Little space of Normaron

Owsome Videos by PES

// September 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Film & Animation, Video

Yesterday I saw my friend post up a video on facebook, that Video makes me watched 3 times repeatedly! I love it very much and the video is nicely done! I would like to share it  here. The maker of the video is PES , PES is one person, not a film collective or a production company.

After one video share by my friend at facebook, I do a search on google and watched all his video in youtube. His video is interesting to watch, it uses stuff that we see everyday and match it with great sound and audio (this reminds me when I have my sound design class).

Here I will share some of the videos that I like most,

Western Spaghetti

The first video that caught my attention!

Baby Nut

This video is so cute, I stare at the monitor and smile like I was really looking at a cute baby! lol~ I am really going Nut!

Game Over

This 1 is cool,  all the games that you played in the old days.

Content below is sensitive to some audience, sorry to say there is  no nude =p

Roof Sex

Interview

I found an interview of eguiders and PES,  I took out some parts to share at here,

1. I like to start these by having people introduce themselves. Can you tell us a little about your background and how you became interested in stop-motion animation?

I knew absolutely nothing technically about stop-motion animation until I had the idea for my short film Roof Sex. I studied literature and printmaking in school, not film or animation. I don’t think I really knew what a director did until I had to figure out how to make my own film.

With Roof Sex I felt that the right technique for the idea would be stop-motion, so I taught myself how to animate by doing tests with doll furniture on my dining room table. In the course of making that film, I realized that I had lots more ideas using objects, so I started making them. The ideas are what interest me, not the technique.

4. I’m curious, where do you find inspiration for some of your shorts? Do you find that ideas come to you more in dreams, walking around the city, etc?

I carry a piece of paper and pen with me at all times. I just write stuff down and inevitably certain ideas keep coming up, bugging me. Then it’s just a matter of getting them out there so my mind can move on to new things.

8. What advice would you give to someone who was interested in learning stop-motion animation and directing?

It all starts with a good idea. A good idea with a mediocre execution is more forgivable than a beautifully animated film of a lousy idea. So, I’d say, work on your ideas. Learning animation is not the hard part. There are many talented animators in the world. But a good idea is still hard to come by.

10. What is the greatest challenge you face when making a short? What is the greatest reward?

Not fucking it up. Not fucking it up.

11. Finally, is there any idea you can leave us with to help us foster greater creativity online?

Entertain yourself first, others will follow.

To see the full interview, Click here

PES website

Need a free Image Editing Software? Try Paint.NET

// September 12th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Freebies, Software

Scenario:

Sometimes, there will be friends that asking me if I can help them re-size an image, crop an image and just some other simple editing to an image. Well, I am happy to help them out, but if they can do it themselves then that will be great!

This is because it takes time when they send me an image takes like 5 minutes or more ( due to the speed of internet connection in Malaysia) and it only takes me 20 secs to re-size the image and then takes another 5+ mins to send it back, so that just not worth the time.

So DIY will save a lot of valuable time and you can upload your images to facebook/blog faster too!

Solution:

What you need is an Image Editing software, Photoshop? Not everyone can afford to get one, it is too expensive, heavy and complicated for most of the people that are not using it for their everyday life. But if you have it, then it is good but that is not our topic today.

So here comes Paint.NET, a free image and photo editing software for computers that run on Windows. The file size is less than 2mb. In this less than 2mb free software, it has quite a lot of features and effects such as image re-sizing, cropping, level, color adjustment, blur, oil painting effects and much more that you can play with.

Interface of paint.net

Features

• Simple, intuitive, and innovative user interface
• Layers
• Active Online Community
• Frequently Updated
• Special Effects
• Powerful Tools
• Unlimited History
• Free!

System Requirements (Minimum System)

• Windows XP (SP2 or newer),
  or Windows Vista,
  or Windows 7,
  or Windows Server (2003 SP1 or newer)
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (free download from Microsoft)
• 256 MB of RAM (Recommended: 512 MB or more)
• 1024 x 768 screen resolution
• 200+ MB hard drive space
• 64-bit mode requires a 64-bit CPU and a 64-bit edition of Windows

Of  course this is not the only free image editing software for you to choose, there are still some other great freeware like GIMP, Picasa, PhotoScape etc. which I did not try before.

