A long weekend of rest

I feel like I'm going through a mini slump or quarter-life crisis? not sure. But with good friday, I do hope it's enough time to rest and recover from this.

So I've recently been playing...

Pokemon X has made me love grass types again. It seemed like they're trying to balance out the types, as dragon type seemed too strong.

Bravely Default has been an epic JRPG. With a lovable cast and familiar art style, it's been a fun ride to fight through and collect the classes.


I'll also be briefly writing up abt a few of the movies I've watched during the past year.

Gravity is a simple story abt a lost astronaut. The visual and camera work is spectacular. I do feel that the main character is super lucky though.

 

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty also has a simple plot imo, and it's beautifully shot (so much view of many different parts of the world.)

Her is a slow paced story, and pretty touching in its own day. If you like action or thriller and less into romance or bittersweet kind of movies, then this is not the movie for you.

The Grand Budapest Hotel has surprised me with it's huge amount of familiar actors. It was funny and enjoyable throughout the show. The color and composition is also well done.

Alright, signing off now! gonna grab dinner!

Good things come in 2s?

I guess I'm still trying to get the hang of writing blogs, and how often I'll get topics posted. A lot of stuff to work on, and probably more to talk about.

Anyways today's topic is the sequel of movies that I've watched over the past year!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is another one of those light-hearted movie with a simple storyline. Some of the jokes probably the kids won't get, as they are quite puny. I liked the animation and some of the creatures/characters are visually interesting. I feel it's equally nice to watch compared to first movie.

Catching Fire (Hunger Games 2) is somehow better than the first movie. The danger does seem more deadly, although the starting had quite slow, so as to explain a bit of the situation. Some of the new characters presented had interesting personalities that seemed likeable to me.

The Desolation of Smaug (Hobbit 2) is a crazy visual feast. I was amazed at the dragon's dungeon, and probably sorta happy to see the appearances of legolas and gandalf. I wouldn't say it's a super awesome movie, but I admit the effects and environment is really insane! It is probably more exciting than Hobbit 1 too.

Thor 2: The Dark World felt more like a fan service movie to me than anything else really. I admit it was nice to see cameo appearance and Tom Hiddleston's acting though. It probably is a prequel to something bigger, but otherwise I wouldn't find any reason to re-watch it.

Rio 2's story takes place in the amazon, which is different from Rio 1, where many of the shots are in the city. It is a well animated film with many musicals and songs to enjoy! I wouldn't mind rewatching this movie to be honest.


Alright, that's all for this post, I'll have to leave the house soon, see ya!

A final note of my university studies.

It's my first post for 2014! but I guess I'll start off by talking about a major thing of 2013...
(this is a post i kept in draft for a long time, but i think i ought to share it)

It's been at least 3 years since I enrolled into DigiPen, and I would say I've come a long way from where I've started. And I've learn a lot along the way.

At the beginning, I loved school, especially since i just finished serving my 2 years in National Service. Everything seemed great, and although I was a bit disappointed that I had to study a sem more than my other ex-classmates back in poly, I felt it was super refreshing going back to study. I was proud that I managed to get enrolled in DigiPen, and felt I was doing better in the traditional aspect compared to my other classmates. But after the first semester, I began to realize a couple of things; One was that I wasn't doing so well as I thought I should. I've been living under the impression that if I'm one of the better few in my class, I can find a job after graduation. Well, I was proved wrong after realizing I knew so little about anatomy, or even anything! So I started to work hard (or harder).

During the second semester, I had actually lost my clique of friends who I used to hang out with during the first semester. They have decided not to pursue this course. I guess that is another thing, you have to know what you want to do when you graduate; Be an animator? an illustrator? a modeller? You have to be sure you want to pursue this line of industry, and lock it in. I told myself I wanted to do animation or illustration, but at this point I wasn't so firm on my decision.

I've got the taste of working with a team during the 3rd semester. You can say that I found out everyone has their own work ethics, and it is not easy to 'clique' with them. Sometimes I want it a certain way, but I just can't seem to even compromise for it, and so just have to 'suck it up' and move on. I also felt that it was a very tough semester compared to the 1st two, partly due to the fact that I had a project class and another time-consuming film class(requires scouting of places etc). I never felt this difficulty thus far, and seeing everyone also feeling the same, it made me wonder, is this course even humane?

I somewhat liked the 4th semester, partly coz there wasn't a major module, and it was relatively easier compared to the 3rd. At that point I learn that I wasn't great with environment, and maybe I lacked the enthusiasm for it, so I was slowly convinced that I should be a character artist/animator. It pushed me to find things to do, and work on other side projects. I guess that's another thing to keep in mind, to do stuff outside of school. I've been trying to work on that, but it just doesn't last long.

The junior year felt like a great accomplishment to me, I felt great, and managed to apply what I learn into a solo project. Of course, I do have help along the way, and I was it was a nice experience that my friends and I worked hard together, and even overnight-ed at my place once, to finish our individual project. These two semesters were where I was convinced that animation is really what I want to do and work on. This passion kept me moving I would say.

I was the producer of a 5-man team during my senior year, and have a semester study in the US campus. I would say it has been a life-learning (and even a life-changing) experience. I admit I learn the most here throughout the course of study. There were so many things I didn't know how to do; I didn't know how to cook, I didn't know how to do the laundry and I got to know my friends a LOT better. Being in a new place, I was over-cautious about things, so I tend to be hesitant most of the times. I'm glad that my friends are quite supportive on how I do some of the planning, although I felt some things could have gone much better.

During the final weeks of my study, I found out that my work was... okay. You can say I'm really depressed at one point in time, and it ain't easy to suppress this feeling, when many of your friends are also concerned in finding a job after graduation. But after taking a step back, I realized that why did I choose this in the first place...

Because I wanna do what I like to do.

So I just have to take life easy, and slowly work on build up my portfolio. Overall, I really am glad that I came to DigiPen Singapore, because the friends here are really awesome, and it definitely matures you as a better artist AND person.