Vendor - Client relationship

This is too good to pass over. If you are running your own business or freelancing, you'd be throwing both your fist in the air and saying "SO F*cking TRUE~!"

10 things I learnt from Transfomers 2 (Spoiler Warning)

If I am a film critic, I will only need three words to describe every Michael Bay movie:

It was awesome

Before you label me a Bay fanboy, let me be clear that this three words does not describe the quality of his films. It is like a scientific term, like how humans are called Homo Sapiens and salt is called Sodium Chloride. A Bay film? It was awesome.

It was awesome because they are loud, they have MANY explosions (in slow motion, no less), they have girls in sex-ed out outfits, they feature top of the line US military hardware and they are all brainless fun.

They are all awesome because Michael Bay decreed it to be awesome.

Anyway, If you look close enough, you may observe some snippets of wisdom underneath all those mindless awesomeness in Transformers 2 :

1. Two years is enough for anyone to forget everything. For example, a giant robot free-for-all in a populated city.


2. In China, you can cover up any secrets with a "gas leak". Including A huge rampaging robot tearing down the streets in public.


3. If a hot, scantily clad girl is inexplicably attracted to a nerd and smells like diesel, she's a decepticon.


4. Old alien robots must ALWAYS speak cryptically even when they can give clear directions. Clues like "tip of the dagger" and "the three kings" are common replacements for "Petra, Jordan".


5. The US military can deploy tanks, marines, jet fighters and helicopters in a middle east country at a moment's notice, while the local military can only send two helicopters (and be shot down as soon as they arrive)


6. True warriors must always sacrifice themselves to hide the key to a world-destroying weapon, instead of destroying the weapon itself.


7. When you plan to kill a kid, always kidnap his parents and bring him to the site where you plan to kill him, for no apparent reason.


8. If you claim to be an agent for a non-descript government agency, even Navy admirals will listen to you.


9. Small decepticons make great pets.


10. Giant alien robots have balls. literally.

So there. Don't forget to catch this awesome 2.5 hour US army recruitment video in the cinemas now!

Demolition Mecha

Just finished modeling yesterday, textured and rigged today. Can't reveal what it is for just yet, hopefully soon it can be seen somewhere else other than this blog. For now, just enjoy the watermarked render below.

Indie game dev - After shock by Liquid Rock Games

Liquid Rock Games, a Malaysian indie game developer consists of only one programmer and one artist with zero funding, nonetheless their work definitely rivals that of many professional development teams and studios with a AAA budget.

Check out their first upcoming game titled Aftershock.

Coming soon

'nuff said

More cinematic trailers

More cinematics for this year's E3.

Assassin's Creed 2



Halo: Reach

Star Wars - The Old Republic Cinematic

Another outstanding piece of work by Blur for Star Wars - The Old Republic, to be shown at E3 this year.



I can't quite put my finger on it, maybe it's the character designs or the lighting, but there seems to a distinct quality to Blur's works that makes it scream "Blluuurrr!". In a good way, of course.

Star Trek - Lens flare porn

If JJ Abrams's Trek film is anything to go by, our future is blindingly shiny.

I'm glad to say that this latest Star Trek reboot is, in many ways, superior than its predecessors. It had a good plot, a great cast (Simon Pegg was funny as hell, by the way), exciting space battles, fantastic visual effects and to top it all up, it features an orgy of anamorphic lens flare!

lens flare!


more lens flare!


lens flare on the bridge!


...and of course, on the title too!

Bear in mind these screenshots were taken from the trailer only. If you watched it carefully, you'll see that almost every shot had a lens flare in it.

Apparently, JJ Abrams opted for a shooting style that calls for a spotlight to be pointed at the camera whenever possible, and ILM was only too glad to obliged with an arsenal of new tools to simulate realistic lens flare in their VFX shots. You know...like Transformers, only more.

As a fellow CG artist, let me say that the CGI lens flares were very well done. I simply found it ironic and amusing that so much effort went into developing an effect that the CGI community once denounced as a hallmark of amateur work.

Lens flare is back in style, people !

Star Wars - Class A Container

If you have played games since the early 90s, you'd probably have heard of the Star Wars X-wing series of games by LucasArts. One of the most prominent props in those game was this squarish, uninteresting 6 polygon prop known simply as a container.

screenie from the X-wing Alliance game.

Nonetheless, I spent so much game time blowing up these unremarkable yet surprisingly resilient boxes they became lodged in my memory, and with time became an inexplicable urge to model the damn thing.

Obviously this is just my own intepretation. Didn't take too long to make it, but it was a fun, if not nostalgia-filled, way to utilize my downtime.

Warning - not a multi-tasker

It seems that I have a very developed sense of awareness, which is unfortunate as I lack the proportionate attention span nor the short term memory. When I'm on a project, I often get distracted by something shiny and hops off after it like a horny rabbit. When I come back to it, I'll forget what I was doing and wastes more time trying to figure it out before getting it wrong anyway.

This explains my mountainous amount of unfinished personal projects. I have learned to leave notes and take screenshots of any work-in-progress for my future self's reference, nonetheless I would be defeated by my other flaws called Lazy-ass(tm) and Procrastination(tm).

In fact, I'm blogging right now when I should be working.

Poor Phoebe, who has to put on headphones when watching The Gem of Life so that I wouldn't be drawn to the mesmerizing sound of Hong Kong dramas playing from a laptop.

That did not stop me from reading the subtitles, though.