Holiday Comic

Hopefully this will be the first of many comic panels of my recent adventures while on holiday last month. Hope you will enjoy!  It's meant to be a separate individual panel of a particular scenario happening in different places but I kinda like the look of the entire page as a whole. So here ya go!
Panel 01/top left : Experiencing Air Asia Flight regularities at Tawau Airport in Sabah,heading home back to KL. Lewat (in Malays) means Delay. Panel 02 : Peter did not know how to shower Village/Kampung style. Panel 03 : I shared a bed with my pal,Viv, on the left side of the room while Pete,unfortunately,had to share a bed with our taxi driver on the right side. We were both snoring so hard ,it vibrated our friend's entire farm house in Cambodia. Poor Viv couldn't sleep a wink while Pete is cringing and shivering from the progressively chilly air at night. First time I got to sleep with mosquito netting too! It's been an awesome holiday overall.

Happy New Year,Folks!

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year 2014

Have been MIA for a good deal of November and December basically because have been away for the annual Company Trip to Bali this time around where we dug deep at Kuta Beach going through the Company Dinner and Team Building event before we're let loose around Bali. Here's a tiny snippet of where I've been and what I've experienced. I should really see about uploading all of my stuff into Flickr to share with whoever is interested in checking out my whereabouts. But mostly,if we know each other and add links to FB,you can basically go through all of my folders and check out all of the pics I've been sharing through the years. I wish I can afford membership to Flickr which allows the subscriber to share all of their pics from beginning to current without any limitations to the amount that can be shared. But till I can earn a bit more, this is what I have to cope with.
It's been a momentous and learning curve year for me. Thing are finally looking a lot brighter to say the least,but that doesn't mean that the year hasn't had it's struggles and heart aches.  I've been very blessed and fortunate enough to be working with an awesome creative team in a supportive studio environment and it's nice that the pace never stops and we just find the enthusiasm and strength to just carry on each day with whatever life throws at you.

 This trip coupled with utilizing the remains of my annual leave on November because I was hosting a friend's stay at my place for 2 weeks,allowed me the time to get away from the compy and just check out how life is faring on the other side and to finally get a chance to see and enjoy exploring what I won't normally get to check out if I were left to my own devices. This Company Trip and my friend's visit from the States proved to be the catalyst that propelled me to get off my arse and start taking a look around once more.

My trip wouldn't be complete without the coaxing of my colleague and good friend,Meng Yee,to take up surf lessons...and enjoying a swim and relaxing evening at the beach to watch the sunset on a deck chair with a refreshing fresh coconut handy. I will see about sharing some of my other trips with my good friend ,Pete, to Cambodia and around Borneo when I can get to it. Am still busily getting all of the pics together to share online. It's a ton of work in itself.

In other news, we've just wrapped up Christmas celebration 2013 with an impromptu invasion of the MnU gang to the apartment along with friendly faces from Mother Russia, my good pals, Mickey & Ksoosh. My twin came through for us with 2 turkeys beautifully roasted thanks to the helping hands from her friend and colleague,Alex. While I round it up with a new pasta recipe,potatoes,broccoli & cauliflower,sausages,salad and what not. Mum (not surprising) had gone out and got us roast duck as a side dish. She could never resist a good duck. The guys handled the drinks while Mickey & Ksoosh surprised us all with a lovely green tea cake. Next party stop...Russian style New Year Celebration at Mickey & Ksoosh's place! Can't wait! 

I finally got to complete a special art gift request for my friend,Bob,but have also dedicated this piece to William Blake for obvious reasons. Hope you like it!

And finally,here's something Bob shared to me recently. What an awesome way to get the public to be aware of fine art once again!
http://dailyrevolution.com/2013/06/06/rembrandt-flashmob-guards-of-the-night/

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2014 to everyone! Here's to a solid and prolific year ahead in spite of terrible rumours of inflation and rising costs and absurd new govt rulings...here's to hoping for a better future with better days. *click*

Finally!

Am back from my long haul and hols and is able to come back to some form of normalcy to recoup, Body has shut down on me since yesterday but have enough in my tank to just about get chores down and scan some recent sketches to share. Will be sharing loads of pics from my M.I.A. stint with y'all just as soon as I can get them resized.

Cheers all!

Today at the studio....

