Shu's "Art"

Quick Abstract Landscape

2012-02-11T22:17:00.002+08:00

Took about 2 hours to do this random experimental piece, incorporating some things I learned at the Masterclass organized by FZD last weekend. Wish I had more time to paint and draw!

Pride & Prejudice Through Modern Lenses

2011-12-11T23:25:00.000+08:00

“That you are wholly and utterly alone is unavoidable; that everything is causal and that we’re all in this together is also inescapable; the rub, whether it be between boys and girls or whatever relationship between two humans, is to harmonize your ultimately abject triviality with your responsibility to change the world, in ways big and small, on a daily basis.”
- From an Ex-pat With Love, Abigail Wick

Cute Mister Scum

2011-12-11T18:22:00.000+08:00

Be careful of that charming rich man, he might just turn out to be scum.

Happy Birthday Shan

2011-12-09T00:00:00.004+08:00

A simple pen sketch for a dear friend's birthday... featuring Alien Cat!!!

Quick Painting of a Lily

2011-12-02T22:08:00.005+08:00

It's been awhile since I'd set aside some time to paint just for the sake of painting. Life has been busy throwing me countless curve balls to occupy my time. I miss doing stuff and creating things just for the fun of it. Nice things. Epic things. Challenging but beautiful things. Ironically I also don't know where to invest my time and what is that next big thing I want to make. Procrastination and indecision creates too much inertia. This is the P-personality in me speaking! (Perceivers are spontaneous and take things as they come instead of planning in advance and going by the book).

For me, the main time-eaters are work and family, not that I'm complaining. These are all important and essential parts of life. I consider myself fortunate that I have a warm family and a career I enjoy devoting my time to. I am happy at work, been doing clean-up & paint work since August and I love learning new things. Then there's that all-too-important time for artists to rest and recuperate from the busy-ness of it all. I really miss being good at my hobbies. I miss performing in a music group and wish I had the chance to take it further. I miss painting, both digitally and physically. However considering the immeasurable time I am going to need, I don't know how I'm going to be kick-ass talented at something. Short of neglecting my significant other, becoming a hermit with no social life, or turning into a grouch from lack of sleep and thus losing efficiency at work.

On one such day last week when the feeling of emptiness came, I realized it was because I missed painting and squeezed in this quickie of a lily before bedtime. It took me about 2 hours. But I still think it is not epic enough to evoke a sense of satisfaction. I am always wondering what I should do next, how I can be creative, what idea to conceptualize. But the answer evades me time and again.

I think I should start making a serious checklist of possible projects.
(Note the word "think"... *facepalm*)

Okay I will go draw now. Really.

(Lily picture reference courtesy of best flower wallpapers)

Cute Alien Productions is born!

2011-12-02T21:08:00.002+08:00

In October, Cao Ye and I busied ourselves making a simple wedding animation project for our friends Weimin & KK's big day. As I knew the two even before they got hitched and was *kind of* the "middle-friend" *ahem* matchmaker, I more or less knew their story and so it was easier for me to put their story down in animation. They gave us lots of freedom and crafting our first wedding animation was a really enjoyable experience for both of us. In fact we complement each other as I was into the storytelling and artwork, while Ye took the initiative to research on effects and animation for the clip.

I'd like to think that our style is unique and different from the cookie-cutter flash animations available in the wedding market. Hence I proudly present Cute Alien Productions' first wedding animation video!

Birthday Drawing

2011-08-24T00:20:00.003+08:00

One for my dear, intended as a linocut design. Have yet to start work making it into a lino print though.

Kills #1

2011-05-15T23:42:00.006+08:00

The first of my XXX Kills series.

Mole Hill

2011-05-15T23:39:00.003+08:00

Electric Dance

2011-05-15T18:59:00.008+08:00

Accompanying soundtrack:

Inspiration

2011-05-15T18:50:00.003+08:00

You're the inspiration.

Grow, Grow, Grow

2011-05-15T18:05:00.004+08:00

Old man bonsai plant.

Pen on brown sketchbook paper.

Audrey Tautou

2011-01-20T18:46:00.000+08:00

Caricature Gig #2

2010-12-12T02:52:00.008+08:00

I was really fortunate to get a caricature gig at my friend Charmaine's company's Dinner & Dance. It was held at Royal Plaza on Scotts and the theme was Fantasy... or Movies or something. They needed two caricature artists so I roped in my ex-colleague and friend Theo. It was a lot of fun... the clients and people were really nice and the organizer extended our gig by half an hour to two hours :D Usually we are too busy drawing to take photos, and so I don't have much "evidence" of my caricature work. But this time Charmaine was nice enough to help me take the few photos you see here. The one above of a guy dressed as Harry Potter was done by me. There were also Shrek and Princess Fiona, the Seven Dwarves, Hashassin from 300, and Dumbledore, among others.

Here's Theo in action.

Isn't she pretty?

Hummingbird Project

2010-12-12T01:55:00.012+08:00

People who know me know how much I love Nature. I think hummingbirds are truly tiny wonders. A cleverly engineered work of Art by Mother Nature. They may look small and adorable, but did you know that hummingbirds have crazy metabolisms that make them rather rabid creatures if you think about it? Just like other small jittery animals that live at an amped-up speed. Like hamsters. Like you or me on steroids, red bull or three double-shot espressos. It's like talking quickly in a high pitch when you increase the frequency of a sound recording. Or humans on an adrenaline rush when your boss is hounding you for work, with spiked levels of cortisol in the bloodstream.

According to wikipedia, they can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12–90 times per second (depending on the species). They are also the only group of birds that can fly backwards. The only reason they are harmless is because of their innocuous size. But I guess that's also the main reason they are able to move so quickly. If they were large like elephants, gravity would make it impossible for them to move so rapidly. Anyway that's me geeking out. I got myself a sketchbook with brown pages from Cat Socrates at Bras Basah Complex. One of my favourite shops in Sg. I really like the brown colour and texture of the paper and it makes me want to draw well.

