Kento In Tokyo

Ski Trip @ GALA Yuzawa (Niigata, Japan) on 30th Jan 2010

2010-02-03T01:31:00.002+09:00

I recorded some videos (while skiing.. haha) during my ski trip with a bunch of friends in Japan. And compiled into the following video. Hope you guys enjoy it... I mean you guys, who still following my blog even though I didn't update for centuries..hahahaa... THanks for the support though! I appreciate very much! I will start blogging again soon, though I will still login to Facebook frequently. hahahaa...
Please enjoy the video. =D

My New Art Blog

2009-09-19T19:11:00.005+09:00

Sorry people, been busy and lazee. hahaa...
Will write more about my condition and stuff when I'm free again.
At the mean time, please visit my new Art Blog which compiles some of my previous and recent works.

http://kentartwork.blogspot.com/

Till then~ Cheers! =)

Back in Blog-ing? Not sure... yet..

2009-09-16T02:08:00.003+09:00

Job Hunting is like Fishing near the Ice Berg.

The Story of Soichiro Honda

2008-12-26T16:00:00.005+09:00

Wonderful piece of work. I love the animation style and design, I love the story plotting, I love the music, I love almost everything. Most importantly, the message touches deep in my heart.

Click here to know more and view the animation and their makings.
http://micheledauria.com/

~Believes in Your Dreams~

Perfect 10 year-old Voice in a Touching Song.

2008-12-14T03:10:00.004+09:00

I was browsing Youtube searching for more singing videos and came across this brilliant piece of video. I'm not sure what his name is or if he is famous, but I was so shocked to hear his brilliant voice with the brilliant song.

I was so touched by the song and especially by the perfect singing voice of this 10 year-old (according to the info written on Youtube) boy. I just thought this song is perfectly performed and the message is clearly conveyed by his clean touching voice and perfect singing skills. If you know something about singing, I'm pretty sure you would appreciate as much as I do. =)

Coming Animations which I'm Looking Forward.

2008-11-21T17:18:00.002+09:00

Imagi HK's Astro Boy - New Teaser Trailer

2008-11-21T15:05:00.003+09:00

I think it looks good and promising, although the Professor Ochanomizu in the animation trailler doesn't look quite similar to the original character design which used to be appeared in the comic.
It's been years since the last time I read the Astro Boy comic when I was a kid back in Malaysia. Really bring back some memories. I hope Imagi will be doing a good job producing a touching story according to the robot boy background which we all kids who used to like. Can't wait to catch it next year. If I ever have a chance to participate this project too, it will be so.. soo......Marvellous!! hahahaaa...

For higher quality view, check the HD version here.
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/astro-boy/30167/main

-End-

Want to Learn Japanese? Sing it ! ^^

2008-11-11T15:27:00.006+09:00

For those who love to learn some basic japanese. Here you go, have fun with your first lesson: "1st-10th of the month".

Remember to practise everyday ok. Sing it everyday. Sorry to ruin the best song in the world, but u have to sacrifice some good songs to learn something else. hahahahaa....

Additional found:
More fun for beginners. ^^

OMG, the more i watch the longer i laugh ...hahaaha...
Well, it may sound stupid, but it's the best way to learn and remember. Since it's stupid, you will remember it easily, won't you? hahaha
Hope you guys have fun learning some basics today. haha.. Sayonara! (>_^)b

New Nintendo DSi ～ I Want!!!

2008-10-23T14:17:00.001+09:00

Releasing November 1st in Japan. Woohoo !!

Wonderful Animation - The Chestnut Tree

2008-10-23T00:38:00.005+09:00

It's been a long while since I last saw a great 2D Animation.
The more you watch this animation, the more story you will understand , the deeper you dive into the creator's mind and world. I'm not sure the rest, but it touches me so deep and the more I re-watch this, the more I love this piece of animated story-telling. Did I mention that the animation is super smooth and super Awesome?!!!
No doubt, this piece of great animation has been saved into my "Best Animation Eternity Collection".

Tokyo Game Show 2008

2008-10-22T23:44:00.000+09:00

Amazing & Creative Dancing Groups from 舞林大道

2008-10-07T22:27:00.008+09:00

Lately I have been watching this Taiwanese dancing competition (舞林大道) on Youtube. It's really a very good competition and very touching to know that every dancers have their own story. Dancing is actually a healthy exercise and could be considered as career too. Therefore, this program is really good to show to the public especially youngster's parents that dancing is not equal to bad influence or meaningless. Every dancer has their own dream and passion. When I watched this show, it really touches my heart and allow me to see more perspective in different world standing on different shoes.

I've picked some of the best dancing groups as below.
Enjoy watching, they will blow you away... hahaa.. =D

Dissidia Final Fantasy

2008-09-29T10:25:00.003+09:00

Voice Character Introduction

Trailer 2

Final Fantasy I Fight Demo

Tidus VS Jecht (FFX) Fight Demo

Onion Knight VS Cloud of Darkness (FFIII) Fight Demo

Animation Mentor Student Reel Summer 2008

2008-09-20T03:28:00.001+09:00

Local Color - Trailer

2008-09-19T20:37:00.002+09:00

A meaningful movie trailer that draws my attention and reminds me of what had happened to me. And also seems like a great movie to remind everyone of us to keep our passion burning and have faith. Though some may not able to achieve what they wanted to achieve due to certain life related problem, but doesn't mean that is the end of hope. Keep inspired, keep the passion burning no matter how long it takes to achieve in real life. You never know what good would happen next... you just have to have faith and patience. That is what I believe.

The above and following are specially dedicated to a friend of mine who is still holding hard the edge in order to achieve what she wanted to achieve in life. Hang in there my friend. I believe in you. You will get there someday soon, have faith. =)

Online Videos by Veoh.com

-End, but Never End of Hope-

The Alchemy of Animation

2008-09-19T20:37:00.001+09:00

Osaka & Kyoto Summer Trip

2008-09-18T23:29:00.005+09:00

Last week was my one-week summer vacation. And I spent 3 days outside Tokyo. I went to Osaka and Kyoto with my colleague.

The trip was great, and I especially like Kyoto the most. Compare to Tokyo, Kyoto is totally different city. It has a different type of atmosphere and the feeling was just different. When you are there , you can tell. hehe...

Here are some of the pictures I took during the trip.

Album 1
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Album 2
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-End-

The Sky Crawlers

2008-09-12T01:08:00.011+09:00

I watched this movie with my friends 2 weeks ago.

To be fair again, before I start sharing my own view on this movie, I would like to declare here that, everyone's review of movies in this world is totally subjective based on ownself's knowledge of technicals, entertaining level, acceptance to public depending on different races, cultures etc. So there is no right or wrong, the only thing left is just about Agree or Disagree. =)

So, lets begin shall we? haha... Well, after watching the whole movie, I did have a feeling that this movie is not my cup of tea. haha.. The overall feeling about this movie is like a Wong Kar Wei (Hong Kong famous award winning director) movie. Except that I like Wong Kar Wei's movie better. hahaa...
I'm not saying that Arty-Farty movie isn't good, but sometimes it just doesn't work well if the director doesn't "slot in" the correct montage into correct space and timing. That's what I feel for The Sky Crawlers, although I realise that the story is adapted from a novel, which in fact I never read it before.

By just judging from the movie alone (watching as a brand new audience without knowing the original novel story), The Sky Crawler movie looks like a draggy movie with no better reason. Half way through it may seem like Arty-Farty, but after almost finish the movie, I just feel that the Arty-Farty was inserted with not much good reason, and in fact, most of the draggy shots are not so necessary, in my very humble opinion.

For example, most of the shots in The Sky Crawlers ended with long pause with frozen poses and almost lasted for 5-6 seconds. I'm not saying this type of movie-making style isn't good, but this type of style should be used carefully and meaningfully without over-using it. For The Sky Crawlers, this type of frozen poses at the end of the shot could be used in may be 2-3 shots which are considered necessary to bring some different taste to the audience once in a while throughout the movie. Unfortunately, the director has over-used them and put almost half of the movie into such dead silent frozen pose draggin all the way which doesn't look like meaningful or other words, kinda too much. Again, my point of view. Well, you may say I'm not the type of too-Arty-Farty person who may not appreciate super Arty-Farty movie which almost becomes much more boring than watching a screen saver of 3D square box rotating itself over 100 times. Sorry for the bad metaphor... haha.. =P

Well, story wise, there may be some little surprise at the end, but the technique of conveying is kinda "not fresh", and doesn't look like a surprise even though the story seems like trying to tell a small surprise to the audience. hahaa.. Anyway, overall feeling is, monotone.... sorry to say that, even though some may say "Hey! This is the famous Mamoru Oshii who made Ghost in the Shell you know! Who are you to judge his brilliant work!". hahahaa... well, I may not as old as him and as experienced as him, but when comes to movie and general entertainment, be it on the theater or small TV show, your feeling cannot lie to yourself. If your feeling feels something not right, that means that something is not your cup of tea or may be it doesn't work well to some other people.

I wasn't expecting funny or gags from this movie, I even knew that this movie is serious since it's an adaption from a existed novel. However, overall, it was really over-done. When it is overdone, the climax will be killed. Speaking of climax, I just want to say that, as far as i remember, I really couldn't find any proper climax which really could touch my heart (when i said touch, doesnt always mean related to crying.. if you know what i mean, ok). Again, overall, the graph of this movie pacing and excitement was just almost Monotone....not totally, but almost..

Enough story and pacing talk, lets move on to more technical stuff, like animation and CG adaption. Well, I dont feel like want to comment much, but i just wanted to say, the character animation is not really impressive compare to what I expected before watching this movie. Some parts may look good, but mainly , throughout whole animation, they just look flat and unlively and like almost dead zombies talking to each other (this may be over-exagerated but almost true..haha). Another specific pick is that, unnecessary fun dog animations had been inserted into too many scenes, which is also overly-done. Those effort should have been transfered to other character animations to make them better and lively. Other than that, there were also some parts which had no consistency of the main character's personality. From my observation, one character has been established to be having personality A, but all of a sudden, the animation style of the character in certain scenes gives away the believability of the first establishment for that character, and ended up confusing all the observant-type of audience. It may be not obvious to normal audience, but it just can't work for us who worked in the same field. Well, I'm not sure about how other animators think about this, but that's just my own view. May be that's what it is from the novel.. I never know. Pardon me if I'm wrong. =)

Ok, next, CG. There were quite a lot of CG in this movie especially those Fighters scene and Base n stuff. As far as the color and style concerns, I would say, it can be considered a weird combination, which may be or may be not acceptable to a lot of people. Well, it started to make me feel that it worked for me, but slowly observing more scenes like sky view and mountains and other scenery, i realised there were too many types, in terms of color schemes and textures. I could at least find 3 different types of backgrounds schemes and styles throughout the whole movie. Well, for normal audience it may look good or stylish or something new, but well, to me, I wasn't trying to be stone-head, but but... i just thought that it's kinda like a bit inconsistent in terms of overall movie designs.... well, it's subjective again... that's just what i feel..hahaa... =P

However, I have to say that I love the designs of the planes and the mood of the planes with certain backgrounds was good too, IF, I judge it scene by scene without considering consistency with other scenes. =)

Ok lar... I guess it's about time I pen off.. though I never use any pen to write this.. Duh~!! hahahaaa...
Well, finally, like other reviewers around the world, I would like to rate for this movie based on my own humble personal view of movies (coz I love movies!). =D

My Rate for The Sky Crawler is as followed:

Overall Story: 5/10
Technical (Animation): 6/10
Technical (CG/Designs): 6/10
Technical (Story Editing/Pacing): 5/10
Technical (Sound Effects/Music): 6.5/10

Average Rate of the movie: 5.7/10

p/s: Although I'm not fan of Ghost in the Shell, I think I like it much better than The Sky Crawler. =P

~End~

Back From Osaka & Kyoto Trip

2008-09-11T00:37:00.002+09:00

It was a fun trip... going to show some photos and talk a little bit more, but i'm pretty tired now... head is empty... so.... will blog other day about my trip... Just to stop by to say that I'm safe back home in Tokyo. ....so.... stay tuned...

World of WarCraft - Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic

2008-09-02T02:00:00.011+09:00

Thanks to a friend of mine, Danny, I was able to realise another Blizzard's latest release of a marvellous cinematic!

Character designs, atmospheric musics, atmospheric colors, camera angles, camera motions, particles simulations, even narration are all wonderfully done! Speaking of character designs, I specially love the cool Dragon!! Super duper COOL!!! I hope they will release the figurine in the market in future, and I will definitely be waiting... It will be worth for my dragon collection! haha...

** Click here to watch Higher Quality version.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38881.html

~End~

Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008

2008-09-01T22:09:00.010+09:00

This event was a private party exclusively for Square Enix Online Members only (http://member.square-enix.com). Of course, I'm one of the members too since long time ago. haha...

This event was held beginning of last month (August). And this event was just meant for around few thousands members for just 2 days at Shibuya. What do I mean by "meant for few thousands members"? It means, we, members have to apply online and within one month, they had a lucky draw and those members who are luckily picked will be allowed to attend the private party. And guess what!! I DID apply online in July and eventually DIDN'T get the lucky pick. Super SAD! I hate lucky-draw! I always have no fate in that thing ever since I was a kid... That is so unfair! (T-T)

Anyway, after reading recent game magazines reporting what had happened in the private party, I felt excited and feel like sharing here with you all, especially those Square Enix's gamers or supporters, who of course haven't found out about this.

I've captured some pictures from the magazines that I bought, but sorry for the bad quality if it doesnt turn well to everyone. I snapped with my mobile camera which only 2MegaPix. hhahaa... And I also dug some videos from the youtube and compiled them here together for your viewing pleasure. Well, the quality may not be as good as original (that is most definitely..haha), but I still want to thank them for uploading online for everyone to view. THanks! =)

Well, whether or not I could get the first-hand view of the stunning trailers, I just hope I could get the first-hands-on on the game during their release dates respectively. hehe...

Oh by the way, I'm really looking forward the coming Tokyo Game Show next month! Hope to see more stuff coming up. Yesshh !!! Can't wait!!