Wanted to kick start today by introducing to my fellow team mates Orson Welle's War of the Worlds live radio broadcast back in 1938.

75 years ago,today, Orson Welles broadcast live on radio a series of Alien Invasion coverage that to many of his listeners,seemed so startlingly real, it brought about widespread panic and fear. Let's re-live that special moment in history today and was prob one of the vehicles that propelled the sci-fi movement & intrigue into a branch culture long after HG Wells did.

"We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin"
Wallie dropped me another nice surprise package today. Another issue of P@per # 23 vol 1 with my lil strip contributed innit. WOO! Today is a gonna be a long but good day!

Animation Job Openings in Cyberjaya,M'sia

Yes,that's correct folks! Giggle Garage here has new job openings for 3D animators (senior & junior positions) and we're also welcoming applicants for modelling,texture artists and 2D artists as well! Please feel free to give us a holler or help to spread the word if you can!
Here's the job link here : https://my.zartis.com/gigglegarage/jobs/679/3d-animators-senior-and-junior-cyberjaya?source=Facebook

and our company website : http://gigglegarage.com/

Cheers folks!

Lately...

A quick round up of whats been happening towards the end of last month of my schedule....

A sad farewell to our colleague,Bee Yen, fellow animator who sat beside my workstation. We all wanted to make sure she's loved and is always welcome back if she decides to.

Attended a story Workshop by Clare Madsen from Australia hosted by Ideate Media in Technology Park in Bukit Jalil. It was great fun and very enlightening. Gave me a good inside to how a writer works and how to go about it and what to expect. I'll certain want up my end when producing my own paterial for personal projects after this.
In other news,have completed our Puppeteer Training classes last week with Brian Zimmerman and friends at his new studio, Lil Critter Worshop at Damansara Perdana. It's definitely been the funnest class I've ever participated in so far and the laughter hasn't stopped since. es,it's definitely serious business to pratice and get the artform right,but once you've nailed it, you can expect a non-stop humorous and fulfilling career into this venture.  http://www.lilcritterworkshop.tv/ Here's a sneak peek at what we've been up to....

This has got to be the hardest test we had to to yet. 4 minutes non-stop lip sync and body gestures to the tune of Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire.

Another fun exercise we did in pairs. One puppeteer in charge of the character's lip sync and handling the Alphabet while the assistant helps to wrangle the hands of the character.

 There's Brian with wrangler Debs helping him with the lip syncing skit.

 My puppet. I calls him Bob. :D

 Adrian's Stevie Wonder puppet having a go onstage.

 Brian showing us how heavy Zorg is.

 Mr Hootie and his friends.

 The stage set up.

Debs & Steven working out their skit with the puppets of their choice.

Adrian and his friend in shades.

 Thanks to fellow twinning for the awesome shots and capturing the great fun we've had during our first night of the Puppeteering class. We're now looking into getting a puppet of our very own to practice with.

Need to up my game in voice acting and acting in general like these chaps to be able to lip sync my characters well.

Elsewhere...been inspired by all of these awesome artists listed online in this feed here :
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/painfully-talented-illustrators-on-pixiv
Made me want to get back in the groove and up my game further and further.

My now fellow Summoner friend,Eric Tan, shared this awesome new music vid clip of the latest character created for our League of Legends Online game. She definitely reminds me of an edgier Harley Quinn and definitely an overall likable character. Check out the awesome clip,mixing 3D and 2D elements in a very catchy music beat and lyrics below. LoL has definitely come very far from their humble beginnings.


Have recently checked out the trailer for Disney's Frozen ...

And have to confess,it's not really grabbing me as much as I'd like. Most probably because have been pretty put off by the style of the fake/shallow Disney Child-star chatter that doesn't really suit the time period and area the theme is covering. I appreciated that Belle didn't talk like that for Beauty and the Beast. Ariel had a bit of that teenage whine,but it was forgivable because she was so well drawn and animated in 2D,it worked. But I'll hope for the best and give it a shot before passing on further comments. Maybe it'll blow me away like Tangle and How to Train Your Dragon did. Astrid was the only character that put me off in How to Train your Dragon,but thankfully I think the producers/directors noticed that and toned down her character a lot to make her more likable now.
Here's something else that's been making waves online. A behind the scenes look at the making of Kon-Tiki last year. Am very happy to see grand works flourishing elsewhere around the world when other notable biggies have been struggling hard or is shut down due to bad management, budget cuts and so forth.

