Meet KaeVeo | Motion Designer & Video Editor

We had the good fortune of connecting with KaeVeo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi KaeVeo, can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Hi! I’m Kae, like the letter K, and I am a motion designer and video editor currently working in the video game industry and simultaneously freelancing in the content creator/VTuber space. I specialize in creating trailers, promotional videos, animating artwork, and making assets for streamers and content creators. I can execute multiple aesthetics, but my favorite ones to work with are the ones with cute/bubbly vibes or the ones with dark, futuristic themes. My main platform is Twitter, but I also stream my work on Twitch and upload on YouTube. In total, I have 5 years of professional experience working in gaming and about 7 years of experience of on and off freelancing.

My journey to this point was a mixed bag. I have always been interested in the arts as a kid, from drawing Pokemon I saw on television to making “music videos” using pixel sprites from my favorite game at the time, MapleStory. I tinkered in programs like Windows Movie Maker, Sony Vegas Pro, and eventually learned After Effects through Youtube tutorials, which is still my choice program to this day. However, growing up I wasn’t taught that art was something viable or something that I should seriously pursue as a career. When college came around, I majored in film because I admired Hollywood and wanted to be part of creating the amazing films you see on the big screen. I went through four years of schooling, but all the while I had worked on motion design projects on this side on social platforms like Tumblr and Instagram. I had also taken intern positions at my school and presenting them with this motion design service I could offer just to get something on my resume (which was successful). It took me awhile to realize motion design was my strength, passion, and that it was a career path I could even pursue. Upon graduating, I threw together a badly laid out online portfolio using anime graphics I animated through my years of college and that’s when I got my first job at IGN, a video game and entertainment news company. While learning the ins and outs of working an adult job, I still took on online commissions on the side.

Fast forward a few years and VTubers saw huge growth during/after the pandemic. Having grown up on watching anime, playing games, and animating my own projects, it was only natural that I gravitated towards this new space. It took a bit to get my footing in the community. When I first opened up my applications for motion design commissions on Twitter, I had little to no interest. I took any video projects that came in (about one or two a month) and posted the finished projects on Twitter. I also started streaming myself live on Twitch animating commissions using my own VTuber avatar. It wasn’t until I started posting quick behind-the-scenes videos showing what I could do with VTubers that I suddenly saw a spike in growth and interest in my work. With the influx of VTubers following me, I had to eventually close my commissions for 2022 because I could not take on more work. Even now in 2023, I am still working through a backlog of VTuber related commissions while working my full-time job at NEXON America, a games publisher, simultaneously. I even started a small creative studio with two friends called Galeia Studio to supplement my freelancing as we were getting demand for our VTuber lore videos (and my animation work on said videos) and needed to funnel inquiries in one place. I am excited for the projects we have yet to release from there.

I feel very fortunate to be in a place in my life where I can be paid to create, design, and animate around topics I am passionate about and talk amongst others about motion design. It always feels amazing when someone messages me saying they tried a video editing class because of me, or they started dabbling in After Effects after seeing my tweet, or that they are now majoring in design because of some manga panels I animated on Tumblr years ago. I hope my work can continue to inspire people out there and show that motion graphics is a fun and creatively fulfilling medium to pursue both personally and professionally.

Is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
Being a motion graphics designer and video editor in the streamer and VTuber space, I think people unfamiliar with the industry will be surprised to see VTubers rapidly becoming more and more popular. It is not a small, niche thing anymore but rather a very accessible, consistently innovative, and creative way to get into content creation and/or express yourself online. And with every new VTuber debuting out there, the demand for art, stream assets, videos, and graphics will only keep increasing. Even with my own business, having a VTuber avatar for myself helps me be more recognizable and more accessible to people – they see me more as a person and not just a service and want to support my work. Freelancing in motion graphics used to be something I would worry about, but now I never worry about having a shortage of work because I believe the industry and demand will only keep getting larger. Outsiders may see VTubers as a quirky anime-esque trend, but I believe VTubers are here to stay.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
All my love and support goes out to those who have followed my work whether old or new, from Tumblr to TikTok to Twitter. I also want to shoutout my Twitch and Discord community who have supported my streaming and art adventures the past few years and seen me grow, experiment, and try new things through the ups and downs! Thank you for keeping me company during 3am animation and editing streams.

Website: Commissions and portfolio: https://kaeveeoh.weebly.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaeVeo

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Kaeveo_Art/videos

Other: Creative studio: https://galeiastudio.carrd.co/ Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kaeveo

Image Credits
Chibi art in horizontal: choconchann Chibi with peace sign: acidicchioarts VTuber art: chinfes393