Hands up for Say YES!

I completed this animated project weeks ago for Annual Giving NUS. It's hosted up on their website for a limited time at http://www.sayyes.nus.edu.sg/seasonsgreetings.shtml.

The requirement for this project was that I had to use animated gifs. Animated gif is cell by cell animation done in Photoshop. The files are low but only has a limit of 256 colours. Timing is of essence as the movement of the hands and the pauses have to feel natural. The concept is from its physical greeting card form which had to cover as many festivals during this time of year.

The tough part of the project was to create the shadows that flowed with the hands.

Uncle Simon

A former colleague of my (late) grandpa, he is definitely the strongest going server in church. At 87 and on a wheel chair, he faithfully sorts out name tags every Wednesday evening and Sunday morning at the Parish House for the RCIA sessions. On Saturday afternoons, he takes care of data entry. Small simple tasks, but done with great love!

Dancing with the Stars

I spent 15 hours the whole of last Saturday filming the wedding Lionel and Alicia, spanning from Katong all the way to Sentosa! Away with all the customary Chinese wedding couple games and traditions, and in its place, a fuss-free day for the bride and groom and this awesome "march-in sequence".

ROOTS (Excerpt)

After four long months working with Cana - the Catholic Centre, we finalised the last shot of the documentary called Roots yesterday. It was apt too that the project was completed on the Feast Day of St Francis Xavier - the missionary who was responsible for bringing the faith to this part of the world (Asia) in 1545. He is featured in the clip above.

The 13-minute short documentary was an idea that sparked off because of a group from the police academy that drops by Cana several times yearly to learn more about the Catholic faith. It's part of their religious harmony day field trip which takes them to visit the main religious groups in Singapore.

The script was exceptionally tedious as I worked with the two executive producers on "cutting but giving just enough". We had to concise as much as possible the faith in just over 10 minutes, almost like an intro 101 video. What would excite the viewers? What would bore them? How do I get their attention? The clip above is the history segment of the documentary which I decided that it had to be animated, otherwise, it would put the cadets to sleep, especially since the church segment of the tour is right after lunch.

Shiny Nose That Glows

I almost canned this project, but in wanting to reminisce the past, I decided to make these to hand them out to clients and fans of the Imaginative Factory... in the spirit of giving, fun and creativity! To find out more, go Behind the Scenes at the Spark blog.

It's here!

The Wall•E three-disc special edition arrived at the stores. I've viewed some of the special featurettes and one that I particularly like is "The Pixar Story" By Leslie Iwerks. It's a 90-min plus documentary tracing the humble beginnings of an innovative studio that transformed Hollywood dramatically! Breathtaking! What a company!! :O)

More pictures of the Wall•e I made... click here.

Pitching in

The week has been filled with amendments from current jobs and conceptualising two new pitches. One for an aesthetic clinic make-over... no pun intended... other one for the 2009 Chinese New Year promotions for a shopping mall. The best part is that both are due tomorrow, 21 Nov 2008.

I was hesitant initially to work on these. You are not guaranteed the job. The art of it is to handle pitches only when you have nothing else to do, and only spend at the most half a day on them. You win the pitch, good. You loose it, move on. Unfortunately, most of the time, it's a budget issue that you loose out because of.

I took periodically breaks to get my mind off what I had to do by doing something else. Always good to walk away, do something completely not related, and then come back to the work bench. This method has helped me heaps while doing creative work.

I've left a work in progress of the little thing I'm making on the Spark blog. Till tomorrow...

Ring... Ring...

Hello!

The Annual Giving Pre-calling card is finally done! Have been waiting a long time to get this one cleared. What you do with it when you receive it in the mail is to prop it up... like a real three dimensional cordless phone and it sits there on your desk as a reminder that the team from AG will be contacting you shortly.

Too bad the budget wasn't big enough for a Lenticular display screen. Imagine how fun will that be! :O)

Imaginative's ONE!

It's been an exciting year for me... not knowing what to expect, not knowing when the next job's coming in. It was intimidating at times, but it's good exercise to keep reminding me to leave that to God!

Thank you to my clients, supporters in all sorts of ways, advisors, benefactors, prayers and fans... ha ha... And of course God who made everything single thing down that process (from creativity to getting that word of mouth recommendation) click!

A little something personal from the Imaginative Factory... YES! homemade will be delivered to your doorstep as a small gesture of thanks! Thanks for being a part of Imaginative!


Wanna check out the behind the scenes of this product? Click these...
Making the Cake - Part 1
Making the cake - Part 2

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I got the "go" for two projects today...

One for NUS Annual Giving's holiday greeting card and e-card (whaddaya know? It's that most wonderful time of the year again); and the other a for a recruitment kit which includes a mini documentary for the la Salle Brothers. I'm looking forward to the two projects because of the creative freedom I have in them... at least for now. :O)

Annual Giving's Phonathon Calling Card is almost ready for print and I'm totally excited to see the final product.

Take Two!

I was engaged to assist in round two of the CATS REV UP session at the Singapore Flyer as a technical director (or the special effects guy). On a separate note, STAR TOURS celebrates 21 years! Apparently, the first performance to the agencies accredited to CATS CLASSIFIED was such a success, another one was planned for the advertisers.

And of course, round two always runs much smoother with all the experience gained from round one. Here's the cast from Fly Entertainment including little new comer Dione Yeo. I always wonder how talents remember their lines so effortlessly!


And that's a wrap... finally... hopefully!

Portrait: Rocky

It's been a long time since I did portraits. Had the sudden inspiration to illustrate this familiar face from Holy Family Church. Unofficial parking attendant, co-resident of 2 Sea Ave, and a collector of religious trinkets, either you dig him or detest on him. Mr Basil Rodrigues, otherwise known as "Rocky", is a survivor till today due to his remarkable network resourcefulness! (Yes, even across parishes!)

Here's a fact: I've know him since I was seven!

AG Calling Card

No, it's not the kind of Calling Card from AT&T or Pac Bell that one would use to make phone calls all over the world. It's more of a postcard kind of a thing that Annual Giving wants me to work on. Something they can send to the donors to let them know that a Phonathon Drive would be taking place real soon.

I got the spark from staring at my cordless phone! Can't want to get it approved and printed! :O)

REHASHED: NASCAR themed exhibits

The past weekend's hype on the F1 race here in Singapore reminded me of a project I had worked on with my previous company. Part of the scope was to come up with an exhibition style booth for road shows. The product was a local online classified system and the then working theme was "Fast track to Success". This was the initial concept I came up with that was shelved after a change of theme from the management. I've replaced the logos for obvious reasons. :O)

How fun it would have been!

Strawberry

Let's begin this blog with my first Digipen rendering.  This happened about 6 weeks back.  I was helping myself to some fruit in the fridge when a spark hit me.  It's part of my life called "Brushing Up".  Being out here on my own has helped me look at many things differently and one of the immediate issues arising would be... that I'm way behind.  So what I did was to pick the loveliest looking one, washed it and started doodling away!

I invested in a Wacom Cintinque to assist me in this area.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get into the mood of traditional illustrations like second wind.