How this 20-year-old landed on J-Hope’s project

If you’re a BTS fan, you might recall the floating house in J-Hope’s recent music video, “Sweet Dreams (Feat. Miguel).”

That surreal vision wasn't crafted by a veteran artist with decades of experience, but by Kim Onew, a 20-year-old 3D visual effects artist already making waves in the K-pop industry.

Kim has already built an impressive resume at a young age. In addition to J-Hope, he’s created visuals for aespa, NewJeans and Stray Kids.

His path is all the more remarkable in South Korea, where most students are expected to follow the route of preparing for the Suneung, the nation's notorious college entrance exam.

“I wasn’t good at studying,” was Kim's response to how he found his way into a creative field so early.

What he lacked in academic strength, he made up for with creativity. And the support of his parents who nurtured his artistic interests from a young age also helped.

As a child, he would spend hours playing with Lego blocks, throwing the building instructions aside to design his own creations.

“While I built, my dad would film what I make,” Kim recalled. That’s how he first became familiar with the language of video, a medium that would later become central to his career.

While his peers were cramming for the Suneung, he worked on his first 3D short film, “Jerry Beer.”

JERRY BEER _ 3D Animated Short Film

https://youtu.be/KcZzGSlCcfA?si=gRKhz5jRa35XrYdS

It told the story of a hermit crab yearning to reach the ocean, only to find that goal obscured by environmental degradation. The film won a prize at the Korea Youth Media Festival and earned him admission to the Korea National University of Arts, from which he is currently on leave.

More importantly, “Jerry Beer” caught the attention of professionals in the industry.

Kim’s first professional gig began with a message from a stranger.

“One day, someone DMed me on Instagram,” he said. The direct message came from a staffer at his current company Aedia Studio. The staffer complimented “Jerry Beer” and asked Kim if he’d be interested in joining a new project.

Skeptical but curious, Kim responded.

The next day, he found himself added to a group chat titled “NewJeans x Musinsa Mujinjang Advertisement Collaboration Video.” That was the beginning.

For that project, Kim created 3D fish that interact with NewJeans' Haein. It marked his official debut.

Working on client projects, he said, is very different from student films. There are deadlines, expectations and detailed creative briefs.

“But I try to include something new in every project,” he said.

For Stray Kids’ “Jjam” music video, Kim wanted to go about it differently by creating a rat using techniques he had seen in a making-of video for “Avatar.” It showed how they built creatures from the bones up, layer by layer.

A wall near his desk still displays his hand-drawn rat anatomy sketches.

“If you start from the skeleton and add muscles and skin, it just feels more alive,” he said. The process is demanding, but to him, it’s essential.

Kim is entirely self-taught. “I didn’t have any formal education in 3D,” he said. Instead, he developed his skills through YouTube tutorials and advice shared on Reddit forums.

“On Reddit, professionals with years of experience explain how they work,” he said. “Whenever I hit a wall, that’s where I turn for solutions.”

Armed with these self-taught skills, Kim continues to pursue personal creative projects alongside his client work.

ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT [아파트 애니메이션 커버]

https://youtu.be/J0cfNF6crcQ?si=s07F_eE7i3PA_JAb

His viral Lego parody of Rose’s “Apt.” music video, featuring a blocky version of the singer, has amassed more than 9.8 million views on YouTube. The idea came to him in the shower.

“As soon as I thought of it, I called two friends. One works in 2D, the other does calligraphy,” he said. “They were immediately in, and we got started right away.”

Inspiration sometimes comes from even stranger places. His most recent animated short, “Champ," was sparked by an unexpected visitor: a mosquito.

“It flew into my officetel (a multipurpose building combining commercial and residential units), which has really high ceilings, and I couldn’t catch it,” he said. “I was stuck with it for three days.”

CHAMP Animated Short Film

https://youtu.be/d4R2C8eZL3Y?si=5uXG_ErfpYFM97to

That small frustration turned into the concept for a boxing-themed animated film, where a character steps into the ring to fight a mosquito. The video has amassed more than 81,000 views on YouTube.