30-Second Overview:
Founded in 2004, First Image Creative (SOFA Studio) was once a star in Taiwan's animation world. Backed by Kuo Tai-chiang's capital and a dream of original work, it conquered markets in 80 countries with MuMuHug. Yet the high cost and long payback cycle of animation development eventually forced this gamble to change course. The story did not end there. Chiu Li-wei, a core member, took up the torch with studio2, which he founded in Tainan. From Barkley to Pigsy, the team spent twenty lonely years in Tainan's old buildings, in exchange for an animation aesthetic that belongs to Taiwan.
The Vanished Dawn: When the Son of One of Taiwan's Wealthiest Families Met an Animation Dream
In the early 2000s, Taiwan's government announced the "Two Trillion, Twin Stars" plan, placing high expectations on the digital-content industry.1 In 2004, Kuo Tai-chiang, chairman of Cheng Uei Precision Industry and younger brother of Terry Gou, invested in the founding of First Image Creative (SOFA Studio). At the time, it was seen as Taiwan animation's strongest force for moving from "subcontracting" to "original creation."2
First Image Creative's opening move was indeed astonishing. The 3D animation MuMuHug, which took three years to produce, dispensed entirely with dialogue. Relying only on physical performance and innocent emotion, it successfully sold rights in more than 80 countries worldwide.23 Beyond the widely known MuMu, First Image Creative also experimented early on with diversified original development, including 7 Guardians, which fused elements of Eastern fantasy, and Monster Coins, attempting to establish a Taiwanese animated heroic narrative in the international market.4
📝 Curator's Note: First Image Creative proved that Taiwan had the technical capacity to produce 3D animation at an international standard. It also revealed, brutally, that without the support of a mature industrial chain, capital and passion alone make it very difficult to finish the marathon of original creation.
The Core Contradiction: Why Even Money Cannot Sustain an Animated Feature
Despite the success of MuMuHug, First Image Creative gradually faded from view several years later and no longer invested in large-scale original production.1 Behind this was the deepest tension in Taiwan's animation industry: development cycles are too long, capital is difficult to recoup, and protective policies are lacking.
The development of an animated feature film can easily take three to five years, with almost no cash flow before the finished work appears.5 For Taiwan's capital markets, accustomed to a "manufacturing mindset" in which input immediately produces output and subcontracting immediately generates profit, animation R&D is like a high-stakes gamble with no visible bottom. First Image Creative ultimately chose survival through subcontracting over original R&D in that tug-of-war, and at one point was even absorbed into another structure.1
"Making an animated film means burning your life to do it. If a suitable platform cannot be built, the technology will not be preserved." -- Liao Wei-chih, animation producer 1
This predicament, in which "every film starts again from zero," caused Taiwan's animation talent to scatter after each project ended. Experience could not accumulate, becoming a main reason the industry remained unable to grow over the long term.1
Turning to Tainan: studio2's Experiment in a "Messy Aesthetic"
As First Image Creative's aura faded, another force was quietly growing in Tainan. In 2005, Chiu Li-wei founded studio2, also known as Rabbit Creative.6 He had a deep symbiotic relationship with First Image Creative, but his strategy was entirely different: he chose to move back to Tainan and, in the slower rhythm of the old capital, endure solitude while doing research and development.57
Chiu has an almost stubborn commitment to a "Taiwan animation aesthetic." In Barkley, he refused to beautify Tainan, instead drawing, stroke by stroke, its cluttered arcades, drainage covers, and funeral flower stands.5 He called this "building reasonable roots," arguing that Taiwan animation should not merely imitate Japanese anime or American Pixar, but should find its visual vocabulary in the everyday life of this place.5
📝 Curator's Note: When animation companies in Taipei were pursuing how to look more like Pixar, studio2 in Tainan was studying how to make a drainage cover look "very Tainan" in animation. This attachment to reality instead became the team's distinctive label as it moved toward the international stage.
A Happy Endpoint: From _Barkley_ to the Cyberpunk _Pigsy_
In 2017, the feature-film version of Barkley was nominated for the Golden Horse Awards, ending the awkward 12-year absence of Taiwanese animated features from the awards.8 studio2 then invested six years in research and development to create the science-fiction cyberpunk work Pigsy.7
Pigsy's worldview places the classical Journey to the West inside a future city, incorporating a large number of images from Taiwan's urban landscapes, such as the canopy plaza at Taoyuan's Zhuwei Fishing Harbor and the neon lights of traditional markets.9 In 2023, Pigsy won Best Animated Feature at the 60th Golden Horse Awards.7 This was not only an award; it was a kind of completion of the unfinished dream of the First Image Creative era. This time, the team not only had the technology, but had also learned how to combine the industrial thinking of gold-medal producer Tomi Tang with an all-star voice cast including Greg Hsu and Waa Wei, in an attempt to build a replicable business model.7
| Work | Year | Key Achievement | Core Aesthetic |
|---|---|---|---|
| MuMuHug | 2008 | Rights sold in 80 countries worldwide 3 | Dialogue-free physical performance |
| Barkley | 2017 | Golden Horse nomination; Golden Bell Award 8 | Real Tainan streetscapes |
| Future Delivery | 2021 | Internationally co-produced series 7 | Science-fiction imagination with a Taiwanese flavor |
| Pigsy | 2023 | Golden Horse Award for Best Animated Feature 7 | Cyberpunk Journey to the West |
Afterglow: Seeing a Glimmer in the Dark
Chiu Li-wei once quoted Woody Allen: "Life is full of darkness, and cinema is like a glimmer of light in that darkness."5
Taiwan's animation industry still has not fully emerged from its winter. Original development remains difficult, and subcontracting remains the lifeline for most companies.1 Yet from First Image Creative's dawn to studio2's twenty years of persistence, these animators have proved that even in electronics-driven Taiwan, where efficiency is prized above all, there are still people willing to stop for "a single drawing" and preserve that glimmer of light for Taiwan in the dark. studio2 is currently planning a collaboration with the Netherlands to bring the story of Koxinga to the animated big screen, continuing to explore the possibility of connecting Taiwan history with the international market.5
References
- 【文策院專題：產業篇】台灣動畫產業卻是問「我們還有下一部嗎」？ — ARTouch, August 19, 2019.↩
- MuMuHug Wikipedia entry — Accessed in 2024.↩
- Taiwan animation MuMuHug adapted into hit Korean drama — OCAC News, May 30, 2012.↩
- Early works introduction, First Image Creative SOFA Studio — Official Facebook page.↩
- 專訪導演邱立偉：發展台灣動畫產業，產官學和創作者得先解決這些事 — Clappin, January 4, 2018.↩
- Official introduction to Rabbit Creative Co., Ltd. (studio2) — TAICCA IP Meetup.↩
- 入圍 60 屆金馬獎《八戒》，金獎導演邱立偉聯手三金製作團隊立下台灣動畫新高標 — INCG Media, October 31, 2023.↩
- 迎接動畫的晨曦：頒獎台下的努力 — Taiwan Panorama, January 2019.↩
- Animated film Pigsy: an ingenious work incorporating Taoyuan city imagery — Taoyuan Film and Television Subsidy page.↩