ZANIMATED!

Les Copaque's Reason For Not Sending Upin & Ipin to Outerspace

2011-03-17T17:42:00.002+08:00

Last we've heard from Les Copaque's head honcho, the esteemed Tuan Haji Burhanuddin that our intrepid animation industry pioneer was hard at work with other stuff; other than the movie that we were expecting this year.

Zanimated! was privileged enough to have gotten that nice morsel of information and there's still some more that we got from the proverbial horses mouth. It tells of a tale which paints the picture a little bleaker than most people would think. So if you think you are talented and want to go into animation, maybe there are more things to consider than just your grades and whether you can find a job in Malaysia (or Singapore for that matter).

"Actually, after we released our film and started to make the 42 episodes of Upin & Ipin in 2009, we were planning to start making another movie. The main reason was because the revenue stream from selling the TV series in Malaysia is not lucrative and the revenue from the movie is not enough to recover my investment. So were hoping that our seconnd film will bring enough revenue to recover my investments," Burhanuddin shares.

The small episodic morsels of Upin & Ipin made for the TV series were actually a Godsend reprieve. By August 2009, the series made its enterance into Indonesia under a revenue sharing arrangement.

"Due to revenue sharing, we could not see the revenue stream until 4 months later. Since June 2009, we started developing the storyline and decided to produce the Angkasawan (movie) because we were trying to get TM to sponsor the production cost," says Burhanuddin.

Burhanuddin claims that the original second Geng movie's storyline was about Upin & Ipin going to outerspace and, get this, they are attacked by the aliens who are looking for coffee beans to sustain their power. This idea was scrapped after some major shifts within Les Copaque and some of the creative team leaving for greener pastures back in October 2009.

Being left in a lurch and with no finalised script to work on, Les Copaque had no other viable options but to regorganise and deal with management issues. According to Burhanuddin, there were voices saying that Les Copaque would collapse within 6 months after the leaving of some key personnel.

"We managed to honour our obligations for 2009 and by January 2010 we started new productions of the Upin & Ipin TV series. Due to limited resources, we had no time to start film production (for the second movie). By June 2010, we started to see huge revenues come from Indonesia due to the success of Upin & Ipin and the slots moved to prime time," Burhanuddin highlights to Zanimated!.

Due to the encouraging revenue, Les Copaque has expanded and developed new businesses from Upin & Ipin.

"We continued recruiting staff and now have already reached 140 people, with plans to hit 200 by end of the year. Now, we are capable of making the movie while producing the TV series as we have enough resources. As the boys do not want to use the old footprint (for the second movie) and taking in the commercial considerations, we changed the title to 'Laksamana Upin and Ipin.' It is easier to include story from the other side and attract big sponsors who are ready to commit," explains Burhanuddin.

So there you have it. There are always commercial considerations that you need to make when you're making a movie. Passion sadly enough, is not enough. You have to make it, on a balance, sellable in the first place. Lofty as the ambitions may sound, it isn't too stretching the possibilities. Indonesia is such a vast and interesting market to a lot of people in a lot of industries.

Burhanuddin also tells Zanimated! that he has asked TV3 (under the threat of legal action) to stop crediting others as the creators of Upin & Ipin. TV3 has complied of course.

No matter how the storm looks like in the teacup of the Malaysian animation industry, Burhanuddin seems positive in saying that he feels proud to have helped inspire the next. Proud as well to have contributed to the growth of the industry.

Still want to enter the animation industry? Well, this quote will sum it up from Les Copaque's head honcho:
"I believe you must realise that this business is 'indah khabar dari rupa' (sounds better than how it actually seems)." Pretty apt. Pretty short. But we sure as heck hope that things will get better for everyone.

WOW! 2011 has been great for the industry! So Far...

2011-03-17T16:43:00.002+08:00

Animosta's Boiboi Boy has just debuted on TV3 (sorry for the previous error, complete slip of mind. Thanks Mistaman). Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa @ Bloodlines collected RM2.2 million in just a couple of weeks and Mantera from Spacetoons is coming up! Can this year just get better? You betcha!

So far 2011 has been a great upbeat kinda start to the creative industry, the very least on in a noticeable kinda way. Riding the wave is more of the challenge for now. If you haven't seen Boiboi Boy or Bloodlines, then you very well should! It's the way that we can support the local industry.

So far so good for these two featured in the videos above. But what about Mantera? Have a looksee here:

Some are saying that Mantera is a bit lacking in the spit and polish department. But I say you cannot judge from a trailer. I have high hopes, even the line delivery in the narrative seems better than I expected from Tomok (the star lead actor). Things can change. The real movie could be way, way better. Give it a chance folks!

Blender Animation: Big Buck Bunny - The Resident Architect

2011-02-17T13:00:00.002+08:00

Blender Animation: Big Buck Bunny

Big Buck Bunny from Blender Foundation on Vimeo.

A nice piece of work totally done with Open Source! Kewl!

Les Copaque responds! New movie in the works!

2011-02-08T17:26:00.001+08:00

In response to some of the information posted on Zanimated! Tuan Hj Burhanuddin Md Radzi, Managing Director Les' Copaque Production Sdn Bhd thought he should send to Zanimated! an email detailing a lot of things and going arounds at Les Copaque.

He wished to clarify on certain things; some of which unfortunately we do not have permission as yet to share with the public. Maybe in the near future? Who knows?

But for now, here are some announcements that will make local animation lovers salivate and wait with bated breath for the next Movie installment. The following is the input received:

"We are proud until now, we have excited the industries as we have proven, if it is properly done, it can be sustainable without depending on the government funds," he says.

According to Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin, Les Copaque only received a RM1 million grant from MOSTI for the film Geng: The Adventure Begins. Subsequent request were rejected because "they felt that we were rich."

"I personally invested RM4 million from my own pockets; most of which has been recovered," he adds.

On expansion plans, Tn. Hj. says that Les Copaque is proud to have provided opportunities for young people to work.

"Today we have 140 personnel and we are targeting 200 staff by the end of the year. Every year we are producing 42 episodes of Upin & Ipin for television; with the biggest income from Indonesia. The Upin & Ipin tv series is our main source of income and therefore it is no 1 priority," Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin explains.

What's in store for this year? This year Les Copaque is looking into producing another series called "Pada Zaman Dahulu" (Once upon a time), which has been snapped up by the local and Indonesian TV broadcasters.

"We are planning the film which will include steroscopic techniques. The film is titled 'Laksamana Upin and Ipin' and the reason why we picked the theme is purely for commercial reasons due to difficulties of getting free finacial assistance," he answers further.

