Shiyoon Kim

Shiyoon Kim (김시윤) is a Korean-American animator who currently works for Walt Disney Animation Studios. His major role was when he started working on Big Hero 6, as chief character designer who designed the lead characters of the film along side with character design supervisor, Jin Kim, another Korean animator. According to Shiyoon Kim in an interview, he said he mainly focused on Hiro Hamada and Baymax.

Animation Credits

Year	Film	Position
2009	Prep & Landing	Character Designer
2010	Tangled	Character Designer
2011	Winnie the Pooh	Character Designer
2012	Paperman	Character Designer
	Wreck-It Ralph	Character Designer
2013	Frozen	Character Designer: Duke of Weselton
2014	Feast	Character Designer
	Big Hero 6	Lead Character Designer: Hiro Hamada/Tadashi Hamada/Go Go Tomago
2016	Zootopia	Character Designer: Mayor Lionheart/Assistant Mayor Bellwether/Flash/Gazelle/Bonnie and Stu Hopps
2016	Inner Workings	Character Designer

Big Hero 6: Lead Character Designer

In Big Hero 6, Shiyoon Kim worked as lead character designer for the the film. As a major character designer, Shiyoon Kim wanted Korean characters to be in a Disney film for the first time. According to Jin Kim, Shiyoon Kim originally designed the lead [Asian] characters, (Hiro Hamada, Tadashi Hamada, and Go Go Tomago) as Korean characters

“Early designs were drafted by Kim Shiyoon, a fellow Korean animator, who originally created the characters as Koreans. Of course, there are no mentions of specific nationalities in the film, but that was what we, the artists, imagined,” (Jin) Kim said.

Although Shiyoon Kim originally decided the three characters as Koreans, the film needed at least one Japanese characters. Despite such efforts trying to introduce Korean characters into a Disney film, Shiyoon had no choice but to drop Hiro Hamada and Tadashi Hamada's Korean ethnicities by giving them Japanese names, going against his original intentions. Despite giving them Japanese names later on, fellow artists (Such as Jin Kim and other animators) carried out and kept Kim's original motives as Korean characters throughout production. Although he had to give up on Hiro Hamada and Tadashi Hamada's intended ethnicities, he was able to succeed in making Go Go Tomago as Disney's first Korean character.

Even though Hiro Hamada and Tadashi Hamada are portrayed as Japanese characters, his original Korean-based character designs are still evident as he did say that Tadashi Hamada's appearance was influenced by his Korean-Irish-American voice actor, Daniel Henney and Go Go Tomago by her Korean-American voice actress, Jamie Chung.

Gallery

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In the Past Disney's Nine Old Men: Milt Kahl • Frank Thomas • Ollie Johnston • Les Clark • John Lounsbery • Marc Davis • Ward Kimball • Eric Larson • Wolfgang Reitherman Animators: Bill Tytla • Art Babbitt • Preston Blair • Fred Moore • Shamus Culhane • Cy Young • Don Lusk • Norman Ferguson • Hal King • Jack Hannah • Jack Kinney • Hal Ambro • Ken O'Brien • Judge Whitaker • Bill Justice • Don Bluth • Gary Goldman • Charles A. Nichols • Blaine Gibson • John Kennedy • John Ewing • Walt Stanchfield • Fred Hellmich • Andy Paliwoda Visual Development, Layout, Background Artists and Character Designers: Gustaf Tenggren • Mary Blair • Joe Grant • Mel Shaw • Claude Coats • Don DaGradi • John Hench • Eyvind Earle • Ken O'Connor • Thor Putnam • Albert Hurter • John Hubley Storyboard Artists and Writers: Bill Peet • Ralph Wright • Winston Hibler • Dick Huemer • Floyd Norman Directors: Clyde Geronimi • Hamilton Luske • Wilfred Jackson • Jack Kinney • Art Stevens • Ted Berman • Richard Rich • Leo Matsuda • Nathan Greno Producers: Walt Disney • Winston Hibler • Ron Miller • Joe Hale • Ken Anderson In the Renaissance, the Present and the Revival Renaissance Directors: Rob Minkoff • Roger Allers • Gary Trousdale • Kirk Wise • Chris Sanders • Mark Dindal • John Musker Story Trust Directors: Ron Clements • Chris Buck • Byron Howard • Don Hall • Chris Williams • Rich Moore • Stephen J. Anderson Producers: Peter Del Vecho • Clark Spencer • Roy Conli • Dorothy McKim • Don Hahn Chief Creative Officer: Jennifer Lee Associated Figures: Bob Iger • Roy Edward Disney • Michael Eisner • John Lasseter • Ed Catmull • Jeffrey Katzenberg Signature Voice Actors: Jim Cummings • Alan Tudyk • Katie Lowes • John DiMaggio • Maurice LaMarche • David Ogden Stiers • Jesse Corti • Paul Briggs • Raymond S. Persi • Phil Johnston • Frank Welker • Bill Farmer Signature Musicians: Sherman Brothers • Robert B. Sherman • Richard Sherman • Alan Menken • Kristen Anderson-Lopez • Robert Lopez • Lin-Manuel Miranda • Howard Ashman • Tim Rice • Stephen Schwartz • Marc Shaiman Supervising Animators: Glen Keane • Andreas Deja • Alex Kupershmidt • Eric Goldberg • Mark Henn • John Pomeroy • T. Daniel Hofstedt • Tony Bancroft • Tom Bancroft • Tony Fucile • Russ Edmonds • Duncan Marjoribanks • Ruben Aquino • Nik Ranieri • Ron Husband • Rick Farmiloe • Tom Sito • Tony Anselmo Visual Development & Storyboard Artists: Dean DeBlois • Lisa Keene • Claire Keane • Brittney Lee • Jin Kim • Shiyoon Kim • Cory Loftis