For those who are interested to know about their release dates (in Japan):

「FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS FINAL FANTASY XIII」Series

* ・FINAL FANTASY XIII (PLAYSTATION 3) [release 2009]
* ・FINAL FANTASY Agito XIII (PSP) [To Be Announced]
* ・FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII (PLAYSTATION 3) [To Be Announced]

「KINGDOM HEARTS」Series

* ・KINGDOM HEARTS Coded (Mobile) [Coming Winter]
* ・KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days (Nintendo DS) [Coming Winter]
* ・KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep (PSP) [release 2009]

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY (PSP) [release Dec 2008]
PARASITE EVE - The 3rd Birthday (Mobile) [release 2009]
SIGMA HARMONICA (Nintendo DS) [Already Released]
FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN COMPLETE (Blu-ray) [release Mar 2009]

Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008 (IGN Report)

Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008 (Some Fan's Photography Compilation)

Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) Latest Trailer

Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) In-Game Demo

p/s: Ever wonder what Party DKΣ3713 stands for? hehe.. ;)

Stop Motion Animations - Animal Planet

2008-08-31T16:27:00.002+09:00

Seen this some time ago, but still refreshing to watch it again and again.
Plus, every simple message from the animation is meaningful to everyone. So why not share it here? Enjoy. =)

http://animalssavetheplanet.com/?page=home

~End~

New WarHammer Online Cinematic

2008-08-26T10:02:00.004+09:00

http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/flash/WAR_cinematic_08.html

Rotten Tomatos Review: Star Wars - The Clone Wars

2008-08-25T22:16:00.003+09:00

Lesson Learned: As a professional CG creator, don't ever give yourself an excuse that the movie is just for kids. If Pixar can attract almost every heart of young and old, so can you, so can we.

~End~

"最後一面" - Wonderfully Meaningful Song Written by 徐佳瑩 & 李伯恩

2008-08-24T01:48:00.005+09:00

I was so touched by the lyrics and the tunes and every bits of the compositions. Perfect written song! I was so touched and goose bumps all over me no matter how many times I listen to it. I can't wait for Xu Jia Ying to release her first album! And this song is a MUST!

Oh, by the way, this song is about saying sorry and goodbye to the Earth we love yet polluted at the same time. Therefore it's meaningful and hope everyone will do their parts to keep our Earth safe for everyone's sake.

Save the Earth, before we say sorry to the Earth.

-End-

Wall-E BluRay/DVD Disc Releasing November??

2008-08-18T13:52:00.007+09:00

What the !!! It will not be shown in Japan till December , and they are releasing DVD/BluRay coming November??!!! Arrgghh!!! I cant believe it! (angry)

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1665

I need to fly to HK and watch this before they release in DVD!!! No money, need to hi-ja_k a pl_ne.

Upcoming Stop-Motion Animation - Coraline

2008-08-14T03:14:00.007+09:00

3D Maps on Google Map

2008-08-11T07:25:00.010+09:00

When my colleague showed me this in the office last week I was totally shocked. I can't believe Google Map has been developed till this level, well, when you check it out, you may see some goods and bads. So far it's good and brilliant, but bad point is, your action everyday is being watched and recorded from outer space every minute every second, ever day. Kinda scary.

Well, put aside the bad points for a minute, and lets check out the cool points of this new feature.

Below are some sample 3D view maps i attached to my blog here. Feel free to click and drag on the pictures below to view all 360 degrees. And also can move forward and backward. Have fun.

My Apartment (1st floor, far last one near the open field)

大きな地図で見る

My Working Place - Production I.G(fx)

大きな地図で見る

p/s: I believe so far only few countries are updated with these features. For example Japan and the U.S. , haven't tried other countries yet, but definitely not yet for my own country - Malaysia. Was wondering if I ever able to see my mum watering the plants at the garage. hahaha...

Although it may seem safe that Google just showed the streets only in 3D views, but in their database, I bet they definitely keep more detailed photos and records of our daily lives inside our house area far from the outer streets. Scary huh... imagine you were watched everyday. You are in the Truman Show!!! Except that your pictures and records are yet to be exposed to publics. So, make sure you pee in a "satellite-proof" toilet next time.

Dreamworks' KungFu Panda Rocks!

2008-07-29T00:35:00.007+09:00

Ever since Shrek 1 and 2, I hadn't been impressed by any Dreamworks Animations until today I watched Kung Fu Panda, and it finally changed my view on their production which almost always happen to focus on effects and voice casts instead of story plotting.
Kungfu Panda is so far is the best among other Dreamworks movies, even much better than Shrek overall. This Kungfu Panda movie is a serious-bring-fun movie, at least not like some stupid "unlaughable" gags from Madasgascar or Shark Tales which disgusted me so much...oh ~ and don't get me started on that...

The movie is touching, is well-plot, good story-telling, not so much focusing on famous voice cast anymore (for example, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu's dialogue was awfully little BUT I LIKE IT~!! Initially I thought Dreamworks would force gags and boring dialogues to every single characters in order to "show the existence" of their famous voices on the screen, but i was so GLAD that they didn't! And all the gags throughout the movie was just nice and not too over, except the beginning part when Panda was trying so many tricks in order to get into the castle. (I thought that was overly done and very old type of gag and don't so well anymore.)
However, other than that, I never thought the whole movie would have worked so well! Good job to the production team for this project! Finally some good quality stuff was baked and served to everyone who have been craving for good dishes. The ticket for this show was really worth it, I must say. Good job Good job! haha..

After talking about the most important thing of a movie, lets move on talking about technical stuff and designs. And I really impressed by their animation styles and character's personality and almost all good poses and staging throughout the movie. The turtle was wise and touched my heart as if I feel that it's like my father talking to me. There was no unnecessary gag for the turtle, (which dangerously Dreamworks could have put that in, luckily they didn't.) I was so glad and I really like the character of the Turtle and also the Shifu!

The only one negative comment I could think of, is that there were TOO many effort-less passer-by (villagers) which turned out to be PIGs. Too many of them and designs does look like effortless. Well, i could think of an excuse or rather reason for them to do that, is that they want to make those main characters to stand out from the crowd. However, it just doesn't look so fun or comfortable just to see so many PIGs (of course also surprisingly a lot of Rabbits) just to bring out the attention of the main characters. hehe...

Anyway, the negative parts are just very minor, most importantly the story and animation have served all viewers with satisfied vision. Good job again, KungFu Panda Production teams! I don't mind to watch Panda 2, but please please.. cancel Panda 3 if you guys are starting work on it.. coz .. u know what i mean... i don't want to get disappointed like Shrek 3, which almost coming out Shrek 4... I can't believe it and I have no total interest on the next instalment anymore.. Please please! Go for new ideas and surprise all of us! Don't dig in the same hole... coz not all the Golds will be found in the same place! Dig somewhere else! ok?! Pleaseee .... Digging the same hole will only disgust a lot of people...

~End~

崖の上のポンヨ Ponyo on the Cliff

2008-07-20T15:43:00.014+09:00

I just watched the latest Miyazaki's new film - Ponyo last night. Last night was the first release day.

To be honest, I can't say it was a total disappointment but I have to tell the truth that, I wasn't impressed by the movie, compared to his all previous marvellous works.
No doubt, technical animation wise, was good. Drawings and backgrounds are still as stunning. Background wise, some parts may look unmatched, but overall looks great. I've been knowing Miyazaki style, but this time, it generally has some little difference compared with his previous ones.

This Ponyo movie reminds me of 2 animations. One, clearly, reminds me of Little Mermaid. Two, reminds me of one of the Miyazaki's 10-min short films shown in Ghibili Museum, which regarding few kids who had their own wonderful ocean imaginations in their kindergarten school.

After I watched finish the full movie, I felt that I would rather appreciate it more if it happens to be just a short film named Ponyo. Looking at the full-length movie point of view, I don't think I can accept totally what I saw on the screen. I mean, the story didn't actually touch me in some way or rather in other words, there was no climax nor important obvious messages to be conveyed. I always liked Miyazaki works. His creativity, his innovative of thinking, his fantasy world, his wild imaginations had always been locking my heart and brought me to his world, and also touched by his messages. But..... I have no idea why, this time, and for the first time, I felt I have lost touch of his great story-telling world.

For the first time, I didn't say WOW after seeing his movie, and for the first time, I felt "flat" and "emotionless" after the movie. There were gags and fun scenes around here and there of course to keep my face smiling, but I don't think this is what I was looking for from his movie. I was kinda expecting something big and heartwarming, some ups and downs, some great and strong story telling...... However.. sigh... sadly to say, the editing of the whole movie and the story telling and also the progress towards the ending, was .... was... kinda disappointing...... or may be it was too abstract? =(

I'm just telling what my heart feels. Ultimately, I really really didn't feel anything strong after watching Ponyo. And I still dont know what better words to describe the "emptiness" within this story. It looks like a short film to me, a funny character designs with great animation drawing skills, coloring and stuff.

The movie itself has not much complicated conversations. Mostly are kids talk and simple conversations to make the story pretty easy to understand even though you don't understand japanese so well, but of cors you also need some basic japanese skills to understand some basic conversations in order to understand what is going on during the important part when the adults talked. I may not able to master Japanese skill fully yet, but the movie conversations were simple enough for me to understand, so I am pretty sure that I didnt miss anything or misunderstood anything before I wrote all these comments.

However, despite of all the negative comments I wrote above, if you treat it as a cute fun animated short film, I guess it is still worth to watch in the theater. I was kinda studying his animation drawings during the movie too. The details, smooth animations, beautiful color sense, are all still there to be appreciated. Especially all the water animations! Undersea creatures! All of them are incredibly well-drawn and well-animated! No doubt for that!

But. The only thing that made my heart slipped away is just the story-telling. And this is the most important thing in a movie, and yet it was indeed weaker than his previous works, in my humble opinion, again.

To add on, when I talked to my friend this afternoon who happened to know a director who knows Miyazaki well, she told me that this Ponyo story was some kind of reflection of Miyazaki's own personal life and the ideal world which he thought his family could have been to. After hearing this, I kinda understand now what he was trying to tell and his intentions. However, watching from a total idiotic audience's view, the story somehow just couldn't work for some people, unfortunately. It is not just about the story intentions, but also the story-progressing and plots. It was just ....somehow...somewhere something is missing, and the progressing was weird too. Well, may be when you guys watch it for yourself, you may understand what I was trying to say.

Of course, different people may have different point of view in everything. Nothing is wrong or right. Children may like it, some adults may like it too. It just happened that it didn't work for me that well, as compared to his previous great story-telling. And hereby, I'm just leaving some of my words of honesty from the bottom of my heart, which means no harm to anyone or anything intentionally. So please don't get mad ya! Coz I'm Miyazaki's work fan too. Just that this time it doesnt work for me so well.

Despite of all the above negative words, honestly I still appreciate his great effort of this Ponyo film and still respect him as a great model artist in this 2D animation industry. He is still great! He is still a talented person. Again, my respect to him will still remain and never fades. Arigatou! Miyazaki san!

~End~

Pixar's WALL-E released first in the U.S., released last in Japan.

2008-06-30T01:06:00.014+09:00

Wall E !!! It's finally released in the U.S. on last Friday!
It has confirmed that Japan will only show Wall-E on the theater on 20th December 2008.
Check the world-wide releasing date list: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/releaseinfo

Yes, Japan is the latest among the long list of release all around the world!
I was like "What THE XXXX??!!!" "D** L** L** M** !!! @#*&%#*#%$*#^%@*#&@*#& "
That is freaking late !!!
*Phew!~* Sorry that I "swore" up there... That's one of the ways i release my upset and tension... hahaha...

Well, despite the stupid arrangement of the release date for japan and all around the world, lets move on and get excited about what this film is about to bring us, be it young or older generations. I've read so much articles and reviews on the web, and apparently this brilliant movie has stamped a permanent recognisable mark on the global animation white board. What do I mean by that? It means, it had great reviews (even before the official release on theaters last friday) and has been commented as the Best Pixar animated movie EVER! Damn, I really want to feel what everyone's feeling right now!!! Want to see with my own eyes how Excellent the movie is!

So far, Rotten Tomatoes (a world wide well known entertainment review site) has given Wall-E an Excellent result - 96%. Check out the reviews: http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/wall_e/

And here's the latest Box Office result report as of yesterday (Sunday) after the 2-days release.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988258.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

I have compiled some of my collections and bookmarked Youtube movie featuring Wall-E animations. Check them out. Even without knowing the story (which I bet it will be marvellous and brilliant, and I heard that it was touching.), the animation itself is believable, funny, entertaining and excellent in terms of technical.

First, here's the latest latest Wall-E trailer. (though they have many different trailers and teasers had been released months ago).
Note: The following Quicktime movie trailer may take some minutes to load due to it's large filesize.

Next, here are few compilations of short promotional animations featuring Wall-E himself.

~End~

Beautiful Music, Beautiful Movie - August Rush

2008-06-25T02:47:00.009+09:00

It's been a long time since the last time my tears pumped up to almost full tank of my eyes during a movie. I've never thought I would have "received" so much heart-moving moments within this movie - August Rush.

From the moment I watched the trailer of this movie many months ago (yes, Japan is slow in releasing again), I told myself I had to watch this. I knew it is going to be a good story. And I'm SO GLAD that I caught this movie yesterday in the theater. Without any doubt, I love this movie. It is a beautiful story with beautiful musics.

It's about music connecting to life. It's about the world, filled with musics attached with loves. The real power of music could touch our hearts, heal our hearts, and what's more, it could heal our souls.... deep deep inside us.....

The orchestrated music in the movie was really marvellous. Simply Beautiful! I can't replace any other words other than just Beautiful. Especially the ending.

I was so touched throughout the whole movie. Like I said, it's been a long time since the last time I couldn't hold my tears. Yes , again, it was beautiful. Great movie! Touching movie! Beautiful Movie! Must watch! (if you haven't already of course.) Highly recommended.

Immediately after the movie, I bought the original album of the soundtracks of this movie from the theater gift shop. I couldn't help it. I crave for good musics! I live with good musics! Music is part of my life. Music gives me inspirations of my life, teaches me about life, softens my heart to know the world better, to know the people better. Music is a Wonderful thing~....
I can't imagine my life without music.