Caricature Practice

2010-11-20T17:54:00.004+08:00

Clockwise from top-left: Xunhui, Wilson, Brenda & William

Faizal and his mohawk

Amirah

Sacha Goedegebure, my former storytelling, film studies & character design lecturer at 3dsense and Director of Big Buck Bunny.

... and this one's my favourite drawing of the lot - John David Marte, my former VFX teacher at 3dsense :)

I realise how easy it is to lose one's drawing abilities without practice >< but once I practise, I can feel it coming back to me little by little.

Summer Lovin'

2010-11-03T00:12:00.011+08:00

For Weimin & KK's wedding solemnization. They're a pair I kinda helped matchmake ;) Theme is Purple Summer. This was printed out on a big sheet and hung below an even bigger tree at Faber Point where their solemnization was held. May their journey together be an eternal summer and may married life bring them only the best it has to offer.

Photography (In)justice

2010-10-24T19:59:00.011+08:00

Recently I've been feeling more and more dissatisfied with my point-and-shoot (POS) camera. While in the past it seemed the picture and colour quality was good for such a consumer-level camera, it appears to have dropped ever since the day I toyed with the Manual function and switched it back to Auto. Or maybe that's just psychological and I'm getting more critical of image quality. *shrug* I think it's a pity when photographs do not do the moment any justice.

Anyhow, on 10/10/10, I had the pleasure of attending Rachel & Dickson's marriage solemnization at Sentosa. Yes, they were part of the mass-wedding event held there. I took lots of photos with my POS camera and they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I think I was lucky to have taken this nice candid photo as it really captures the mood of the newlyweds. I did some layer adjustments, and blurred & desaturated the background slightly using layer mask. I hope I've done a little justice. (Before is on the Right!)

People Sketching

2010-10-17T04:11:00.007+08:00

Sketches done between 21 August and 3 October 2010. All but the guy on the top right hand corner were life drawings. Some were drawn in cafes. A few with eyes half closed were done on MRT trains. Trains are a good place to sketch people coz their faces are clearly visible. One problem is that they'll probably notice you drawing them. Another challenge is that of moving models. That's why sleeping ones make good models - they're both still and unconscious. Hence lower the likelihood that you'll be beaten up when sketching them. But be careful not to draw someone with a partner who's awake, or they just might catch you.

You might spot some of my friends!

2010-10-17T03:29:00.003+08:00

For my friend Tingshan, who's away in China. This was one of the first few sketches I did after recently picking up my pen again. Done based on a photograph. Lines, furry lines... too many lines.

gentle giant giraffe

2010-10-17T02:17:00.019+08:00

Where do ideas come from? I'm always in awe of illustrators like fleecircus, twistii and shawna chan. What captivates, makes me go wow, and feel all nice and fuzzy inside, isn't the accuracy of the artwork, but rather the designs. The ideas that the artists so seemingly effortlessly translate onto canvas. While it is important to know how to draw something accurately, I think what makes an artist stand out is the style and imagination that belongs only to him. I really wish to be like them, to make something visually and artistically unique to call my own. Sometimes I wonder, what's missing? Is it because I didn't read enough Roald Dahl or play enough computer games as a kid? Was it being too studious in school and not spending enough time doodling during class and after? These questions do cross my mind (In particular I do wonder if I should have played more computer games to better fit into this industry. But I guess I didn't know then about my future). Anyhow I guess it's never too late to start drawing & painting.

Anyway, Hello! Been ages since I last blogged! Was busy getting my job up and off the runway. And I was out of inspiration for awhile and was dissatisfied with the blog layout (which I've since changed). After doing all that lighting, rendering and 3D work, I felt like something was missing. Realized that I still very much love 2D. Am really happy to be back in the habit of sketching and painting, thanks to friends like Desmond and Zhi Hao. With them and other friends, we went life-drawing outdoors at cafes, dempsey, the zoo and at events organized by OIC. I also went drawing on my own at the Southern Ridges. Aahhhh the little joys in life! :)

Here's a pen sketch of a giraffe done on a sketch-walk to the zoo on 3 October. I was really grateful to this particular giraffe as it was really "good" for drawing. It just stood there munching on leaves, not moving its body much at all. Took under 10 minutes to draw. After scanning in the sketch at home, I filled in some colour in Photoshop with my wacom. I decided to experiment and somewhere along the way the thought of giraffes being kinda elegant and dainty giants (with their thick eye-lashes) crept into my painting. Together with cherry blossoms and chinese/japanese paintings.

Production Film

2010-06-10T13:10:00.006+08:00

Our production film is up on youtube!

I modeled the house environment, did the lighting, rendering and compositing.
In the course of our production, I learned many things and encountered technical difficulties and bugs, especially while setting up the scenes for, and during rendering. This required me to think out of the box and come up with alternative solutions to get the images rendered out. Sometimes this meant resorting to rendering frame by frame when all else failed.

I'm fortunate to have worked with my groupmates: the modelers Terence, Richard and Stefanie for the beautifully modeled & rigged characters and props. Our animator Drew Pan who was really fast in his animation so that the project would not be delayed. He also came up with unique movements to personify the characters. Not forgetting Gabriel who did the cloth and flame dynamics, which was no easy feat, having to research and learn everything from scratch.

I would also like to thank our lecturers, classmates, and my seniors & juniors at 3dsense for their never-ending encouragement. It really went a long way in cheering me up and keeping me going :)

Whatever it is, we are all glad that production is done. Now it's time to move on to new projects!

(The sound is only a temporary one Andrew put in for atmosphere and placement.)

