What's happening?

This blog has moved...

2008-10-07T23:26:00.000-07:00

to http://blog.artofkian.com and hope to see you there!

My 2nd Gnomon Workshop

2008-06-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

I attended this inspiring workshop for the second time. It was really inspiring to meet and listen to Ian McCaig, Eric Tiemens, George Hull and more top notch concept guys from the film industry. I definitely learn new stuff and inpired to keep pushing myself to new level!

This time, I have the pleasure to share this workshop with my fellow colleague and also ex colleague from Petroglyph like Elie, Adam, Eric and Mike. We had fun and shared some great time together.

My new baby girl!

2008-05-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

Carine Ng, my new baby girl was born on May 9th, 2008 at 11.05am. She and her mother, Ariel are both doing very well. So I am pretty much occupied with her for the moment.

Refreshed my website!

2008-04-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

All I can say is IWeb 08 is a life saver! I have completely reworked my site in record time, versus using Dreamweaver and manually add things. I have also added new pages and able to create a more dynamic layout. This software, like all Apple products is incredibly smart and well designed.

I have added new concept art and animation from the cancelled Universe at War expansion.

Ollie Johnston has departed

2008-04-19T03:16:00.000-07:00

Its a sad news for the animation world, that Ollie Johnston has passed away on April 14 2008. He is the last surviving member of the Disney legendary animator group called The Nine Old Men. His animated film credits span from Snow White, Pinochio, Fantasia, Jungle Book and pretty much all the classics that we all remembered and loved. More info can be found in his shared website with Frank Thomas. Thank you very much for all the great inspiration and memories, sir!

New chinese movies and my 2 cents about these epic...

2008-04-11T23:50:00.000-07:00

There are so many big budget films coming from China these days. I just saw two recently. The Assembly is an epic war film based on the China civil war between the KMT and PLA. Plot summary here. Most reviewers compare this film's visual to Saving Private Ryan, but today, which war film doesn't? The production quality is top notch, and the violence is pretty gory. Fyi, the director of this film is Feng Xiaogang, who has a really good eye for visual art in his films. His other film, The Banquet(known as Legend of the Black Scorpion here in US) was a great feast for the eye. The sets are usually very elaborate and over the top.

The Warlords, is the new Jet Li epic film. This is not a martial art film like Hero(which is still the best Jet Li film, imo), but tells a pretty intense story of a general's ambition to conquer the divided China during the Qing Dynasty. More info here.

I want to also express my opinion here regarding the Asian cinema. Although we are seeing a big surge of epic films coming from China, not many is trying to push the art of film making. Most of them are very similar, only repackaged with a different story. Don't get me wrong, these are all solid films that are well told, produced to their finest quality.

I just hope that we won't get flooded with too many war epic tales or gangster stories over and over again. I want to see more attempt at breakthrough films that define new genre and standard of film. Korean cinema however, has been very creative and aggressive at diverging their film industry. Old Boy, The Host, Tae Guk Gi are all very different. I think as soon as China films start to explore new frontier, we will see some very refreshing ideas that could challenge the best in Hollywood. Meanwhile they are working really hard to shape the film industry of the new China!

Appleseed Ex Machina

2008-04-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

If you have not seen this, its definitely worth buying or rent. This sequel has improved in terms of visual design, action and cg technology. The rendering in this one is so much better. The character skin are more natural looking. I always hated the first film 'plastic' looking cel shading. I would recommend this just for its visual. There are stuff that were copied from other sci fi flicks. But having John Woo as a producer, you can expect a lot of familiar action choreograph in it. I need to watch this again in blu ray!

Also, check out the collectable figures here!

My xbox suffered the 3 rings of death!

2008-04-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

What a timing, it happened after I posted UaW being released for the 360. So now it has been sent to the repair center. The funny thing today is when I walked in to the UPS store to drop off my xbox, the employee recognized my 'pre-sent by Microsoft white box' right away, saying, "Another fried Xbox?" I laughed. I hope Microsoft will replace it with the newer model, or else, I will be fuming...

Universe at War for Xbox 360

2008-03-31T22:16:00.000-07:00

Guys, I just received my copy of the game and played it on Friday evening. The game turns out pretty cool on the Xbox 360. I like the control scheme because its well thought out. That is the biggest challenge for a RTS game to work in console. One negative point for UaW is that the game suffer from some frame rate issue. Other than that, it was really addictive and fun. I know the demo is coming out soon, so make sure to at least try that, or just Buy it!

Imo, this game is so much better compare with C&C for the 360. I am curious to see how Supreme Commander and World in Conflict work out for the console. And my wishlist: Starcraft 2 for the 360, pleeeaaaassseeee! It is looking so good.

