I will be going over to Hong Kong during December, for the SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011. SIGGRAPH stands for Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques. Each year there will be two conferences held, in the west and the east. It's one of the major conference for us, as animation students. Well but it isn't all just about animation. It is a showcase for people in various fields. In 2009, the conference attracted over 11,000 artists, research scientists, gaming experts and developers, filmmakers, and academics from around the world. This includes visualisation and imaging techniques, for example the next generation of fMRI. Did you know that the first SIGGRAPH ASIA in 2008 was held in Singapore?

I've settled my air tickets. I will be departing on 9th December, and staying there for 11 days. SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011 will be held from 12th December to 15th December 2011. I'm not settled with the accomodation yet. International volunteers will be staying at Hong Kong Hostel. Which I think it's a reasonable and affordable place. Where to find a package for 7 nights that's just HKD4000? It includes laundry, MTR cards and Internet services. The cheapest hotel I can get was at Empire Hotel, which is HKD1120 per night. (Note: It's in Wan Chai, Central. So it's higher than hotels in Tsim Sha Tsui.) Lately did I found out that my friends who were volunteering for a full-time, didn't had lodging grant. So it's like on the same boat.

I've contacted Disneyland HK as well! Sadly there isn't any free tickets for me, but rather some gifts instead. I noticed the rates as well, they were cheaper for Hong Kong citizens. Anyone with Hong Kong nationality, can you buy the tickets for us? :D Singapore should actually implement this marketing plan for the Universal Studios Singapore. Why should we pay the same as the tourist? It's because fairness is within our pledge?

My works for the Autodesk IIko Challenge was also been selected as the finalist. However they have yet to tell me the details of the rewards. It is suppose to have free air tickets and covered accomodation throughout the trip in Hong Kong. Though I can't use the tickets, it's not within my working schedule. Hopefully Autodesk Singapore, could give a reply soon.

Labels: award, notes, singapore, thoughts

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 23:15

Howdy, it's been a long time since the considerably post I had. It's like two months? There's been lots of transitions going on, this post might go off as a long post. I'm on this competition with MDA on 3DTV. It is about creating a short clip about Savvy Surfers that will be produced onto stereographic projections. I didn't wanted to compete in this event in the first place. I had several doubts before I entered this event.

The words given by the lecturer and the words that's stated on the poster doesn't seem to interlink. He said that as long you submit the story-boarding, you will have a chance to win the prizes. As to so far I've seen, I had never seen such easily paid off competitions. Even if it is then there comes to two outcomes. It is either this competition has more than they are looking for, or plainly they have a company to sponsor them for their upcoming film. Another thought that went through was, why was it introduced to our course? We aren't studying anything related to stereography. It should have been into courses relating to visual effects. Everyone start to mistake it as computer graphics, and then in the end it was stereographic 3D.

Anyway the production process was fun, from its creation of story to the training courses. I never knew how it worked out theoretically. I only know that the distance apart creates the illusion for depth of field. I still remember that during my secondary school, I stumbled across this website promoting this german alcoholic drink. The whole website is done in stereography (anaglyph), imagine your screen to go double-visioned.

Sometimes I just feel that there's a drawback between the education and the industry, especially in Singapore. Yes, the revolution of media industries. Animation is still in its fostering stage, and there seems to be a blurred line between animation and the film industry. How many in your mind right now can you think of for companies that are setup in Singapore? (not including those that has been welcomed to setup a branch here, mainly of the tariff-free policy) Now you want us get into this field? The creations of having an animation is still not there yet, and you want something new? Stereography is just a plain tool, that can only be used till a certain extent. Once it's rule is broken, everything falls apart.
MDA 3DTV Competition

Labels: singapore, thoughts

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 18:13

This week I broke my walking mileage, I walked from Bugis to Farrer Park to Raffles Place. I'm not sure how much distance I have walked. Is there any site that allows me to plan my route, like dropping down pins on the map and calculate the distance? I travelled for photography shots. Though the initial outcome wasn't good, my friend and I wasn't aware that there was a countdown at Little India the day before. Therefore we weren't able to take shots of the festival of lights.

We are very welcomed by the indian mates at Little India, they are gladly able to let us take their shots. One of them even treated us for a drink, explaining his experience in photography. We went for the City Square Mall for lunch, meanwhile thinking where to take the next shot. Thereafter we changed our location to the hearts of the city, for evening shots.

