Hi, I’m Thu! An illustrator, animator who makes editorial illustration, comics, animated gif and short animated films with both traditional and digital mediums :)

illustrations 🖌️



Vietcetera -  What to do when you are out of sync with your teammates?   
VnExpress - Ho Chi Minh City Food
VnExpress - Saigon’s 100 years of fashion
Vietcetera - What make human unreplacable by AI?
Vietcetera - Afternoon Slump
Lorem Ipsum...
Vietcetera - Bingo
Vietcetera - Conversational Narcissism 
personal project
Saigoneer - Your voice flickering in my ear
Vietcetera -  To get promoted
Vietcetera
Vietcetera - Afternoon Slump
Vietcetera - Food Diary
personal project
Vietcetera - Negative self-talk post graduation
Vietcetera - Women’s self-defense industry
Vietcetera -  40% Rule
personal 
Vietcetera - Women’s self-defense industry
 Vietcetera - Negative self-talk post graduation
personal project
Vietcetera  - Conversational Narcissism 
Vietcetera -  What make human unreplacable by AI?
Vietcetera - To get promoted
personal project
Vietcetera - Conversational Narcissism 

books & zines🎏

a, on how to construct a functional human (comic) personal project
colored fiber pens on paper, 2022

This was an one-shot comic book that I did for a challenge on the internet. The challenge was to create a finished 24-pages comic book in 48 hours. I finished mine in 60 hours so it was not a complete success but it was a lot of fun.

The story is about an introductory tour in a factory manufacturing human that is run by ants.


b, pareidolia (picture book)
graduation project, RMIT, Design Studies
acrylic on canvas, digital collage, 2021


Pareidolia is a mostly-wordless picture book about social anxiety, which is something that I struggled with for a long time. The reason I chose this topic is because I want confront and reflect upon my emotions rather than avoid them.

In the book, I created two main characters: 
1, The Protagonist, who view themselves as a mess and filled with anxieou thoughts. 
2, The Anxiety, an exaggerated representation of how the protagonist view others. 
The book is about the realization that avoiding the anxious feeling will only make things worse. 

Through the making of this book, I also explored different way of using material and combining analog process with digital. Some paintings are painted on canvas, scanned and draw digitally lines on top while some are digital collage from scanned texture. 

sketches and exploration:




the full book:



c, muro (comic book) personal project
digital, on-going, 2019
 

“Muro” is an on-going comic book about the journey of an astronaut who was stuck outer space and was forced to land on an unknown planet.

The atmosphere is quite peculiar and dream-like.





animations🎠

a, you are no longer the person I used to lovegraduation film, MA Animation, MIVC AKV St.Joost School of Art, 2024

“Flowers wither, seasons change, as well as relationships. Sometimes, you just have to deal with it.”
A very still yet dramatic film about changes and moving on.   

The film is currently in the festival submission phase, so it is not public yet. If you want to check it out please send me an email :)

Screenings:

Almaty Animation Festival - 2024
Picollo Festival, Animayoung competition - 2024
Animateka, Student Panorama - 2024
Bogota Music Video Festival, Music Film - 2024




b, good appetite!digital animation, 10 seconds
screened at TAIS Showcase Anijam Competition Showcase, Canada, 2023


A really short but fun animation I did for TAIS competition.




c, Adan & Evpromotional video for BUT Film Festival in Breda, 2023

This is a short animation that we made during our Animation Master program in a collaboration with BUT Film Festival in Breda. The short film was used as their promotional material and festival opening. The theme was "Now, we are cooking".

I was in charge of the 2D animation part. I want the two human to look a bit dumb but cute so I made their proportion a bit short.

For this project, I implement a mixed-media process in which I animated everything digitally and then print out and with the help of some friends, we colored them together.



Director: Tran Phan Minh Thu & Ana Milena Bojanini Perez
Storyboard: Minh Thu & Ana Milena
2D animation: Minh Thu
Set Design & Fabrication: Ana Milena 
Thanks to Tippi Chang, Afan Zeng, Emilia von Czarnowski


d, a bunch of animated gifs