Ahmad Al-Mahir Online

Hard to believe it’s been 3+ months since I started on my attachment. Here I am, still plugging away with only a few weeks left to go. I have to admit, some days felt waaaaay too long while others seemed to rush on by. Much more of the latter than the former thankfully. As you can see by my lack of posts recently it’s been really hectic and busy. At the same time lots of things have been happening and so the stuff I want to write about just keep piling up so that I need even more time to write a post (me being the perfectionist that I am)! The cycle was about to go into an infinite loop until I decided something had to be done to break it.

So right now I’m taking a short break at the office to just type out a few things while I can still remember them. Btw, I upgraded WordPress to version 2.3.1 and had to change the layout theme since the previous one couldn’t pull up my categories and archives anymore. I like the simplicity of this one anyhow (although I don’t think I can resist changing that banner before long) so I think I’ll keep it for awhile.

OK. Back to the topic at hand. As mentioned before, I’m still animating shots on the 3D film. Some I worked on straight from layouts while on others I helped out with secondary characters and actions. I’d love to talk more about the stuff I’ve been doing and the goings on here but I don’t want to get in trouble. Maybe I’ll bring it up in my future posts after the movie is released. Nothing scandalous or controversial I assure you. Just something for those curious about what goes on in a typical(?) animated feature film production. We’ll see.

On a somewhat related note, I was asked to vacate the nice house they put me up in and am now sharing a much larger house with the new guy they just hired. Rafe’s a really cool guy who previously worked on Happy Feet and is here to help out on IFW’s new projects. Too bad I don’t have time to pick his brains right now. I’m sure he’s got other more important stuff to do anyhow. The house is spacious, with a nice verandah to chill out in (if it’s not raining too hard), large bedrooms and very posh bathrooms and proper cable TV and a washing machine. Unfortunately it’s his house and I’m the guest, unlike previously where I was on my own and could basically do whatever I wanted. It’s also much further from the office which makes walking a bit of a hassle (you try lugging a laptop in jeans and a polo t-shirt under the hot sun or the pouring rain for 15 min).

I did manage to bring my family over to visit the last couple of days before moving out though. I’ve always wanted to have them come over and have a bit of a holiday here; check out where I’ve been working and staying etc. I just planned for it to be much later when the workload wouldn’t be as heavy. However as usual, circumstances dictated otherwise. Still, they had a decent time – the restaurant and office staff were really looking forward to meeting my kids. They were even treated to a screening of some scenes from the movie-in-progress by the director, which they enjoyed. Much as I’d love for my kids to run rampant around the office, I figured the rest of the production guys wouldn’t appreciate having their busy work schedule disrupted.

Moving on.

I know it’s been a long time coming and any semblance of anticipation you may have had is probably dead and buried by now, but I promised to do it so here it is – my MA final project “Wait, Mister!”. Do watch it. I hope you enjoy it. Then comment on it please.

I have more stuff to write about but I’ll end here for now. Maybe I’ll post more over the weekend. Until then, thanks for stopping by and do have a good day!

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“No World for Tomorrow” is the latest album by the band Coheed and Cambria which I am currently really enjoying listening to. I heard about them when my good friend Hazik sent me a link about the band and the on-going comic project the lead singer is writing. He knows I’m a fan of progressive metal (Dream Theater is one of my all-time favourite bands) and comics. At the time, I haven’t been following either seriously for quite awhile, so I sorta put the idea of finding out more about them on the shelf and promptly forgot all about it.
Then one day, out of the blue, I decided I wanted some music to listen to at work. The CD I most wanted to check out was the new album by C.R.A.D.L.E (a Singaporean Malay rock band). I really liked their debut album a few years back and heard that they recently released a new one after a long hiatus. It’s rare that I have any interest in recent local or Malay music so this was kinda special. Most of the stuff they play on mainstream radio now is definitely not my cup of tea. I am soooo out of it it’s not even funny. Anyway, so I was looking out for the album and was having a really hard time finding any shop that sells it. Muzika Records is usually a reliable place to buy Malay rock CDs but the last time I visited their Joo Chiat shop they informed me it was sold out (btw in case anyone’s wondering, they no longer have an outlet at Queensway Shopping Center – I told you I was out of it). If any of you locates the CD, I’d appreciate a shout so I can go look it up.
How does this lead to Coheed and Cambria, you ask? Well, I was in town a week or so back, and decided to stop by HMV on the slim chance that they might stock C.R.A.D.L.E’s latest album, being the mega music store that they are. It didn’t really surprise me at all to find that they don’t (I’m not even sure if they stock any Malay music apart from the debut release of a recent local competition winner), but while walking down the aisles, I spotted “No World for Tomorrow” on one of the sample racks, tagged with an interesting review mentioning Marvel comics and Queensryche‘s “Silent Lucidity” amongst other things. I recalled my friend’s recommendation and thought there’s nothing to lose in giving it a bit of a listen. I was hooked instantly.
From the soaring vocals to the rhythmic beats and catchy guitar riffs, every song had something pretty special in it. The experience for me was kinda like when I heard Dream Theater’s “Pull Me Under” or In Flames‘s “Cloud Connected” for the very first time. The music and vocals grabbed me and stayed in my head for quite awhile after. I am also a big fan of the concept album (Queensryche’s “Operation Mindcrime” is a fav) so that was an added bonus. I didn’t realize until much later what a complicated epic fantasy story the whole “The Armory Wars” (the title of the on-going project the comic and albums are based on) was, or that this latest album is one of the closing chapters, but it really doesn’t matter. I snapped it up and have been listening to it over and over again ever since. I’ll definitely be looking out for their previous albums as well as the comic just to complete the entire experience. Maybe I can then make sense of the story, who knows. Come to think of it, I haven’t checked out Dream Theater’s or Queensryche’s latest albums yet either. I wonder if they’re any good…

Speaking of comic projects, my previous collaborator on “Carrier” and myself have been working on a new black and white all-ages mini-comic that we aim to complete and hopefully get published sometime in the near future. At the moment, I’m a little behind on the artwork, but I’m hoping to do a lot of catching up over the weekend. I’m really trying to keep it simple yet visually effective, but it’s still a lot of work. I’ll keep you updated on how it develops. And in case you’re wondering, “Carrier” Chapter 2 is somewhere in the works as well.

As if that’s not enough, there’s another small project that I’m right in the middle of at the moment. This time it’s a simple 2D animation piece. Nothing fancy. Just something to show off some features of a certain software. There’s a bit of a deadline on that one too. I’ll talk more about it in my next posting. As well as highlight the seminars and workshops I’ve been attending these past few weeks. Didn’t I tell you I had lots to say?

Catcha laters, peeps!

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