I felt the shots taken for this trip wasn't good enough. The shots taken wasn't good, but the weather was good. There is way too much people over in Little India, thus losing the general focus. We even had to wait for the traffic to be over, before we could take our shots in one of the street. The weather in the evening nightlife at city was bad, it was too cloudy.

Next monday our class will be going over to HortPark for photography shots. Our lecturer feels that location might be a hard choice for photography. Let's see if I am able to get any good shots over there, since I requested a macro lens for loan. I hope I am able to get into the butterfly garden for some interesting shots.

Labels: outings, photography, singapore

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 20:19

This will be the October post. It has been a long holiday ever since after the YOG break, due to the reschedule of schooling holidays.

I went back working during the holidays. This time was at Corporation Primary School, Poi Ching School, Ngee Ann Primary School. I also found out news that was happening in work, as well as meeting new trainees. Now the Bukit Timah Fire Station has also become more a mini arts-educational hub. I start to see more students coming over for their lessons, be it music/arts or academic.

I haven't asked Ryan for the sketchbooks yet, we submitted for checking. So I am now using all the sketchbooks that I can find. Likewise after the consultation with Mr Kim, he has spoke to us to start noticing on what aspect you are best catered at. What are your strengths and weaknesses, in order to be prepare for the Final Year Project. For the Final Year Project, we have to come out with a short animated film. Each will be doing on their own part, just like what the production line is in the industry. Each production point is a joint-process. So for example, if you were the 3D Modeller, you have to know how to model correctly. Thereafter the model will then be passed to the Animator for rigging. You wouldn't want your model to appear with errors while moving certain parts/posture. So this procedure proceed on to another role and on, till the final result are done. I feel that my strengths are at 3D modelling and concept drawing. Though I told one of the lecturers I don't really like Ideation in the first place. It turns out it isn't that hard, as long you continue developing and creating it. Creation is limitless.

Just last week, I had a session with Double Negative and Lucasfilm Singapore. Double Negative is an UK company, that has also setup its company in Singapore. They specialises in visual effects for film industry. They have been to various top leading film projects, that you see in cinemas. Lucasfilm Singapore, whom has been known for their works of the Star Wars. It is nice meeting both Tad Leckman, Director of Training, Lucasfilm Singapore and Adam Paschke, 2D Supervisor, Double Negative. They have proven ideas/tricks that seem believable yet unreal.

Double Negative (Singapore): http://dneg.com.sg/
Lucasfilm Animation (Singapore): http://www.lucasfilm.com/divisions/animation/

Labels: singapore, thoughts

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 23:00

I went for the Page One Warehouse Sale. It seems to me that Page One always has warehouse sale, from the results that I have search. I would say every three months there is once. However the frequency of the shuttle bus wasn't good, the interval was every hour. I did miss it. Forums wrote that the warehouse sale, was full of graphics design books. I didn't expect that much, till I reached there. The whole area was actually filled with it, be it the outside or inside the warehouse. Books sold outside, are brand new books. They do still have discounts, varying from 30% to 70%. Books that are inside, are second-hand books or books that has been out of print. Each books are priced at $10. It is surprising to see a large (considering the length of a table) photographic scenery book priced at $10. I wanted to get that to conceptualise for landscape drawing, but it's heavy. Magazines are sold at $1 each. There aren't much of design magazines. I have been looking for ImagineFX magazines, if you do find them selling do tell me. The magazines placed there are usually fashion style or health. I wonder does TapeiWalker magazine still exist?

So I bought 4 books and 2 magazines, totaled to $61. However I calculated was $86, maybe they still further sub-discounted it. Books that I bought, Fantasy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible, Great New Characters (Cube Collection), How To Draw Manga: Guns & Military (Volume 1), How To Draw Manga Volume 17: Guns & Military Volume 2, ARTnews magazine Feburary 2010, Crafts magazine December 2009.

After that saw there was a Toy Carnival at Expo, when I was checking my Twitter. So I saw see what's so happening about it. It was organised by License2Play. I didn't expect there was a gaming session for Starcraft II: Wings of Legion. There's also other games featured. I see the locals playing it, was far too slow compared those in Battle.NET. In Battle.NET within 15 minutes you can see they already started their next base, while for locals usually they would have only started their building their Factory. My account is going to end on 25 June 2010. Blizzard is clearing their database for beta testers, in preparing for the launch of the game. I am much looking forward for the campaigns. Since for beta testers, we are only allowed for online multiplayer (1v1 and 2v2). I don't really like the engine that Blizzard has did for the matchmaking system. It doesn't localised your position, therefore you would have a high ping partner as your ally. It is based on the experience and level of the user.