Well the last statement certainly explains a lot as one might think; although that is not the entire story to be let out for the time being.

The golden question now would be: so when can we see this?

"As this film is low priority (compared to the TV commitments), we are hoping that it can be completed towrds end of 2012," finishes Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin.

Well that puts to rest a lot of questions. We'll definitely won't be seeing the intrepid toddlers Upin & Ipin anytime soon. This year will be another uneventful one for the local animation scene *sigh* Here we thought we'd be able to see another Upin & Ipin movie in a few days time. Major bummer.

Upin & Ipin In Space? Errr maybe or maybe not...

2011-02-04T01:05:00.000+08:00

Recently I received news from a source that it's out in certain media (in this case it was a children's publication) that Upin and Ipin in Space will be out this 10 February! OK. I'll be honest, the source was a very excited 11 year old boy who read it off a magazine at a convenience store rack...

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah...I just read it...Ermm...Now I'm not so sure" (Especially since you're looking at me funny right now).

"Oh. OK. Would be nice if that were so. I thought they scratched the idea"

Nevertheless, the first reaction a kid has, in most cases is a good and honest reaction. No pretension involved.

You know why I take into consideration children's opinions when it comes to animation? Well. They look at things rather differently. We need to take heed to how they view things if you want to make animation meant for them in the first place - for instance during the preview of Geng: The Adventure Begins at the MDeC HQ in Cyberjaya, I took my kids along; sure enough there were some scenes where they were laughing when the adults were not!

So I do put value to kid views. Not something totally radical or new. Just a good thing to take in mind...

Reading up online, sources on Yahoo!
sort of confirms this. but going to the Les Copaque landing page meant for the space themed movie (http://www.upinipinangkasa.com) reroutes you to an updated page called http://www.laksamanaupinipin.com instead. Hmm. So how now brown cow? Well short of calling them up, it leaves a lot of questions in the mind does it not?

On Wiki there's this line: "Namun, setahun kemudian, filem Angkasa diumumkan batal dan diganti dengan Laksamana Upin & Ipin yang dijanjikan dalam bentuk filem 3D" which sort of puts the entire matter to rest.

Oh well. The children's publication could be wrong - anyway it just means that the will be finally over! It would be great to watch another local animation work on the silver screen again after such a looooooong time!

Zanimated flagged down!

2011-02-04T00:10:00.000+08:00

Wow. Have we pushed the wrong buttons? After the post 'Failure to launch: Malaysian Animation Industry Rumours or News,' trying to put up links on FaceBook got a response that said that Zanimated has been flagged down as being inappropriate or abusive.

How is that so? I'm not all that certain to be honest. In terms of toning down messages, I thought I had done enough; but apparently not enough for some. There's no pleasing everyone I suppose.

In terms of viciousness - I do think there are more vicious blogs, forums and posts which are a helluva lot more vicious than compared to Zanimated!

I've asked some industry related people online plus some I bumped into at the recent Maxis Mobile Content Challenge at KLCC and in the majority they do agree that there's no real reason why Zanimated! would or should be flagged down. It's quite interesting actually...

Anyway the matter got resolved the very same day after putting up a complaint to Facebook. It's nice to know that they actually sort out matters such like this quite promptly. Facebook does seem to have somewhat a local presence; kudos!

Comments are still open. So if you have anything animation related, you know where to post.

Old post on CGI Magic lessens the movie magic

2011-01-25T13:06:00.000+08:00

Still relevant after all this time...

Overuse Of CGI Effects Lessens The Magic
By Hazimin Sulaiman
HARRY Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, has met with some criticism in
its screenplay. Newcomer Michael Goldenberg (who co-wrote the 2003 version
of Peter Pan and Contact in 1997) just joined the fray, giving Steve
Kloves, the regular screenwriter a much deserved break.
The fingers are also pointing to director David Yates who is making his
debut with this instalment of Harry potter. prior to this, he directed the
HBO film The Girl in the Cafe.
But don't dismiss The Order of The Phoenix as a bad movie. In fact, it
is a good movie. However, besides the creative liberties taken by the
filmmakers (to simplify the storyline and squeeze the entire book into
mere minutes), there are other things which diminish Potter's magic.
The computer-generated effects are brilliant, especially the dark battle
scenes. Yet they are missing the "ooohs" and "aahs" from the audience.
Though most of the audiences were movie reviewers, it does reflect in
general how real audiences would react.
The question is, are we jaded by computer-generated imagery (CGI)? The
Centaurs and Hagrid's 16-foot giant half-brother, Grawp, did not manage to
draw any surprise from the audience. The magic seems to have disappeared
though the technology has improved. This makes it increasingly challenging
for filmmakers to up the ante in introducing jaw-dropping CGI into their
movies.
Grawp is technically excellent. The character is a combination of 3-D
computer design, motion capture, visual effects and the talented actor,
Tony maudsley. The motion capture is smooth and relatively lifelike. Yet
poor Grawp isn't as memorable compared to Gollum in the Lord of The Rings.
Now, on our turf is the successful Cicakman. It incorporated CGI effects
as well, albeit on a lesser budget than The Order of The Phoenix but
managed to engage the audience's attention for a good span of the movie.
Though expectations were not as high as for Harry Potter or the Lord of
The Rings, the storyline seemed to meet the public's taste for a local
comic superhero.
Audiences were enthralled by this fictitious city called Metrofulus,
which is a 3-D CGI composited cityline that looks like new York City
complete with tram cars and yellow cabs. These are hardly wow factors, but
it made the story's illusion a tad more believable.
The real reason movie-goers were going in droves was to watch Cicakman
sticking to walls and fighting for justice, lizard style.
The problem with Harry Potter and other CGI-laden movies is that people
tend to expect high-quality CGI and digital effects to make things more
realistic. The illusion of reality has warped us into accepting a certain
CGI character as being part of the movie - just like human actors.
A great movie should be able to address this to utilise CGI to aid and
enhance the storyline and plot to make the unbelievable, believable.
NST Aug 2, 2007 p.02 Notebook

Of Silken Voices, Silver tongues and Golden Handshakes

2011-01-19T18:13:00.000+08:00

A Ghost came by Zanimated and said some things that I have to admit caught me a bit off guard. But I do appreciate his frankness (sincerity is the ticket here) because all this going around the mulberry bush in trying to be nice can actually drive things to the ground so to speak. It also doesn't help anyone.

So there! Thanks for your comments and correcting the facts that I so carelessly assumed to be right due to a sudden spur to write in the wee hours of a morning. Mucho gracias, I sincerely appreciate it. I was taught to be a responsible writer, so I'd like to practice that!

