Home Is Where The Heart Is

Inspiration

I was told to come to Japan with an open mind - basically come here with no pre-planned project in mind and just see what inspires me. I wanted to do something abstract initially, but I thought I would be trying to force something out and that would make everything feel very unnatural..and well.. pointless.

So I decided to do something that reflects my personality and more.. me.

One of the biggest inspiration for this piece would be the fact that it's my first time being away from home for an extended period of time. It was really difficult for me initially as I struggled to live alone and learn to be more independent, not to mention the homesickness I felt every now and then. (I'm definitely not saying that I hated my stay here. In fact, I enjoyed every bit of it, but that's for another post.)

The inspiration for the stars came like this:
The first night I was here, I was skyping with my sister and she told me to look at the stars. However, the night sky here was cloudy and there were hardly any of them. Anyway, her point was that we are looking at the same stars even though we were miles apart (sweet but so cheesy!). Yea, but as cheesy as it may sound, look what came out of it!
So from there, I went into my own fantasy world to find an 'explanation' for the absence of the stars.

P.S. for people who may not be familiar with Singapore, the pattern of the stars at the end actually forms up the Singapore flag:

Technical Stuff (in case you wanna know)

Well, since people have asked me, I'm just going to state it here.
The 3D scenes were modeled (only the environment), animated and rendered entirely with Maya.
2D scenes were created using a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop, and then animated in After Effects.
Final editing done in Premiere.

Animating in 2D was initially challenging as I had no clue how I was going to do it (Because I sure do not have time to go draw out everything frame by frame). But learning from the geniuses at DigitalTutors, I found an amazing way to animate in 2D.

So for folks who'd like to know, I downloaded the free After Effects plugin "DuIK" for my 2D character and with it, I could animated almost like I could in Maya.

What I've Learnt/Experiences I Have Gained

I think I've definitely grown slightly as an artist while doing this project. Maybe not just skill wise, but I feel like I've taken my first steps in stretching my wings in storytelling. One of the biggest reasons I ventured into animation was because I wanted to use it as a tool to tell stories and I'm just so very thankful that I had this opportunity to do so. So, this project has definitely given me a boost in confidence in this direction.

Day 26 - Marinoa City

My second last day in Japan. My last day shopping. Last day taking the train.

Took the train to Meinohama station and went to check out Marinoa City, which is a huge outlet mall (kinda like the one in JB). Did some final shopping there.. and I wonder how I'm going to fit everything into my bags. And how much extra I'd have to pay.
Gosh. Guilty pleasures.

Went to this restaurant and ordered okonomiyaki.
Told the waitress that I didn't understand how to do this, so she offered to cook it for me.
Sugoyi! Arigato Gozaimashita!

Day 25 - Playing With Hikari

New word I learnt today: hikari, which means light.

Photography Workshop conducted by Nigel

Setting Up

A video that was looping, showing the events of the Itoshima Arts Farm when it was spring (i.e. rice planting season).
P.S. I saw footage of Sen (my school's principal), his wife, Yeo Shih Yun and Justin Lee!

Day 24 - Breathing The Arts

I have more time on my hands now to draw.

A drawing of Hiro-san's parents' house.

Days 22 & 23 - Roaming The Streets and Eating Sushi

Day 22 was when I 'hermit-ted' myself in the studio and house to finish up my short film. So nothing much to update there, except THAT IT IS FINALLY COMPLETED!

I'm now just taking a day at a time. I've got rough plans on what remaining things I want to do, like visiting the on-sen again, checking out museums, shopping etc, but I'm just taking it slow - maybe even leaving it to spontaneity.

So on Day 23, I went to the city to buy some souvenirs/snacks for my folks back at home.

Some sights along the way to Tenjin,
and Tenjin itself

Days 20 & 21 - Rendering, Sketching, Cooking [Project Update]

With the deadline approaching (I've been here for exactly 3 weeks now!), I've been a good girl and spent the bulk of the past two days working on my project and I'm proud to say that it's about 90% complete. (More project updates towards the end of this post).