Graduated and Officially Unemployed

2010-06-06T18:50:00.003+08:00

Whoa! Haven't updated this in 2 months. I was buried in production work and I'm finally done with it!! 1.5 months of hardcore (and sometimes frame-by-frame) rendering over woohoo! I've handed over the rendered shots to Andrew for the final edit. Gary says we'll have to wait for the third group to finish before they'll send all 3 groups' short films over to a guy in Netherlands to get the sound done. cool right?? Haha can't wait for the final product.

Right now I've to work on getting my demo reel out and other personal projects. I've brought my school computer home. Can't wait to fix the internet connection on it so I can get started! I'm gonna miss my friends and lecturers at school though. Maybe I'll join them for a run sometime :) Keep in touch people!

Production - WIP

2010-04-01T14:51:00.014+08:00

Hallway

Added in curtains - curtain nCloth dynamics and modeling courtesy of Gabriel Tan, textured and lit by me.
Wall lamps & painting frames modeled by Richard Tan.

Dining Room

Table, chairs, candlestick, cabinet, side table, hanging lamp, painting frames, photo frames - modeled by Richard Tanjaya.
Roses - modeled by Terence Hoo.
Wine glass, wine bottle & candle - modeled by Gabriel Tan.
Candle flame to be added in by Gabriel.
Tablecloth, food, vase, plate, walls, house modeled, textured & lit by me.

This scene is lit by the candles, a dim light from the hanging lamp, and a little bit of moonlight falling in from the window on the left.
JD taught me an easy way to link and unlink objects with lights and it's made my job a lot easier :)

Second Floor

with Billy low-poly base mesh

Side table, wall lamp and painting frame modeled and textured by Richard Tan.
Roses modeled by Terence Hoo.

Production - WIP

2010-03-23T18:51:00.003+08:00

Beauty Pass - Second Floor

This was what I came up with after getting more feedback from the lecturers about the second floor to

1. add more gradations
2. increase contrast

At first I was a bit confused coz I thought the idea of gradation and contrast seemed to contradict each other. I thought gradation was more subtle changes in tone whereas contrast is more drastic well, contrast. But after clarifying with JD I think I understand - it's to have the whole range of tones from dark to light including the extremities at the ends and subtleties in the middle.

I used spotlights to illuminate the floor, walls and door. Point lights were used for the lamp itself and around the lamp. For the shot on top, a spotlight was used as a rim to finely outline the railings. I used a negative light to suck out the light on the lower left hand corner of the top shot, and in the background of the lower shot.

The trick is to cheat with the lighting to get the effect and mood I want, and at the same time not look too weird. Hope I managed to achieve this.

Hallway

Added some environmental fog as well as light fog particles for the hallway on Edward's suggestion. Also added in a bit of shadow under the wall lamps and behind the railings for the second floor.

Production - WIP

2010-03-16T16:11:00.021+08:00

More Beauty Passes

These beauty passes were rendered without Final Gathering. As with the previous post, some of the passes will be rendered with Final Gathering for compositing later. Earlier on I'd forgotten to mention that the wall lamps were modeled by our modeler Richard Tanjaya :)

In doing VFX quite a bit of waiting is involved - Wait for each render to see how the changes turn out. Wait for stuff to be handed down the pipeline. In fact now I'm waiting for my rendering while I blog.

Lighting looks easy and some people think that the VFX person's job is simple. But as with animation and modeling, we have challenges too. A scene can't simply be lit with a few basic lights, especially creepy night scenes like ours. I've been working the light-linking editor to bits, linking, unlinking and re-linking. Every time some object or light is added or changed, many of the light links have to be edited. We can set up the scene as it should look, but when we get new stuff from the animators and modelers, things still need to be tweaked and refined. This will continue until the last time I hit "Batch Render" at the final stage. Maybe I'm still quite new at this so I've yet to find a more efficient way of doing this.

Am almost done with my lights for the environment for now. Planning and setting up my render passes. Looking forward to lighting the character. Displaying signs of stress such as chest pain, snacking and talking too much with "strangers" on Facebook while waiting for my rendering (Ha! not really... =p) Xiaohui just asked me if I've slimmed down coz she said my face looks sharper. Haha... I guess that's one of the "perks" of stress huh. The fats get relocated from the face to the mid-section.

Really helps a lot to plan and be organized when it comes to render passes. And the music helps too. The "new" Nightwish singer is growing on me, she has a different style to Tarja which isn't bad, just different. Less operatic maybe, but it opens new styles of music for the band. Gin Blossoms rock too! I love old(er) music.

Jiayou everyone!!! We're closer to the finishing line!

Production - WIP

2010-03-07T12:27:00.021+08:00

Hallway

with Final Gathering

with Final Gathering

Modeled, textured and did the lighting for these shots. It's still work-in-progress, we have yet to add in some furniture and characters done by the modelers. These are just raw test renders - the actual shots will be rendered in passes and composited. While I felt that the ones with Final Gathering turned on were a bit too bright, the lecturers said it's better to render them brighter to capture more colour, and darken them later during compositing. Comments and critiques are welcome.

4 weeks left till deadline. Things are starting to heat up...
Ps: Lighting is fun!!! Never thought I'd enjoy it so much, but it can really make a lot of difference to how a shot looks.

i ♥ MRT

2010-02-16T00:55:00.015+08:00

click to enlarge

Thank you SMRT for the wonderfully comfortable and entertaining ride.
I take the train twice a day to and from school. Travelling takes about 1 hour in total on the train daily, plus another 50 minutes walking. This occupies a significant chunk of my life considering how little time I spend at home awake on weekdays. (If I spend 4 hours awake at home, that means 1/3 of my time awake outside school is spent travelling!)

I don't own an mp3 player so there's not much entertainment on the train. If I'm lucky enough to catch the Business Class seat I read or grab the opportunity to snooze. Sometimes I stare into space. But more often than not I end up observing the people around me. Their unique personalities make them seem like caricatures to me. Last week there was a man in office attire with his headphones on. He was singing his song aloud... totally off-pitch, no less! Everyone turned to stare at him with the "idiot" look but it was really amusing and funny to me. Hooray for our MRT Idol. (Well he totally fit the Sg Idol bill!)