How else is Zanimated supposed to grow if it decides to pooh-pooh away the truth; granted of course the mistake wasn't intentional.

The issue? I was told that for the K-Perak initiative, it wasn't actually inspired by the success of Upin and Ipin. It actually preceded the Les Copaque Geng movie hype.

Also that the K-Perak initiative is not only geared for animation only. It also encompasses a lot other ICT related stuff as well. I neglected to mention this. This is undeniably true of course.

The dark and seedy world of animation, digital special effects, creative content etc it seems (unsurprisingly) just like any other industry filled with pitfalls which includes lobbyists to a certain degree. It is business after all.

You either have deep pockets to help you through - which is the stamina to completion or you are small, lean and mean and yes hungry enough to tighten your belts.

Case in point, I once asked a friend from Les Copaque (mind you, I ain't in my young 20's anymore): "Say, if I wanted to go into animation, and I learned all this stuff; you think I can hack it?"

His reply? "You could technically be competent. But you won't make it. You won't have the stamina. You'd have to sleep in, go around the clock to finish things. Not really for a family man like you." (Well it was something to that effect I promise you).

Of course I was pissed (what? you're saying I'm too old?). But after I recovered from the initial bombardment received after my rhetorical question, I sort of understood it and agreed.

The animation industry is tough. It's not a bed of roses no matter how much the media tends to candy coat the successes and the telly let's you look through rose tinted glasses there are bound to be the great amount of sacrifices that these people had to endure to make their animation see the light of day.

Deep pockets? Who has em? Well some do and some don't. Those that don't might want to get a kick start from the various grants available from several government initiatives via certain government agencies. MDeC, MCMC and even MOSTI has some which can be applied - if you know how to make it work for you of course.

This is where it really, absolutely helps if your marketing and PR is top of the line. How many times have we seen good animation projects that fail to get funding merely because of poor presentation skills in front of panels? Quite a fair number. Trust me. Silken voices, silver tongues and golden handshakes are sometimes neccessary.

No I'm not implying those in the negative - it's the ability of those gifted enough to make their case clear. It helps to know the people first of course - the type of knowing where a handshake will instantly get a face followed by a name recognition/association. That's legwork and homework - no bluebirds allowed (bluebirds are just those that send stuff in without prior recognition; they're tonnes of bluebirds; luck is not always on this side).

Artists and animators at times lack this PR feature and they also lack the lingo and confidence in presenting. Especially in the business language called English (the proper spoken version, not the version that they're accustomed to). Again, I am not being overly critical.

Lobbying might be a dirty word here in this context, but it's been used to describe the current situation by some.

Me? I wanted to be a front man for some animation, involved in the business and dabbled with ideas and the character creation phase and a fair bit of writing as well. Tried it. But I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I love animation. I remember when my mom asked me when I was about 4 or 5, what I wanted to be. I said that I'd like to be the 'guy that makes cartoons.' That didn't happen of course; so I thought maybe after all these years I could be some sort of ambassador. This is one way I suppose.

Good evening Animation Malaysia. Zanimated wishes you great successes this year!

Failure to launch: Malaysian Animation Industry Rumours or News

2011-01-08T01:31:00.002+08:00

Looking at 2010 in review and retrospect, it's actually hard to imagine that the Malaysian animation scene was relatively quiet for a multitude of reasons. There were a lot of pomp and ceremony from 2009 leading up to 2010, but it all led to quite a failure to launch of several local animation projects.

When can we see it?

Alamaya the Movie by Shock3D for instance, received a lot of coverage up to early last year. This writer, like so many local animation fans were waiting with bated breath - this writer also helped the team to gain some coverage from the local press back in January 2010. By mid 2010 however, it was heard that the CEO had left for his old alma-mater, Avant Garde Studios. The current status of the movie is unknown, although some have speculated that it has something to do with inadequate funding to push the movie through for promotions - that and also claims by animation fans on the Internet that they disliked the voice acting...

Les Copaque is also not off the hook despite being able to make inroads to Disney Channel Asia, Indonesia and of course onto your children's school bags, toys and knick-knacks. In 2009 this writer had the opportunity to watch the trailer preview of the next upcoming movie starring the adorable twins, Upin & Ipin - this had very nice textures and lighting effects, compared to the first Geng: The Adventure Begins movie. This one featured the sometimes rambunctious twin toddlers (at least I think they're toddlers judging by the head-size-body-ratio) in space! Be it imaginary or real - you gotta to admit, that would have been something cooler than the norm where local animation is concerned.

That was of course before the migration of the seven original pioneer members of Les Copaque to form a new outfit called Animonsta, now based in the MDeC MAC3 facility in Cyberjaya. Putting together these two, might give the impression that there was a lack in the talent to push the movie through. It isn't so. When Nizam A. Razak was asked about this upon his leaving, he said that Les Copaque had enough trained up resources and talent to keep on going. Being a perfect gentlemen however, he declined to say anything else on the reasons as to the pioneer team leaving; save that it was a good that they gained invaluable experience making their first feature animation.

Nizam and Animonsta received extensive coverage in the local media

Later, through the grapevine, it was heard that Les Copaque had changed the setting of the proposed second movie - of all things, to cater to the Indonesian market. So the space scenario was given the boot and this writer thought that space would be quite a universal scenario for most people, regardless the country. Is this the reason why the project has been delayed? Maybe popularity has led into a lull of some sorts. Good or bad, you'd be the judge of it.

Just about 6 to 7 months ago, a reliable source said that Les Copaque wanted to branch out into 2D animation. Not as easy as some might think: the type or artistic talent is totally different from 3D animation. Well, no secret there about the 2D - there's still a lot of appeal in 2D; something that Disney should have thought about. The animation setup for 2D differs and someone from a 2D background definitely has to be brought in. Someone was. Somehow it's heard that the project has hit a snag though. That someone left.

A xenophobia-related issue was mentioned by the source, which was tight lipped about the matter as well. Issues are definitely abound but let's all hope that Les Copaque will ride the storm and fall through just fine with another movie soon.

With the success of Les Copaque you would know that it really made every Malaysian state want to jump onto the bandwagon so that they can have a "made in _____(state name here)_____" label on their respective animation works.


The PTTC Building

Perak went as far as offering partnerships via the KPerak initiative based in the PTTC building. A great idea but it was rife with problems from the start - such as the changing ruling government from one political party to the next. It really made a lot of creative content companies suffer. Spacetoon (an international company which is likened to be the Cartoon Network of the Arabic speaking regions of the world) and Tri-Silver had to sit and wait until the dust settled.

