Setsuncanny · Illustrator
Watercolor painting: a piper leading the rats through town, a boy running after

Setsuncanny, illustrator

Portrait of a horned girl with glowing eyes
No. 001
No. 002 · Storybook The Piper Digital watercolor · 2025
Hello, I am Setsuncanny

Small worlds, great light

Every day I take a still frame, split it into layers and repaint what was hidden, so it can move without showing a single seam. This website is made the same way: the paintings stand still, yet something is always breathing.

IllustrationCharacter designBackgrounds for motionStoryboard
Art Gallery

Luminous Portraits

Dreamlike portraits adrift in a universe of light.

Celestial Gallery

Seven rooms

Each room holds its own palette, its own kind of story.

Folklore & HeritageMộngKey visual · Character designOpen project Behance
Selected works

Selected projects

    More of my work on Behance

    Worked with
      Contact · Commission

      Let us paint a new world

      Now booking illustration, character and motion projects for 2026.

      Portrait of a girl with closed eyes, washed in orange and gold

      Commissions

      Illustration, character design, backgrounds for motion and storyboards for comics, music videos and brands.

      Process

      Brief, sketch, sign-off, final. Files are delivered with separated layers, ready for animation.

      Availability

      2026Open for
      new projects

      Replies within 2 working days.

      Say hello

      setsuncanny@gmail.com

      Send a brief

      More of my work on Behance

      Celestial Gallery

      The Gallery

      42 selected works from the seven rooms of this painted universe.

      Contact · Commission

      Let us paint a new world

      Now booking illustration, character and motion projects for 2026.

      Send a briefCommissions & process

      About the painter

      Behind the night

      A digital painter from Saigon who teaches still frames to breathe.

      Six layers, still apartThe painter, in one piece
      Hello, I am Setsuncanny

      Still frames, breathing

      I am a self-taught illustrator and concept artist from Saigon. I have drawn comics, fashion prints, game characters, music video storyboards and collectible toys, and I like to let each project find its own style instead of repeating one.

      Today I am an art editor and illustrator at StoryCo, where we turn comics into motion for Webtoon, Marvel and Audible. I cut, separate and repaint each panel so it can move, and rebuild the background behind it until no seam shows.

      Based in
      Saigon, Vietnam
      Crafts
      Illustration ✦ Concept art ✦ Character design ✦ Backgrounds for motion ✦ Storyboard
      Tools
      Photoshop ✦ Clip Studio Paint ✦ Procreate ✦ Procreate Dreams ✦ ToonSquid ✦ After Effects ✦ Spine
      Studied
      Interactive Graphic Design, Van Lang University ✦ Design sketching, Artsoup ✦ Character concept with Huy Ozuno ✦ Environment concept with ChinnKun
      Off the clock
      Movies ✦ Comics ✦ Video games
      By day

      The craft

      Cutting comic panels into layers, repainting what was hidden behind them, keeping every edge clean and every artist's style intact. Files leave my desk layered and ready for animation.

      By night

      The dream

      Painting my own worlds, youthful pictures that speak to the inner child in everyone, and walking step by step toward a life as an independent illustrator.

      Beliefs

      What I hold to

      I

      Creativity first

      Every project deserves its own style, not a repeat of the last one. The possibilities are endless; only the mind sets the limits.

      II

      A better way, every day

      I build my own Photoshop scripts and a plugin, Sparky, so the repetitive steps run themselves and the team can paint more.

      III

      Never stop learning

      Self-taught from the start, I still learn with every brief, from oil and lacquer techniques to animation and toy design.

      Journey

      The road so far

      1. 2017

        Comicola · Webtoon artist

        My first step: learning how a comic page gets finished, against tight deadlines.

      2. 2018

        FERNWEH · Illustrator

        Prints for a local fashion brand, and a lesson in drawing to a brand's voice.

      3. 2019

        Gum Entertainment · Character concept & storyboard

        Storyboards and characters for films and music videos, with artists, actors and influencers.

      4. 2020

        568E Gaming Studio · 2D artist

        New characters and effects, old ones remade, animation fixed in Spine and Photoshop.

      5. 2023

        Chariot Studio · Illustrator & team leader

        From a small start-up to Mộng: illustration, concepts, animation and leading projects.

      6. 2024

        ARTSTUFF inc. · Concept artist

        Keycaps, toys and collectibles, where an idea has to survive the factory.

      7. 2024

        StoryCo · Art editor & illustrator

        Motion comics for Webtoon, Marvel and Audible, and Sparky, my own plugin for the team.

      Contact · Commission

      Let us paint a new world

      Now booking illustration, character and motion projects for 2026.

      Send a briefSee the gallery

      The atelier

      Inside the atelier

      Where a still panel learns to move: the process, the tools I build, and the notes I keep along the way.

      I · The process

      Layer by layer

      Scroll slowly. Every step runs backwards too.

      Background · repainted
      Buildings
      Foreground
      Character
      Lettering
      Spread from Mythic, Marvel Comics · separated and repainted at StoryCo
      1. I

        Read the panel

        Decide what should move, what should stay, and where the eye goes first.

      2. II

        Cut

        Trace every character, prop and effect out of the flat image, edge by edge.

      3. III

        Lift

        Pull each piece onto its own layer. What is left behind is a hole.

      4. IV

        Repaint

        Paint the world that was hidden behind them, in the original artist's hand, until no seam shows.
        Read the note

      5. V

        Ready to move

        A clean, layered file goes to the animator. The still frame can breathe now.

      II · Tools I build

      Small machines

      A motion comic file repeats the same small chores hundreds of times. So I began writing my own tools, and the hours went back to painting.

      Sparky
      Photoshop plugin · free, offline, no accountOne quiet panel to organise, edit and run .jsx scripts, then chain them into Automata: Manual pauses after each script, Auto runs straight through, Thrust runs it all and reports once.
      Why I built it See it on Adobe Exchange
      Photoshop scripts
      .jsx · the panel prep chainFour scripts that run in order on every panel: Background Fix trims and solidifies the panel base, RestoreBox resets the layers, Full Width scales it to 1180 px, AutoAlign centres it on the canvas.
      III · On my desk

      The tools

      1. I

        Photoshop

        Cutting, repainting, every clean background. Home of Sparky.

        Desktop
      2. II

        Clip Studio Paint

        Lineart, inking and comic pages.

        Desktop
      3. III

        Procreate

        Sketches and paintings, wherever I am.

        iPad
      4. IV

        Procreate Dreams

        Quick motion tests, straight on the canvas.

        iPad
      5. V

        ToonSquid

        Hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animation.

        iPad
      6. VI

        After Effects

        Checking that a layered file truly moves.

        Desktop
      7. VII

        Spine

        Rigging and fixing game character animation.

        Desktop
      IV · The journal

      Notes from the night

      Small lessons and the stories behind the paintings, written after the deadlines.

        Commission · Motion

        Bring a panel to life

        Comic panels, key art and covers, separated and repainted, ready for animation.

        Send a briefSee the gallery