The reason I want this is, I am so fed up of upgrading my PC just to play every new game that comes out. Its way much cheaper to just play it on console, plus you get the maximum graphics settings! I don't mind it doesn't look as good as Crysis. Thats a small sacrifice since the power of 360 or PS3 hasn't been fully utilized yet.

Cool Art Books

2008-03-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

My fellow 3D Artist colleague Erik Maki just sent me a link to this awesome bookstore Brand Studio Press. I am embarrassed to not discover this earlier! They have art books from so many great artists like Cheeks and more. Most of them are ranged from stylized to cartoony styles. If you like these, I also recommend French artists like Claire Wendling, Frezzato and Barbucci. You may have to order these directly from France-I had to after much googling and translating. They are fantastic!

I am going broke from ordering these!

io9

2008-02-26T23:57:00.000-08:00

If you like science fiction like I do, check out this blog called io9. It has lots of cool posting about whats going in this part of the universe.

Tragnark's Golem is released!!!

2008-02-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

My college buddy Nick 'Tragnark' Reid just released his cool toy collection called Golem. Go to his blog to see a list of places to order it. Make sure you check out his kick ass artwork on his gallery. You will be blown away!

My latest animation from Universe at War

2008-01-07T00:23:00.001-08:00

Fuh, after a weekend of compiling and rendering all the animations, they are finally done and uploaded to my website. Just go to the animation gallery and you can see them there. These are just the better ones from a ton more that I have animated in the game. I pretty much did all the characters, 20+. Also, they are all meant to be viewed from top angle like many RTS game, so it may look weird close up like this.

Also, I have some new ones, that are work in progress. They are actually my best animation to date, unfortunately, I am not allowed to show them yet, sorry for teasing, hehe.

And yes, I also figured out how to embed the FLV in to my website, yippee!! I think they work better and also nicer presentation wise. I will try to convert all my previous videos to this format. That will have to come later. I need a break now... its already 12.30am Monday. Time to get some zzz.

Blu ray is the future

2008-01-05T01:37:00.000-08:00

I am so glad the HD format war is finally over! For those of you that care, its been a long painful competition that only frustrates and confuses every movie buff out there. Warner finally decided to go blu exclusively to deal the death blow to HD DVD camp, like my friend John Dumbrow had predicted. Strangely, even my wife has told me this last month about blu's victory, hehe. So what is left now is for retailers and manufacturers to all jump in and support only Blu ray products. This will help bring the cost down and also expand the film library for this format. Nevertheless, its a good day for all of us. Finally I can look forward to watch Ratatoille and all the other great shows in 1080p. I hope all movie studios speed things up releasing all the AAA titles asap. All of us are ready and have been waiting for you..

Xbox live is retarded!

2008-01-02T23:21:00.000-08:00

So I finally receive my copy of Universe at War. I was excited to play it in my home pc. So I started installing it, everything went allright. When its done, I start the game. It doesn't want to start. Instead, it froze my pc. Tried this 3 more times, even shut down my Spyware Doctor. Still failed. Then I put the game cd into another drive, and voila, it works.

In the main menu, it says theres an update for the game, I clicked no, not wanting to waste more time. But it was nice to know of this feature in the main menu. Then up comes the Xbox live prompt... sigh.

So I clicked yes, I have a Live ID and tried entering it. Then it tried to download profile. Screen freezes for a few minute. Then up comes a new prompt, asking to update Live, or else, I can't sign in. so I have no choice but forced to click yes, because I want to login so to obtain game achievements. So it tried to download an update that took a while. Then the game exit to windows and tried to run a new Live package, ending up crashing my computer!

One and half hour later, no luck signing in to Live. I can run the game fine, but can't sign in, so no achievements.

This is so ridiculous!

Updates:
Our programmer expert, Brian, told me to go download the Live package manually and removed the current version in my pc. I did and it finally worked! Still, I never had any problem with PC games before... Live for Windows has a long long way to go.

End of year new art dump!

2007-12-30T01:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe its the end of 2007. This year went by so fast! I went through many changes in life as well as moving to a new phase too! Moving to Las Vegas, new job at Petroglyph, first video game title being released, personal life wise-my wedding and soon becoming a parent!!! Talk about life moving forward at full speed!

Anyway, end of year means its time to update my portfolios as well. Major dump at my website. I added new stuff for character design from Project Shinyu, Terris and also Daymoon concept art. Painting wise, there are some from Terris and one from UAW pitch. I also added all the UI and art from Brom's Plucker DS game prototype. They turned out really nice, unfortunately the game never see the light of day. Also new are Hurricane Hunters UI design and some fun characters that I designed.