Today, my Mac is basically exploited for rendering.. so while waiting for the renders to be complete (each frame takes about 20min.. and I have 72 frames for this shot.. so you go do the math. I wonder if it's my render settings or my graphics card?), I went on a short sketching trip with the bicycle.

Day 19 - Studio visit to Mont Blanc Pictures

(This post is supposed to be dated 24 September 2012)

Studio Visit to Mont Blanc Pictures

Really nice and warm people!

It feels really good to be meet people in the same industry overseas - that even though we may be miles apart and may not speak each other's language, our passions binds us together.

They recently worked on the film "After School Midnighters", which is currently screening in cinemas here in Japan. I saw the trailer once and was completely blown away by the animation. (If you're reading this and you have yet to watch it, you should do so! You can watch it at their website - link below).

Shuhei Kumamoto, the guy in the picture wearing the red shirt, was the animator (I assume lead animator), and I had the privilege of seeing his demoreel. Really neat stuff! He's been an animator for 13 years, and we have a similar dream of making it into Pixar one day. Haha.

Hirosinante Murakami, the guy in the middle, wearing the checkered shirt, was in charge of motion graphics and I also had the pleasure of seeing his work. Completely blown away by all the 2d animation he did in after effects.

Take-san, the guy in the green shirt, is the director. LIKE WOW!
And the best thing is they are all very friendly and approachable.

More information about mtblanc: http://mtblanc.jp/

Day 18 - Mountain Hike

(This post is supposed to be dated 23 September 2012).

Went on an unexpected mountain hike today. I had wanted to go to the Shiraito Waterfalls (it's another destination that I've circled on the Itoshima map) and for the longest time I had been contemplating whether or not to go because it's more than 10km away. Also, I've read online that the buses to this place are very very infrequent, which is a bummer because I have a concert in the afternoon to catch.

So, in the end, I decided to wake up early to see if I can cycle there. On Google Maps, it says it will take about 35 min to drive, and 2 hrs+ to walk, hence I estimated that cycling would take slightly more than an hour..

Everything went according to plan.. until.. I realised that after a certain point in my journey, it became a non-stop upward slope - which is impossible for me to paddle up. Well, I tried to, but I kept losing my balance and fall off the bike. Anyway. Walking seemed to take less effort.

Pictures!

Scenery hike

Day 17 - Cycling trip

(Apologies for the backlog of posts that I have yet to post, including this one)

This post would have been dated 22 September 2012.

This was the day I got a little bored of the city and I just wanted to cycle around. I had this Itoshima map which I had circled a few places I wanted to go - one of which was the Ito Local Art Museum. It's kind of like 3 train stations away, and I didn't want to waste money on the train, so I decided to take a cycling trip there.. anyway it wouldn't hurt to practice cycling a bit more.

Day 16 - Ippudo Ramen

I was on the hunt for ramen and people online have been recommending Ichiran and Ippudo for ramen. I had wanted to go hunt for Ichiran, but I couldn't find it, so I went for Ippudo instead.

@ Hakata Station

Days 14 & 15

I woke up late and so I'm speed typing this away while I wait for breakfast to boil (boiling eggs and water for tea). I'm planning to go to the city again (Hakata), to try some Hakata ramen, so I gotta try and leave the house as early as I can and return preferably before the sky turns dark. TGIF!

Updates for Days 14 & 15 (the days are starting to blur..which might be because I'm starting to get used to this place. I think I'm really really gonna miss this place when I go back home).

More Japanese Food!

Takoyaki and some tofu stuff bought from supermarket

Day 13 - Shopping in the City

Setting off to the city again~

After not being able to go to the city during the weekend and being cooped up in the house, I was dying to go to the city again. This time for pure retail 'therapy'.

Day 12 - Hiding From The Storm

Just when I thought the worst of the storm was over (which was just like a normal rain to me), I was dreadfully woken up from my sleep because of some rattling noise outside my window. Apparently, there were strong winds going about and it lasted all the way till the next morning.