They thought the ordeal was over but then came the news about the building itself was underpowered for the computing equipment - for animation you really need great number crunching capability within a air conditioned area. In most cases, dealing with international clients or partners, this can be round the clock; Spacetoon for example is a multinational which means workload sharing. Broadband throughput would be very crucial. The power issue, as we are made to understand has been resolved.

What hasn't been settled however are payments promised to joint ventures or partners or collaborators - whom cannot keep their studios running on their own if they don't finish and sell off their products. Which in turn they cannot finish because they cannot pay the animators that work for them - which will also mean that Perak's dream to have a 'made in Perak animation' product will be further off mark.

Maybe it's just a funding issue. But that's old news. From within the industry, it seems those which are successful either slog through using the bare essentials or they have very deep pockets. Those that slog through, still pool the money from private investors - there are no banks willing to risk money for animation.

Awww my Boll; how c'mon now!

The funding organisations are somewhat similar (you know who you are)- animation is of course a high risk enterprise. Aspiring animators hope for grants and handouts. Yes that will help, but not in the long run. To be aggressive about it maybe a German or Canadian model has to be adopted - take for instance that German director (Uwe Boll) which keeps making those computer game adaptations that suck. He just keeps on making em, they eventually go to DVD anyway but at least he gets to make movies and the money does trickle in, albeit slowly.

Thailand started with a 3D animation of a white elephant and going strong. The director even had the gall to say that not even Malaysia (among others) had the capability.

Singapore did one Chinese zodiac animal movie, which wasn't particularly that good, but it made them seen. Interest was generated and service work has been streaming in. Of course Lucas Arts has setup there as well. What are we missing here?

There are of course hits and misses. High risk, high returns. It doesn't work if you're to chicken about it and want to play cautious. Yes it involves throwing in a lot of money. But it doesn't have to be a money pit. Despicable Me for example was a creative risk, but it worked...

Sadly enough maybe there's something we're not doing right even with some interest generated here such as some triple A games company setting shop here or even with Rhythm n Hues setting up in Malaysia. They're here for the promises we make them. They're here for the relatively cheap talent. Do we learn anything? Maybe.

What is sadder, is that there are some from within the industry and the supportive devices and vehicles that say that going into animation is essentially a bad idea - they're just pushing the envelope because they have to or because it's something that they've been doing all along, so they just follow on through. They say that mobile content - apps included is where the money is. Animation is too much work, too risky, too expensive and to congested in a small place like Malaysia. Well true on some counts, but doesn't mean that it won't work.

Terry Thoren (link is to where he used to work) once said, that Malaysia is a secret that he hopes other people don't discover - he means in the animation sense of course. Rocketfish, which was Thoren's studio here, is no longer here. The GM Alice M. Dizon, who had worked with Hanna Barbera, has also headed back to the Philippines. Maybe we need to discover ourselves that we can do - we need to believe and help out the industry if we ever want the bragging right anyway.

Hayao Miyazaki - Happy 70th Birthday!

2011-01-06T08:26:00.001+08:00

Paying respects to a legend: Hayao Miyazaki!

Happy 70th birthday Hayao Miyazaki! You awesome and yet sweet movies have entralled and enchanted us for all these years and hopefully many years to come!

Your works have made us laugh, think and yes even cry.....Your genius is in being sincere and honest in your works and that you are not afraid to tell a story which can be what is not the norm. From My Neighbour Tortoro to the Graveyard/Tombstone of Fireflies, there's always a message for the rest of us.

Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!

LesCop's Geng to Premier today!

2009-01-12T12:11:00.004+08:00

It's been awhile since my last update. frankly, there hasn't been much exciting movement and hoopla going around the local animation scene - especially since I've been outside the so-called circle.

I guess this ends the wait to many local animation aficionados, well at least for members of the media and invited VIPs: to be screened TODAY at Cineleisure Damansara!

Unfortunately, due to prior engagements, I will not be able to attend this historious launch-preview. I will however cart my entire family to catch it at the cinema to lend my support to LesCop. That's at least 5 tickets if I get my mom-in-law to join in...

The official screening date for cinemas? 12 February, 2009 as per the poster above. Well the movies' is going to be something to look forward to after such a bad start in the new year. Perhaps it is a glimmer of hope for some of us that dreams to come through and hard work will eventually prevail to greatness!

Kudos to LesCop, Tuan Hj. Burhanuddin, Nizam, Usamah and the entire Geng at LesCop! I salute you!

Go Academy behind a new 3D animation? Enter Ibn Batutta!

2008-10-24T12:32:00.005+08:00

I dug out a picture I took at the WCIT - I think it was the GO Academy booth. They are working with an impressive idea as well and trying to differ from the Saladin formula MDeC is using.

Check out the picture of the figurines: on the right are two versions of Ibn Batutta, the young and the old.

It was refreshing- Ibn Batutta a historical and scientific figure is the lead. From history itself, he has plenty to tell; traversing across the globe and learning cultures and languages of the people he meets. More at Wiki- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta .

I'm thinking a kind of Indiana Jones epic somewhat...A lot adventure, interwoven fact-fiction. The idea is to be more factual in this case of course. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a flop TV series but it made people (like yours truly) more interested to read up on the history portrayed. Similar to frank Miller's 300 - based on a true story, it can make anyone want to at least go to Wikipedia to read up on the stand the 300 Spartans made (Battle of Thermopylae) to defend their land.

And Yes. I agree I do get tired people hyping up on the same old stuff, when there's more out there...Good work after all deserves the due good credit! Here's one to the Batutta team! Kudos to you!

Check out the styling of the characters. Sorry, I forgot the name of the Prof. Dr. in charge of the project. It's been sometiime. I'll dig it out.

Les Copaque's Sneak Media Preview

2008-10-08T20:36:00.007+08:00

NOT really recently (I think it was 25th August, 2008), Les Copaque had a media-industry screening of its upcoming Geng: The Adventure Begins movie (here's a newer link to older preview and here's a newer link). I've been keeping tabs for a while now - animation was my forte' when I was with a tech section- of a local daily newspaper...

Your's truly was there to witness history in the making. The small auditorium at the MDeC HQ was packed to the brim. So far it looks great! What can I say - taking into consideration that this is a first effort. I guess, I should say that after seeing all that the team has gone through, I'm guilty of being a bit more forgiving. But still, I have some things to say, that might be potentially glaring to the avid 3D animation nit-picker - regular audience for a nice animated movie will not ponder too much and will defintely enjoy this marvelous, marvelous movie!