I went jogging this evening. After that during dinner, my Dad said there was a stalker in my neighbourhood and that a lady jogger had died. The Wanted posters are up at the coffee shops nearby. Fortunately it's not near my home, but unfortunately the killer is still at large.

Mum & Siyang

2010-02-15T02:22:00.013+08:00

I am finally posting this up and am not gonna touch it anymore (after repeatedly deleting and tweaking about 7 times since I first posted it up last night). As the saying goes, a painting is never finished, only abandoned!

This digital painting is based on an old photograph of my Mum and brother. It was taken near the Singapore River. If I'm not mistaken, it's near Cavenagh bridge and the building is the former Empress Place (now the Asian Civilisations Museum). It was taken a few years before I was born. I think my Mum will always be beautiful to me. And though my brother was such a nerdy 小白脸 (translation: small white face) when he was a kid, I'd say he's grown up to be quite a handsome young man (okay maybe I am biased). Nowadays people often ask whether he's younger or older than I. Haha.

Concept Sketches

2010-01-26T21:49:00.011+08:00

Chai said the second one from the right (above) looks like me.. o_0 I take it as a compliment =P

Okay so our war-puppy-robot story got shot down during last Friday's presentation. We spent the whole of Monday discussing and by lunchtime we had a whole NEW story. We're doing HORROR!!! Although I don't usually watch a lot of horror flicks, I'm slowly but surely getting to appreciate and like the genre. I'm excited about creating the moody atmosphere and interesting lighting. I can see the look all in my head!!! Most of all, I love that it's different!

We're one week behind on our pre-production since the stuff we did last week is now irrelevant and we have to come up with entirely new concept art for the new story. But I'm sure with hard work and dedication we can make it in time for Friday's presentation! Go 4-Eyed Pandas!!!

i love drawing so much i can just spend the whole day drawing...

Environment Concept Art

2010-01-23T02:33:00.003+08:00

Production Term started on Monday. I was pretty fired up - my team mates and I have been busy rushing the pre-production concept art which is due at the end of next week. Today we faced some teething problems which I hope will be ironed out on Monday. I've been having insomnia the past few nights due to an overly-active mind and feeling wide awake after showering when reaching home late at night... which also explains why I'm still awake at this hour.

Anyway, recent weeks have brought news of changes around me on various fronts. I'm once again reminded of how ever-changing life is and nothing is constant in this world.

The only thing I feel good coming out of me today, some sketches for the Environment Design of our production. It's a third world war zone. I'm pleasantly surprised as this is by far one of the most-commented pieces of art work I've ever done. I'm not sure if it's really worth all the compliments though, as the sketches are quite simple and didn't take long. I realize how easy it is to draw out an idea that's already in your head. Sometimes, it takes only a few minutes to come up with something you would on other days take hours to produce. More to come in the following week.

I'm listening to Nightwish and I really love their music with former singer Tarja Turunen (Thanks Desmond). I especially like very much the song Creek Mary's Blood. It's really beautiful. Part of it reminds me of Avatar. It's like tribes and vikings and mountains and fantasy all rolled into one. The Siren too. Awesome stuff.

Night Cycling

2010-01-14T00:38:00.012+08:00

An article I read on 10 ways to be a whole lot happier said that viewing old photos can significantly improve one's happiness. I was looking through my stash of photos stored in my computer and came across these beautiful shots. Taken during a memorable night cycling trip on 10th October 2008, these photos do little justice to the breathtaking sight I saw with my own eyes - Singapore City waking up to a new day. The first two shots were taken at 0635 while the third at 0702hrs. The whole Singapore River area was quiet and our group the only people around. Seeing the usually-bustling city in its calm serenity was surreal. Bathed in the tender early rays of the emergent sun, the city barely-waking was more beautiful than any other time I'd seen it, its reflections on the still water only served to double its beauty.

I shared this amazing view of my beloved homeland with my then-newfound friends. My first overnight cycling trip would be one I'll never forget.

(Photos courtesy of my friends)

bawling bunny

2010-01-12T23:05:00.021+08:00

After seeing all the excellent digital painting work done by my school mates from DVE14, I was firstly, in awe, and secondly, my hands started itching. So I picked up my Wacom and drew this in the wee hours of this morning. haha. Just a simple sketch telling a little story. Then I had an idea to make a series of Bawling Bunny drawings... maybe I will post more Bawling Bunnies up in time to come. Just maybe.

I caught Sherlock Holmes in the cinema last week. A pretty good show for those who like witty dialogue. The action was also not bad and it was quite thrilling with themes of the occult, set in 19th century London. I like that it's a little different.

My Top Movies For 2009
1. Avatar - just epic. this needs no explanation.
2. Fantastic Mr Fox - loved the whimsical style, awesome stop-motion & artistry.
3. (500) Days of Summer - not your usual love story, teaches you more than any conventional love story ever could.
4. Up - wonderful imagination and touching love story. animated film that made me laugh and also cry.

There were a few shows that I missed - Coraline, Princess & The Frog, maybe Departures. Sometimes I'm too engrossed in work and forget to watch shows, or procrastinate for too long till they're no longer in cinemas. Well it's good to save money anyway.

Am still working on my vfx hero shot. Today I encountered some more (BIG) obstacles... Hope to be able to fix it tomorrow. (Update 130110 - It's fixed! All thanks to my VFX teacher John David.)

A last burst of energy this week before production starts... then it'll be a hectic 2.5 - 3-month sprint to the finishing line...

Another year gone by

2009-12-31T15:41:00.002+08:00

As 2009 draws to a close, minds are set thinking and hearts collecting the memories of the past year. Typically, it's a time for reflection on our goals and how far we have come in achieving them.