Below is the list of musics which I specially ready for you.
Please listen with your heart~ (- -)

Disclaimer: The following MP3s are converted from original CDs and the MP3s are not for sale nor intentionally violating any copyrights laws. The following MP3s are uploaded to personal website just for blog-user's online listening pleasure ONLY. Please purchase the original Soundtrack CD if you like the musics below.

01 Main Title
02 Bach _ Break
03 Moondance
04 This Time
05 Bari Improv
06 Ritual Dance
07 Raise It Up
08 Dueling Guitars
09 Elgar _ Something Inside
10 August's Rhapsody
11 Someday
12 King Of The Earth
13 God Bless The Child
14 La Bamba
15 Moondance (Album Version)
16 Washington Square
17 Arpeggio Theme
18 Basketball To Organ Loft

~Music is Everywhere. You just need to listen.~

高尾のホタル(Fireflies at Takao)

2008-06-22T15:47:00.002+09:00

Last night I went to Takao area with a bunch of new friends for the "search & view" of the fireflies. It was my first experience to see fireflies in real life. hahaa.. And the smooth floating green light twinkling up in the trees and around the bushes and plants was really amazing! It was like magical lights hanging in the air..haha..

However, may be the timing we chose wasn't completely right, so we only managed to see few at a time, though I was highly expecting to see a whole big bunch of beautiful greenish dotted stars hanging up in the air like what we usually see in the movies.. hahaa...

Well, it wasn't a total loss though, I still managed to make new friends among them , and despite my broken japanese communication skills, we went to karaoke after the fireflies session and really had a good time singing and laughing all the way. Surprisingly, they had really good voices. I also sang some chinese songs and surprised them... though they had no idea what the songs are about.. muahahaha....

Due to the reason we sang until 2am, we missed the last train, and therefore we moved on to a bar and sit down chit chat and had some drinks... until 4.25am, where the first train starts running. hahaha.... wow.. yeah, tired, but fun. Yeah, bad for health, but well, once in a while, i guess should be ok... hahaha... really not much chance to make new friends like this. hhaa... =D

Special thanks to a friend of mine, ベイベイ who invited me for this outing, and thanks to her, I made some new cool friends. ありがとうね！ベイベイ～　=)

-End-

ファミ通Press Start 2008 - Game Symphonyに行きたい方を大募集！

2008-06-21T01:15:00.013+09:00

そのコンサートに興味が持っている方は大募集です！

去年のも行きました。メチャ楽しかったよ！音楽が素晴らしかったし、僕の大好きの作曲家の植松信夫さんもいったし！　だから、今年も行かなきゃ！（笑）

このメセッジを見たら、もし皆さん興味があったら、是非僕にメールしてください！一緒に行こうかなと思います。誰でもいいです。この機会にも新しいゲームやるの友達大募集です！あはは～。ゲームと音楽が大好きだからね！皆さんと一緒ゲームとか、音楽のことが話して楽しみにしていますよ！

じゃ～メールよろしくね！待ってますよ！　(^o^)V

情報リンク：　http://fami-web.jp/pressstart/about.html

日本人にのノート:　日本語はまだ下手だから、もし以上の内容は変な言葉があったら、ごめんね！あはは～

I'm "recruiting" here any old or new friends here to join me this coming September's Game Symphony Concert in Shibuya, Tokyo (14th Sept 2008, Sunday), organised by Famitsu PRESS START.
I went to the last year one and it was really a great and splendid experience! And I'm so excited about the coming one! The heat of loving game musics is burning hot in my heart now! hahaha..

Anyone who is interested and passionate about games and game musics, please don't hesitate to drop me an email or message on this comment box in my blog to let me know. If you are in Tokyo, we can meet up and join the force! If you are from other countries who don't even know me but bump into my blog by accident or by search from google, no worries, come and join too! hahahaa.... This is the best time to make new friends and share our wonderful interests and passions! hahaa...

So! Let me know ASAP ok! I'm waiting! But won't wait too long since the Ticket booking day has started now. Well, hear from you guys! To Gamers !!!! Woohoo~!!!

Let the Power of Music Begins!!!

-Crazy Kento-

Metal Gear Solid 4 Soundtracks

2008-06-15T22:16:00.009+09:00

Though I could not afford a PS3 to play Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4) now, I still can enjoy the imagination by listening to the game soundtracks. hahaa... Just bought this yesterday.

And I'm going to share this 2-discs musics with you all (especially those who are game music lovers or MGS gamers) on my blog here. I've converted from my discs and uploaded to the links below. Hope you guys enjoy the music as much as I do. =)

Disclaimer: The following MP3s are converted from original CDs and the MP3s are not for sale nor intentionally violating any copyrights laws. The following MP3s are uploaded to personal website just for blog-user's online listening pleasure ONLY. Please purchase the original Soundtrack CD if you like the musics below.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Soundtrack List
Disc 01

01 Old Snake
02 Love Theme
03 Gekko
04 Haven Troopers
05 BB Corps
06 Dorebin 893
07 Vista mansion
08 Laughing Octopus
09 Breakthrough
10 Endless Pain
11 White Blood
12 Call Me Hal
13 Midnight Shadow
14 Paradise Lost
15 Great Escape
16 Desperate Chase
17 Raging Raven
18 Confrontation
19 Mobs Alive
20 Violent Ceasefire

Disc 02

01 Next Gen Control
02 Crying Wolf
03 One More Reboot
04 Sin
05 Atonement
06 Infinite Loop
07 Everything Ends
08 At Dawn
09 Screaming Mantis
10 Guns of the Patriots
11 No Place to Hide
12 Sorrow
13 Full Circle
14 Everything Begins
15 Father & Son
16 Metal Gear Saga
17 Here's to You
18 War Zone
19 A Rebellion Rests
2o The Hunter
21 The Hunted
22 Forced Hand
23 Under Curfew
24 Unmanned Army
25 Cold Memories
26 For Liberty
27 Surrounded

~Enjoy~

iPhone 3G Launching In Japan 11th July

2008-06-12T16:47:00.002+09:00

Watched the news 2 days ago on TV and realised iPhone 3G is born and it is going to be sold in Japan as well with another 20 over countries simultaneously. And I guess one of the good news is that the price is considerably cheap. USD199 (approx 20,000 yen)
It is really tempting but I know I cant afford any of that so soon. Besides I'm also still struggling whether I should get Wii or PSP or PS3 or iPhone now. hahaaaaa.... I definitely cant afford all of them at the same time coz I will go bankcrupt. Hmmm... tough choice... =P

Pixar's Wall-E (Newest Extended Clip)

2008-06-10T14:03:00.003+09:00

Soooo Cute! I love the animation, I love the reactions, I love the plot(of this scene), I love the gag! Though it is just a robot thingy, but so much obvious expressions and characteristics you can see from the animation itself. Great job again Pixar! You never let us down! And THanks to all the Pro Animators who worked on this excellent-to-be movie. You guys are the greatest! Bringing life to a dead robot is really the noble task! 3 Cheers!!! =)

Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) Releasing 12th June in Japan.

2008-06-09T15:54:00.004+09:00

I want to get PS3!!! But I also like so many Wii games! And I also want to play other cool games like FF Crisis Core and Monster Hunter on PSP! And I have Nintendo DS and PS2. BUT I DON'T want to play Xbox360. hahahaa....

Big Buck Bunny

2008-06-03T15:17:00.008+09:00

It is finally released online and DVD since last week 30th May.
A brand new production after the first animation Elephants Dream (http://www.elephantsdream.org/) which done with total open source software - Blender in Linux environtment.

It is quite impressive to have such outstanding result of the quality. Honestly I rather enjoy this 2nd short than the first one (Elephants Dream) which didnt appeal much to me, personally. hahaa...
This new animated short (Big Buck Bunny) may not be the best short that I've seen so far, but I like it very much and most importantly it is quite entertaining. Plus, the animation is good and believable. Secondly, character designs are well done too. Generally I enjoyed it.

Big Buck Bunny is available now in DVD or free download online from their website (http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/) or could be seen on Youtube as usual. Below is the embedded link I link it to my blog here for easy to view.
For those who are interested or want to support their product by buying their DVDs (come with tutorials and sources that they used for the current project), please kindly go to their official website and also check out their history and production details. It is really inspiring. Especially to see how much effort and passion they put into the last 6 months. And of course the free open source software helps a bunch in their production too.

I myself probably will order a copy of their DVD to support what they have done and salute their creativity and passion.

I have just downloaded the software Blender and going to explore it soon, and hope it will get fun. If you are interested too, you may download from here. http://www.blender.org/
Have fun you guys!

And at the meanwhile, lets enjoy what they have done this time. =)

-End-

Pixar's New Short - Presto

2008-05-30T15:19:00.005+09:00

Another brilliant Pixar work is on the way. This newest short will be premiered soon in June and during the release of Wall-E on the theater. Can't wait. However, none of them will be launched here in Japan any soon. I guess I will have to wait till at least this winter, while other people are enjoying the first sip. boohooo..... Sadd.... =(

-END-

The Making of Kung Fu Panda

2008-05-30T14:59:00.004+09:00

The following is the latest extended trailer/teaser. I like it very much. Very entertaining and I love the idea. Good job, Dreamworks!

Cool Animated Commercial

2008-05-21T17:15:00.002+09:00

Nothing much to say. It looks cool to me, and just wanna share with you guys.

Quick Update after Missing In Action for few weeks!

2008-05-19T23:08:00.007+09:00

Yo Friends! Good to be back again to Tokyo! Sorry for missing in action for few weeks. I was lazy to update anything on my blog in the past 2 weeks after i came back from vacation. haha..

Man! I missed my trips and all my friends and also all the SEA (South East Asia) Food, again! hahaa.... The biggest regret that I have so far is that I did not have the chance to eat Durian when i was back then. Sigh! What a pity! But I still managed to eat a lot of good food back there. Chow Kuey Teow, Prawn Noodles, Dim Sum, Bak Kut Teh, Sugar Cane, Yong Tao Foo, Fish Noodles, Hainan Chicken Rice, Duck Rice,Hokkien Mee, and most importantly my Mum's Home Made Cooking and super delicious chinese soup! Yummzzz!!
Man, the more i mention now, the more i miss them! Got to stop..haha...

Well, the trip was really a great one. Met lots of friends for lunch, dinners and also Karaoke! In the 2 weeks vacation, I have been to karaoke 3 times. It was really fun! hahaa.. Went to a karaoke with my KL friends in KL, Malaysia. And because it was my birthday on that week, I was exempted from paying the charges for the whole singing and buffet session. hahaa.. So happy.
And I also want to take the opportunity here to thank some of you who bought me meals and stuff! Thank you! I really appreciate very much guys! Really happy! :D

Speaking of which, I've finally said goodbye to my 20s, and started to enter a new stage of life which starts with the big "3". hahahaa... Well, here comes the new me! Which I don't think will be any difference.... I'm still so childish..hahaha...
Actually age doesnt matter, what counts is our heart. If your heart is young, you are young, no matter how old you have turn into. So keep smiling and be cheerful and be positive. Bad thing happens, you choose to see it as a bright path to lead you to another new adventure. =)

Well this time I'm not gonna show much photos except some which I took while I was having my birthday party in Tokyo with my art-mates which organized by my Sensei. My sensei was so kind and generous. She cooked so much good food and specially made one big pot of super hot & spicy curry just for me coz she remembered that I told her before that Malaysia curry is 5 times hotter than Jap Curry. And she really did look for spices and made the curry from scratch and ended up 7 times hotter! hahaa... I was sweating eating her 3-day effort curry. Everyone else reacted the same.. hahaa...
Arigatou Sensei!!! Thank you so much for the effort! =D

And also thanks to all my art-mates for the meaningful wishes and interesting presents. It was really a fun night. And I ended up "Da Bao-ing" (bring home) a lot of left-over curry, soup, cakes etc. And those food lasted me for another 2-3 days without spending on outside food. hahahaaa..... Check out the photos below later and you will see how much they are. But I felt very grateful that all of them care about me, especially my Sensei. She's caring, kind and really really funny woman! hahaa... Talking with her can really release stress. hahaa...

Ok, here are some of the photos.

My portion of cake with the mint choco name plate.

As I've mentioned above that I had to bring back all the food home, I've used this bag to pack in all the pots of food with the help of my sensei. hahaa....

After unpacking at home... these are the portions of left over. hahaaa...

Compilation of all my presents from all my Japanese friends.

This is the first Gundam in my life! hahaaa... One of my art-mates gave me this and he said this is one of the modern Japanese culture to give Gundam during birthday party. When I first heard it I was like "Huh? Serious??!" hahaaa... Anyway, I really like it very much! I feel like a kid again! hahaa....

This is a origami. And the top one is a box of pencils with the designs of Japan Trains. =D

A piggy Cactus! hahaa.. cute right!

A great book of Color Gallery! It covers a lot of colors related to culture, nature, people, places in Japan. Very good reference for color sense!

Written by my Sensei. It was written behind the painting that she's drawn for me. One of them (the above writing + painting) was actually meant for my mum. It was a present for my mum by my Sensei. And I've brought it back to my mum last month. The painting of the 2 Owls. The reason she drawn Owl for my mum is because Owl in japanese is called "Fukurou", and it has the same sound and pronunciation with 不苦労(No Stress or Happiness). It was a meaningful painting as well as a present for my mum. Thank you sensei! Arigatou !!! =D

Mini USB Speaker.

Now you see, Now it Brights! Cool huh! =D

~End~

Dead Fantasy I & II - Super COOOL (Must Watch!)

2008-04-16T14:43:00.010+09:00

This is a fan-made fighting animation video, combination of characters from the console games "Final Fantasy" & "Dead Or Alive".

When I started to watch from the beginning, I didn't get excited although I like Final Fantasy characters a lot. Unexpectedly, the longer I watched the wider my jaw and my eyes got opened. And I was like, "WTF! This is some super pretty cool shit !!!! Stunningly COOL job!!!".

The moment I finished watching 2nd part, my jaw was like opened wide from one town to another town... It was FREAKING SUPER DUPER KAKOII-LY COOOL !!!!
The timing, the choreography, the camera motions are all so stunnily COOL!!! (though the character animations are not perfect, but who cares! This is COOL enough to capture my heart! I was like stop-breathing for 10 mins especially when I was watching Part 2..hahaa)

I wish the actions would not stop!! And they are finishing Part 3 soon and developing on Part 4 now. Can't wait!!! SquareEnix should hire this creator!! And I would like to work under his direction one day, to make such cool Fighting Phenomenon!!! I want to meet this guy! hahaha....

Ok, Less words now. Please watch it for yourself!

Production Credits:
Director - Monty Oum
Choreography - Monty Oum
Soundtrack - Brian Tyler
Producer - Monty Oum
Assistant Producer - Dara Hoy
Model Resource - MaroKart64n, Skippymurphy, Drywater, blackbirdi, Mr Y
Animation Guru - Rocky Vanoost, congrats on the new job!
Many Pots of Wisdom - http://www.game-ism.com
Special Thanks - Adam Ferraro
Love and Thanks - Huetran Duong

Part 1

Part 2

FF ROCKS!!!

StarCraft II - New Zerg Trailers

2008-04-15T15:29:00.004+09:00

For those who are StarCraft fans!
p/s: Can anyone tell me when it will be released??!! This year? Next year? I can't wait! XD
For more stuff, you can browse the official website. http://www.starcraft2.com/

Zerg Trailer

More Detailed In-Game Demo for Zergs

For those who haven't checked the first In-Game Demo for Protoss (which is super awesome), check it out now below.

~End~

Another 2 Episodes of MFTP Released on iTunes Store

2008-04-15T01:15:00.008+09:00

Here are another 2 more video extracts from MFTP (My Friends Tigger & Pooh) Season 1 which I animated. Well, apparently I only buy those episodes which I involved. haha... And iTunes is taking forever to release every episode.

Looks like Disney didn't follow the Episode numbering which we used to have during production. These 2 newly bought episodes are my very first involvement when I first joined Polygon Pictures in 2006.

Wow, time really passes so fast. I can't believe that now is already almost mid of 2008. And I've been in Japan for almost one and a half years now. haha....

By the way, I'm still waiting for another 2 more episodes which I involved. That would be the last 2, for the 1st season of MFTP. So, stay tuned ok, until I buy the last 2 more episodes after they release on iTunes later. =)

As for now, here are the parts which I animated. Hope you enjoy. (^-^)

Tigger Goes Snow Flaky

Symphony for Rabbit

~End~

Toy Design - Prototype 01

2008-04-10T00:19:00.006+09:00

2-3 months ago I was indirectly introduced by a new friend, Jon, to a website called "Patch Together" - http://www.patchtogether.com. This website is mainly for designers to come out their own creative toy designs and they will be turned into real toys if certain designs are majority voted.

And that is how I get to know about this interesting website, my friend asked me to vote for his toy design. So I did vote for his, but not just because he requested so, I really thought that his design was great and creative. Check out his work, I thought it is really impressive. And he did get the highest votes and his toy has been processing and on the way to the Toy Market now.
http://patchtogether.com/?Designs_Details&Id=101
http://patchtogether.com/?Gallery_Details&Id=105

His works and other people's passionate participations also made my heart itchy, so I thought I just gave it a shot and try to come out something. Below is one of the prototypes I have come out and properly outlined on Flash. The rest of my designs are still on drawing paper, well, I will post up others once i'm done with some clean-up outline on Flash later. =)

Still headache with the colors and type of paint... well, lazy to think now, will update once I have time again..muahahaha... lazy me again.. =P

* Just in case you are wondering what it does. It is actually a normal walking/crawling toy triggered by the "twisting key?" (what do you call it in English? Pardon my bad English) . But, instead of using traditional "twisting key" design, I incorporate it with Mouse's Roller Button on top of the head. Same way of how you usually use your mouse with your computer. Roll down the roller with your index finger while you are holding the toy body. Then the toy will be triggered and start crawling. Another function of this toy is actually a Clip. Which means, the mouth is able to clip on somewhere (table, chair, latop etc) which roughly has the same width with the mouth. The mouth area has flexible soft sponge which enable to clip/stuck with some other wider objects when you are not playing it. The toy comes with few types of coloring and paste-on designs.
That's why in the above prototype I roughly came out some idea like Marine , Porcupine, Native type. Ideas are stuck so far. Need more inspirations later, if I have. hahahaa...

Well, once everything is finalised and colored, I will then post on the PatchTogether website and see if the world can accept my sucky ideas. hahahhaa....

Oh, I almost forgot, I have come out a sucky name for this toy too, I call it "Clipomice"! Why? Coz it's a combination of Clip + Mouse (Mice) = Clipomice! Muahahahahaa..... I know it's lame. kakakaa... XD

~End~

If Elephant Can Draw, Why Can't We (me)?

2008-04-07T17:46:00.003+09:00

I was browsing one of the great animators, Bobby Beck's blog and found this inspiring video of an elephant drawing his own portrait on the board. Heard that this elephant is well known since last year. Well, I guess I'm a bit late discovering this but it still inspires me a lot now. And even gives me motivation to practise more. Yessh !!!
Actually I should slap myself for being so lazy lately. hahaa... *Piakk !!* ~ ouch! XD

This is simply amazing. Check the video out if you haven't already. =)

Sakura Hanami 桜花見 2008

2008-04-07T03:22:00.009+09:00

This year I spent my Spring Sakura Hanami with my Sensei and all my fellow Art-mates.
We had a "hi-level" picnic in the big garden in Katakura near our sensei's Art Apartment. Why is it "hi-level"? Coz my sensei prepared a portable stove and tried to have simple Steamboat in the picnic. haha... It reminds me of last year when I joined my malaysian friends in Hanami picnic which also brought a portable stove to steam up the curry. haha...

Anyway, it was really a fun afternoon gathering together. My Sensei made some Onigiri (Rice Cake? "Fan Tuan" in chinese) and also prepared other delicious Bento. All the food was amazing! Yumzz! And the weather was just perfect for the picnic, and nice view of some Sakura trees. And there were moments when the sakura pedals were flying down when the wind blew. Amazing view. Seeing other families enjoying, laughing and picnic-ing around the garden makes the whole atmosphere feel so relaxing. That's the Spring spirit! hahaa... I Love Japan! hahaa... XD

All my Art-Mates, from young to old. hahaa...

Bento beautifully prepared by my Sensei. Yummzz!

Pour all the goodies into the well-known Osaka style Kamo (duck) soup.

The Steamboat was so yummy. Everyone tried to eat as much as they could.

My Sensei in pinky-blue shirt in front.

My Sensei's husband and their 4-year-old doggie - Rin Chan.

Time to go home when the weather turned cold again. Sensei (in the picture above) said "That side is the toilet, anyone wan to go?" HAhahahaa.....

~End~

超級星光大道 - Talented 徐佳瑩

2008-04-03T17:04:00.006+09:00

Lately I have been following each episodes of 超級星光大道 (International Singing Contest held in Taiwan) so closely. Thanks to Youtube and those YouTubers who contributed the recordings online. Thank you very much!

From this batch of competition, there is one talented girl who stands up brightly among so many contestants. She is 徐佳瑩 (Xu Jia Ying).
I admire her talent very much. She writes her own songs and every single of her song did touch my heart. Lyrics are good, tunes are comfortable, she is proficient in music instruments, her singing voice is sweet and last but not least, she looks cute and sweet too! Perfect! (to me. hahaha) =D

Not much to say here, you just have to see for yourself and feel it yourself. haha..
For those who haven't checked out her songs from the competition (超級星光大道), here's for your viewing and listening pleasure. =)

Here is the link to her Blog if you are interested to listen to the full version of her songs.
http://tw.streetvoice.com/music/user-song-list.asp?sd=17555

Song Title: 身騎白馬

Song Title: 明知故犯

Song Title: 出口

~End~

Tokyo Anime Fair 2008

2008-03-30T23:49:00.009+09:00

Last Friday I went to Tokyo Anime Fair with my colleagues. We got free tickets from our company. This year is not as interesting as last year. Except few studio works attracted me more. Especially Genius Party.

Here are the few photos:

Moving statue. It's a guy! It's a real person.

Malaysia MSC booth in Tokyo. Happy to see Malaysia work exposing to the world.

Cute!

Looking forward to all these 5 films !

Shexee!!

Fat Ugly Astro Boy?

After Anime Fair, we went to the harbour and realised this cool futuristic hovercraft.

Super Cool Design!

Art Gallery & My Sensei

2008-03-28T02:41:00.032+09:00

I went to Yokohama with my Sensei (my art teacher) last Sunday to visit an art exhibition. She's actually part of the exhibitors of the art gallery too.

My Sensei is a very fun person. Though most of the time I couldn't catch mostly what she speaks (coz she speaks too fast and most probably because my vocabulary is still lacking), but I was still having so much fun talking to her. Of course with my broken japanese. haha... Even that, I really don't feel any gap communicating with her. She is just as fun as my other friend. She can just make me laugh all the time.

By conversing more with her, I have learned many new japanese words and know more about jap cultures. You have no idea, there is so much to learn from them. Even little small things. It was really fun for the past few months. She's a great teacher, she's jumpy, she is active, she is talkative (in good yet funny way), and she cooks well. Yet, you have no idea that she is as old as anybody's mum, she's 46. hahaaa.... Every lesson in her drawing apartment was full of delicious food and cheerful atmosphere. With her around, the drawing session is so much fun. hahahaa...

The following is one of my latest portrait sketches (mainly practising my shading skills). Still trying to improve. I just need more time. =)

The rest below are some of my favourite arts photos taken from the visit of the art exhibition.

Check the unusual stand pose of the legs on the right, I call it Art too. hahaa....

This is one of my best favourites. The color combination and the extraordinary of detailed sculplting of the wrinkles of the branches are the things made my eyes wide opened. Really marvellous work.

~End~

"Ken Lee" is HOT all around the world!

2008-03-26T00:54:00.002+09:00

Here is a new clip found lately featuring Valentina Hassan being interviewed by media and her fans crazy about her "original" Ken Lee song. Instead of singing with the original lyrics of "Without You", people now are more interested to follow the new version of lyrics "Tulibu Dibu Douchoo".
Needless to say, Valentina Hassan is one of the big hits nowadays after the legend of "William Hung" long years ago. (Thanks to a friend of mine who reminded me of this name. haha...)

Check this out.

~End~

Go Go Valentina Hassan! "I Ken Lee~"

2008-03-20T15:55:00.000+09:00

Some of you might think I'm crazy. Well, I have to admit. Yes! I am! hahaha...
For the past few days, I have been playing the same song again and again. And I just couldn't stop my mind stirring with the word "Ken Lee" and my favourite part - "Dulibu Dibu Douchoo".
In short, I guess I have accidentally become a "Ken Lee " FAN. hahahhaaa... XD

Check out the following clips.
(Note: I apologise that I'm psycho-ing everyone here with my obsessive weird interest. haha.. However, you don't have to play the clips below if you have no interest at all.. hahaa... )

First clip is showing that she performs on the stage singing the same song (I guess she is being invited as special guest), and surprisingly she improved her English this time. Not perfect, but close. She actually has potential in singing, just need a bit more work.

Second Clip is just her original Audidion singing which being edited by someone to make it sound cooler for dancing floors. Despite the funny lyrics, this version is actually sound cool. Just check it out. hahaha....

Funniest Song of the Year - "Ken Lee"

2008-03-16T01:51:00.006+09:00

If you are familiar with Mariah Carey's old songs (which I'm sure everybody here is), I bet you will find this is the best funniest audition video of the year.

Thanks to my Singapore friend who sent me this link. Without knowing this video, I wouldn't have laughed so much from morning till evening non-stop, with so much tears rounding in my eyes. Guess what! The subtitles makes it even more fun to watch.

This is for those who haven't watched it. Hold your breath, or rather not hold it too tight coz you are gonna spit it out like a dragon spitting fireballs!

Below is the version by Mariah Carey for you to compare with the lyrics.

Rakyat Malaysia Boleh, Maka Malaysia Boleh! (Malaysians Can, Therefore Malaysia Can)

2008-03-12T16:00:00.008+09:00

I have been following the General Election news (of my own country) so closely for the past few days. Even weeks before it started, I've been watching so many speeches and pre-election campaign online, be it from youtube or malaysiakini.com or other resources that provided by my dear fellow malaysian friends.

I was so touched to see so many of my fellow Malaysians have finally opened their eyes and had the guts come together as one, to stand up to fight for our brighter future. Though it may seem a simple win by the current government (BN), but the victory over 5 main states have already given them a Big SLAP on their faces, either to give them a lesson or rahter pass our messages to them that we all citizens of Malaysia are not afraid of politics anymore and we are the EYES of the country and we have the RIGHTS to gain what we deserve to gain! There will be no more cowards among us and together we stand up for our own fellow people! Malays, Chinese & Indians deserves EQUAL RIGHTS, because we all are Malaysians!

Together we build a better nation with No Liars in Government, No Discriminations of classes or races, And No Corruptions! I have strong feelings that the so-called Opposition parties will join-force to proves us with good results in the next few years in the 5 states. And the nation will start the Revolution Phase 2 in the next General Election when they all are ready and well-experienced.

We do hope BN will learn their lessons and realise their mistakes and become useful to the nation instead of becoming the next "Opposition".

However, I'm happy to see that Malaysians nowadays have become so much mature for not celebrating victory in public or rather avoid another unwanted events to happen. Thanks to the civilised Leader of all opposition parties - Dr. Anwar. All the credits should go to him and he will be a good model of Leader in the coming years, no one knows or predicts, but personally I have big faith in him. He is the Hero we Malaysians have been waiting for. At least for me. =)

~END~

My New Flash 2D Animation (Work In Progress)

2008-03-04T07:36:00.018+09:00

This is what I have completed so far. This is like just 70% completed from what I have intended.
Although I couldn't finish the whole thing for the competition due to time constraint, I have submitted online anyway.
But from now onwards, I will try to keep going to finish up this piece of work. To add more in-betweens, to polish up and at least to color it with backgrounds. Stay tuned. =)

Here is the animation. (Note: The voice-over was pre-chosen by the organizer of the competition. We animators just have to animate anything based on the voice given.) =)

~Cheers~

My Latest Character Designs

2008-02-27T03:11:00.005+09:00

The following is my latest character designs by using Adobe Flash. It has been progressed for the last couple of weeks.

I was searching for ideas for the next online animation competition on youtube. Accidentally bump into a short parody video of Aladdin (which I have posted in my last post). And then I kept digging in more Disney videos, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Hercules, then accidentally dug into videos from Warner Brothers, eg. Road Runner, Bugs Bunny, and then Looney Toons. After that, I found some images of Baby Bugs Bunny and Toons. Very slowly, my mind went wild and got this mixture of taste for other Disney characters which hasn't been tried before. So that's how I mixed these ideas up and create a brand new monsters from few of my favourite disney's villian characters, as shown below. Hope you guys like it. hehee... =D

Initial Analysis of Original Characters.

Initial Rough Design on Paper.

Tried to Improve the Cuteness Aspects
& Pose Design Progress on Flash.

~End~

My First FREE 36" Wide-Screen TV

2008-02-22T02:16:00.007+09:00

Yeah, as stated above. I got it free.. hahaha... 36" but CRT. But well, since it's free, who cares. haha..

It started from 2 weeks ago when I intended to buy a decent 15" Flat LCD TV, so that I could watch TV and mainly play my Playstation games. Then I happened to mention that to my colleagues. And one of them, Ohno san (大野さん), was kind enough and told me that he happens to have an old 15" CRT TV which he intended to dispose it. So he said he could give it to me free. I actually didn't mind the size though. I was even happy then coz I knew I could save a big amount of money. So I accepted his offer.

Days later, he told me his TV was not in good condition, but asking me if I'm interested in another disposal of 36" Flat-screen but CRT TV. It was from another studio's boss which next to ours. And it happened that Ohno san heard that disposal news from his friend who are working in that studio too. The timing was perfect.

I was shocked by hearing that size initially. I never own such big TV before, yet I was excited too coz I kept imagining the big screen of watching movie at home and playing games. That would be fantastic! haha..

Well, long story short, Ohno san helped me getting the TV on his car and drove me back to my house and together we carried such big bulky antique into my house. We were helped by another colleague of mine who is a Korean, Dwight. Even with the strength of 3 of us, it was still freaking heavy. I was glad that Dwight came join us, since we all live quite near to each other in the same area. I'm so glad to know such kind friends. ほんとにありがとうね！大野さん、ドワイト！

Well, back to my BIG TV. hahaa.. It was really cool. I tried playing games and watching DVD at the same night. The feeling of watching on big screen was fantastic! haha... The TV have tonnes of special functions too. It supports dual-screen. Which means, I could watch 2 channels at the same time by spliting into 2 screens. hahaa.. I can even play games at one side, watching TV on the other side. haha... And it's so cool to watch DVD in wide screen mode too. hahaa.. man, i should have brought my Lord of the Ring DVD here... that will show fantastically great on the screen. hahaa...

Well, I sure will bring some of my favourite collections from my hometown when I return this coming April and May. Oh yeah, side track a bit, I have officially booked air tickets to go back KL and SG for 2 weeks vacation from 25th Apr - 7th May. This time I will land in Singapore first. Then spend one week in KL, and go down to Singapore for another week. After 2 weeks, I will depart from Singapore Changi again and back to Tokyo. Well, hope to catch up with you guys soon. Can't wait! ;)
Till then, take care everyone!

Ok, I gotta get back to my games now! Just bought 2 PS2 games today. kekekeke....

Cheers

Pixar Always Goes for Stories

2008-02-19T14:27:00.004+09:00

This is one of the reasons why I like Pixar. They don't do animation for Celebrity Voice, but they do animation for Story!

"The Philosophy of Pixar is whatever best for the characters... If they are right, they are right..." says Brad Bird.

Good saying!

~END~

My New Free iPod Nano

2008-02-17T16:23:00.004+09:00

Woohoo~!!! Yey!!! My free iPod Nano has finally arrived today afternoon! After a long wait. Phew!

Oh yeah, this is a free gift that I got it by signing up Internet Broadband few months ago for my new place. They were then having a promotion campaign or something, giving out Nintendo DS or iPod Nano 4G. Since I already have DS, it's the perfect time to get myself a brand new iPod.

Finally I can replace my 3-year-old stupid Creative Zen Touch! It has been nightmares since I bought it years back from Singapore IT Exhibition. I'd been to Singapore Creative Service Center to repair the stupid Creative MP3 player for 4 times within a year. Read my LIPS again, 4 TIMES WITHIN A YEAR!! You know how bad that is for a product?? After one year warranty period was over, I brought it over with me to Japan here (what to do, I couldn't afford to buy a new one), it has been giving me hard time too. Either auto shut down or auto corrupt my mp3 files and most importantly, auto System Crash! And all the files within were all unrecovered. Well done huh, Creative. That was really "creative" in sense of those "auto" functions that I didn't sign up for.

Well, actually more problems, but I don't feel like mentioning so much here coz I guess you guys get the picture. hahaha... Now that I have new iPod, Sc**w You! Creative! muahahaha.... XD

I'm gonna watch movie on my new iPod! woohoo~!!! Yeah, i know, screen is too small, well, who cares... it's better than nothing, furthermore it's FREE!! hahahhaa... XD

~END~

Declaration of Square Enix Tribute Week

2008-02-17T02:16:00.005+09:00

I'm hereby to self-declare that 17th-29th Feb 2008 is my Tribute Week to my insanely respected Square Enix!

SALUTE !!!

Square Enix's Forever Inspirations

2008-02-16T17:33:00.016+09:00

Just some upcoming games (videos below) that I wanted to share with you guys, although some of you may have seen these earlier.

was the biggest reason I set my aim to come to Japan from the beginning of my journey of switching my IT job into something I love and enjoy most today - CG that is.
And until today, their works are still inspiring me so much! And I still can't shake away the dream being part of the teams which create the coolest games in the whole wide world.
You know what, I still remember I once said to many of my friends that as long as I could be part of the company, I didn't mind being a part time Cleaner or Coffee Maker in the office. muahahaa.... I guess I was really desperate then. haha... XD

Today, though I may not able to join Square, but the influencial name will still always locked in my heart and never be forgotten. I will still be one of the biggest fans of Square and the craziest gamers.

Therefore, PlayStion 3 soon I must buy. Next generation Square Gamer I must become. always I in love! No matter what....

(The Last Remnant)

(Final Fantasy Versus XIII)

(Lord of Vermilion - this is an Arcade RPG game)

宮崎さんの最新作　Miyazaki's New Movie on the Way!

2008-02-15T03:23:00.012+09:00

Miyazaki's work has touched many lives all around the world. His Art, his childhood sense, his fantasies-telling, his creativities, everything! Touches us in so many ways, which sometimes really undescribable. I watched all of his previous works, none of them disappointed me, none of them would never surprise me. Every single of his work is Unique! Incredible! Unpredictable! And most importantly, Morally Intended!

His superb talents really deserve everyone's Respect! Especially me! haha... I could not get enough of watching his work and observing his quality art. I even watched few of his new short films at the Ghibli Museum. And I've been to the Museum more than 3 times now and I never ever get fed up or bored, coz his every brilliant art works worth to be re-watched, again and again. I've watched his previous films so many times and I still feel refreshing from so many different perspectives. And most of his film, make myself feel like a kid again. The feeling is really amazing! (^-^)

And now, his latest work (崖の上のポンヨ/Ponyo on the Cliff) is coming up soon this year Summer in Japan for first screening. (Although this news has already been announced since last year December) I'm so excited and really can't wait, to finally able to watch his full-length movie on the big screen in Japan for the first time. hahhaa...

And I'm sure this will be another big impact and deeply touching into everyone's heart again. Miyazaki san, you have my full TRUST! Miyazaki san never fails to impress everyone of us! そうでしょ！ (^-^) b

More related stuff about this Movie can be found here: http://www.ghibli.jp/ponyo/

～終わり～

Hey World! Happy Valentines Day!

2008-02-14T18:20:00.004+09:00

Happy Valentinse Day to all Loving Couples out there and also to all Lonely-Toons like myself. Hahaaa.... It's a day to share your love with your love ones. It doesn't have to be your girlfriends or boyfriends. It's a day of Celebration of LOVE! Share it with everyone you know on Earth! Spread Your Love! And Be Loved as return!

Shout it Out LOUD! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL !!!! \(^0^)/

~Cheers~

Winter Too Cold, Winter Too Much

2008-02-12T21:55:00.000+09:00

"Winter Winter Go Away!"

Usually I love Winter. Coz I have been living my past 20 over years in a hot desert with no 4 seasons. I always excited about country with 4-seasons. Especially winter, coz with winter, I will able to experience snow-falling and go Snow-Ski!

However, it has been a long winter here and so much freezing-ly colder than the last one I experienced last year. It snows, it grows, it blows! One thing definite is, it even blows my Electric Bill up to the TOP!

Well, I couldn't help it, it's so freaking cold here, I have to turn on my heater and my electric blanket to keep my human body warm all the time. The figures of the KiloWatt has grown bigger without my notice, even though how hard I tried not to stay home too long.

If stay outside, I suffer from Icy-Fridgy Temperature, if stay home, I suffer from Warmy-Heaty Elec-Bills. Now, what I can do is, hoping the Spring come sooner. If I were the "Technician/Operator" of the Weather, I would re-adjust to following schedule:

Spring - 6 months
Summer - 2 month
Autumn - 2 months
Winter - 2 months

Isn't that perfect for everyone?! hahahaaa.....

~End~

Funniest Aladdin Parody

2008-02-05T03:17:00.000+09:00

I watched this over and over again, and I still can laugh like a kid..hahahaha....
It's so funny and sound so cute with the new voice dubbing. The lips sync looks so cool and almost match, especially the funny Aladdin. And the way how it ended, is really classic! I just love how creative whoever did this. hahaahaha...

~END~

My Latest 11sec Animation for Monthly Competition

2008-02-03T16:16:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone! Sorry for not been active for past one week. I was busy rushing some last minute animation entry for 11 Second Club (www.11secondclub.com) January competition.

Burnt lots of night oils since I have to animate 3 characters within a week before deadline. But it was really fun working on it with such motivation. At the same time also can practise and build up my own portfolio on the way. hahaha... One stone kills 3 Birds. Isnt that good? hahaha...

Here's my work for the January entry. (Click one of the links below or Right click and Save as)
Comments and Critics are most welcome! =D

http://animation.kentimator.com/charAnim/11secclub.mov (10MB)
http://animation.kentimator.com/charAnim/11secclubCD.mov (Sorenson Compressed - 1.5MB)

By the way, you can go and check out other peoples work too (www.11secondclub.com) if you are interested, coz some of their works are really inspiring and good animations. =D

~Cheers~

Tokyo Is Snowing !!!

2008-01-23T11:29:00.000+09:00

I woke up late this morning. As usual...hahaa.. And I realized it looked incredibly white and bright through my mosaic (unclear) window. I was curious and slide opened it. And WOW! Outside was full of snow!! Actually at the moment as I'm writing this blog now, is still snowing!
I went out my apartment and immediately take some photos with my mobile. My newly bought bicycle was covered by snow too. The corridor & neighbourhood outside my door were also covered with clear white snow with no foot print yet. That means everyone was still at home! Should I go to work today? hahahahaa.... Tell you a secret.. I'm writing this blog now at home, thinking should I or should I not going to work today. hahahaa..... In fact it is snowing heavily now. May be will wait till it stop a bit...haha.... Lazy me... XD

Matsunoyama Onsen Trip (松之山温泉) on 30th Dec 2007

2008-01-23T02:10:00.001+09:00

This is Back-Track-Blog, which means this had happened few weeks ago before New Year and a day right after I moved to my new apartment.

I went to this Onsen (HotSpring) with few of my friends. It was located quite a distance from Tokyo. We took a bus tour there. It took about 3 hours to reach, but on the way we stopped by a great restaurant half way on the moutain and had our luxury lunch (first time)..haha...

It was the first time I tried the long legged Crab ever since I came to Japan a year ago. It was SO SO SO DELICIOUS!!! The way of eating was so interesting and I really enjoyed it a lot! haha...

After lunch enjoyment, we carried on the journey to the top of the mountain and look for the Hotspring house. And on the way in the bus, I also took few pictures of the outside environment covered with thick snow. Simply Marvellous!!

We reached the house, and we went in. The hot spring pool was located outdoor and we were able to feel the snow while we were soaking in the super hot water. And yeah, it was snowing that time. It was so relaxing. Great view with all the snow coming down. Too bad I couldn't take pictures during that time. We were all naked in the pool. muahahahaaa.... It was embarassing first time in Hotspring, but that time was the 2nd time. So I kinda used to it now. hahaha... XD

Anyway, I still able to catch some snowy picture after coming out from the onsen house, and ready to head home after 1.5 hours of soaking. It was really a great experience of Hotspring with Snow. Really first time. Nice! hahaaa...

Now, here are some photos of me enjoying the moment... haha...

Taken inside the bus.

After hotspring, I blew my hair with Hair Dryer for almost 15 minutes. Now became more handsome. muahahaa.....

~End~

New Year New Color New Resolution

2008-01-21T01:38:00.001+09:00

Happy Belated New Year 2008 !

I was unable to update anything since last December. I was busy moving house and home internet wasn't up until 2 days ago. So, lets hope I have more time to drop some craps around here soon. haha...
Till then, Cheers Everyone!
May God bless everyone and have a nice year ahead! =)
And my new year resolution this year is to work hard on my drawings and animations!
Next Stop, PIXAR, BLUESKY, DREAMWORKS! hahaaaa....
Wait & See. Give me another 2 more years! You'll see....hahahaa....
Sorry, I think I drank too much just now.. start talking crap now..hahaaa.. dreaming.... =P

New Clips From My Friends Tigger & Pooh

2007-12-21T03:50:00.000+09:00

Just bought another few more episodes from iTunes Store. And took me some hassles to do conversion. Well, below are another few more scenes which I did back in Polygon Pictures
for the Disney My friends Tigger & Pooh TV series project. I missed those days,
but I'm also glad that I moved on too. haha..

Enjoy, and feel free to give comments too if you have any feedback or concern.
Though the project has ended, I still like to hear other opinions so that I can keep on
improving.
But FYI, it was done under very tight deadline though, I did try my very best
to push the limits as much as I could. In future, I hope I have more time to complete
something in higher quality, which most likely not gonna happen so soon in my career.
hahaa.. still trying to level-up. =)

1)

2)

3)

4)

新宿駅の人身事故 Tragedy at Shinjuku Train Station

2007-12-20T23:57:00.000+09:00

This was the first time I saw the incident of someone lied under the train. It was last night when I knocked off from work and heading back. Because of this incident, our train was delayed for more than 30 minutes.

I was already there before the rescuers started their professional rescue job. I could tell that man was still alive coz I could see his foot moving occasionally under the train before the rescuers came on the track. I have no idea how this incident happened because when I was there on the platform, the opposite train was already stopped.

Hope that person is alright now. I've heard a lot from my japanese friends that there were a lot of cases of suicide here, especially they like to choose on train tracks.

After the rescue for a while, I think I saw the white cloth round him was all coverd by blood.
People were standing on the platform watching and gossipping, while I was curious too and took this photo.

Life is already short. Don't make it shorter. Treasure what you have right now and be grateful. =)

~End~

Final Fantasy XIII Latest Trailer

2007-12-17T00:41:00.000+09:00

Thanks to a friend, Akira, I managed to see this beautiful work of square enix again, FFXIII's latest trailer! Speechless with the graphics and effects and also the game play system. Can't wait to get a PS3 once it announces the release date of the game next year. Start saving money. hahaa...

Meanwhile, check out the new trailer. It will blow you away! Far far away! haha..

Right click this high quality video link (FFXIII Trailer 45MB) and click Save As.

~End~

My Old Christmas Flash Game

2007-12-17T00:14:00.000+09:00

Was doing some file maintenance on my website and accidentally found the old flash game that I created years ago. And I played it again. Though it was simple and lousy, but i guess it's still fun to play for a while. And it really brings back some of my old memories..haha...

Check it out if you are boring, though the game might bore you too.. hahaa.. have fun anyway, and Merry Christmas to all. =)

Click on the image above to start the game. =)

~End~

Final Fantasy VII - 10th Anniversary Potion Collection

2007-11-30T01:23:00.001+09:00

Got all these from 7-Eleven store near my work place. This is what I call real Convenient Store! hahahaa... XD

Autumn Relaxation at Mount Takao

2007-11-19T23:06:00.000+09:00

Last Sunday I went to Mount Takao with my friends to enjoy the amazing view of Autumn's "Red-Leaf". It was very cold on the top of the mountain. But it was worth the trip coz we managed to see the wonderful Mount Fuji from the top. And we also enjoyed the moment of Sunset at around 4.30pm. The view was truly amazing. It was another satisfying day. hahaa... Here are some pictures I took. Enjoy ~

Happy 1-Year Anniversary in Tokyo!!! (^o^)v

2007-11-15T23:12:00.000+09:00

Happy 1-Year Anniversary!!!.... To ME!!! Hahaha... And Happy Anniversary to my BLOG too! XD

Thank God that I survived in Tokyo for a year! hahaa... Officially, 11th of this month was the day I arrived Tokyo in year 2006. =)

Within this year, I'm glad that I made a lot of friends here and really had fun in my job. Am still having fun, of course. Nothing is better than doing something you love everyday in your daily so-called JOB. hahaa...

To be able to achieve my dream today, mainly I want to thank my family, especially my mum and my brothers. Without their support, I would have never gone this far. Without their belief in me, I would have not done my very best. I'm really really happy. And I would never ever forget my dad. Though I couldn't share my happiness with him anymore, my today's and future's success are all dedicated to him. May he be in peace with the Angels. (^-^)

And also thanks to all my friends who believed in me, who encouraged me and supported me. Thanks to all the seniors and colleagues who taught me, guided me and made me a better person. I feel blessed to have all them to be part of my life so far. Thank you very much! Thank you! (^-^)b

Well, a year has passed, another is awaiting ahead. Let us walk this path together and share the sweetness on the way to the greatest destinations! To the Infinity And Beyond! =D

~End~

Amazing Tokyo Motor Show 2007

2007-11-11T15:58:00.000+09:00

Yo! Kentimator is Back! hahaa...
Thanks for the patience and also checking out my blog again. It's always my pleasure to share more stuff with you guys. =)

2 weeks ago, I went to Tokyo Motor Show with my friends. It was really a great experience and eye-opening event. Their professional presentation on the stages were really marvellous. Plus amazing cars with gorgeous babes. It's like best combination! hahaa...
Well, I did take a lot of photos though (almost 500 over pictures). And I compiled some of my favourites into this music video below. Hope you enjoy it. =D

p/s: It may take some time to load. Go get some tea while it's loading. haha...
Or you can download it from my website and view from your own PC later:
http://www.kentimator.com/blog/ (Right-click on the movie file named "TokyoMotorShowCD.mov" and select Save-As.)

~Stay Tuned. More to share! =D

Extra Photos ~ My Favourite & Dream Car of ALL ~ LEXUS.

(*Thanks to my friend, this car is over-exposed in the picture. But also thanks to him for taking pictures for me. haha..)
Well, You can see. I only take photo with my Dream Car. I don't just simply anyhow take photo with any cars (though other cars also cool).. HAHAHAhahaa..... though my face is like "A Shit On top of a gorgeous flower." hahaaaaa.... Not that I low self-esteem, but it's fact. muahahaa... XD

Rest Is For Long Journey Ahead

2007-09-30T20:34:00.000+09:00

It is true that REST is very important for the Long Journey Ahead. Rest at any station you could find throughout your journey for any dreams your are pursuing.
All my best wishes to All of you my friends. Treasure your health. Treasure your life. =)

p/s: I will stop Blogging for a period of time. Need some rest. Hope to see you guys soon. Cheers!

~End~

Tokyo Game Show 2007

2007-09-26T23:13:00.000+09:00

Well, nothing much to say , I think I've been mentioning thousands times in my previous post that I was excited and happy to be in TGS this year. So, I bet no one would like to listen again to how I felt but rather just want to see the photos. hahahaa.... So here they are:

Note: Some of the booths didn't allow us to take pictures of the videos, so this time round I didn't take much photos. I couldn't even have time to queue up for hands-on games. No choice, I went there on the last day, damn lots of people... Sigh~

(This picture is courtesy of Justin's photography.)
I felt sad that I couldn't go in to this theater to watch the latest Square animations. I went there on the last day, all tickets sold out. I still don't understand till now, why they need tickets since we already paid for the entrance? Why couldn't they allow me to queue up? SIANZ!!!

New version of PSP. Lighter and Longer Battery LIfe Span.

Gatchaman also coming out games. What else is not? haha...

This is one cool. One of my favourite anime recently, becoming a game in Wii. It looks cool using the controller to play this game, it's like exactly same action in the anime. haha...

Check this out, see how cool the technology has come to. Ring controllers to play Dragon Ball game! =D

~Actually got more photos, but too tired to upload so many... if got chance i upload to another server. hahaa... sorry ya.... =P
~END~

An Inspiration Animation

2007-09-26T23:05:00.000+09:00

I like the mood and the concept of this short animation. Simple and nice. (Of cors CG-Technically not simple..haha)
Anyway, I was really touched at the end knowing whom this was dedicated for.

Click the link here:
http://hybworks.co.uk/lalaland.htm

~End~

Visiting Square Enix Studio with 3DSense

2007-09-26T22:14:00.000+09:00

Finally! I had a chance to visit Square Enix Studio last week! Thanks to 3DSense! hahaa.. Thanks to Sen & Justin that allow me to join them with their visit which initially invited by Square after the CGOverDrive event this year June.
Upon their arrival, we straight away head for Square studio. Though we were late due to the heavy traffic on the road, we still made it on that day. Thank God! haha...

We were only allowed to visit one of the production floor, and no photos are allowed within the area. So we only took photos outside the production room. Here they are:

ファミ通のPRESS START - Symphony of Games

2007-09-17T23:54:00.000+09:00

I just came back from an Orchestra Symphony Concert today at Yokohoma.
Famitsu had just started to organized this Symphony Concert since last year. In another words, this is the 2nd time after the success of last year one. And I was happy to realise this from the Famitsu magazine. haha...

I went there pretty early today and the queue was already long.
The hall was real big and I can say it is much bigger than the one I attended in Singapore Esplanade.

Man, I must say the performance was real real great! It was so touched to listen to such beautiful orchestra performances. And the hosts are interesting and funny too. One of the hosts is my favourite composer - Nobuo Uematsu. I didn't know that he is a funny person in reality. He's really not what he is in his age.

There were 14 themes initially, and extra 2 more Extra marvellous themes (both my favourites!).
The program list is as followed:

1) Nintendo's Super Smash Bros
2) Sony's Roco-Roco
3) アクトレイザー (ActRaiser)
4) Shooting Medley (Combination of different game companies)
5) Bandai Namco's Ace Combat Zero
6) Sony's ワンダと巨像　（Shadow of the Collossus)
7) Nintendo's Fire Emblem

8) SEGA Sound UNIT performance
9) Square Enix's Chrono Trigger
10) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
11) Nintendo's Super Mario Bros
12) Konami's Castlevania
13) Sega's サクラ大戦
14) Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts

Extra Themes:

15) Zelda
16) Final Fantasy VII (Sephiroth!) ~ specially performed together with the great band - The Black Mages.

And ALL are beautifully played! To me, the best play that touched my heart deep were: Chrono Trigger, Castlevania, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda & FFVII Sephiroth!!! Man! These favourites of mine were played perfectly well and their edited version of the orchestra were really out of my expectations! Best combination. Wonderful music combination. Simply Marvellous!!!
Great musics! Really great! If only I could share with you guys who are game music fans too.

Oh yeah, to those who knows about the Daytona guy (the one who appeared in Esplanade game symphony this year), he was there today and sang with the great band It was nice to hear the complete version. haha...

Well, conclusion, Good Game Musics! Thanks to the pros who played the orchestras. Thanks to the passionate conductor - Taizo Takemoto. Thanks to all the talented composers, without you guys, I wouldn't have much inspirations in my fantasy world. Because of you all, I live in a Fantasy World, where not much people could understand me. muahahhahaa.....

Ok guys, pen off. Got to go sleep, tomorrow start new day in Production I.G.fx. Woohoo... Nitez! Take care my dear friends.
Coming Events to report: My new first day in Production I.G.fx, and coming Tokyo Game Show visit next weekend.
So, Stay tuned. hehe...

~End~

This Is My Life [Prologue]

2007-09-01T02:06:00.000+09:00

My Upcoming & On-Going Personal-Free-Time 2D Flash Animation Project, reflecting & projecting the story of my life by relation with RPG (Role-Playing Game) games.

"This Is My Life [Part 1]" will be released within this September. Stay Tuned~

Final Fantasy Retrospective (FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX)

2007-08-30T00:25:00.000+09:00

Well, work talk aside, lets come back with some game-related video relaxation. haha..
Final Fantasy!! My favourite games of all time!
Man, I miss FFVIII so so much!!! It's my Favourite No.1 in FF series. I wish I could have the time to re-play once more and re-catch the sentimental moment with the lovely story. I LOVE Rinoa too!!! She's the cutest character in all FF series! hahaaa....

Square-Enix (SquareSoft formerly) ROCKS !!!!
SQUARE ROCKS!!!

Lots of Retake!!! Why! I'm tired!

2007-08-24T00:21:00.000+09:00

After client saw most of my animations, he told my boss that the robots punching and action stuff doesn't look like the old Votoms style. To them now it looks like Gundam style. According to them, one of the difference is, Gundam usually uses one hand handling the long warrior gun, whereas Votoms usually use both hands carrying, etc etc....

Sigh~ They should have told and explained well to my boss before passing the storyboard to me for animation. And I have trusted fully my boss about the details of the characters. Now that I have to redo most of the animations based on the reference video client just gave us.
I put so much sweat and sleepless hours last week, and now my repay is some should-have-been-avoidable Retakes! Arrrh ~
If I capable to converse fluently in Jap, I would have directly gathered information by myself from the clients, like I did in my former jobs back in Singapore. Sigh ~
Well, anyway, looking at the bright side again, lucky I haven't finished all, especially the main fighting scenes. If not, I sure spill blood on this blog to let you see! (-_-)"

Even the humans emotion scenes also got retake, almost all got retakes..... I remember I asked clearly in the first day about the characteristics of the girl, and my boss told me she's weak and soft person. She looks sad n stuff. Ok, I got all the information I need into my head and started animate. Finished, and now client told him that she should be having cool & strong characteristics. WHAT?! So big different leh! I said that loud inside my head of course, with a reluctant smile with one side drowning.

Looks like my boss also not very sure or even didn't do much study about this Votoms before passing to me on the first day. Sigh.. it's part of my fault also actually. I should have asked them for video reference from the start instead of just asking my boss.
Sigh.. never mind lor... redo lor.... even with my half-closed eyes.... .... i will do this.... for TGS.... just for TGS, I "Ren"! I "Tahan"! I "Endure"! ..............................

........... I "Pengsan"! (faint) * POMP!!!
Someone come and collect my skull ashes next week ~ ......

~End~

Tired & Stress

2007-08-23T00:23:00.000+09:00

Today I worked until 11pm. I wasn't suppose to, but I just wanted to finish as much as I could. Man, even camera animation also kills me sometimes. To gain perfect camera movement animations and match with the music tempo is not totally as easy as I always thought. Ease-in/out, fast and slow motion matching with character emotion & movement + music tempo... killing time and also killing me. I changed the camera motions thousands times to get it right. So much offset to be done in Graph Editor to make things look right. Now I respect those who did so much camera animations....

Well, it's pain, but eventually I gained. As in able to finish with satisfaction. hahaa.. So tired now, but once I got home, switch on my PC, I tend to not want to go to bed early. I think I'm just crazy. I should be in bed by now. *Yawwnnn.....~ (-_-)q

Oh oh, by the way, today I asked my boss again. Seems like Bandai is working on the Votoms game and we are helping them to develop the opening sequence. Looks like it has nothing to do with the TV anime series. Sorry for the wrong assumption last time. haha.. I guess I need to brush up my Japanese more to avoid more assumptions and misunderstanding... hahaa..