Character animation section is next, I will have major dump here too, from Universe at War:Earth Assault. Hope to show them soon! Also I was going through my sketch book and realised I should start scanning some of them in and dump em on the web. I hate all this tedious labor. But I know its important. This way I can see and analyst my own progression. Make sure I didn't goof off all this time, :)

If you happen to be reading this, the one person in the world, hehe, please send me a note regarding what you think. I love feedback!

Universe at War has begun!

2007-12-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

It's officially out guys! You can get it at any retailers now. Amazon link is here. I am still waiting for my copy from Sega. I don't think my home pc will run it properly though, sigh. In the meantime, I can still play some Ace Combat 6.

Meanwhile, I managed to catch the preview screening of I am Legend at the Palms here on Monday night. I enjoyed the movie but what really spoils it for me is the CG work. They are pretty bad, i mean like Van Helsing quality. They would have been better off using life actors to portray the monsters. I know they are doing some impossible body proportions but its not that extreme. And please, no more mouth stretching fx! However Will smith is cool and there are some good moments in it. I still prefer the 28 Days series over this.

LA, Gnomon Workshop, UAW and more!

2007-12-09T21:15:00.000-08:00

This will be a big post, to make up for last few months...

Fuh, I attended this Gnomon Workshop last weekend in Hollywood and boy it was intense. Among the artists that presented are Jay Hawkins(Gears of War, UT3), Charlie Wen(God of War games), ILM artists and more! It was definitely inspiring and helped me pursue new techniques in my art and design. I am looking forward to more of this. Massive Black is also hosting a workshop up in Seattle next month. I won't get to-sucks! My colleague Kevin Prangley will be there-lucky bastard! :)

Oh yes, I survived the ridiculous 90+mph LA traffic again, yeh!

I am currently looking for more opportunity to attend classes/workshops in the LA area since its nearby to Vegas. I remember back in Seattle, I always wish to attend stuff in the California. Here are my chance now. Just hope the events don't move to Seattle!

Btw, did you know that there is The Art and Flair of Mary Blair Show up in San Francisco?!!!

"One of the first women to work as a concept artist for Disney, Blair (1911-1978) was responsible for the look of some of the key Disney films of the 1940s and 1950s, including Cinderella and Peter Pan. Her colorful, charming geometric designs, synonymous with 1950s style, appeared in advertisements and children's books."

I hope to go catch it before the show ends on March 18, 2008. There is also a book on her work as well that you can buy from Amazon.

And Yes, Universe at War, the game that I have been working on all of 2007 is shipping this Tues, Dec 11, 2007! Everybody go and buy it! Its a real fun RTS game. Really.

My Malaysian buddy from Dallas, Kit Loong and his wife Rowena came to visit me the other weekend. It was really great to see him again. We hung out, played Gears of War(which he helped me Co-op to finally killed Raam!), and also managed to go see Beowulf in Imax 3D. Boy, it sure is a pretty neat experience. The story was good, and the animation is so much better this time. Sometime, I still feel like staring at a puppet-especially the Queen. Beowulf and Grendel is great though! I think it just upped the 3D character standard set by Gollum!

Speaking of film, me and Ariel managed to catch The Mist in LA last weekend and we really enjoyed it. The trailer doesn't show much of the monsters in the mist though. The story is more about human fear and survival than the monster. So definitely go see it!

Another monster flick that I am really looking forward to is Cloverfield! Its coming out in January 2008! Make sure u check out all the viral marketing that is going on the web, like wacky Slusho ads!

And oh yes, the founder of Wizkids and FASA, Jordan Weisman, whom I have the honor to work for, was in the news regarding his new company, Smith and Tinker. Sounds like there will be some fun new stuff soon! Can't wait to hear more of them.

oh some personal update, Ariel is visiting Malaysia right now. She left last Thursday right before the storm hits San Francisco, and arrived safely on Saturday. She and our 'parasite' made it through the 20+ hours flight great! I was really worried about them throughout her journey.

So that leave me some free time these coming weeks. I have some of my personal projects going on-anatomy study, story book, speed painting practices and also updating my website. So they will occupy me until she return home here. Also I will get to play more 360 games, hehe ;)

Cool character design

2007-09-08T23:51:00.000-07:00

I finally get to watch TMNT few weeks back, and was quite entertained and impressed by it. The show is a first from a new Hong Kong animation studio. The animations were quite good comparable to stuff coming out of Pixar. Some scenes did reminded me of Incredibles. After digging in the net, I found out that they did hired a senior animator from Dreamworks to supervise the film.

But the one thing that stuck in my mind is the character design of the villains. They are really well done. Great silohuettes, good dynamic and contrasting shapes. The other thing I loved about this movie is the cinematography. The storyboard artists did a fantastic job on all the action sequences.

