits in the café just throughout the years and just letting and being there existing. Moreover, it’s struggling to find meaning on the chair. It’s about how we just seem to stay in life in the same position throughout the life just wondering what to do and what not to do or what’s our purpose in life so I sort of wanted to depict that there is no ending or exact storyline.

Q. Is the story based on your own experience?
A. Most of my friends were moving to college and during that time I was just stuck at home, planning to move to Australia with my brother. But then I thought, is it that what I really want to do? So, I thought it was like gamble and I said let’s not do that, let’s try focus on art. So, it’s like a risk. It’s sort of like being on the chair, not being able to move around or wonder what’s right and what’s wrong. So, you just have to be there but you just have to hold your ground and be very strong minded. In some sense it was about how I was feeling at that time.

Q. What is the genre of the animation?
A. The genre of the animation is animated fiction, nothing too deep about it.

Q. In order to create an animation you have to use various techniques and software, what did you use the most?
A. The technique is just 2D just hand painted drawings frame by frame. The software that I used would be three blenders, after effects and clip studio paint. So, the clip studio paint Is the one I used for all the art frame by frame and I do the compositing and finishing after effects. Blender was just used to pre visualize the scenes to help me with the drawing.

Q. As a young animation creator, how was the support from your parents or family?
A. Everyone was very supportive, it’s not to brag but at least I have wonderful family. Especially, my father, he himself being artist he knows the struggle what it takes. The sort of vision that we have as an artist, the struggles and he understands that very well so, he supports was very much present. Moreover, my mother, she’s also very supportive.

Q. How long did you take to complete the animation?
A. It took me about three to four months of production. One month for writing and story building.

Q. Did you collaborate with any artists or musician?
A. No it was all one man project. The music was quality free music from here and there.

Q. What feedbacks did you receive from the audiences and judges?
A. Mainly was with the technical side because with sound I don’t have much experience like sound reading or anything. It’s very difficult even I knew the sound wasn’t top notch and in terms of art they said it was good but in terms of story progression there was a bit lack of continuity. The story was bit weak not that good. So, I do have a lot of stuff to fix moreover I got a very long way to go as a filmmaker.

Q. How do you feel about your profession, is it doable?
A. It is interesting and exciting at least it’s because it is my passion. It’s very fun and tiring though. It’s extremely exhausting, sometimes you think this is the right thing to do or not. And there’s always a self-doubt but at the same time it’s very interesting; the process you have to find the references, and draw. You have to make a story, you have to meet people, you have to talk to other artists and you get some idea or the perspectives. So, the journey was very fun and I really enjoyed the process.

Q. How do you think about the popularity of animation in the future?
A. It’s already very popular but the Bhutanese animation is almost close to non-existent. It’s not exactly we don’t have much products out in the market but there are very much well creative foreign movies like Disney , Dream works especially Japanese animation. People love animation like even my cousin uncle he is 40, he still likes watching Dragon Ball Z. So, I think animation is quite well received by the people.

Q. ‘Waiting for Promise’ is like Japanese creation, so how did you plan your settings?
A. It was Japanese inspired, the owner and the founder of Ghibli Miyazaki. I took inspiration from him and I don’t have any specific art style but it was quite the wonder like what art style should I choose or which way should I go. So, I thought Miyazaki was quite the interesting one and took inspiration from him. I got his books, I review some of his interview and his thought, creation process and thought to lets go with that so I tried out his method.

Q. Do you have plans on creating our own Bhutanese setting in your animation?
A. Definitely, that is one of the regret with this current animation because we don’t have many references so it’s very difficult to create it from ground up. It was quite a challenging task and for this project I failed but at least for next projects I am definitely going to include a lot of Bhutanese heritage and components.

Q. Is there any upcoming project?
A. Currently, there is one I am trying to make a light romance called Chasing Sunflowers. That’s my current project I am working but it might take a while and it is under production.

Message:

The message, I would say is discipline. If you are working, no matter what aspect in life animation, film making, engineer or anything, its discipline. The ability to stay strong minded and just keeps moving forward without worrying about the results and following your passion, you need to have extreme amounts of discipline. So, have discipline. The message, I would say is discipline. If you are working, no matter what aspect in life animation, film making, engineer or anything, its discipline. The ability to stay strong minded and just keeps moving forward without worrying about the results and following your passion, you need to have extreme amounts of discipline. So, have discipline.