What I still remember though (and this might still change later still during the final cut) is that the movie was still a bit longish. Nizam and gang were all there to take note of the feedback that we all had. Some suggested that the editing needs to be tighter and the removed scenes can be made into a director's cut version on DVD - good idea.

The merchandise is key here people! Like Bill DuBay, used to say when I met him "It's the ancillaries that count. The lunch boxes, the bedsheets etc." Nice guy. Heard he's gone of to Pixar. He's a veteran with comics, Marvel Productions and buddies with Stan 'the Man' Lee. Already Les Copaque, has this in the roadmap. Kudos for them!

Geng: The Adventure Begins to my thinking has something to offer just about everybody in the audience. For good measure I took my kids along as well: my son aged 9 and my daughter aged 4 and my wife for good measure. Note: here's when you will notice that kids will laugh off queue compared to an adult audience. Some people would want to capitalise on these nuances- depends however to whom the movie is tagetted towards to.

My former editor, Ahmad Faiz Daro' Abd. Rahman, now a corp. comm. manager at Petronas, was also there. He noted that some of the scenes needed to be made punchier - true enough. He also suggested to change the character 'Kopek' to another usable name, for obvious reasons 'kopek' is also a slang word used to denote a woman's bust in certain *ahem* parts of the country. Sure enough this was taken note off, however the dilemma now is trying to find another name which will fit into the lip-synching for the word 'kopek' or 'kopet.'

Af for some of the self-inflicted injury or pain displayed by some of the forest creatures, I personally thought they were OK- simply because they were funny and taking into consideration of stretch and squash cartoon concept, they shouldn't be too offensive to animal lovers. They are caused by accidents and self-inflicted due to carelessness etc. Of course those scenes which could potentially cause animal lovers to cringe should be taken out. Can't remember any though.

The scene where the heroes enter the cave and leading in to that scene, a remiscent to several great moments in other movies: think Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom and even yes, the Ring Wraiths in search of Frodo in Lord of The Rings. Still cool though - it is after all a first time effort and using formulas that work will be the right thing to do. Besides, most kids wouldn't have known any better.

Another thing, that I didn't really think too hard about was the characters not changing clothes - suspense of disbelief sustained me enough to just put it away to rest. After all, who has time to change clothes with all the action going on?

The voice acting was actually relatively good and in some cases with regards to the smaller kid characters, I thought were actually really good, especially Upin, Ipin and Raju.

Storyline was engaging enough even if the implementation was in some scenes a bit draggy. However, I was pleased enough that I was surprised still of how certain scenes developed into what was a bit unexpected. Some scenes however, being a veteran *ahem* movie watcher, I was able to fathom the possible outcome - still let's not forget this is mainly for kids anyway.

Sound wasn't there yet as the mastering was not completed yet: sadly enough this still has to be done outside the country. Similarly so stuff like transferring to 2K plates for the final print for cinemas etc. (I might be off a bit on the technical specs, but there you go). Makes you wonder eh? This means local productions still need to be sent to Thailand or some other neighbouring country to make them usable for the local cinemas. Sad isn't it? Oh well, maybe someday someone will want to FINALLY do it and have someone FINALLY support the cost of doing it.

Overall, the boys and girls of Les Copaque did a really fine job transforming the story into great visuals crunched at MIMOS using some heavy duty cluster computing. We are still not where Shrek is, but this is a great start i.e. in comparison say to Singapore's Zodiac movie, I should say. That was of course a few years back...Nizam and the boys, for their age are quite proficient I might add on cinematic principles- I cannot help to be impressed: breaking the 4th wall and Chekov's gun are quite adhered to. Kudos to them and good luck to them!

As it is, I would give it overall 4 1/2 stars out of 5 based on the merits and what I've seen. Just can't wait to see the final cut!

Les' Copaque and a writer get's some due recognition ;-)

2008-07-04T11:38:00.007+08:00

FINAS recently had a sort of a media appreciation night. I rather not tell the story already told so just go to the links:

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Saturday/National/2279835/Article/index_html

http://gengmovie.blogspot.com/2008/07/malam-penghargaan-industri-filem-27-jun.html

But I really want to thank Nizam, Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin, Fuad of Saymohm and of course the voracious advocate of the digital arts Chris Gomez- it was with their input that I wrote the story. The story mind you, could have been much more potent if not for *ahem* guidelines and all that stuff...

Want to make short films?

2008-05-17T13:10:00.001+08:00

Have you tried going to BlameSociety.net? No? Then you should. Check out Chad Vader, Darth's supposed twin on Earth...

Making short films and getting them noticed
By: Hazimin Sulaiman

full article: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/techNu/Monday/Notebook/20080310123933/Article/index_html

IF you love films, surf to blamesociety.net and fromheretoawesome.com (FHTA for short). Similarly, you can also go to Youtube.com and search for both. They serve as examples that filmmaking has been democratised: as long as you have a video camera and some software on a computer to do some editing, shooting a short film is not a problem. The problem is getting your short film distributed to make money.

This is where FHTA’s idea of getting noticed by harnessing the power of the Internet comes in.

Blamesociety.net’s claim to fame was through its Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager episodes; a hilarious parody series of Star Wars’ Darth Vader’s supposed brother working at a supermarket (on present day Earth, it seems).

Founders Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda, who not only write, produce and star in their many other short films since 1993, have garnered a lot of attention. The success story, Chad Vader received over 15 million views online, broadcasted on Good Morning America, Spike TV and G4 and was selected by George Lucas himself as Best Star Wars Fan Film of 2007!

Getting noticed means opportunities in this business. In fact, both Sloan and Yonda now make films for a living. They owe it to public access stations which they describe as being video-business incubators which teach the young about skills and all aspects of broadcast communications.

They feel public access to television is important to local communities, hence their efforts to save a Wisconsin public access station (www.saveaccesswisconsin.org).

The FHTA is another avenue for indie movie-makers. Think of FHTA as a virtual film festival as it’s unlikely for most independent movie-makers to get noticed and go to an actual film festival in the first place.

In August 2007, Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and Mike Belmont (We Are the Strange), both indie movie-makers, came up with a concept to create a virtual conference film festival. On their Web site, they say that they “decided that the virtual event would be an experiment to connect filmmakers with audiences and the event could become a model for open content distribution, which allows filmmakers to have a say in how their films were reaching audiences.”

FHTA claims that their experiment is off to a great start. From the looks of the corporate logos and icons on their site, it has garnered an amazing list of partners. These partnerships will be leveraged to distribute across mutiple platforms such as mobile, online, theatrical and direct into living rooms. The main idea? To design the fest in such a fashion that the revenue goes directly into the filmmakers’ pockets.