Labels: outings, singapore

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 20:05

Just came back from the NYAA Camp with the juniors. This year is pathetically a small group, compared with last year. 14 students, which is halved of what it was previously. During the planning process it was already a bad outcome to think of. The overseer isn't clear of what is going on, lack of communication and acknowledgement. They forget about the networking? Send messages till it is acknowledged before you can recieve back the data? The game is drastically worst, I think is even worst than Kelvin does. The games that they planned are only known to the two in-charge, and expect the rest of the team to know what and how the game is supposed to be played. Not all students come from the X-MEN Academy or being specially trained by Professor X. It is still a chalet-liked camp to me, as if everything is full of abundance. Free food for grabs without being known to the in-charge. If war really comes, I think the national food ration will deplete anytime, perhaps just lasting less than a month. The last camp was really me sleeping in the field with my sleeping bag, I really can't sleep that I volunteered to stay awake for two nights. That was when I was just Primary 3. Luckily it wasn't manifested with mosquitoes. However I get to see frogs jumping out in the early morning.

Yesterday I went for the Mint Musuem of Toys! Finally! I always wanted to go to this place since 2 years back. Luckily didn't bring Shiyun over, if not she will be crazy. There is a level where all Disney's Mickey is showcased, as well as Peanuts' Snoopy. :D

I get to see lots of stuff that is so nostalgic. I am a sentimental person. So I like to see these stuffs, that were still dated when we are just 5 years old. I still remembered the spoon that I used when I was in Grandma's house. The spoon has Felix the Cat design on it. I remembered that my aunt has a shirt with Betty Boop print. I remembered the day when Matchbox was a hit. I like to collect toy cars since young, with latter to another brand, Hotwheels. I read Tintin Adventures comic since 10 years old, as compared to Asterix comic. I remembered my father asking why did I read Tintin instead of Asterix, as last time library was always filled with shelves of these comic as the majority. My answer was just "Asterix's comic joke sometimes isn't funny or easily understand, compared to Tintin's wild adventure stories." Still recalled the dog named 'Snowy', Captain Haddock favourite liqour whisky, the two clumsy detective Thompson and Thomson. Those adventure places does exist in the world. :)

Lastly the level where all teddy bear are shown. Just loved it, although some of the bears where crazily stitch with the creepy teeth. If there is time maybe I just head for the winebar at the rooftop and basement. They said they offer events for birthday party.

Schedule for Westwood Secondary
Sec 1B - Monday/0830 - 1000/Papercut/Normal Academic
Sec 1C - Monday/0930 - 1100/Papercut/Normal Academic
Sec 1D - Wednesday/0830 - 1000/Papercut/Express
Sec 2F - Friday/0745 - 0900/Manga Art/Express

I will be teaching Westwood Secondary by the start of next month, from 5 April to 3 May. I wasn't quite sure whether am I able to make it till May. Polytechnic starts at 19 April, sure there is a Freshmen' Camp for SP. I will be teaching Papercut Animation for Secondary 1, Manga Art for Secondary 2. I am back with Alan! I have to wake up before 0745hrs, now that is the timing that we used to attend school during secondary. Wonder how am I going to wake up.

Labels: outings, singapore

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 20:36

Jack is a rich CEO of a large company. Throughout his family's past, no Robinson male has lived to be over 50, and Jack keeps having a dream about his father and an old lady. He tries very hard to stay healthy with the help of his butler. The man (Mark Max) who manages his business affairs convinces him to turn down a project involving alternative comestic supplies of a mildly successful slimming centre. The locals objected. During construction, the workers discovered that the beauty products are counterfeit and imported slimming pills. A strange young woman called Weandi then appears and accuses Jack of being a womaniser. That night a man sneaks into his house and takes him to see a strange old lady who tells him the traditional version of the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk", subsequently giving him the last magic bean.

The bean grows into a huge beanstalk, which leads him into the world of the evil, where he discovers the truth; in reality, the old lady was a benevolent individual, with Jack betraying his trust and stealing the Weandi and Feyonce, although the old lady's faint was only an accident as Jack hadn't expected the creatures to follow him. Unfortunately, the loss of the Weandi and Feyonce resulted in the loss of the magic that sustains the evil world, and it is only with the death of the Jack family that the magic will be restored, hence the Jack family curse. Despite her doubts about Jack after what happened when she fell for his ancestor- due to the different flow of time between the two worlds, time in the evil world travels slower than on Earth, and thus only a few years have passed up there as opposed to the centuries that have passed here-, Georgie recognises that Jack is not the man his ancestor was, and thus transports him back to Earth to help her find Weandi and Feyonce. With their return, the evil world is restored, and the old lady thank Jack for undoing his ancestors' mistakes.