For me, 2009 was the significant year in which I made a major career change. In April I quit my job and went back to school. Accountancy and Art both start with the same letter but they are worlds apart. This has unintentionally and inevitably set me apart from the rest of my graduating batch from Accountancy, in that I am no longer one of them. Suddenly, I feel like an alien (though I never really felt like I was one of them from the beginning). Everyone wants to know why, what made me make the switch. And suddenly people who in the past paid me little attention now want to hear my "life story". Especially those who have made changes themselves and ventured out.

The answer is actually very simple. It's an interest, passion maybe, though I don't know if what I have can be classified as "passion". The desire to not make my life revolve around a soul-less, heartless career driven only by money and promotions. If you think about it, the decision is really simple. And though drastic, I trust myself and my instincts. I do not think I have been reckless or impractical. Still, I am indeed very fortunate to have this option and opportunity without too many complications financially. Sure, I will probably earn a lot less than my Uni peers in the short run and maybe in the long run too, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Many material things we can learn to do without and one can live on less, a life that is not centered on excessive consumerism. Ultimately in being true to my nature, I feel a more complete and much happier person.

I don't really believe in New Year resolutions, coz to me Life should be an ongoing effort to improve oneself, not just a bunch of goals thought up in the new year to be fulfilled. Naturally there are some things which are almost certain, like finding a job when I graduate around May 2010, which is a no-brainer and can't really be considered a resolution can it. Other goals remain ongoing, such as exercising regularly, balancing work, play and rest, making your life count by bringing joy to those that matter - your friends and family, but also not forgetting the man in the street. Opening one's heart and being more conscious in practicing kindness. (This I need to learn).

Spiritually and mentally, Life is a balancing act, a constant interplay and tug-of-war between opposites. The balancing act between professional and personal time. Having fun collectively in a big group yet not forgetting who you are. Practical material considerations versus the world of ideas. Social versus private.

In 2009, the external world around me has undoubtedly changed - friends getting married, quitting or changing jobs, people pass away. But for myself, apart from my career switch and going back to school, not much has changed. I made it a point to exercise more this year and ran in 2 recreational races. I visited Bangkok and Bintan. Made some new friends, strengthened budding friendships, rekindled some old ones while others drifted apart. Discovered a few new nature trekking routes. Watched more movies alone. Read more books.

2010 will see even more changes, but some things will remain the same.

By the end of 2010, I predict I would still be a little shy as I have always been, though I can also be friendly. (What a contradiction, isn't it?) I would still be idealistic, though not foolishly and impractically so. I would still be a simple person on the outside and probably have simple material needs, though I am hungry mentally (and also hungry for good food but hey who isn't?). These will probably remain the same because it is my choice. Fundamentally, this is how I have been since I can remember, though you might notice subtle changes along the way.

Last but not least, school has been awesome. I made some great friends and got to know really cool people. Learned from and was inspired by experts. Looking forward to a continuous learning journey in this industry.

In the coming year 2010, I hope each and every person would strive to be their best. Not only in achieving things for themselves, but also in your thought process, being a better and bigger person morally and ethically. Try to lessen your carbon footprint and do our bit for the Earth. All these I myself must also strive for, not just preach. If everyone can do their bit, the world would be a much better place.

Work In Progress - VFX Hero Shot

2009-12-21T11:53:00.009+08:00

Here's a peek at what I've been working on.
Haven't decided on her name yet. I'll call her Squawk for now :P
Presenting my low-poly dragon/bird/dinosaur hybrid species-confused model with textures.

Unwrapped UV

Colour

Normal Map (Sculpted in ZBrush)

Some initial test renders of Squawk with my Fullerton model

i wuv bunnies

2009-12-20T21:44:00.004+08:00

I know the murderous rabbit has probably been done to death (i.e. raving rabbids, bunny suicides).

That didn't stop me from putting the bunnies in my head to (digital) canvas.
Hope u like it!
(Click image to zoom in)

Norman Animation

2009-12-20T18:16:00.003+08:00

More animation done from Semester 2 using the Norman rig, for Basic Body Mechanics class.

Personality Walk

Jump on Box

Weight Lift

Animation Exercises

2009-12-20T17:25:00.012+08:00

Let's take a trip back in time. Here are some animation exercises done in Semester 1.

Ball

Heavy & Light Ball

Ball on Obstacle

Tailer

Onion Boi Walk

Character Design - Monster Rugby

2009-12-20T14:05:00.022+08:00

Character Design class's assignment from last semester.
A friend commented that I seem to have more 2D work than 3D here. Will upload some 3D work soon. Stay tuned!

Dead Fallout 3

2009-12-11T21:46:00.011+08:00

These days I do not bring my school work home as my home laptop is not powerful enough to house the software I need for school work. I've had a little more time on my hands for other things after leaving school (which still can be as late as 9 or 10 on some days but this is not often the case for the time being).
This is one of the little projects I've been up to. It's a piece I did for a group of Final Year Project (FYP) students from Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. (aka Mass Comm). They needed a retro-style hand-painted kind of movie poster as a prop to be used in a film they were shooting for their FYP. So it's a show in a show. Done with the art direction of Erwin Nah and Low Koon Yen, using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0.

Oh, and Fantastic Mr Fox was the best show I saw this year. Simply brilliant. Go catch it if you can :)

a little peek...

2009-11-25T01:05:00.012+08:00

I like it in here.

Every Rose Has its Thorn

2009-11-22T23:51:00.006+08:00

I was inspired by the music video of The Path To Decay by Sirenia. I thought the singer, Ailyn, was really gorgeous! This is my first time trying to come up with a "fantasy"/goth-styled digital painting without entirely referring to picture reference.

Did this in one day, and started out not quite knowing how the final product would look like. The Rose idea came to me when I went for a jog halfway through the painting. Though I soon realised the idea of a girl emerging from a flower must have already been done to death. Comments & critique are welcome!

