Jin Kim (animator)

Jin Kim (Korean: 김상진, Korean name: Kim Sang-jin) is a South Korean animator and character designer best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios from 1995 - 2016.[1][2] He was the first Korean animator to work for Disney.

Kim has red-green color blindness.[3] Due to Korean college admissions policies at the time, he was unable to get into art school and ended up majoring in economics in college.[3] Regardless, he persisted in developing his drawing skills and was eventually able to embark on a career as an animator.[3]

In 2016, Hong Sung-ho, president of Locus Studios, persuaded Kim to return to South Korea to work as executive creative director of the Korean feature animated film Red Shoes (which premiered in July 2019).[1][4] According to Hong, at that time, Kim had been left with nothing new to design because Disney was then focused on developing sequels rather than entirely new films.[4] Kim was also happy to work with an animation team in the Korean language[4] for the first time since a three-year period in the South Korean animation industry at the beginning of his career.[2]

In May 2018, Kim returned to Los Angeles to work on Pearl Studio/Netflix's film, Over the Moon, which was directed by fellow Disney animator Glen Keane.[2] As of August 2019, Kim had joined a new project at Disney.[2] He worked on both Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto.