An Inspiration Animation

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

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

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]

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)

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!

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

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

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

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

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~