Overall the film managed to bring back the old cartoon to a new generation of audiences.

Meanwhile, I have been wanting to give lots of kudos to Valve for making Team Fortress 2 game. Especially choosing the stylized route for the character and world design. They even have really nice animations. This really make the game unique and stand out from the over crowded shooter games market. I hope more companies will create new IP in this direction.

Universe at War New Trailer

2007-07-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

Another cool one...

Universe at War Trailer

2007-07-16T18:33:00.001-07:00

Here is a very cool trailer that just came out. The game is looking better each day.

Autobots, what the heck is that trailer???

2007-07-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

So before the Transformers movie start last night, there is this mysterious trailer that was being shown. The whole thing is shot in home camcorder and shows a bunch of young people having a good bye party for their friend in NYC. Then there were explosions and big roaring sounds all over. No title is shown at the end of this trailer. So I went online and found out that this is a top secret JJ Abrams monster movie that is currently code name Clover or Cloverfield. More info can be found here.

Rumors on the net are going wild! Some even say its a trilogy, and the monster will only be seen in the third movie. Its definitely going to be Godzilla meet Blair Witch Project kind of show, which is cool. Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds had something like it, but these guys just took it up a notch. The feeling you get is like watching the news on 9-11. Seeing the cameramen fleeing the smoke of WTC collapsing, is eerie yet real. This time its a movie, and it will hit your face!

Jan 18, 2008 couldn't be sooner, guys!

Updates: The trailer link is gone, Paramount took it down! But the official website is up, check it out at www.1-18-08.com, what a domain name, cool.

Brilliant taste of art and comedy!

2007-06-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

Ratatouille, this time I spelled properly, is a great film. From the awesome choreography of opening scene of Remy trying to escape the threat imposed by a top gourmet kitchen to the ending where a critic explaining the art and philosopy of criticising other people's work... I was spellbound at every second. The acting, gestures and creative that goes into every frame is simply pure genius! Shame on you Disney and Dreamworks for producing low and cheap humor films all the time! I guess they took the easy way out, just like we all do sometimes. That's why we need studio like Pixar, who stands for the truth, and prevails as long as there is still good appreciate of great art.

The short animation that were presented before the movie is Lifted, as expected. A story about an amateur alien who is learning how to abduct human, hehe. Pure genius on how they setup the whole thing. This short is really different that other Pixar's. It focuses on just humor, snappy timing and attitude. It works and its real funny. Its not your typical short filled with moral values, its just comedy. Thats why its a refreshing take from the usual Disney/Pixar stuff.

Well, its been a great night at the Red Rock Cinemas.

New host, same blog, different post

2007-06-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

Fuh, I am glad the web hosting transfer went smoothly. I am curious to see how Godaddy host is any good or not. My last host, Sherweb has been smooth and great. My website, blog and email is back up now. Also my wife is creating her website too, at www.arielws.com, which should be up soon. Will let you know.

Guess what I will be watching tonight? Ratatatoille of course! I spelled that from my head, ya know, hehe. Pretty excited actually, every reviews gave it an A.

Hey June!

2007-06-14T02:12:00.000-07:00

Time is flying by, been working hard on Universe at War game and its looking better each day! Its crunch time, so I won't be updating my blog too much. I am finally getting a hang of animating with Max, but I still not fond of it. Its just a tool... (reminding myself).

Its 103 degrees today in the afternoon. Heard its worse next month. Anyway, I hate the heat, but love the sunshine. Seattle has gorgeous summer, but a dread rest of the grey year. I guess there is no perfect city, and the grass is always... shorter? Its interesting I have been having lots of conversation about living in Vegas lately. Its a plastic city with no culture or real 'living'. Everyone tries to come here, for job, personal, sins or getaway from other places and then leave. Not much of natives, so to speak. Most people will say, I won't stay here forever. But some ended up do. Some love it to death. I guess its normal for every other city. I am only here for Petroglyph. If not, no way dude. But we never know what could happen. Maybe 10 years later, I am still blogging about living in Sin City? Tax is lower here though. Thats nice.

Meanwhile, on personal front, I just went to Grand Canyon for the first time. Me, my wife, Ariel and 2 of our good friends from Seattle, Juan and Natasa went together. They visited us in Vegas and we had such a blast. Hit my picasa web for photos soon! Grand Canyon is absolutely breathtaking. We managed to wake up early at 4.50am to see sunrise. I guess it must be popular because it was packed with people that early! Oh, it was also brrr... freeeezing cold at 30 degrees. Couple hours later, the temp went up to 80s, talk about desert weather.

Better go to zzz, its 2.32am now.