Others:
Kitty Judges Differently
Wendy Chong Jia Yan's Blog
Jack May Have 11 Girls
Agnes Tan, Tells You Everything About Singapore
Woman No.2 Furthest Was Hold Her Hand
Interview With Foyce Le Xuan

After that next few days, most of the local forum is up onto this topic. Seriously what Mark said was correct, entertainment industry here is about survival of the fittest. It is either you get the fame in a night or shadow in the back. No one cares whom you are, just being practical and materialistic. It is not the same as you were in Hong Kong or Taiwan, there is someone whom will cover up the story for you. You get the fame still, and back on as a Variety King. Perhaps this is just a misnomer thinking that once you made a mistake, you are deem for the evil side forever. Another would be the audience here, you are just dealing with such an miniority. Residents only have accessed to a channel. It is reasonable that your acts are determined easily, compared to other channel stations. However it is just how you face it, definitely things will just cool down once the tide is over. Unless you saw them somewhere, and labelled them to recognise who they were. From the interview with Foyce, seems that she wants more than just an apology. However isn't that cooled down right now? No other victims has showed up yet.

Labels: singapore

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 13:25

This is the fourth time going to Bugis in this month. Germaine keep asking to do G-Mask, yet for twice we didn't want to do. Now she don't even know whether does Clementi has an outlet. You better check it out tomorrow! :@

The G-Mask for back designing is SGD$39, for full-body designing is SGD$59. Germaine said without any design would be SGD$28. Isn't it like killing spree? A piece of plastic backing made with 3M adhesive sticker cost that amount. Probably the cost of material, is $8. Next add with designing cost, that will give about $5. Since they don't really design it by themselves. Now include that amount with workmanship and employment skill. Lets give it for another $12, that would be $25. Lets include GST and perhaps the rental fee for setting the shop, would that total up to $39? Some would say that you are too financially-inclined, you know how to make money grow. Some would say that is there really the need to be so calculative? Now this is up to how you think that everything you buy is worth every cent spent.

Today saw a lumberjack shirt with hood at Freshbox. I have been looking out for this kind of shirt! It is quite cheap as well, SGD$34.90! I need primsole shoe, sunglasses, belt, shirt. Next time when gifting, just give me fashion items. Saggitarius aren't fashion-sensed, so clothes is the best choice when gifting. :D

I have to struggle for the days left for the chalet organised by juniors, and the camp for NYAA. I have yet to apply the Tarot Workshop by Tarot Chaos, on 24 April 2010. It will include a deck of Tarot cards during the course. It is a community of tarot readers in Singapore, in collaboration with Singapore Paranormal Investigators, SPI. They have monthly reading practice at Vivocity.

Labels: accessories, fashion, singapore

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 01:33

It is a new year again, and this will be the 20th New Year in life for me. This year will be a quite fast pace year for most of us, in fact most of the star signs.
For this year, Pisces will be the lucky star. So it will be best to get near to all water element friends. Qiaoen and Junsian are in danger. ;D

All the way till July, our financial difficulties is still at a fall. Since 2008, the Horse has been wary of their financial status. However after that we will start to use our creativity to start earning small cash to turnover our losses.

We have major choices to make this year, during July - August period. It is easy to go to extremes, believing that one way is the road to success, the latter to failure. However do start to weigh your problems. In August 21, the answers will start to reveal to whether you have made the correct choices.

For my Sagittarius friends out there, May 23 and August 16 are important dates that will affect your mood. Which might lead to either a good or bad effect to the rest of the road ahead. Everything will go alright after August 21. For Love, there will lots of surprises this year. You will meet a talkative person in March. Though you might think that this person isn't right, but soon things will become possible. This sign will continue till 2011. For now you will start to plan ahead of time, you tend to see the future in a brighter prospect. In fact it has become an obsession now. For Health, you might feel that a little won't affect much to health. So the more won't have much effect either. However do start to reduce the amount of food intake this year. For this year health outcome will not be good. For Career, we have a good sign this year. In fact, money will start to flow in this year easier. Opportunities are more available this year. However for the first half of the year, take time to handle lingering money issues. It is likely to increase your self-esteem and also easier manageable for your future.