Anyway, I watched Amelia the movie today. It's about the true story of Amelia Earhart, the first woman who attempted to fly around the world. The show was inspiring, though I found the story a little too short. Well I guess there's not much potential for depth in a script such as this.

An inspirational quote from the show-

"We all have oceans to fly, if we have the heart to. Some say it's reckless. Maybe, but dreams know not of boundaries."

(or something along these lines based on what i remember)

Fullerton Panorama

2009-11-13T23:04:00.006+08:00

The panoramic image for my upcoming Hero Shot. This was done using the same method as the one I used for Victoria Street in my Baby Shot - using Adobe Photoshop's Photomerge function and touching up by digital painting. Only thing was this shot had over a hundred photos while the previous one had only about 30. Also, the photomerge was not complete and hence there was quite a bit of manual photo-stitching involved. I enjoyed it though, maybe I'll make it a new hobby of mine. Hehe.

VFX Baby Shot

2009-11-05T11:47:00.010+08:00

Why did the chicken cross the road?

My VFX Baby shot. It's not that fantastic. Did this in about 2 weeks. By the way the clip is a bit choppy as it didn't export very well for uploading online. Chicken modeled using ZBrush and Maya. Rigging, animation and rendering in Maya. Compositing done in Adobe After Effects and video editing in Premier Pro.
Yeah now to move on to our Hero shot!

Photo Stitching

2009-10-29T20:31:00.010+08:00

Some photo-stitching to make the HDRI for my VFX baby shot. Initially we wanted to use Hugin (a free software) to stitch the 31 photos into a spherical image (a stereographic, meaning looking up). But the software was problematic and hung repeatedly during the stitching process. So JD taught us to use Photoshop to merge the photos together using Photomerge. The second image is the product of the photomerge, before editing. I then did some photo-editing using layer masks, painted in some of the blank areas, and blended some of the areas using tricks learned from Alvin's Digital Painting class. It was quite fun!

See if you can spot some of the edited areas =P

Frisky Fox

2009-10-24T16:24:00.004+08:00

Here's the first clip for our Visual Effects (VFX in short) class we did during Software term. The fox was done earlier for animation class during Foundation term. We were given the video footage of the warehouse, and had to put the 3D CG (computer graphics) object "into" the warehouse video, and make it look like it's really there. At first I found VFX really technical and tough, but the more I work on it, the more satisfaction and fun I derive from tweaking the VFX to make it look better.

I came into the course thinking I'd be more interested in modeling or animation and always had the thinking that VFX was really technical and less artistic than modeling. During the course, I realized that I liked everything (no kidding). Except maybe Rigging. Anyway, as time passed I found my patience for modeling wearing thinner (no thanks to Zbrush that keeps crashing and making me lose my work!) while my interest in VFX only growing with time. Hence I decided to specialize in VFX. I am also very happy because VFX specialization enables me to do all 3 disciplines PLUS the visual effects (tracking, lighting, rendering & compositing). So all's good! :)

Turn on the speakers! haha.

Digital Painting - Fruits & Cat

2009-10-24T15:41:00.010+08:00

Some earlier work for digital painting class from months ago.

2 Apples (not the same apple)

Purple Potato & Kumquat

Final Assignment (9 October'09)

My last assignment for digital painting class, a simple painting of a cat. As I was pressed for time due to the deluge of assignments, I took about 5 hours to come up with this on the submission date itself. Painted from scratch in Photoshop. Actually I could have just submitted my work for the Monster Rugby character design class since I also did that with full shading. But I didn't want to recycle my work done for another class. Anyway, in the end was a bit disappointed over my digital painting grade, a B+. Was hoping for an A- since it was one of my favourite classes and I felt I had put some effort in it. Unexpectedly, I scored better in the Visual Effects subjects which I thought were tougher and I felt quite clueless in class, especially in the beginning. I think it was largely because JD helped me out with the assignment. The biggest surprise, albeit a pleasant one, was getting A- for Rigging. This was really really weird coz I thought I had screwed up the test and was expecting a C at best. Honestly I thought I'd failed it. Oh well, life works in mysterious ways doesn't it? Just like in JC when I liked Chemistry better than Physics, but the latter turned out to be my best subject at the A' Levels. Weird right? Maybe I'm more of a technical geek than an artistic person than I realize...

I guess it's also good that I didn't fare that well in Digital Painting too coz it teaches me not to be complacent... to be humble and strive to be even better every day. Coz there is always room for improvement. Looking forward to doing more digital painting in future in my free time, whatever little I have of it. And hopefully I can come up with better stuff... :)

Tony Leung

2009-10-24T14:27:00.004+08:00

Here's the last portrait I did many months ago during Foundation term. It's Tony Leung in the movie Lust, Caution. The scan wasn't very good so there are white lines (like those on his hair) which weren't on the actual drawing. Anyway, I got some feedback that he looks old in the drawing. Yup. Got it. Still need to improve.

Life Drawing

2009-09-10T21:59:00.005+08:00

Some of the poses done over 6 evening classes of Life Drawing. It can be quite tiring coz it's pose after pose after pose, each pose lasting 30 seconds to 6 minutes long. And evening lessons were 7pm - 10pm. It's still quite a fun experience though! Seldom get the chance to draw the human figure through direct observation, let alone completely nude....

Frodo....

2009-09-10T00:38:00.005+08:00

It's everyone's favourite Fantasy victim-cum-hero... Frodo!!! For our digital painting assignment, I wanted to try something realistic for a change. I was thinking that a dream job would be one as a professional matte painter. Amidst learning all the software stuff, my favourite is still Digital Painting. Since it's Software term now, I do miss the drawing we did in Foundation phase, but at least there's still Character Design and Digital Painting class, which is great! Time flies, it's already been 5 months since we started the course, and before you know it, we would be graduating. Let's enjoy our school life now while we still can :)

Today (yesterday) was 9th September 2009. How did you spend your day? I spent it like any normal school day. Had lesson in the morning and assignment period in the afternoon, during which the few of us watched Drawn Together on Alvin's computer. It's kind of a satirical, twisted cartoon that spoofs characters from different cartoons. Stefanie says it's "worse than South Park" and she's right. You would NEVER ever find it on Singapore TV. Though crude, it's still pretty funny if you keep an open mind!