Another innovative take at the Horror movie fest I'm keen to participate in. Now there's one exception to acceptance of handphone usages in a movie screening. Brilliant!

I'll round up today's post with a link to an inspiring look into a troubled individual's artwork portfolio. No training. He just did it for his personal pleasure. And man is it looking spiffy!
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/09/27/japanese-bad-boy-wows-foreign-audiences-with-his-beautiful-ghibli-fanart-%E3%80%90photos%E3%80%91/
Have a wonderful creative week ahead,folks. And enjoy the upcoming horror fests this month! Woo!

Zombie clips and inspirations :)

Enjoying some zombie clips from Key & Peele. Thank you Chi Ren for sharing this gem. :D

A touching take on the Zombie Apocalypse.


And am inspired by these cool kids. Wish I had the know-how and insight that they have when I was their age to take my dreams and aspirations to where I want to go and be.

Take On Me....

...Take Me On....


Thanks to my colleague,Joe, for sharing with me this nice commercial clip by Volkswagen. Nice little tribute back to the 80s with the exact idea laid out in the short clip. But dangit, it reminded me of how old I am as well. Oh well, the 80s was still the coolest year to grow up in. Cheers to A-HA and the 80s!

When Darkness Falls

The realization that the African Black Rhinos are now extinct.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45236688/ns/world_news-world_environment/t/africas-western-black-rhino-declared-extinct/



Cultivate a better world.

What's been going on...

Hi all, been experience a down time in my personal creative zone mostly because of new working life in-between trying to get my messed up room sorted and daily distractions. Been happily multi-tasking now at the studio working alongside the director and anim. director to get more eps out for our latest tv series while in-between overseeing audio recordings and checking out scripts and scn/animation edits from the animation dept. Today will be busy trying to get my notes together for various scripts for several eps to our editor while trying to scramble to wrap up a storyboard for Director and hopefully some character designs for our Art Director.
Waaayyy too many things I want to do in-between that. Learn a new language, that would be French for now while doing more anatomy study. Dangit,now I want to add blacksmithing into that category after my fellow summoner pal posted this to me.

In other news, Summoner Eric has also highlighted to me the growing trend and talent that's been happening in China. And my goodness, it is outrageously good and I so want to be in that caliber.
http://kotaku.com/meet-chinas-newest-animated-hero-and-his-very-very-1276354570


And something that got my attention this morning at the studio. My colleague shared some clips of what I know has been one of the most tragic projects that took place for the good 2011 to 2012. Digital Domain's The Legend of Tembo...the Elephant that could...
Tembo Environ & Character Test (unfinished) from Chaz Williams on Vimeo.

Various Tembo Tests from Chaz Williams on Vimeo.
And ironically,a fellow facebook acquaintance too have been sharing the same clip online today and spoke of this unfortunate turn of events that took a life changing career path from him. So just for old times sake of what could have been, here's a sneak peek on what was shared.

But on a happier note, here's a very intriguing and promising project that I would love to take off and soar.
¡Ayúdanos a levantar Garra de Jaguar! from Ocho Venado Producciones on Vimeo.
You can help to make it happen by visiting and contributing to this site :
http://fondeadora.mx/projects/garra-de-jaguar

I'm sorry to see that my friend's project didn't manage to make enough in Kickstarter to see his and his friends project take off,as promising as it looked. And more sorry that I was unable to help contribute anything this time around due to financial constraints those past few months. But am definitely hoping for the best and for a revive in the project so that these talented and well deserving individuals can see their dream project come through.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1235790455/1000-the-animated-micro-series?ref=live

And something beautiful that caught my eyes from fellow acquaintance,Marguerite Suvage's site :

http://margueritesauvage.tumblr.com/post/60882684459/kaleidoscopic-floor-installations-made-of-mirrors

The now infamous Anthony Misiano is making huge waves and fans all over the globe with his excellent portrayal of my all time favorite villain, The Joker.

I'd certainly have him on my top list of actors to portray the Joker if I ever get to fulfill my dream to direct a project based on the DC franchise.
You can find him here at :
https://www.facebook.com/HarleysJoker

Oh and I'm sooo grateful to BBC and BBC Wales for giving me my much needed cravings for periodic shows on food and facts of lifestyle and living during that era.
The Supersizers Go with Giles Coren and Sue Perkins...

and BBC Wales gave me the Coal House series which I now adore.....