Key Dates for All Star Signs:
January 17, May 23, August 16, July 24, August 03
Aries
June 06 - 29, April 26, July 26
Taurus
January 15, March 31, April 26, July 26, June 08, September 18
Gemini
January 15, June 26, January 31, August 21, May 27, June 06, December 21
Cancer
January 15, June 26, July 21
Leo
January 31, August 21, May 31, August 13
Virgo
January 15, January 31, August 21, June 06, June 26
Libra
January 31, August 21, April 07, April 26, July 25, May 27, July 21
Scorpio
January 15, June 26, January 17, January 31, August 21, July 25, August 03
Sagittarius
June 08, September 18, June 06, June 08, September 18
Capricorn
May 23, August 16, January 31, August 21, April 26, July 26, June 26
Aquarius
January 15, June 26, April 26, July 26, June 08, September 18
Pisces
January 17, May 02, June 27, May 23, August 16, June 08, September 18

All these are key dates to your life in 2010, including the major dates at the beginning. Do take note of these dates, as these are points that will affect you in the rest of your days ahead.
Video for Singapore Marina Bay 2010 Countdown

Labels: horoscope, singapore

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 00:26

After school, I went for a party nightout at Sentosa. We went to the Sentosa Spooktacular event, which is going on till the next morning. I was at VivoCity eating Subway. Everyone entering the Subway was like wearing Halloween costumes! I saw a caucasian wearing as a fairy godmother. After that had to wait for others to arrived. It was held at the Images of Singapore. Cool, we took the Sentosa Express. Then there was these two indian guys sitting at both ends. I was sitting in the middle. The one beside me was suddenly talking, "What time is it?". My friends was at the opposite looking, wondering who is he talking to. At this moment the other indian guy at the other far end, replied to his question. I meant if they were friends. Why were these two guy sitting so far apart yet talking to each other? :/

The entrance was amazing. It did the setting atmosphere for a Halloween night. Several people was dressed to walk around, and there was a tombstone in the middle. I like the one wearing oriental red dress, carrying a red rose. :D

Quite a lot teenagers going for this event. Most of them are females. When we were queueing up to enter, we were saying that we are paying to get ourselves get scared. :) There was a girl, really very small, guess around the height of 135cm. I would say very cute girl. I didn't take a picture of her, though she knew I kept looking at her. She looks like Yoshitoshi Abe's Lain, especially her hairstyle.

Seriously we were like over there hunting for the real people within the waxed figures. I would say one of them looks just like the wax figures, because the skin is just too fake! Look at how smooth it is, and the shine of the surface! Then we praised for those who managed to get the scare out of us. The chinese zombie was the best one, because it was hidden inside. Then it suddenly jumped out. The other was a black guy who camouflaged with the black background. However it was easy due to the light shining on the surface, you can see a uneven one (his stomach) coming out. The other best horror will be the black pirate with a parang, it wasn't scary. It was the flashes at the hallway making it scary, because it makes it only appearing when you can see the flashes. The hallway is narrow, making you close contact with him. ;P

After that went back to Harbourfront Hawker Centre to eat. Adeline went back home. Nigel2's fried noodle was like the amount we had in Nanjing, it was doubled. He even asked for added noodles, yet cost only $3.50. He had to spilt the amount of noodle with us. It was only 10PM, so we went Boat Quay to have a drink. We went to the EskiBar, the first sub-zero degree bar in Singapore. Nigel1 was a member there, and we knew the bartender. So it was fun!

A total of 4 people was celebrating their birthday that night. Around midnight there was another girl who was celebrating her 19th birthday. Then Joanne (bartender in-charge) prepared a glass for both the girl and Nigel1. Nigel1 was kind of drunk already. He had 3 shots of hard liquor. Then the other regular customers still wanted him to drink a Flaming Lamborghini. We managed to finish our scotch whiskey, Glenlivet 12 Years. :P

We were staying inside the freezer for the taste of it. Usually the temperature was set around 5 degrees C, but today was -19 degrees C! We were speaking with hot air coming out of our mouth. Even put our hands inside the ice pool with the freezy environment. I played dice with them. They said I was so lucky all the time. After that Daniel came and play with me. He didn't even look at the dice, and anyhow make guesses. Making me to drink so many rounds. That was truely a gambled round, after that I also used his method. Then we were like taking turns to drink. :D

And yes, I have the VIP ticket for The Vampire Burlesque Ball Halloween. The event will be also another two day event, 2PM till very late. DJ EJ Missy, Zig Zach, Simon Faure-Field, Denodusk will also be there! It's free, anyone wants it?

Labels: outings, singapore

Posted by Purity And Simplicity at 03:00