OWA Day 25. An Even More Positive Development.

After a few weeks of animating what can probably be classified as content for an action library, the powers that be decided to put me on one of the animation teams (called pods) and then handed me an actual shot to work on! A real shot from the the upcoming movie! Yes folks, the moment I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived! Of course it’s a simple and relatively short sequence, and there’s all likelihood it might get cut from the final edit, but I’m cherishing the opportunity and making the most of it hoping they’ll like what they see and give me more shots to animate. It’s been a blast so far and I’m learning so much about the animation pipeline and process from the rest of the guys. I’m not getting carried away though. I know it’s just a tiny drop in the entire production ocean but it’s still cool on their part to give me a chance and “bring me into the fold” - as it were. I’ll take what I can get, baby. And btw Ramadhan has been smooth and quite educational for me so far. May it continue, Aaameen.
So, yeah I’d say this has been a good week!

PS: The previous website design was nice but had a few bugs in it and I felt the navigation wasn’t as user-friendly after I messed with it. I do believe this one is much better though! Right?

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OWA Day 18: Busy is Good. Ramadhan Begins.

I’m getting into the groove here at work and keeping myself busy on some animation tasks. I’m averaging one (simple) clip a day so it’s a pretty decent start. Of course there’s always refinements to be made, but I think I managed to get some solid basics down at least.

The holy month of Ramadhan is upon us now and to all my Muslim brethren I wish you a very productive month of fasting filled with blessings and good deeds. I hope you can make the most of it as I certainly intend to.

Here in Batam the local TV channels have been advertising numerous programs related to the holy month for the past few days. That’s something quite different compared to the channels back home. I may try to check some of them out if I can spare the time. I actually get a sprinkling of Malaysian channels too together with Singapore’s basic terrestial channels. I don’t usually watch tv though, apart from catching up on the evening news and some random channel-surfing with my tea.

I guess it’s Maggi instant noodles for me for Sahur tomorrow. Catcha laters peeps!

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OWA Day 12: Things are Picking Up.

As the last remnants of my acclimatization bug fades away, I’m getting into quite a routine here at work: Have a quick breakfast at home (if I get up early enough). Leave the house by 8.45am. Start work at 9am. Lunch around 12pmish. Dinner around 6pmish. Leave the office at 7pm. Have my late night cup of tea at home and then it’s off to bed.
I’ve got my own desk and a nice powerful workstation. They’ve also given me some animation tasks to do which should span a couple of weeks or thereabouts, and even though it’s not quite working on actual shots, it’s a good way of getting familiar with the project file structure, rig and animation workflow in XSI. Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to reveal anything specific about what I’m doing at work. I don’t want to get in trouble here. I did notice that a few of the production crew guys are slowly warming up to me and I’m actually starting to make friends. They’re all a nice bunch of guys really, and very friendly, but I tend to avoid chatting with them or hanging around their desks as I don’t want to bug them while they’re busy working (which seems to be practically all the time).
I also haven’t been taking that many pictures sadly - in fact I haven’t taken any since that 1st day I arrived. I have to remedy that somehow. Fact is there’s just not much for me to do besides work.
I have had a few people sharing my house here recently though, which I really appreciate. Nothing is worse than staying in a large house all by yourself (OK I know there is but I’m not going to mention it!). Anyway, Raymond who’s been staying with me for the past couple of weeks left Batam last Friday, and I had to spend Monday on my own before my SP colleague arrived with his students the very next day. They’re here as part of a student project and so I get to share my home with a fellow lecturer for a few days. In a day or so another colleague will replace him (on yet another student project expedition) so I’ll have company til the end of the week. Then I guess it’s back to lonely days once more. At least, as anticipated, work is starting to take my mind off the loneliness.
Catch you in a few days!

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OWA Day 03: A Bout of Acclimatization?

I knew something was up when I went to bed with a slight sore throat yesterday. I woke up clammy and my nose was blocked. And the sore throat had gotten worse. I didn’t develop a high temperature though, so I thought if I drank lots and lots and lots and lots of water, whatever it is that’s bugging me will be flushed out of my system. I also didn’t want to give the company the impression that I was trying to get out of work today.
Well, it basically kinda got worse before it got (slightly) better. My nose started running like a tap and I could feel my temperature rising with each passing hour. Raymond (another Singaporean working at the company) handed me one of those Vitamin C tablets, and I managed to get another staff member to donate one of his Panadol. I think they helped alleviate the symptoms some. Also, I continued to chug water throughout the day (and obviously made quite a number of trips to the restroom in between). Coincidentally, there’s a water shortage warning or something on the island recently so that definitely made me feel extra guilty! I can’t imagine what could have caused the bug though. It’s not anything I ate I don’t think. Maybe it’s just me acclimatizing to the environment. I probably just need some good old-fashioned sleep. And more water.
I just hope I’ll recover in time to go home and meet my family tomorrow. They have a public holiday here on Friday so the company’s closed for the long weekend. And I’m expected back at SP for some meetings anyways. I’m really looking forward to that ferry ride relatively speaking. Nothing’s worse than coming home for a short break after some time away, only to be laid flat on the bed all that time recovering from an illness!
And what did I do at the office besides you may ask? I’ve been slowly getting re-acquainted with Softimage XSI via a library of resources they have on the server Boy, firing up the software and messing about with all the nifty little features sure bring back memories of my time at Bournemouth…
Of course I’ll find any excuse to remember my experience there. I’m just an old sentimental fool like that!
OK. Maybe I’ll see ya when I get back to Singapore!

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Overseas Work Attachment (OWA) Day 01: So It Begins.

I’m off on another adventure folks! I’ve officially started on an overseas stint at an animation production company. Unfortunately, this time I’m here on my own It’s just not feasible to bring my wife and kids over to stay with me during my expected few months here. Batam is not that far from Singapore actually (about an hour by ferry) so it’s not the end of the world. I’m hoping to be able to return every weekend - at least - to spend time with my family. It does kinda remind me of my army days when I had to book in and out on the weekend though. I figure once I get really busy with work the feeling of loneliness won’t be that bad…
Anyways, lets get to the good stuff shall we? My first day was literally pretty smooth sailing. Im not really good on boats (or long winding roads for that matter) but I’m so glad those motion-sickness supressing pills work! After a bit of waiting around I got a short tour of the premises and a look at the production they’re working on at the moment. Adez, the supervisor I’m supposed to report to, is a nice pleasant guy. The rest of the staff here are pretty cool too although, with so many of them spread out in the various departments, and being really busy with work, they don’t really have time to interact with the new guy. Perfectly understandable. I’m still on orientation mode at the moment, so they haven’t given me anything significant to do yet (which is to be expected). The company’s put me up in a really nice spacious apartment which is about 10 minutes walk from the office so that’s a big plus. I did get a little lost returning to it from the office yesterday evening though. It was very dark when I left (the street I’m on isn’t very brightly lit) and I wasn’t familiar with the route, but luckily there was a very helpful security guard who showed me the way.
I’ll keep you posted on my further adventures when I can so do stay tuned.
And I’ll try to upload some pictures too. For now it’s “So far so good”!

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