A peek into the Coal House at War series :


Will try to get my creative streak up to scratch if at all possible this time around...*deep sigh*
But for now, have been definitely keep myself abundantly occupied.

Cheers all!

Claude & Chunkie Strikes Again!

Woo! Just received a lovely surprise from Wallie again with regards to the latest copy of P@per out right now. YAY!!!! Hope y'all dig it!

Production Starts NOW!!!!

Well today has been another hectic day of endless meetings which are necessary to get the right direction and decisions nailed down. But unfortunately that ate into my proper work schedule and by the time our meetings and briefings to the animation team is complete, I could barely get a decent amount of work done at 5'ish p.m. And there's just so much work to be completed by Monday and Tuesday. Boards to complete for one ep for our writer, prep notes and boards in job sheets for our animation team, find breathing space to work on completing my model sheets for the art department for the entire season, check on dialogs for audio recording for 2 eps and go through locking down 2 eps script with our director. I hope I can actually squeeze in some exercise time next week. I hate the feel of flab and want my old body back. All this sitting down is so not good for my posture and overall health. On the bright side, this morning our director announced to me that he's going to assign to me 1 episode to finally sit in the director's chair and solely oversee the entire production of one full ep as part of my training. I've got my work cut out for me. Let's hope all goes well and runs smoothly for the official start of the production of our tv series.

And here's what I wrote for my update for yesterday : 

I love my life. Had a very good productive day today at work,going through scns and audio re-recordings, drafting out rough boards and scripts in between a fun meal of one of the best Pan Mein I've ever had in a long long time with my colleagues at Dengkil. Now am finally back home after a long day and sitting down to my late dinner of salmon garnished with crispy fried garlic cloves, home-made salad with greek yoghurt and some leftovers and going through my usual routines and catching up with my best friend before bedtime. Oh yea,another successful breakfast recipe for the studio today as well (potato,green beans & carrot salad garnished with seaweed and home-made dressing) Life is good!

In other news....

My pal Ayie Ibrahim is looking for talents to fill in these big shoes. Do please help to spread the word around and give him a buzz if you're keen on it.  

CREATVTOON STUDIO will start on full production 26 episodes animated series for international market. We are looking for; 
1) 2D SENIOR ANIMATORs & JUNIOR ANIMATORs (flash/ToonBoom- 10 persons)
2) STORYBOARD ARTISTs ( freelance 2- persons )
3) DIGITAL BACKGROUND PAINTERs (photoshop/flash- 2 persons)
4) SENIOR LAYOUT ARTIST ( 1 person )
5) COORDINATOR / ADMIN ( 1 person )
6) WRITERs
7) COMPOSITOR cum EDITOR ( 1 person )
8) MUSIC/ SFX COMPOSER ( 1 person )

If interested, please submit your resume to crea8tvtoon@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So sorry for the earlier typos,guys. For all of you who tried to contact my friend's studio. It's actually spelled cre8tvtoons. He sincerely apologises for the misunderstanding.

My Twin Debs

My other half is doing mighty fine too in the creative field. Here's what she's been up to.
Her online portfolio can be found here...
http://d3brak.daportfolio.com/

Brawn Cocktail

I'm so happy I finally go the chance to try out my new dwarf character,Brawn Cocktail, in a long overdue session of DnD with my pals online in spite of them being all the way in Texas. Here's what came out on paper in spite of it straying away from my original idea for him. Hope you folks like him! Cheers!

Claude & Chunkie # 5

Awesome Blossom!!! Mr. Hakkens has dropped in the latest Claude & Chunkie strip onto my lap tonight from P@per!!! Hope y'all dig! Dutch version on the left with the original English version on the right. Cheers all!
And a great tidal wave happened tonight in my neighbourhood. It's called a Malaysian Tsunami. History in the making,folk!

Cheers and have a great week ahead!

