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

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

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..

Job Hunting is like Fishing near the Ice Berg.

The Story of Soichiro Honda

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.

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.

Imagi HK's Astro Boy - New Teaser Trailer

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

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Want to Learn Japanese? Sing it ! ^^

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!!!

Releasing November 1st in Japan. Woohoo !!

Wonderful Animation - The Chestnut Tree

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

Amazing & Creative Dancing Groups from 舞林大道

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

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

Local Color - Trailer

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

Osaka & Kyoto Summer Trip

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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The Sky Crawlers

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

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Back From Osaka & Kyoto Trip

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

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

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