Filmmakers will get to set their own price, retain rights to their work and be able to reach global audiences directly. All that with no submission fees and let the audience judge the works. A three-minute submission will be determined by the judges on whether it should be expanded into a longer film and the prize is a worldwide distribution via FHTA.

How FHTA works is described on their Web site. It seems like a plausible method to get around distributors who often want a great portion of whatever profits a film can rake in these days.

Will such an idea take off here? Who would fund this? Local independent filmmakers should band together because they will then have a bigger pool of talent and resources to tap into.

Personalised Google Themes

2008-05-12T17:19:00.001+08:00

Google Teams Up with Leading Artists to Create Fun New Themes

INTERNET giant Google Inc., has teamed up with leading artists to creatte new themes for iGoogle. Google recently launched a collection of new themes created by leading artists, designers, actors and other personalities for iGoogle, Google's personalized homepage.

With iGoogle, users can choose and arrange the content they want to see on their Google homepage to personalise their Web experience. Google has collaborated with almost 70 artists from around the world, inviting them to use iGoogle as their canvas by creating unique, dynamic themes for users to decorate and personalize their homepages.

My iGoogle page:

Of course you can customise by changing artist themes and adding gadgets

The entire list of participating artists and their themes from around the world, can be found at www.google.com/artistthemes.According to said Derek Callow, Marketing Manager, Google Southeast Asia, Google has teamed with artists and other public figures as a way to give iGoogle users more fun, cool options to personalize their Google homepage. “We’re providing users
with some great new homepage designs and giving these artists a way to be discovered and to express themselves to millions of people on the Internet,” says Callow.

Participating international and Asian artists include Akira Isogawa, Alice Mak, Anne Geddes, Carrie Chau, Coldplay, Dale Chihuly, Diane von Furstenburg, Dolce&Gabbana, Jackie Chan, Jeff Koons, Kwon Ki-Soo, Young-Hee Lee, Mark Ecko, Mark Morris, Michael Graves, Nigo, Oscar de la Renta, Philippe Starck, PPAPER, Robert Mankoff, Rolf Harris, Tezuka Osamu, Tory Burch and Yann Arthus-Bertrand.All of the themes are dynamic, which change throughout the day.

The new collection provides users with a diverse selection of themes to reflect personal style on personalised a Google homepage. Can't decide? Google has a sampler theme that rotates
through all of the participating artists' themes.

Review of Lenovo's X300 up at autaspace.blogspot.com

2008-05-12T16:39:00.004+08:00

Lenovo's new anorexic baby, the X300 is really thin...In fact, it can be lighter than Air, the MacBook Air that is...

Product review at: http://autaspace.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-lenovo-x300-lighter-than-air.html

Cybercafes are here to stay!

2008-04-24T16:54:00.002+08:00

Gaming in cybercafes will be on the rise for sometime, especially given the rather low broadband speeds we have in Malaysia...I was with some journalist in Bali for an IT event, the one from Singapore said that he is getting 10Mbps (there are faster services in Singapore as well) and the one from Hong Kong had a 15Mbps connection. He Hong Kong journalist also said that PCCW also provides fiber-to-the-home, up to 100Mbps...Me? I was to ashamed to say. Of course, I already knew that we're really behind after covering some international broadband forums before...

Here's a link to a rather obscure story on cybercafes and why they're not afraid about hotspots and braodband to the home: http://autaspace.blogspot.com/2008/04/cybercafes-not-worried-about-hotspots.html

Free movies on-line!

2008-04-24T16:52:00.001+08:00

Here's a link to an article about some great public domain movies you can watch on-line:

http://autaspace.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-movies-on-line.html

Autaspace! is another blog of mine...

A past article related to local gaming industry

2008-04-22T12:12:00.002+08:00

This version is slightly more detailed and longer than the hard-copy published version. Sorry I lost the pictures. They were mainly Team Fortress 2 pictures.

Local gaming development IP to rise
By Hazimin Sulaiman

CODEMASTERS has a presence in Malaysia, working along with local company Vision New Media. Electronics Arts is setting up shop with our southern neighbours, Singapore. These are world computer game heavyweights which would be a boon for the local creative content development industry to have on our shores. There are of course local game developers in Malaysia such as Pheonix and GameBrains. But it seems that in most cases, the games development industry in Malaysia still lacks its own Intellectual Property; most projects handled by these companies are outsourced jobs, with the IP belonging to respective foreign entities.

The interactive-entertainment industry itself is very enticing especially in 2007 video game software sales reached a staggering USD$9.5 billion. Compare that to the top-ten Hollywood blockbusters which generated USD$2.6 billion last year. Unless the local gaming industry gets a boost, it is likely that the local games development industry will remain at a service provider level for a long time.

Not owning unique IP can in the long run spell disaster if somehow a games developer decides to shift to other places which offer lower wages and other incentives. There is hope. As established foreign games entities realiase Malaysia's potential to produce quality work. We have some resources in terms of multimedia and animation talents but it takes more expertise to make a computer or video game. A game requires more people than a movie production. In that respect, relying on an established gaming engine is a good way to jump start the local games industry.

Datuk Hj. Abdul Hamid Mustapha, executive chairman of Online e-Club Management Sdn Bhd which owns NOESIS Interactive Sdn Bhd believes that one of the best ways to break into the lucerative games industry is by creating mods. The clear message is that one should not underestimate the power of game mods.Mods or game modifications is a key reason why games like Counter Strike (running on the Half Life engine) refuse to die.

In 1996, alterations to id Software's Doom resulted in modified versions. These mods extended the life of the game way beyond the point where its excitement would have died down. Since one must have the original game to play mods, sales went beyond the shelf life of normal computer games.Using this template Half-Life has made Valve Software's revenue stream steadily increase. Valve mainly attributes its success to three mods: Day of Defeat, Team Fortress and Counter Strike. In the first year Half-Life sold two million units. In its third year after its launch, it sold 3.8 million units. Over all, the Half Life franchise sold over 11 million units.

NOESIS Interactive intends to offer gaming development courses through franchisee university and colleges. Courses are scheduled to start by June, 2008. Leveraging on its partners Valve Software and NOESIS Interactive USA, NOESIS Interactive believes that we have an ecosystem in place to welcome a whole new generation of game developers from training, community development right through to digital distribution of games for commercialisation opportunities. In simple terms it means that budding game developers can take up the course from participating university and colleges and receive a certification in respective programmes such as 3D content creation with Softimage XSI, character design and integration with Half-Life 2, custom props and animation for source powered games, advanced character animation for gamers with Softimage XSI and advanced source level design bundle source level design essentials.