To be precise, our company is doing 2 versions of the game opening for Bandai right now. The one that I'm working on now is for promotional purpose, as in to show in Tokyo Game Show next month. Whereas the other one which eventually will be used for the real game opening in the console, is already almost done, and now is under compositing development by my boss.
Why they need 2 versions? Well, as for this question, I have yet asked my boss. hahaa.. My best guess is that, my boss proposed a new storyboard to them comparing to the original one from years ago. And Bandai accepted the proposal and agreed to have 2 different versions. Hahaa... Well, don't take my words, I will check with my boss again when I have time. Most importantly, my animation will be shown in public. haha.. Well, I may be paranoid, but hopefully Bandai won't reject the new proposal (the one I'm working on) and take the old one for promotional display in TGS at last minute. If not my sleepless effort will worth for nothing in the end.. well, who knows, something might go wrong in the end... but I will pray harder. hahaa. =P

Anyway, here's an article link regarding Bandai's coming PS2 Votoms' in-game:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20070627/vm.htm

Tomorrow Bandai people will come to our office in the morning and check our progress. Hopefully everything will go well.

Ok guys, I'm really collapsing soon. Really start to feel the tiredness already.
"Finger-Off" now. Ja-na! Nitez! Wan-An! (-_-) ~zzZZ

~End~

My Current Work Will Be Shown @ Tokyo Game Show (^0^)v

2007-08-22T01:26:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I talked to my boss about the deadline for the Votoms project I'm working on, and he told me it's best to finish by end of this month, coz the opening animation sequence will be played in the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) next month! (@0@)
When I heard about this news I was so excited! hahaaa... It may be just simple opening animation, but I still very happy that the work that I did is gonna be shown in public in Japan! And it's in TGS somemore! hahahaa...

Of course I won't expect my name will be shown, (since the opening sequence is part of the Votoms series that belonged to the original company, as we are just outsourced company.), but it's still excited to tell my family n friends that I worked on that piece of animations. hahaha... Sorry, a bit thick face. haahaha...
I can't wait to see how it turns out on the big screen next month. Can't wait can't wait! Well, that means I have to stress for this week and next. But I guess it's worth the effort. I will do my best! hahaa...

Next month would be my first visit to TGS, the pre-excitement has already filled up to my head since months ago. And now, even more extra stuff added to my full-tank excitement! You have no idea how excited I am now! hahahaa...

Well, I'm a very easily pleased kinda person if you know me well. I'm just like a big kid, seeing my work on public screen and I will just go: "Hey! Look! Look! That's my work! I did that! I did that! " hahahaha.... ~ XD
It may sound childish, or may not seem a big deal to a lot of people, but it's a big deal to me since I'm still considered newbie in this industry. So you can't blame my young heart and "childish-ness"... muahahaha... XD

Sorry.. I'm talking rubbish again... forgive me. =P
Ok guys, thanks for being a good listener (or viewer) so far. Hope I could record video or something next month in TGS and share with you guys the animation that I did. hehehe... =P

Cheer for me!!! kekekee.....
p/s: It turns out that it's not too bad at all to move on from my last job. hahaha.... Thank God! Amen! =D

~End~

Quick Evolution in my CG Job in Tokyo

2007-08-18T16:47:00.000+09:00

Hahaa... from the title, it means I'm now working in a 3rd company now. I guess a lot of people might think "what is wrong with you, Kent? It's not even close to a year yet, and you have started a 3rd job?". Well, you could say that, but there's always insight story that never been told. Anyway, the true story will only be told at the good timing. At this moment, lets just keep it as it is, or rather as it looks like. hahaa...

Well, first job was supposed to be a year, but ended up with early termination. Actually legally it was 6 months contract on legal paper. One year was based on verbal.

Second job was supposed to last me till October this year, but early termination was upon me again due to some reason. The reason that given to me was that I wasn't competent as compared to another colleague of mine, which by the way, there were only 2 hired CG artists in the office, including me. The reasons which were conveyed to me seemed unfair to me, but I didn't fight for it. I was calm and I guess i'm mature enough to discuss with them with my own opinion, and even apologised for my so-called incompetence.

Well, what is over is over. I'm still glad to work there before and learned something new. And I really learned a lot from my colleague. He's really a good CG artist. Very pro indeed. Compare to him who has 4-5 years of CG experience, I admit defeat.
Well, I think I'm not gonna further discuss this on this blog, since it's already over and I'm now happy with my new job. To me, without getting out a cave, you never know there might be better new cave. Hope this new cave could last me some time. hahaaa... Praying Hard! =D

Anyway, it's really an eye opener and great experience for going to several interviews in Japan. I have tonnes of experience in interviews when I was working in Singapore. None of them ever worried me before, but this time, it's totally different situation due to the japanese environment and atmosphere, i was totally almost worry to death. (sorry, over-exagerrated, haha...) XD

I was so worried about my conversation problem. Though I improved little bit ever since I first came here, I think I wasn't ready for the speedy conversation of the Japanese. Most of the time they were so fast until I couldn't possibly have 1 second to process the previous or next line that they said. In other words, they spoke 3 sentences in 1.5 seconds, and by the time I finished understanding the first 2 sentences, I missed the next, or vice versa. hahaa...

Well, that was what I was worrying about. So I prepared myself by learning more official japanese words or vocabulary few days before the interviews commence. And they did really help much during the interviews. At least when I heard the key words that I've learned, I understand more quickly and process other sentences faster. hahaaa... Though, I still didn't quite understand most part of their conversation, but I was still able to understand their questions and answered them with my lousiest broken japanese, including with some obvious hand-action gestures. muahahaha.... XD

It was really an experience. Something new that I explored my own, with my own strength.
I applied for few job agencies before I looked up my own. But obviously none of them could help much, so I decided to do it on my own by sending resume and demoreel manually to their company postbox. It was my first experience to write japanese resume, and their format here is a bit different from what I've known back in our own countries. They have a standard type of way to write resume, and you could easily buy the template in any of the stationary stores or convenient stores. Since I don't have a printer (and I also couldn't afford one), I write my own with pen. And I heard from my friends that writing resume manually by pen shows more sincerity in their working culture. And from the handwritings, they could somehow roughly justify your personality or some kind. hahaa.. I was surprised when I heard that. Really can justify? The only personality that I can tell from the handwriting is that whether or not the person is lazy or sleepy head when he's writing the words. hahaa...

Well, long story short, thank God, I finally found this job, whose the boss is kind enough to give me the chance to try it out although he knows there might be little communication problems during work. And my current boss is a fun person though he's around 40s or near 50s. He himself is an artist if not mistaken. He's a kind and good person. Very well respected and approachable by everyone in the office. When comes to animations acting, he looks energetic especially when he explained to me what he wanted. And he's clear what he wants, that's the boss that I respect.

This company consists of 20 over cg artists. Totally japanese environment. No more english speaking this time. Seriously japanese commando training now. hahaha...
Current company working on few different projects. Mainly TV anime currently. There were other commercials or opening sequences were done by them in the past too. Depending on projects subbed by other big companies, they use different 3D platforms, namely Maya, Max & XSI. But for sure, this company doesn't use Mo-Cap. hahahaa... coz the boss like key-framed animations, and when we talked about pixar animations during the first interview with him, he was excited telling me that there's a line saying "No Motion Capture is used" during the ending credits. haha.. He's fun person indeed. =)

I'm currently assigned to work on a piece of 3D opening theme sequence for Votoms. Not sure if any of you guys still remember this old anime in the past. haha.. I guess the major company is working on the 3D version and gonna release on DVD on Oct this year. I guess they outsourced to our company to do certain part of the animation, which is now I'm working on the opening song sequence.

It's been a week now since my first day in this company. So far I worked almost 11 hours a day.
Almost everyone knocked off after 10pm. I wonder if their homes are so near that they don't have to worry about traveling. haha.. but for me, I need to leave little early (though still late) since I need to travel 1 hour back home. It's tiring.

I started work from 10am, and most of the time knocked off around 9pm or 10pm, depending how fast I finished my work. There's no limit of frames or seconds for me to animate per day, but seems like I'm expected to animate as much as I could each day. The opening sequence is around 1 minute in total. I guess I might need to finish all animations within the next 1-2 weeks time. Well, despite the long hours with little stress, I think I still enjoy animating the characters. So far I've been animating 2 humans (1 guy 1 girl) and 2 fighting robots namely AT-Scope Dog (the green robot from the picture above). More fighting scenes to come next week. hahaa.. It's gonna be fun, but I guess might feel a bit stress also. hahaaa... anyway, I will try to balance it out and keep my heart relax. Lately my body is getting weak. I think it's time to be health-conscious.

Ok guys, thanks for reading my boring story again. hahaa... Thanks to those who concerned about me. Just to let you know, I'm fine now. No matter what happens to me, I won't give up easily.
And I also want to apologise to some of you that I didn't tell you guys about my situation earlier. May be I felt that I didn't want to invite more questions when I was busy preparing and looking for new job, though I know I would receive kind concerns from you guys. May be I just wanted to concentrate without thinking much other things. I knew I would find a way. And I'm glad I did. hahaa...
Well, nothing is impossible. If you have the will, God will place you a way.
Have faith! p(^-^)q
Have a nice weekend! \(^0^)/

p/s: I'm gonna watch Ratatouille 2nd time with my friends tomorrow (sunday). Woohoo...

~End~

One of the Best CG Modeling Demoreel - A Summoner

2007-08-18T16:27:00.000+09:00

Wow! When I first saw this, I was WOW-ed, then I WOW-ed, and I'm still WOW-ing.
The background, the lighting, the atmosphere, the mood, the models , are all so WOW-ing, except that the little animation within is not very convincing to me, since this is just a modeling reel, so who cares. The rest are just beautiful! The babe, the Dragon! Especially the dragon, I like the design very much! I'm a big fan of dragons! muahahaa... any cool design of dragons will make me happy & excited. .hahahaa...

Really great modeling reel, whoever did this, GREAT JOB, man! And the music of this modeling reel works very well indeed! Wonderful job again! Congrats to Aasa Ooraikul, congrats to VFS!

p/s: Though the girl and small snake-shape dragon looks very World of Warcraft's The Burning Crusade alike. May be he got the inspiration from the trailer. haha.. Anyway, it's still distinctive and nice. Really well done.

Hi-Resolution Download Link (recommended): http://student.vfs.com/~3d63aasa/movie/New_Summoner_h264.mov

OR

Watch the small/unclear youtube version (try to download above link to see more quality details, it's worth to keep.) :

~End~

Another Nice Animation - Down On The Farm

2007-08-18T16:23:00.000+09:00

Another fun animation work. This is real good. Check it out.
http://downonthefarm.mathiesonfacer.com/

~End~

Meet The Great Animations - The Glumpers

2007-08-11T00:18:00.000+09:00

Found this from another forum SimpleCG. The following 3 pieces of good animations are produced by a company named MAKE. One of the co-director + co-animators is Tyson Ibele, one of the greatest Animators/CG Artists. I've never doubted his talent and it's always inspiring to see his works. They are just GREAT! And here are the 3 new works that he involved. Check them out.

http://www.glumpers.com/episodes/Glumpers_Episode02_Growth_Gun.mov

http://www.glumpers.com/episodes/Glumpers_Episode03_Bulking_Up.mov

http://www.glumpers.com/episodes/Glumpers_Episode04_Splashing_Around.mov

~End~

Michael Bay's Transformer - My Personal Review

2007-08-06T01:01:00.000+09:00

Before I watched Michael Bay's Transformer. I watched many times of the trailers and even pre-reviews to the trailers. From the first day I saw their design, I was upset. Then I told my friends that I will still watch it and bringing 10% hope to the theater. And hoping something would revive my hope (at least hoping the story would surprise and impress me). I promised myself, since it's not gonna be the "cartoon story", so be it, lets treat it as a new cool Robot Transforming movie with humans. However, I also can't ignore the fact that this movie is related to Autobots and Decepticons since they are revealing Optimus Prime & Megatron. Therefore, my review to this movie, has no reason to walk away without relating it to the 80's original cartoon, yet considering logical reasons behind the changes too. Another words, I try not to be biased and being fair to all. haha.. =)
What I'm about to say is totally came out from my heart and also from my brain which influenced by the nature of the CG and my profession. haha... =P

Well well well.. here we go.

Point No 1.

Overall Feeling. Well, to be honest, it didn't actually "blow me away" as what I've been expecting after hearing so many good comments from my friends and forums. I just feel that my heart didn't hit any Climax throughout the movie. It's like What I See (from trailer) Is What I Get. No doubt, I'm impressed by the transformation, and all sorts of special effects. I'm not trying to compare with other CG animations , to be honest, my overall feeling, despite of good animation of robot fightings and great transformation & effects, I didn't see anything that can make it memorable for an audience like me. Am I expecting too high? No no no... I'm a very easily-pleased kinda guy. A good movie is always carrying a good timing of climax to raise audiences hearts to the top of their heads and make them feel "WOOOAAAH!!!! ..... ".

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any of that Woaahh thingy in my heart or any part of my body. If it's a good story telling or overall good movie, my reaction would be something like what I felt when I watched Ratatouille. I'm not trying to compare, I know both genres are different. But the concept of appreciating a good movie is about the same. Of course, it depends what things "Woaah " you during the movie. If some audiences just carry the heart of wanting to see just special effects from the movie, then I'm pretty sure that audience will eventually gain the super "Woaah". I'm just trying to be fair to everyone. But for me, the "Woaah" wasn't with me coz I was expecting something else. I was looking for good story tellling, I was also looking for some technical and non-technical things that left behind my old knowledge of this movie. Lets share all these so-called knowledge together in the next point, shall we? =)

Point No. 2

First of all, to be fair to Michael Bay, I totally understand his plot which trying to make this movie as real world and not cartoony type. To be honest, I like the blending of their mechanics (robots) with the real world environment. CG Technical speaking, this movie works perfectly nice. And I'm very impressed by all the technical aspects. Lets just forget about Transformers from 80s, shall we? Take a moment to forget the old cartoons for few seconds. Come back to this photo-realistic robot fighting scenes in the movie. My personal 2nd view is that, there were too many humans (in the city streets) distracting the excitement of the fighting action scenes.

