YouTube Brothers From Malaysia

Sheldon , 17 y.o. and Emerson Chong, 15 y.o., are award-winning and multi-talented brothers from Malaysia. They are YouTubers, 2D animators, digital artists, game developers, coders,? authors, workshop facilitators, musicians, entrepreneurs and changemakers. In 2020, they received the Silver YouTube Creator Award for reaching 100K subscribers on their YouTube Channel, CyberLegends Animations, within ten months! They have published four children's storybooks and have facilitated creative workshops for eight years.

?

What is the journey of your channel, CyberLegends Animations?

?

CyberLegends Animations is a YouTube channel which Emerson started. During the lockdown in 2020, he actively started creating and posting 2D animations on the YouTube channel. How it began: One day, I (Emerson) was scrolling through the app store and found a free animation app, FlipaClip. Animation could be the next step in our art journey. From there, I (Emerson) tried it out and learned about the tricks and tips to animate efficiently. When CyberLegends Animations grew, I started to animate based on popular games such as Among Us and Undertale, giving it my own twist. Because we needed to produce animations quickly and consistently, with high quality, Sheldon and I (Emerson) started to work together with me because Sheldon is skilled in digital art and can produce high-quality work fast. And from there, with our passion, we grew to where our channel is today. As of April 2023, we currently have 397K subscribers on our YouTube channel. Just in March alone, we had an addition of 98K subscribers!

?

What are the awards you have won? Does winning awards contribute to success?

?

We have won several international awards in game development. We won the prize in the Dell Technologies Advancing Sustainability International Game Design Challenge in 2021. We also won the Gold and Jury awards at the Level Up Game Development Competition in 2021. Besides that, I (Sheldon) won the Top Coder Award in the WeCode International Competition 2018 and the Silver Award in the International Scratch Coding Competition 2020, the world's largest virtual coding competition with 4158 participants.

?

Another competition that we participated in was the Young Entrepreneurs X-Factor in 2019. We had to pitch to the judges our solution to a problem. My (Sheldon's) idea was an IoT-based intelligent parking system with an app that solves the problem of difficulty in finding parking spaces. It uses cloud technology and Bluetooth to show real-time data on parking spaces.

?

My (Emerson's) project was to gamify the learning experience to learn history. I pitched the idea of a pixelated roleplay game showcasing Japan's history and culture. I (Emerson) won first place, and Sheldon won Runner-Up in our respective age categories, winning scholarships to an international school. In 2021, we participated in the Young Educators Challenge, winning first place and receiving a college scholarship. The challenge's objective was to teach a lesson online in a very engaging and innovative way. We combined roleplay and games to teach students in a fun way, which led us to win the scholarship.

?

Sheldon also achieved the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award (Bronze) after much hard work and effort. It?is an internationally recognised program for young people aged 14 to 25, building their skills to equip them for life and work.?We think that awards result from success through putting effort into your passion. Even if you don't win or achieve the award but still learn something, that would still be a success.

?

What is your journey in your passion for writing?

?

We have written two children's storybooks each. "The Time Dimension" and? "The Elementals" by Sheldon and "Attack of the Evil Clone and Egypto’s Adventure" by Emerson are available in Borders Malaysia bookstore. These books are fictional stories for kids and teens. We got into writing by reading comics and then started reading books. Eventually, we were interested in writing novels and combining them with our illustrations to create books.

?

What is your experience & and work behind your comic, Earth Boy and the video documentary on it?

?

Our work on this started when I (Emerson) joined an international contest called the UNICEF Climate Comic Contest, in which participants had to create their eco-superhero. I made a character called Earth Boy and then explained his powers and backstory. As a Runner-Up amongst 3000 entries, my character got its comic and was translated into Spanish, French, and Hindi. I collaborated with an artist in New York who helped me create this comic, after which it was published by UNICEF in New York in 2018. After the comic was released, I used Earth Boy as a mascot. I drew more cartoons about Earth Boy, like 'Earth Boy & Friends doing Beach Cleanup' and 'Earth Boy & Friends at the Mall', and shared them on social media. After hearing about my work, the United Nations sent a producer from the U.S. to film a short video about it. The video was about my work to inspire others to help save the Earth, using my creativity and art skills.

?

What do you do in the field of music? What music do you play?

?

I (Sheldon) play the piano, and Emerson plays the guitar and sings. With the two of us, we started a small band. We perform pop songs at functions, open mics, and charity events. Our parents encouraged us to play music, and eventually, playing music to live audiences in public just helped boost our confidence to do even more things.

?

What would you like to convey to future generations?

?

It is essential to find and follow your passion. Through your love, you can find ways to do so many other things that you can do. All the things that we have done, i.e. Music, Animation, Writing, etc., everything came from our passion: Drawing. You can even do such things as a job, which is a dream job for some people. Even if you don't have a passion, you can learn something from books, friends, the internet, and more. A Passion adds more value to you and what you do. So that's why it is essential to follow your passion, so you can find more things you love and make a change with them.

?

As siblings, how does it feel to have somebody who can help you?

?

We have two people, our parents, who give us a lot of support in what we do. Drawing has been our passion since we were young, and our parents supported us by buying us papers, pens, and other things. They also took us on trips to art galleries and museums to help us enrich our knowledge about art. They never had anything against what we do and continuously supported us in our passion. We also are very supportive of each other. For example, Sheldon helps me (Emerson) with my animations by colouring digitally and making the thumbnails while I animate and add sounds. Sometimes we do have our views on how we want to do things, but there's always something where we work together.

?

?

What do you like to do in your free time, apart from your work in writing, animation, and art?

?

I (Emerson) would like to read comic books and storybooks, and I (Sheldon) want to play the piano and do coding.

?

What are your plans for the future? What is one thing you want to change in society?

?

Our YouTube channel has brought immense joy, cheer, and laughter to children, teens, and youths worldwide. We aim to grow our medium to reach 1 million subscribers, allowing us to connect with a broader audience and encourage them to pursue their passions and chase their dreams.

?

Secondly, we would also like to work on a series of comic books and storybooks, as we have many creative ideas and stories to share. Everyone has the potential to achieve greatness, and we are committed to inspiring and empowering as many people as possible to unfold their potential and live fulfilling lives.

Follow them on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SheldonEmersonChong

YouTube: www.youtube.com/CyberLegendsAnimations

?

?

?

?