Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Saladin Launch

Sorry folks fore being tardy on my blog update on this...Blogger just wasn't cooperating with me last night. HEhehehe,sorry about that Acom! XD Well,here is the link to the teaser that's been launched officially last Friday by our Prime Minister himself, Pak Lah. http://www.saladin.tv/
The scene that you are about to see was taken from the old script meant for a feature production, but has since been changed to be made into a 13 episode tv series. You can clearly see how much the designs from the teaser to the buntings below differ from each other. Much has been altered to the look and mood of the cartoon since last year as this new version is aimed gnerally at the younger generation and more family orientated audience.
The new designs for the main cast for the animated tv series above. From left to right: Tarik (Saladin's best friend and closest comrade in all of his adventures), our hero Saladin, Anisa (Sal's love interest) and Duncan (ex-Frankish knight disillusioned by the realities of the Crusades,now joins Saladin in many of his adventures).
This first 13 episode series takes place during Sal's teenage years, as we follow Sal thru' his many adventures around the time of the Crusades before he became the legend that he is known today.
Gotcha! Hahaha, gotta love a politician with a sense of humor. Our PM actually reacted as tho' he has been shot when I took this pic of him when I was ahead of the press photographers in the red carpet aisle leading towards the main auditorium. "PAM!" he exclaimed.The Saladin launch coincides with our company's 10th anniversary with the unveiling of our company's new logo there. U can see this pic above of our PM being given a limited edition copy of the Saladin artbook made specially for that occassion. Below, after all the formalities are done,it's time for the screening of the 'Saladin' teaser.
Hope y'all enjoy viewing the teaser. Mind you, all this is still at the experimental stages, and we've still a lot of grounding to cover...from the character animation,voice recording,editing etc. However, this is the first time our govt is supporting our creative industry by funding this project as we all work together to see this project thru'...and from the looks of it, things are finally taking shape and moving along.
And the whole look of the cartoon had to be done in 3D as we're sorely lacking in 2D animation skills here in Malaysia. Plus the fact of the time and budget constaints and quality control/consistency issues, this project for now,couldn't be achieved any other way.
'Nuff said, and we've still a long way to go....but this is a start. The pilot episode is slated for completion by the end of this year,so hopefully....we'll see how things go.

Cheers everyone!

Saturday, April 08, 2006

How COOL is that!

Our work finally wraps up for the official launch of the 'Saladin' animated project today,now back to more serious work. I got a lot of model sheets and designs to finish for it(IN ONE WEEKS TIME?!?!?!?!*.*),and if there's seconds to spare, get the color references done for each of the characters involved per episode. And got interviewed by Media Corp's Channel News Asia on my role in the project. Pity I didn't get to catch it live on tv, tho' my cousin from Singapore did and she called me about it soon after. Apparently my interview appeared right after our PM's speech with clips of the animated teaser in between during the news. Cooollllness! Some photo goodie to come as soon as I get the roles washed...yep,I still use the normal SLR cameras. XP Call me ancient,call me fossil...I still luv 'em. Images of the cartoon coming up soon,wait for it! ;)
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/southeastasia/view/202099/1/.html