These certification means that the holder can be instantly put to work on games which specifically use the Half-Life engine. Besides Softimage, other 3D animation tools such as Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max-based courses are also offered. The project based training is open to all students, teaching professionals or those who want to upgrade their skills."NOESIS Interactive is a project conceived, produced and managed by Online e-Club Management Sdn Bhd to address the inadequancies of the Asian Electronic Game Industry. Currently there is only a handful of local games titles that have been released in this region," says Abdul Hamid. This he thinks is largely due to the lack of resources and more crucially the lack of access to any game engines. As for the pool of skilled designers, artists and coders it is believed by NOESIS Interactive that it is small and scattered, with most young talents are yet to be discovered.

NOESIS is also set to leverage on its connections in Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam; since e-Club Management is the regional official distributor for Valve Software. With that, locally produced IP coming out from this has a good chance of being distributed as mods to these countries. The IP rights will also remain with Malaysians. Malaysia can use this opportunity to market its own unique culture as its own IP as well. Placement of facts or cultural objects can picque one's curiosity and influence them to find out more. This has a similar effect to placing products in movies.

Silat, the Malaysian form of martial arts for example, has been eyed by a Dutch-based company DGames Sdb Bhd. According to its advisor Azlan Ghanie, himself a respected martial artist and chief editor of the local martial arts magazine, Seni Beladiri, DGames representatives are keen to create an online computer game where players from all over the world can band together to fight the forces of darkness. "I hope that silat form of fighting will be depicted in the online game to introduce Malaysian silat to world," Azlan says.

DGames is synonamous with the child prodigy Paul du Long, who created his first online game when he was only 11 years old. His father Glenn du Long intends to have his son mentor local talents, as he has done for thousands of children in Europe. "We are scheduling the launch of the proposed game sometime in May or June in Kuala Lumpur," says Azlan.

DGames is keen to have Malaysia as a hub for developing online games. Malaysia it seems has hidden gems which can attract established names from the gaming development industry. But to build up the industry, it takes more than a bunch of companies. The pool of skilled and talent for example, needs to be polished enough to gain the confidence from these would be employers from overseas. We need to learn what we can from tried and tested formulas first, just like the Japanese animators, before branching out on our own.

Jin On-line?

2008-04-22T12:08:00.002+08:00

Play with Jin on-line

By Hazimin Sulaiman

JIN, in Malay means geanie, which in turn originates from the Arabic equivalent 'Jann.' As of now, iG-Interactive Sdn Bhd, a top online game publisher and one of the pioneers of Malay language online game publisher in Malaysia and Singapore, has in partnership with game developer, TQ Digital Entertainment (China), launched JIN Online (http://www.jin.com.my/) for public open beta. It seems to be yet another “PayU2Play” massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by iGI. In JIN, you are immersed and trasported into a fantasy-based MMORPG virtual world of JIN. Gamers can choose one of the 2 heroic game characters, the Warrior or the Mage.

JIN Online gamers will enjoy months of fun and exciting game-play commanding their heroes and pets to adventure the vast land of Atlantis and challenging monsters and real players with the power of sword and magic. What's more is that you can have pets which actually evolve into genies! As gamaplay progresses you can summon up to 3 genies concurrently, to help protect you from harm via convergence and attack tactics. The pet system provides a lot of genies to summon from. Some have super strength, some magic and some can self-destruct in sacrifice while others will possess enemies' spirit to impair them.

To help working adults to get into the game, JIN Online introduces a perfectly designed `Offline Training' system, a first in MMORPGs. As the name depicts, Offline Training allows you to train and level-up your heroes and genies even when your computer is switched off. The emphasis for Jin is team-work of tightly knitted common online game components which includes an excellent legion and competition system; effective trade system; player mentoring; rewarding and other various systems guarantee JIN Online to be highly interactive and full of fun.

In conjunction with the launch, IGI will be running JIN Online Illustration and Comic Competition as well with the prizes of RM1,500, RM1,000 and RM500 for the Grand, Second and Third winner of each category and 5 consolation prizes each. More details will be available on our website as well. JIN Online CD starter packs are available at your local cyber-café, game-shop, news-stand early March, 2008 nationwide.

What do people think about the local scenario?

2008-04-21T18:52:00.000+08:00

Local digital effects and animation in local TV and movies
By Hazimin Sulaiman

THIS year marks a new beginning for the digital special effects and animation industry in Malaysia, with a slew of projects finally supposed to come to fruition; including the much awaited first fully featured Geng: The Adventure Begins by Les Copaque in May, 2008. Or might it also be an uneventful year? For example the much awaited Toy Story III has been put on hold until 2010, much to the disappointment of many 3D animation fans.

We conducted a street poll exercise to ask the general public of how the digital special effects and animation seem to be doing this year, especially in local movies, TV programs and animation. The overall response of over 90 per cent, is that things are improving on the whole. Here are some comments from the people who had their responses recorded:

Xybase, systems engineer and big-time anime and animation fan, Maulviridha Abu Bakar, has noticed a marked improvement. He has working experience with companies which create 3D animation and digital special effects before and notices great improvement in the local animation scene. "There's much improvement compared to previous times. For example, we have come far since the early Usop Sontorian animation days; which by today's standars is very outdated. I've also noticed that montages and in between scenes for TV programs such as Puteri, now look much better," Maulviridha observes.

Child development expert, Mec Cheah, who is busy with nurturing and teaching pre-schoolers has hardly anytime to watch television nowdays but notes some improvements. "I hardly watch any TV nowdays and we don't depend on such medium for teaching. But I personally have noticed more digital special effects in local programs. Recently I saw some effects for a local ghost story on television, which is better compared to a few years ago," she says.

Perodua engineer, Dzulhilman Sulaiman, who is also an avid animation and movie buff says that the overall impression that he has seen in local programming and movies is that local special digital effects are improving. However, there are tendencies that he says the content creators should avoid. "If the CGI is used to further enhance the story to make it believable, then its fine, but excessive usage can actually make things look very fake- especially when something does something which it isn't supposed to," Dzulhilman says.

Public relations executive, Livan Bai also observes that there has been a marked improvement in local programs and movies in terms of using digital special effects. "There's been a lot of improvement in the use of digital special effects in local TV, movies and 3D animation. One example is the work by Les Copaque which has been aided by MIMOS' grid-computing technology. It's a growing market, but we're still at an infant stage. With more technologies coming in we can have a wider industry. Now it is still quite niche," says Livan.

