prelim update

Well I have been SUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPER outdated due to a madly haevy schedule and a trip to Japan.

Watching Google maps, and their online youtube prank on April fool's simple remind's me of how we should chill out and enjoy life more.

Yesterday night was filled with bittersweet endings. I just hope I made the right decisions. Well, as always, decisions are seldom a one person thing.

Quick shout outs to my bros' fellow film maker Christopher Yeo, and twins Mark and Matthew Lin, Happy birthday you jokers.

I'll be reviewing my photos and planning a photo book soon =)

JJ

L'Arc En Ciel is coming to singapore!!!

Ok... I dont mean to sound like a girly fan-boy/girl but

OMG!!!!!

Credits: L'Arc~en~ciel (Laruku - STAY WAY MV

Perhaps the only Jap band that I listen to other than X-Japan! Got a call that woke me this morning by Yif and she was saying that tickets were selling out!

And YES! I know own a ticket to their 20th anniversary tour! =))))))))))

http://sgcafe.com/2012/01/lushington-entertainments-to-hold-larcenciel-concert-in-singapore/

http://www.larc-en-ciel.com/wt2012/tour/index.html#singapore

How did Yif manage to even get the tix?! I'm searching for it now and I cant find it! hahah but thats not the point. I'm a happy camper.

Ironic how I posted the MV Stay away when I'm so excited that they are coming ahahahah

JJ

Concept Artists

There has been a whole bunch of funny images circulating around Facebook lately and most of them consist of a series of photos going

Who the world thinks I am> Who my family thinks> What I think..> What I really do.

Artists is a very generalist term. I consider myself a media artist, doing 3d sketches and video work but the truly under rated folks are the concept artists.

Fair enough for those who enter the big boys league they earn buckets of money but most people just see it as another pretty picture.

It isn't really that hard to justify the works of a concept artist is it? In the past, an artist is "an enlightened one" who is able to see beyond what regular humans can. And to a large extent I think that is exactly what a concept artist is! They take a simple sentence like "Neo walks into a room" (Ref Matrix) and they let their mind go wild with micro worlds bursting from their brains. So what do I consider them? Genius dreamers. here's some of those who have blown my mind away.

**Note all these images are snipped off the web. I'm not trying to plagiarize! If you wanna see more of their work, visit their website in the links!

The GREAT Craig Mullins!

http://www.goodbrush.com/

Jamie Jones!http://www.artpad.org/

And of course there are tons of other brilliant fellers out there worthy of praise including Kekai, Daniel Dociu and Feng mentioned in my previous entries.

I always feel the love when I see these great artists put up their sketches and demos for the world to watch, learn and simply be inspired.

JJ

Master Designer Workshop 2012 part 2 Concept art

So day 2 of the master class featured Daniel Dociu and Feng Zhu himself.

It is a pity that Daniel did not have the time to do a live demo and frankly a lot of us were disappointed. Non-the-less it was great that these guys could come down and share with us some of their experiences.

As for Feng's session. Loved it as usual. If not for the fact that i'm not pursuing a direct path in concept art, I would have signed up for his school without batting an eyelid.

His general style of teaching is very Scientific. Suits me! (I really thought I would become a rocket scientist when I was a kid and woot? I became an artist lol)

So here he demos how to pick colours from live references etc... seriously speaking more than i was impressed with his painting... how does anyone speak and paint so fast AT THE SAME TIME????!!! cuz the final was probably done within an hour while he was talking and explaining a whole bunch of concepts. Respect!

Well that's it for now... Update on my potential gallery, me and Yanni have already settled for the topic and a few potential candidates. But we decided to work on creating a "movement" so it has to be top secret for awhile... Oh well... Will blast it when it happens =)

JJ

Master Designer Workshop 2012

Feng Zhu and team has invited and brought in big names in entertainment design like Sang Jun Lee, Kekai Kotaki, Daniel Dociu and Feng Zhu himself together to run a masterclass in conjunction with his FZD school of design's graduating class of 2012! That's kinda nice!

http://www.fzdschool.com/2012/

Well attended the first session yesterday and only thing is that I didn't bring a camera lol...

So far the demos have been crazy amazing and I hope that FZD's team did a video recording of the stuff (though I doubt it) But i'm pretty sure they will be posting the "demo'ed" paintings up on their website soon, with permission of course. Well gonna head out for day 2 of e workshop now so I'll update then. Laters!

JJ

The mixing of dramas these days

My buddy Nicholas was just recounting how he went into a video store last week and went.

"Hey buddy! Do you have 'Scent of a Women' by Al Pacino?"

And the store owner was like

"AHH!!!! Yess!! I think we do!"

So he runs to a corner of the store, grabs a DVD box set and comes back to Nic saying...

"Hmmm... I've Definitely got 'Scent of a Woman' here... But no Al Pacino leh!"

Nic left with his palm on his face... hahahahahhaha!

JJ

Visual Effects then and now

Here's an image that has been spread around on FB alot these days.



1983... I wasn't even born yet! And now I'm a degree holder in Digital Animation.

Times have changed since the day of JAWS and even the classic King Kong!

Animatronics and Stop motion animation was THE defining tool back in pre-Digital Effects era. In fact one of the best case studies of the day is in fact King Kong past and present (and on a more updated note, TRON). I used to marvel at the awesomeness of Terminator 1 on Laser Disc! (And kids if you don't know what a laser disc is... go wiki).

At the time of the first generation of space invaders, people were blown away by the visuals and were literally Dodging bullets as they came by.

Yet now in my position of being able to create these 3D marvels, I look back and admire the art from the past. To some extent I always knew that the objects were "fake" yet I loved them all the same. It really wasn't purely the visuals but the experience of cinema and movie magic.

Reality on screen has taken a significant twist in terms of how you view it. Much like art. What is perceived to be real has now become hyper real.

My true moment of reckoning came when I was driving by the road one day. I took a look at the sky and was like

"Hey! What a beautiful day. And what beautiful clouds! Oh wait... Shouldn't those clouds have less of a back shadow and a slight feathering towards the trailing ends?"

Yup! That's me criticising mother nature itself! haha

At the end of the day, honestly, I guess I have a soft spot for the old school ways hahah.. It's my "I like to build things with my hands physically" side of me talking. You clearly know its a toy, but you marvel at how perfectly integrated it has been.

To all aspiring artists out there, some of the best quotes I have read in recent times came from 3DArtist Magazine.

"To teach art, you must learn it completely"

"If Leonardo Da Vinci was alive today he would be a computer programmer and an artist."

-Ryan Kingslien , the first product manager of zbrush.

Master your basics and use technology to enhance your workflow.

JJ