Costume Designs for ZAT

This is a rush job done for Switch Advertising in Egypt for a Children's Musical called ZAT so to speak. And since they've begun promoting the artworks completed in their facebook page here ( https://www.facebook.com/pages/Meecros-and-Tacros-in-the-Land-of-ZAT/204136863062991 )
I see no reason why I can't begin sharing it here.
On all accounts these babies are still under my copyright and ownership seeing as the client is as yet to fulfil their terms of the contract with a long overdue payment. Plus all of the originals and files are still in my possession and is as yet to sign a waiver to them after terms of agreement and contract have been reached. Things didn't turn out so well due to the political upheaval and so forth but it still seems that life has been going on in spite of the turmoil in Cairo. And word has just reached my ear that that same company has been seen in the papers claiming to be producing another musical for a tv program that's said to've cost over 1 million dollars in Egyptian Pounds. Golly! So far things have been delayed for this project including payments without a comprehensive explanation from the asst. director  and Mr. Elhamy Magar at Switch Advertising ( http://www.switchadv.com/ ) . Have been sending inquiries and 2 invoices and reminders thus far but nada. They seem to have disappeared without a word. So we'll see how that goes. Hope this working relationship won't take a turn for the worst.
Hope you all dig my first try at costume designing.

Cheers! I need it too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update : My client finally called me up and we chatted on the phone. Was finally able to talk to the director and he pretty much gave a comprehensive explanation of the situation there was and we agreed with a newer understanding of both of our predicaments,that he could possibly pay a certain amount,whatever they can manage for now,while the remaining fee will come later when things have stabilized there. Am just thankful that they did get back to me and apologised for the delays and let me understand what is happening. Things can work out if the communication line is intact. Very very thankful the working relationship is still there.

Alfie and The Prometheus Dream

Alfie & The Prometheus Dream from milx on Vimeo.

WOW WOW! Awesome news! The lil stop mo short I helped my friend out one night has finally been launched! Great job to Milx and Rini and to all involved! *highfive*
And now folks....here's some eye candy I've been saving for the longest time! Hope you enjoy a sneak behind the scenes.

Hope you like it ,folks!

So many surprises!!!

 Woo!!! Am so happy to finally be able to post a full episode of Boing The Play Ranger in here!
Can you spot my name in the credit list? If you can read Hangul/Korean language text,that is.
WOO! And not just one surprise... I am so so very delighted to finally be able to catch some episodes from the 3D animated series called Patch Pillows!!! Finally! It's been out for over a year now,and I haven't checked it out yet till now! Have worked as a freelance storyboard artist for Agogo Entertainment in Hong Kong for a short stint soon after completing my work for Saladin The Animated Series. Here are some episodes found in Youtube. Not my eps,but still, really grand to see how the production went. It's looking spiffy!
 And wouldn't you know it? I came across an old friend! Some kind soul have taken the time to hook up quite a few of the episodes into one long show!Hope you folks will dig it. Good times,good times!
This is definitely the start to a really good weekend! Huzzah!!!

Official launch & sketches

Well it's finally official!The cartoon series I've been working on for the past year is finally out on the 25th this month on EBS channel in Korea! Message from our team at Giggle Garage : Our animation co-production IP with with CBS/SM Korea is now on air, well ahead of production schedule! See BOING The Play Ranger on EBS Channel in Korea, starting today, Monday at 8:20am and 5:25pm (Malaysian time). Salutes and thank you!! It's teamwork time!!! Watch out for BOING in the local stations soon. I'll update with a link shortly so you can watch it LIVE from Korea. :D ```````````````````````````````````````````````````` Here's the link,folks! And yay! A new episode is playing right now as we speak! Enjoy! http://www.ebs.co.kr/onair ```````````````````````````````````````````````````

 Managed to get a sketch in at the studio today. Its a furry Sun Bear.

And a sketch page from my journal of critters I've come across during my ling drives to and fro on the highway.

Lebe wohl Harald...lebe wohl.......

Am very shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic news of Harald's passing. My sincere condolences to Belicta,his family and loved ones. He was a great friend and mentor,always encouraging and generous with his time and energy. He will forever be missed. It's been a long while since we last spoke,and true to his nature,he never once hinted about any of his health complications,but have kept it silent. Last I heard from him,he was gearing up for a busy work schedule for most of 2012 onwards. Thank you for being such a great inspiration and a dear friend,Harald. Lebe wohl. :(

Kim Jung Gi

Dots

Trying to pep up my engine today so did some doodles at the studio. I miss my sketch studies so much!