Camera views and movements are not my favorites too. Well, some are good, but mostly not. Camera positioning are sometimes too distracting, for example, suddenly change to inner view of a coffee house, suddenly change to a POV (point of view) of certain unimportant humans in the scenes. Not that those camera views are bad itself, I'm opposing this methods coz most of the time it looks like it's cheating a lot of animations from the fighting scenes. From the moment they start fighting angrily during the last quarter of the movie till the moment where Megatron was defeated, I couldn't feel much of the excitement from the actions. Part of it is because of the camera movement and changes position too much. And also because most of the action fighting time, Michael Bay uses a lot of close ups. It totally turn me off coz I feel like it's a cheat to me. (*My personal view and analysis).

I really honestly frankly don't feel much climax of the impact from the actions, either because of the above reasons that I mentioned, or it's because the killing of the Megatron is too simple and fast. Ok, I'm a bit greedy, I was actually expecting a lot of cool fighting between Optimus & Megatron. I was hoping at least the final boss-fighting could impress me more. Unfortunately, it didn't. However, I need to emphasize again, the fighting sequences a.k.a. 3D animations are super great! But the plot of the fighting was weak. Hope you guys can differentiate what I'm trying to say. =)

Point No 3.

The plot of the story makes the whole movie is about Human. The main focus has somehow diverted to humans by the confusing story plot. My first impression till the end of the story, is that, this movie is about US Military Goverment having a new evolved war with outer space so-called aliens. This impression very quickly reminded me of the old movies "Independence Day". Only difference this time is that, some of the aliens are good and protecting humans. Old transfomers has the same similarity, but at least the cartoon makes very clean and clear picture to the audience that THEY (transformers) are the main characters and focus. But this movie makes otherwise. As an audience, I couldn't feel the "power of the existence" of Autobots and Decepticons in this movie. I just couldn't. It made me sad.

Like I said, the movie plot goes too much on detecting the "aliens" and too much on lovey dovey human scenes. I know Michael were trying to balance with the "Hollywood Action Movie style nature". But I guess it's not going quite well into this Robot movie. It was just a turn off. And this reminded me very quickly of another movie - "Titanic", which apparently whole story is not about Titanic the ship, but 70% was about lovey dovey Jack & Rose's You Jump I Jump story. Well, frankly Titanic - the love story was heart touching, and made everyone forget about commenting the irrelevant of the story with the ship itself. However, it wouldn't work this time for this Transformer robot movie. It just wouldn't work, at least for me.

Point No 4.

This is not much of a big point, but I just want to mention about this small little matter that I observed from the movie. When Megatron awakes from the frozen sleep, why did he say "I Am Megatron" as his first words? This type of "self-intro" usually appeals in cartoon. If Michael Bay was trying to copy that style from the old Transformer style, then I gotta say, it's not working for me. It's just sounding ridiculous after he makes everything photo-realistic. This question mark is still wandering around in my head and makes me laugh until now. Why Megatron said that like? I know it's just a small matter to a lot of audience, but it just somehow bothers me and gave me little turn off after realizing partial was same from 80s original cartoon, but main partials were not. Kinda confusing. Was Michael Bay expecting all the audience to watch it as a brand new title or should the audience still can relate it back to the original? Man, it's making me having hard time. May be just me. haha....

Point No 5.

Why why why? During the ending credit, they still wan to mention so much about human? They were interviewing those people for real or what? Well, no matter real or not, it's still making people think that this movie is totally about US Military Secret Forces or US government. They were over mentioning too much about government thingy and make the whole movie (even until the ending credit) look like non-transformer. I was so so disappointed to see what I saw during the ending credit "interview" thingy. They didn't even mention about Autobots or Decepticons. Isn't Transformer is about Autobots & Decepticons? Isn't Earth is just a secondary "assets" to this original story? Why this movie is making it otherwise so much? I'm not being stone-headed, but ffrankly, if they want to change whole transformer story into brand new story with not much relevance, they should have named this new movie as some other names like Robot Attack, or Evolution Crisis, or Independence Day II.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone who loves this movie very much. I was trying to like it but I just couldn't. I'm just trying to be myself and being honest to myself. I can't force myself to like the movie even though 99% of the Eartians like this movie. hahaaa... Well, at least I shared my reasons here with some logical points. hahaa.. but of course, different people may have different opinions and thinking. Therefore, some of you may not agree with me. But it's sometimes good to conflict, so that this world is colorful. Otherwise this world will be just one color if everyone thinks everything the same. Don't you think so? hahahahaa..... ok lar.. i pen off now. Thanks for reading till this point. I know it must be tiring for you now. hahahaa... Thanks again, and stay tuned. I will share more stuff in near future. Tata! Take care my friends! =)

~End~

Wonderful 2D Animation - Mimos & The Egg

2007-08-06T00:22:00.000+09:00

Haven't seen such good 2D animations for ages. This is really a great one. Much more appealing than so many 3D works. Though now is 3D world, 2D animation is still as cool as forever. =)

Check this out!

http://nofatclips.com/02007/07/27/m...20The%20Egg.mp4

~End~

Ratatouille is GREAT !

2007-07-29T18:11:00.000+09:00

Finally, I watched it! I WaTcheD IT !!! I WATCHED IT !!!!
HAHAHAAA.......

What can I say more? 6 WORDS! GREAT Movie! GREAT Story! GREAT Animation!
Why do I say that? Why? Because 6 WORDS! GREAT Movie! GREAT Story! GREAT Animation!
What makes me insist to emphasize the 6 WORDS so strongly? 6 more WORDS! GREAT Movie! GREAT Story! GREAT Animation!
Ok ok... sorry to repeat so many times. I guess I should find another new vocabulary to replace the 6 boring words. Actually there are more than 6 words to describe this movie. What are they? . 6 New Words! GREAT Movie! GREAT Story! GREAT Animation!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHAAAAAaaaaa............................. XD

Well, you can't blame me. After searching my OxFudge Dictionary page by page for almost 53seconds, I couldn't find any other better words to describe it. The movie itself will install a heart-warming vocabulary into each of your brain.

Trust me. The moment the show ends, you will be either speechless with warming-ly heart-beat, or you will realize someone secretly put a drop of EyeMo-Moist onto your round humanly eyes, or rather you will smile with half-closed eyes, as if someone just hugged you with love.
If you aren't any of the above, don't worry, it's not a big deal, may be you are just watching the wrong movie in the wrong theater. You must be confused that Ratatoiulle is a sequel of Transformer.... hahahahahhaa.... Kidding kidding... of course everyone has their own view and subjective in their hearts. =)
But for me, here's what my heart felt right after the end of the movie. (Don't worry, No Spoiler here! haha...)

Actually, the very first English words that came across my mind once the movie ended were "Man! Brad Bird Did It Again!". Honestly!

By watching all the superb facial acting and expressions, I can't resist the fact that ALL of them are so lively and real and believable and totally have their own characteristics! This is the first impressive thing among my all observations!

2nd, the story itself was "alive" enough to drag my heart down to the heart-warming sea, surrounded with love. The "heart-warming" thingy is not just a piece of stuff that just added into the story with no reason. You totally can feel the heart-warming comes to your very heart bit by bit and developing itself into you heart while the story is on-going. In another words, you are "alive" with the story! You are IN the story! Brad Bird DID it AGAIN! It is just UNBELIEVABLE!!!

3rd. You always heard people say, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). To me, this movie is WYSIWYRF (What You See Is What You Remember FOREVER). Character designs (including characteristics) are all so Unique and SOooo MEMORABLE. Their faces, their personalities, their actions, are all automatically installed into your mind. Just like a Trojan Horse virus in the PC, very hard to be removed or "un-installed". Sorry about the T.Horse metaphor, but it's true.

4th. From the moment when I saw all the "rendered food" appeared in the scenes, my brain never doubted that they are fake. Instead, my brain told me that IT IS REAL! Psychologically, when brain tells the neuro-system that something is real and looks tasty, your body will react on the craving and started salivating. Guess what! I did! What?!!! "You must be joking me!" No no no! I really DID!!! I salivated. My english may be not that good, let me re-phrase in a simple term -- My saliva came out from my mouth!!! (but of cors I swallowed it back immediately! What you expect? Let it drip?! Hahahaa!) ~ XD
What I am trying to say is, I can't believe those things in the CG movie could ever trick my brain so confusingly! I can't believe my eyes. I can't believe my mouth. I can't believe myself!

5th, there were quite a few good twist of the story that makes the story unpredictable and surprised the audience, of cors including me!
Human brains always predict stuff every miliseconds. You see action A, your brain automatically predicts their next action or rather the consequences of the action A. But my brain was unable to do much of the guessing game throughout the movie. In other words, Brad Bird predicted our minds, and found a way to go around them and set a new flag onto a brand new mountain that almost nobody could ever reach that soon. Well, may be just me, you guys may be can reach that new mountain sooner that I did. hahahaa....
Despite of the fact that my brain wasn't that "smart", but I was really happy with all the twist and unpredictable stuff that Brad Bird had prepared for us.

6th, back to story again. Like I said, it was "alive", and it also brings messages to everyone of us. And those messages are good and educational. Brad Bird never fails to convey good messages to public and never fails to build a better generations. Basically, this movie is not just for kids, but all the "big kids" who lived their lives more than 10-20 years. No matter how much experience you gained in your past entire life, you never know you could learn something new from this movie. And you never know those messages might touch your heart and give you a new perspective to see life and everything around you. You never know. This movie, this story, this morale, brings distinctive messages to each of us, but with one SAME good intention. A good message delivered into your heart, and will never be forgotten.......so easily.... =)

Well, those are my heart-words after viewing the movie. Until now, I still can't forget every scenes that I watched. I'm even analysing it now in my mind even without watching it. hahaa...
Well, last but not least, I just want to say, I'm really really glad to watch it on the first official release date here. Oh, and I also got cheaper ticket too, thanks to a friend of mine who gave me a tips that I could buy from some place that offers exclusive discounted movie tickets. hahaa...

Oh btw, Brad Bird is also playing a voice cast in one of the characters in this movie. Guess who? Well, I don't think you can guess now unless u watch it later. hahaaa... Sorry to tease you guys (those who haven't watched yet.) haha... =P

Ok guys! Time to sign off for now. Hope the above so-called Kento's Review didn't spoil anything for this movie. hahaa... I apologise if I did it unintentionally. Gomen! Gomen! =P
Well, lastly, ...................... PLEASE!!!! MUST WATCH !!!! Skip Bollywood movies, skip Hongkong movies, but DON"T skip Pixar (Brad Bird's) movies!!!! It's a crime if you skip! It's a CRIME! You HEAR ME?!!!

Sorry I'm crazy! HAHAHHAAAAAaaaaa................................. XD

Hey! Did I mention that the character animations are SUPERB?!!! Well, let me tell you know if I haven't already. IT'S SUPERB !!!! I'm going to watch 2nd time! It's WORTH IT!

-End-

Good Animations

2007-07-22T17:13:00.000+09:00

Here I'm back talking about CG Animations. hahaa...
Below are few of my favourite animations which I've come across.

[Animation from Animation Mentor School]

http://www.martink.no/shortfilms/forever_young.html

[Animation from French Animation School - Gobelins]

http://www.gobelins.fr/galerie/animation/gen2007-04-Chronos.htm

[Football & Rabbit] by Meindbender

Coolest Dream Girl ~ Leah Dizon

2007-07-21T04:02:00.000+09:00

Speechless, she's my Dream Girl! Too Pretty (Wonderful combinations), Too Sexy (needless to say), Too Cute (she's adorable when she act cute), Too Cool (she dances good)! Too Perfect!

I have no idea why I'm sharing girls MV here rather than CG-related. I must be out of my mind. Well, they are just too cute and I'd like to share with you guys! Of course you girls too. hahahaha... But if she's my girl friend, of course I'd not share with you all. hahahaa... Sorry, i'm talking crazy here! Anyway, though it's not CG (Computer Graphics) related, but it's still categorized under CG - Cute Girls! So technically, I'm not out of topic, am I? Muahahahaha.... !!!

Check out my dream girl MV below. She's just too cool to be true. Well, to defend myself (again), I could use her dancing clip to be my next animation reference. hahahaha... Good excuse huh! ~ XD

じゃ、そろそろ、恋しよう！！！

Thai Songs Fever

2007-07-21T03:40:00.000+09:00

I was bored tonight and was surfing the Youtube for some MTV to update myself of the latest new pop songs. Thousands of links here and there after listening to some boring chinese pop songs, I found a link to some Thai Songs. I never listened to Thai songs for my past almost whole of my life, and my curiosity made me click my mouse on one of the links. And the first song I came across really surprised me. I didn't know that Thai Song can be that nice and touched my heart...haha.. Then I clicked the other links here and there to keep listening and searching, some were not my type but most of them were quite nice. Below are the few of my favourites among my favourites. haha... And now I getting to start to like Thai songs. And the girls are CUTE too! hahaa... Come On! Lets Thai Fever! kakakaa.... sorry, I think i'm high! kekeke.... XD

My Friends Tigger & Pooh Episode 10 - Tigger Goes for Jagular / Rabbit's New Roomie

2007-07-16T23:27:00.001+09:00

Last week I finally managed to buy 2 MFTP (My Friends Tigger & Pooh) episodes online from iTune store. Thanks to a friend of mine who got me a prepaid card for iTune-purchasing when he was back to the U.S. last month. =D

By the way, not all the episodes are released yet in the US. So far they have only released about 10 episodes. And the 10th Episode (Tigger Goes for Jagular / Rabbit's New Roomie) is one of the episodes that I've worked on.

Below are the few scenes of animation that I did in this episode. Please support support. hahaa.. I know my animation skill is not very good yet. But for this TV series, I guess I've done my best in my role within the short timeline. Besides, I did learn a lot as well during the process of rushing.

Well, despite of the not-so-prefect-quality, I do hope you guys would enjoy the following clips as much as I enjoyed working on my scenes. hahaa... =D

Will update more clips once they release more episodes at iTunes store. Till then, stay tuned ya. haha.. (^O^)/

(Rabbit's New Roomie)

(Tigger Goes for Jagular)