So, there was no way I was going out, not even to the studio. I mean, I could.. I won't get blown away, I just don't want to get drenched in the rain again.

The weather got better during the afternoon so I decided that I needed to go out for a bit. Being cooped up in the house for extended periods of time isn't fun.

Need. Fresh. Air.

I went to the onsen again. And I was actually surprised to find that it's pretty crowded. It's either they braved the chilly weather so that they could have a hot bath, or they drove here in the comforts of their car. I'm guessing the latter.

Pleasant indulgences at the on-sen

A rainbow! Like in the story of Noah's Ark.

Indulged myself in a nice sashimi dinner.

Day 11 - Typhoon Sanba

As some of might have read from the news, the super Typhoon Sanba hit the Japanese prefecture, Okinawa, this morning.

I first heard of typhoon warnings from Hiro-san and Nigel yesterday and was a wee bit disappointed that I won't be able to go to the city today.

This was actually my first encounter with a typhoon and honestly I was a little freaked out at first, then I took comfort in knowing that Okinawa is very far away from Fukuoka and that my area was thankfully protected by mountains. And not forgetting God being here to strengthen me, plus all the loving prayers my friends back at home have prayed along with me!

So, there were not very strong winds today, although it did rain the entire day which made going out virtually impossible.

Well, more time to do my work then!

Anyway, if you guys want to know more about the typhoon, I managed to find a clip about the typhoon hitting Okinawa:


Typhoon Sanba slams Okinawa 投稿者 reuters

I read from another article that there were no major injuries involved. SO THANK GOD!

Day 10 - Rice Harvest Feast

I went for the rice harvesting feast today which was part of the Itoshima Farm Arts festival. For more information, check out this site: http://www.ito-artsfarm.com/

Days 8 & 9 - The work continues

I've basically been just alternating between the studio and the house these days. There's just so much to do! Otherwise I would have taken advantage of the good weather yesterday to go to the city.

I shan't bore my readers with my project (I'm having fun doing it actually, but I'll reveal more in the days to come), so on to some pictures I took! Again

Studio Kura in preparation for the Itoshima Arts Farm Festival

Recently, the studio has been really busy with many artists coming in and out. There were some artworks going in and out as well. Too bad I forgot to snap some pictures of the artwork and the artists.

Day 7

It's been exactly a week here in Japan and I'm starting to adapt to my everyday routines: wake up, have breakfast, go to the studio, do my work, think about how I'm going to settle lunch, get back to work, shower at the studio, go back to the house and fix dinner, Skype with my family and boyfriend, go to bed.

I'm even starting to get used to the toilet at the house.

Day 6 - Project Beginnings

The beginnings of my project.

As you can probably see from the picture, I'm still in my early beginning stages of my project. I've only done the basic modeling.. (And I'll most probably just leave it at that because I really suck at modeling haha). And you can also see that I'm using a free character rig - the Andy Rig..I would try to model a simple character myself and rig it, but that will take me months because first I have to go brush up my modeling and rigging skills if I were to take on that task.

Day 5 - Homecooked Goodness

How has your Monday been?

Working here in Japan is really relaxing unlike stressful Singapore. For those people who have asked me countless times (and those who have this questions in their minds), I am not employed at Studio Kura. I'm here for an Artist Residency Program, whereby I stay here for a month and work on a project at the same time - which will be showcased at the end of my residency. So, I'm not paid, even though my accommodation and air tickets are provided for. =D

I love that the pace of life here is so slow and easy. There isn't the hustle and bustle of the citylife. I can go to sleep and go to the studio anytime I want, have my meals anytime I want. The only problem is that the nearest grocery store or even food places are miles away.

Day 4 - In the city

Good morning world!

I decided to take a morning walk down to the Ikisan train station which will take me to the city (aka Tenjin). Maybe I'm not that used to living in the countryside yet - the walk took me about 40 min! But I'm just thankful that I made it. And the station staff was really helpful in telling me which train to take. And nope, he didn't speak a word of English. Just actions. =)

You just never really know how important body language and actions are when you've lost your 'ability' to communicate verbally.