Oh Seung-hyun, now partially in command of what Nickelodeon hopes to herald a new generation in animated storytelling, like many experienced writers and artists, used to be nothing more than a kid with a bunch of wild dreams. A career in drawing was always his goal; but unfortunately for Oh, he wasn't so lucky while searching for a job right out of high school in an area such as industrial design, which required advanced education. "Life was hard," Yoon Hee-sang, Korea.net public relations office notes, "as he was unable to enter college and had difficulty getting a job as employers kept asking him which school he attended."
Then, a silver lining: "[H]e heard that no such discrimination exists in animation."
A full decade before he would get the chance to work on a big budget feature-length animated presentation, Oh Seung-hyun did what all determined artists do, he started off small. In 1992, he entered an animation production office in the Seoul business district of Gangnam. His pay a meager KRW 89,000 (approximately USD $95) per month, Oh glued himself to the art studio, embracing wholeheartedly the late night wars with pencil markings of a kind.
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"It was my passion for animation that kept me going," the animator stated 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."
Thirty-five years old, and a world of experience later, the artist nevertheless has more to thank for his blossomed success on multiple continents, than passion alone.
He worked on the popular computer animated movie Wonderful Days come 2002, while only a year after that, Oh Seung-hyun had the opportunity to seek the tutelage of Shouji Kawamori, arguably the most influential animation director and mecha designer in the history of Japanese animation. On Wonderful Days, he served production roles in storyboarding, concept design and editing; meanwhile, he studied under Mr. Kawamori for a year's time.