Quote of the Day
"If 09/09/2009 is so special because it only happens once in your life, why 10/09/2009 isn't? Aren't the relative frequency of both days to appear in your life comparatively similar?" - my friend Adi Prawira's status on Facebook. If you think about it, he's right.

I came across the website of Tiberius Viris, a visual effects artist. He has some cool work on display. Go have a look.

Guitar Babe

2009-08-24T00:20:00.007+08:00

My dream self. I can't be her in real life, so I drew her. Maybe if I were more extroverted, attention-loving and rebellious, I could be like her (minus the looks). Or maybe if I were born in some other country. Maybe I'd be her in another life =)

Anyway, her hippie/indie style is drawn from the likes of Imogen Heap, Sarah McLachlan and Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil, a few of my favourite female rockers. She's not the stereotypical dark girl rocker like Amy Lee from Evanescence, neither is she pop like Avril Lavigne (hey hey, you you, I don't like your girlfriend! -Eughh). Just like Life, she is both dark and light. And she has both style and substance. Just as we can't deny that Life is often complex, so is she. That makes her real, not just some pop princess made for mainstream consumption.

I also tried different background colours in something like Chestnut (dark pink) and Medium purple. Have yet to decide on which colour to hand it in. Background image courtesy of www.wallpapersweb.com.

Johnny Depp

2009-08-10T01:00:00.006+08:00

Portrait of Johnny Depp from the movie From Hell. Done in Adobe Photoshop. Brooding gaze. What a dreamboat. *sigh*

Nobu the Ninja

2009-08-09T23:47:00.008+08:00

Here's Nobu the Ninja, the main character for my Character Bible. It's a combination of Jon + Ninja + Elf. (Jon is our Foundation Drawing teacher) As mentioned, I like my sidekick Geisha Granny better =)

Geisha Granny

2009-07-23T01:12:00.004+08:00

Meet Geisha Granny, my sidekick for the Character Bible assignment. I thought of the idea for her when I woke up one day, while still lying in bed. Though tiny, she's fast and packs a punch! This little granny is not to be trifled with. Her Magic Needle stuck in her hair can be enlarged and used as a formidable weapon. Somehow, I like her more than my main character...

Kiyoshi's Lie

2009-07-13T02:12:00.013+08:00

I didn't think I would actually finish colouring this, but I was bored today, so I spent the evening working on it. It's not perfect, but I'm glad I stayed home. Hope you like it.

Comments & criticisms please.

Man + Dog + Tree

2009-07-10T16:59:00.007+08:00

Mood board / beat board for Storyboarding class (something that gives the mood and an idea of the story). The task was to include a man, dog and a tree. I actually saw this scene when I was holidaying in Melbourne at the Great Ocean Road. However there's something about this piece of work that I don't really like but I'm not sure why...

Ice Age 3 & Oktapodi

2009-07-04T22:06:00.012+08:00

Guess what, if you've watched or are planning to watch Ice Age 3, the man in charge of the three baby T-Rex dinosaurs is a Singaporean! He is Melvin Tan, a senior-animator at Blue Sky Studios, and lives and works in San Francisco. Check out his blog. Let this be an inspiration to all you budding art, animation and visual effects students out there! Wouldn't it be great to land a job overseas? It would definitely be a great experience to live abroad and see the world out there, beyond the shores of our tiny little island.

Our foundation drawing teacher John showed us this short animation called Oktapodi. It's a 2009 Oscar-nominated animated short film. I really like it! Firstly, I love it coz it's set in GREECE... The one destination I reeeeally want to visit in my lifetime. Not that I don't want to visit other places like Europe, America and Japan too, but there's something extra special about Greece... the legendary sunsets, the white stone houses with blue dome roofs beneath sunny blue skies, glittering blue-green sea, delectable mediterranean cuisine and last but not least the ancient ruins of a magnificent civilisation! The Acropolis, Parthenon... Greek Gods! wowee! Enough gushing from me! The OTHER reason why I like this animation is that it's so CUTE! The animators did a really good job with the characters yeah. It's such a pretty animation, they should make it into a full length feature film!

Enjoy ^^

Flying Chair Pod

2009-06-27T19:21:00.005+08:00

Zhng my... Flying Chair Pod! (the word "zhng" comes from the Mr Brown Show and means something like "Pimp my ride"). Here's something I came up with for our Perspective assignment in pencil on paper. It's supposed to be like a flying pod that transports a person (or cat. hehehe) through the air, and is powered by two rockets at the base of the pod. Plush leather seats await the cat's bottom in this comfortable little flying machine :P

One-point perspective

Two-point perspective

Three-point perspective

Submitted on 26 June 2009

Corner Shop

2009-06-27T18:50:00.004+08:00

The inside of a corner shop in three-point perspective. Used a bit of Dutch angle here (tilted frame) coz John suggested it, but turned out I did not tilt the angle enough, so it looks neither here nor there. oh man... i really suck at perspective and angles. aaargh! need to improve!

Submitted on 27 May 2009

Cannibal Village

2009-06-27T18:41:00.004+08:00

Cannibal Village for Perspective class! Two-point perspective, in pencil on paper. After doing this I didn't wanna look at any more pictures of tribesmen, bushes or sticks! haha...