UiTM law student, Noraisyah Bahrim observes that animation such as Les Copaque's Upin & Ipin shown last Ramadhan on Channel 9, appeals to a lot of children and definitely shows off the potential of local animation. "It definitely means that we will be seeing the same if not better quality of animation this year when the full featured 3D animation by Les Copaque comes out."

Local Malaysian animation industry update

2008-04-21T18:47:00.003+08:00

This story was submitted a while ago to my editor as a possible cover story, but was never used:

What's to look out for the animation industry in 2008?
By Hazimin Sulaiman

WHAT does 2008 hold for the animation industry? Well for starters, in May we will hopefully get to see much anticipated release of Malaysia's first full-length three-dimensional (3-D) animation movie Geng: The Adventure Begins sometime in May (international release: 2009). But what about the industry as a whole? We ask players in the industry.Executive director and producer of local animation outfit Saymohm Sdn Bhd, Fuad Samad believes that animation industry seems to be on a roll this year. Thanks to support from various agencies such as from states, MOSTE, KEKWA, MDeC and FINAS. "Everyone seems to be in the new media industry.

Even state governments are looking into animation and into providing human capital. They are looking into providing career opportunities for the youth," says Fuad. Something which Fuad hopes will change however, is the perspective of braodcasters towards local animation.

Broadcasters tend to have different views towards animation compared to drama or other local productions, hence the difference in the rates paid out as per program syndication. For example a syndicated local animation episode, with no sponsor, gets paid a flat rate of RM1,000. This applies to completed productions and not those still in the pipeline. To date however, the only local broadcaster which funds for entire local animation projects is still RTM.

Rocket Fish Studios based in Technology Park Malaysia, is hard at work creating content for the world. Staffed with local animators thanks to their innovative training scheme, Rocket Fish has trained a total of seven batches of more than 100 graduates. The free training entails graduates to be employable in other Flash-based animation studios. According to its general manager, Alice Dizon Manuel, more than 30 per cent of graduates have decided to stay on. The trained talent is important in the roadmap as Manuel reveals that " a lot of studios successfully develop ideas to sell out from Malaysia. For Rocket Fish, more outsourced projects have come up." Currently Rocket Fish is working on producing full pilot episodes of pre-school series Ketchup & Mustard and Backyard Buddies, to be shown at the MIPTV festival in April. Among the other stuff that Rocket Fish has churned out include the Warren Buffet's Millionarires' Club DVD and Skunk Fu for Cartoon Network Asia to be out this year.

Chairman and public relations chair of the ACM-Siggraph Kuala Lumpur Professional Chapter, Christopher Gomez says that development in the film industry, in general, is on the way up, but things are unacceptably slow. "The world around us is highly competitive. Unfortunately a small country like Malaysia, we absolutely cannot afford to go slow because this equals to dropping out of the game. The rules of the game are the same, but we're playing against players who are a lot faster, far more agile and have more stamina to withstand economic cycles," observes Gomez.This is unfortunate given the potential: "I've been watching the growth of, and changes in, the animation and computer graphics industry here in Asia, very closely the past decade. I can safely say, the kind of animation and CG works you see coming out of Asia today, are all quite amazing," Gomez notes.Gomez believes that We still do not have a clear IP framework.

"Even if the government claims they do, people in industry have not been well informed about this. Though the MDeC in general has arranged IP talks/seminars, I've yet to hear about similar talks by the other relevant ministries in film and TV-content production," Gomez says.Gomez feels disheartened that when he speaks to some senior executives in government about how slow things are in Malaysia, their quick answer seems to be that "we don't have the funds like out neighbors Singapore". "So it makes me wonder, if we don't have the funds, then why do we have agencies who preach about their interest in helping to build the industry," adds Gomez.

Industry building Gomez believes requires a lot of funds. And if you do not have the funds, maybe its not a good idea to blow your trumpet. He notes that it is embarrassing to think that we had a media initiative (through the MSC) easily 10 years ahead of our counterparts; and yet today we are lagging behind Singapore and even Thailand. As for Siggraph's 2008 initiative, Gomez says that for the first time in history, SIGGRAPH will be bringing it's conference to Asia. SIGGRAPH Asia will be held in Singapore, from Dec 10-13, 2008. "Some of the exciting things people should flock to see at SIGGRAPH Asia 2008, are the Computer Animation Festival, Emerging Technologies, the industry exhibition and the Jobs Fair," says Gomez.

Nicholas Shariff Collins, senior manager, Multimedia Development Corporation admits that a lot of talents a re coming out from local universities and colleges. "We want to help them move up. We are looking into pre seed programs with funds up to RM50,000 to help them start out," says Collins. The MDeC initiative he says will link to professionals to hear from experts so that they get to share in on the relevant background experiences and knowledge for the market. The future, Collins feels is going to be a good one: "look at the Asian region. There's exponential growth of the middle class and thus growing demand for content. All we have to do is to tap in the global market from the very start," Collins adds.One way to do this is to have more buy-in programs. A program started by MDeC last year to match collaborators from overseas with local industry players.

To encourage local growth, MDeC and MRCB have also opened up an incubation centre in Plaza Sentral KL.Besides these efforts, Collins feels that the industry needs to realiase that other delivery platforms are also available. Although there's growth in cable and satellitel broadcasting, they should also look into broadband and telecommunication opportunites. They should start to think out of the box as their products might work surprisingly well on other platforms. For example in Hong Kong he cites that there is a great demand for content. Up till now people were not sure what type of content to provide in Hong Kong; but it was discovered that the food channel is extremely popular.Although everything points out that demand is growing, revenue however might not grow exponentially as competition increases and budgets continue to be tight.

On the plus side, Collins belives that in a lot of saturated markets such as foreign European and American markets, companies are looking towards Asia- which is not just one market, but a lot of territories to cover including China, South East Asia and other emerging Asian countries. With all this in mind, 2008 could be the big year that the local animation industry has been holding out for.

Zanimated!

2008-04-13T10:34:00.001+08:00

Hey all.

After some past attempt of blogging~ specifically photo blogging from a mobile phone years back, I've finally taken up the suggestion to finally to go on Blogger: "You know, your gmail account is tied to Blogger don't you? You should try it out, it's therapeutic ," said a colleague of mine in the news room (of a local Malaysian daily newspaper)...Or at least something to that effect.

So one of the objectives of Zanimated is to keep keep tabs on the Malaysian animation industry...Very least my unpublished articles can get to see some daylight...Z