So take a bit of time to explore and play around on the software and hope you can pick up some skills without have to buy expensive software! Feel free to ask me how to do some simple task and I might make a simple tutorial if I have time.

Click here to download Paint.NET

Next Project at Reina – Macross VF-25F

// September 10th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Toys

After done making the HG Gundam Exia Repair II , my boss asked me to help him again in finishing another model kit. This time, a 1/72 scale  Macross VF-25F Super Messiah.

Box of the Macross VF-25F Super Messiah

When I first saw the box, wow~, it is much more bigger than the previous GUNPLA(Gundam Plastic Model Kit) that I’ve built. Then I checkout inside the box, Wahlao! There are lots of parts then I can imagine (for a newbie). I was shock for awhile, then I found the “manual” booklet inside the box, my previous model kit only have a paper of 2 pages and this one have like 30+ pages of instruction….

I asked my boss “are you sure you want me to build this thing? The level of making this thing is so much higher than my level(due to not enough experience points =p)” then he just said, “no worries, just do it! ” Woohoo~ Terima Kasih Boss!

Content inside the box

1 Manual Booklet, 2 packets of stickers, 5 tiny metal, 20 plastic frames. Due to I am going to end my internship soon, I might not able to build this monster in very detailed way (e.g. sanding every bud/tree), but I hope to make it as nice as possible! Good luck for me ;-)

**I’ve never watched any Macross anime/comic before, so it there is anything wrong that I mentioned, please do correct me.

Free Web Design Icon Set

// September 10th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Freebies, Web Design

As a web designer , some nice icons as graphic elements in your website is really good to spice up the look of a website. Here I would like to share a set of icons which you can use on your website for free.

There are 310 of them and they are designed to be used on web design projects, but some are also suited to be used as system icons. They are all 16 by 16 pixels, in PNG format and free to use in print and web projects.

Click here to download

Weekend night doing Gundam model kit

// September 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Toys, photography

It was weekend and I stayed over at office. It is very kind that my Boss let me stayed over at office for the long weekend, so that I am able to do my own stuff comfortably(have air-conditioner XD ) & I also have a mission to complete, which is to help my boss build his Gundam (GN-001REII Gundam Exia Repair II), which is a High Grade 1/144 scale model.

Gundam Exia Repair II Box Image from http://www.1999.co.jp/eng

This is actually the 2nd Gundam I’ve built, the 1st one is RX-78-2 Gundam, a 1/200  scale model kit, given by my generous boss (I have no idea why he gave me, even I never watch Gundam before)

Package of the RX-78-2 Gundam, img from http://www.1999.co.jp/eng

My very 1st Gundam, RX-78-2

After finished my 1st model kit, I found out that it is quite fun to putting all the small pieces of ‘robot’ part and at the end you built something interesting. I’m kinda like miniature and small figures toys. So with the new interest that I gained from the 1st Gundam, I asked permission from my boss if I can fix his Exia Repair II Gundam which is 10% done and being left out in the box for quite sometime. My very busy boss seems glad that I can help him fix his gundam, and I am happy too, because it is a High Grade and it is more complex and more parts that my first gundam! Thank you Boss! (a.k.a. Lin)

I also learned some techniques from Zi Siang & Zi Ping in fixing the model kits. They are ‘expert’ for me, they have a lot of equipments and of course Skills! I borrowed all the needed equipments from them, just some simple tools such as cutter and nail sanding stick for beginner like me =)

My little workspace. *A corner of Lin’s table*

Upper part of the body done

Concentrating building gundam

After about 8 hours of building time, The  Gundam Exia Repair II is finally done.

The Gundam Exia Repair II Model Kit

He looks great isn’t he?

I love my internship! haha, thanks  my boss for giving me a chance to fall into this dark side of playing model kits, it is fun bulding it and I enjoyed it very much! Hope next time can try MG gundam!

ps* I do these during weekend and after working hours, I do work hard when I should [to my lecturers]. =p