Submitted on 20 May 2009

Johnny Depp's Room

2009-06-27T18:34:00.002+08:00

A fictitious Johnny Depp's room in one and two-point perspective. Done in pencil on paper. Something about it looks a bit flat and dull... this is the kind of result you get when you do your work in haste :P Anyway, see if you can spot the movie references :)

Submitted on 13 May 2009

Suburb

2009-06-27T18:24:00.004+08:00

Simple shapes assignment for Foundation Drawing class. I copied this from a picture, but got some of the angles wrong. Drawing this felt like I was studying Architecture!

Submitted on 12 May 2009

Cowboy Town

2009-06-27T18:18:00.004+08:00

One of our first assignments for Perspective class. A cowboy town in one-point perspective. Done in pencil on paper... some wrong angles.

Submitted on 29 April 2009

On Art

2009-06-22T20:48:00.003+08:00

I feel very fortunate to study amongst people who are so passionate about Art. On days when I'm down, my classmates brighten up my day with their jokes, fun and laughter. Though there is a huge amount of work, we do get by, fuelled by passion for our work. The work actually becomes alot, because everyone is so dedicated to improving and producing quality art, such that we end up spending lots of time on every piece. This results in sleepless nights for many of us. Coming from mainstream schools in the past, I don't think I can remember ever schooling with such a crazy bunch of people. It is, after all, a class of artists, and I guess we are kinda different from your usual mix of Singaporeans. Having classmates from such diverse backgrounds has been a real eye-opener for me.

"Artists are not born to be perpetual hermits like it's their nature. Artists are hermits because society imposes it on them. It makes them feel guilty for pursuing Art."

Alex Alvarez, founder of Gnomon Inc from USA and an artist who makes big bucks in Hollywood, said something along those lines. Artists are not born weird, they are not that way as if it's their nature to be weird. Don't stereotype artists just because of people like Van Gogh who suffered from depression and cut off his ear. Often, artists are marginalized by a society that holds the mindset that there is no value in Art. On the contrary, many people who are good in Art are geniuses with boundless imagination and creativity (I'm not blowing my own trumpet, lah). So next time if your son or daughter wants to pursue a career in Art, don't write him/her off for being weird and useless. Who knows, they may eventually end up earning more than an engineer or accountant =P

Portraits

2009-06-22T19:42:00.010+08:00

Here are some portraits done with pencil & paper, as assignments for our Foundation Drawing class. I've put the most recent on top and the earliest at the bottom. I think my favourite drawings are Jean Reno and Audrey Hepburn. Maybe Eric Bana because he's handsome, but not for the accuracy, which in my opinion was quite off. haha. My least favourite I think are Aaron Eckhart and maybe the first one, or the lady in the reclining pose. Anyway, there is always room for improvement... :)

Eric Bana as Hector in Troy, submitted on 23 June 2009

Jean Reno, submitted on 23 June 2009

Submitted on 4 June 2009

Audrey Hepburn, submitted on 26 May 2009

Aaron Eckhart, submitted on 14 May 2009

Submitted on 14 May 2009

Submitted on 7 May 2009

Submitted on 7 May 2009

Kiyoshi's Lie

2009-06-16T00:26:00.006+08:00

He never meant much to me anyway.

Just something I did today for fun. You could say it's my first attempt at drawing something manga-like. It's only the first draft and I have yet to add in details and colour (ie. blood, maybe a foot on the bed, some decor... no promises lol).

The question is... what is Kiyoshi lying about?

*Kiyoshi means quiet child in Japanese.

Stupid Pigs

2009-06-14T00:27:00.012+08:00

3 Little Pigs in colour. It feels kinda surreal to me... which I think works. I was wondering if the pigs are a bit too pale, and are kinda drowned out by the other colours in the environment. I was also wondering whether to make the Wolf look fierce or cute... in the end I hope I managed to achieve a balance. I may decide to change some things later on.

Actually before I came up with the roughs for this, I was thinking of Hotel California - about how beasts inhabit the hotel. The lyrics go "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave". And then I came up with this idea. So you can say that the Eagles' song inspired this illustration. Hehe.

In other news, my first Wacom pen nib has worn out! And after only one week. I changed it coz it was getting rough and I don't wanna spoil the surface of my tablet. Well, am trying to draw more lightly now. Hope it doesn't wear out too fast coz it's $35 for a packet of 5 nibs!

3 Little Pigs

2009-06-13T01:04:00.001+08:00

My line work for our assignment on the Fairytale character. I had alot of fun drawing this... I especially like the little pig's butt. Have yet to add colour.

Storyboard for "Lifted"

2009-06-12T01:30:00.000+08:00

Our assignment for Storyboarding class was some sort of a "marathon" drawing exercise. We had to storyboard the animated short film entitled Lifted by Pixar. Though we were told to do a minimum of 62 panels, many of us did more than that, with some of us going beyond 130 panels. I ended up with 117 panels and an aching right hand after almost non-stop drawing for 10 hours today (plus most of last night and part of the night before).

By the end of it, many of us were cursing and swearing at the 5 minute-long clip, especially those shots with the button board in various angles which were hard to draw. Though it was a long and challenging exercise, I think it's great that at least the aliens in the clip are really cute and funny. Sometimes while drawing, I'd suddenly laugh out loud at the funny alien expressions of the little, over-zealous trainee alien and also his phlegmatic superior with the ho-hum expression.

Hope you all enjoy the clip and storyboard!

My storyboard:

Kiwi

2009-06-02T16:04:00.000+08:00

My sushi chef-inspired Kiwi, character design for my Foundation Drawing class as a Colour Study assignment.

I imagined this little guy tossing a fish into the air and using his beak to slice it up like a sushi chef deftly slicing sashimi. Only difference is little Kiwi downing all the sashimi for himself instead of serving it to the customers ;)

It's our first assignment done on Adobe Photoshop and with a pen tablet. I must say that drawing digitally with a tablet takes some getting used to, but I think I'm getting the hang of it :) Looking forward to doing more interesting stuff with my newfound tools.