Ethereality News & Weblog

News:
I’ve just returned from CGOverdrive 2006 in Singapore, and it was a blast! Although the jetlag and the south east Asian weather took its toll on my body, I managed to survive the whole affair with only a sore throat and recurring dizzy spells (no idea what that’s all about).

The conference itself was a huge success–I think it surprised all of us. Not that we expected it to suck, just that the vibe of the whole thing was so wonderful–all the attendees were very enthusiastic, and all the speakers (well, almost all) rocked the audience during their workshops. The kind folks behind the whole thing were very generous and professional, and have a genuine love for everything related to CG. The real shocker for me was the fact I got mobbed for autographs and photos everywhere I went for all three days of the conference. I had no idea people actually knew who I was, or even cared, but apparently despite the national diversity of the attendees (Philippines, India, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, UK, Sweden, USA..etc), they know about me from online CG forums and websites. If any of you are reading this–hi! it was very nice to meet you all!

No trip is complete without photos, right? That’s why I took plenty–complete with commentary! Read up on my little trip to Singapore and look at the boring photos. I put all the photos and commentary on a seperate page because I don’t want to kill all the 56k modem guys who read the blog but aren’t interested in the CGOverdrive 2006 conference.

News:
I’ll be flying to Singapore in a few days, as I’ve been invited as a guest speaker to teach a digital painting workshop for CGOverdrive 2006–other guest speakers include hot shots from Pixar, ILM, Bluesky, Rhythm & Hues..etc. It’s amazing they invited me, since I’m just some dude on the internet, not a worshipped superstar from a world-famous studio like the others. I’m also not one of the top digital painters out there either, so I’m not sure why they didn’t pick someone else. Supposedly the people that will be attending have asked for me by name, so I guess CG kids in Singapore dig my stuff. I’ve worked hard on the preparation of the material, so I hope the attendees will find my workshop worthwhile. If any of you are attending, I’ll see you guys there. Make sure to say hi–we’ll go have a drink or something (I’m not much of a drinker though, so please don’t try to get me plastered).

The good folks putting together CGOverdrive 2006 will be putting me up for four nights at a pretty cool hotel that looks like a modern art piece. I’ll definitely be taking lots of photos of that place.

Weblog:
I’m dreading the upcoming long flight to Singapore, as I’ve gotten quite weary of long flights in the last few years. I almost wanted to buy an Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro to make the trip more appealing, but with a price tag of $200+, I really can’t justify a brand-new in-ear monitor just for one trip (they are nothing like ear-bud headphones, which are basically the cheapest pieces of crap for music listening). Maybe if one day I’m forced to do a lot of traveling, I’ll buy one. You can learn more about in-ear monitors and other types of headphones here.

I actually have two excellent headphones already–the Sennheiser HD 555, which is an amazing pair of open headphones for the price, with sound quality that rivals some of the much more expensive audiophile/pro headphones, and the discontinued Denon AH-D950, which is a sealed pair of cans that’s been with me for many years and home-repaired a few times. The AH-D950 has a more dynamic sound–noticeably boosted bass and slightly harsher treble, but still accurate enough to not be misleading when working on music. It isn’t nearly as comfortable to wear as the Sennheiser though, as the cartilage of my ears would start to hurt after a few hours of straight listening. The Sennheiser HD 555 is a full sized pair of cans, so the felt cushion sits very comfortably around your ears and can be worn all day and still be very comfortable. The only drawback of open design headphones (not fully sealed to provide superior acoustics) is that you can hear other people still and they can also hear your music–a tinny and faint version of what you hear. However, for superior sound quality, nothing beats unsealed open headphones, as they don’t have to deal with a resonant chamber’s feedback of sealed headphones. I’ll probably replace the Denon eventually, as the Sennheiser in comparison revealed its weakness and lack of comfort. I guess ideally, I should have one pair of open cans for music making (where accuracy is critical), one pair of sealed cans for typical listening (when I don’t want to disturb others), and one pair of in-ear monitors for traveling (seals out all outside noise).

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While looking to extend the battery life of my Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 (20 GB hard disk mp3 player), I discovered to my dismay that it’s been discontinued and now completely unsupported by the company. Fortunately, Boxwave, a third-party manufacturer, has picked up the slack.

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In one of the threads on KVR Audio, someone posted this pretty funny little observation:

Cabinfever wrote:

Maybe it’s all about the users, not the software. Let me be very mean for a moment and try to charactize (and exagerate of course) each hosts users:

SX3 / Sonar: Music industry equivalent of accountants

Protools: “Don’t you know I’m a pro?”

FL Studio: Teens and fanboys

Orion: Only two users - Bones & Kriminal

Logic: Supporters of corporate evil (PC betrayl not forgotten)

N-Track: People who should have known better

Reaper: Ex-musicians now more interested in beta testing

Traktion: Cheap-ass zealots

Ableton Live: Smug fashion victims

( It’s just a laugh OK )

I guess that makes me an accountant, as I’m a Sonar guy, and was a Cubase guy prior. I would’ve been a Logic guy had they not betrayed PC users. I was envious of all the cool extras that Logic users get for the longest time, but now that I’ve stocked up on some great VSTI’s over the years, and after the new additions in Sonar 5, I no longer feel the presence of the green-eyed monster.

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I watched the French version of March of the Penguins today with Elena and I thought the first person point of view narrations of the dad, mom, and baby penguins were just horrible. I understand that the filmmakers wanted a different style of documentary, but the overly sentimental and pretentious narrations that grafted human emotions onto penguins just wore on my nerves. A film like Babe works because it’s supposed to be a story, not a documentary. The purpose of a documentary first and foremost is to educate, and when you turn it into a story that does not give sufficient information about the actual facts of the penguin’s biological makeup, their mating habits, the environemental facts, their hunting habits..etc, it becomes a lot less fulfilling intellectually than it could’ve been. We are not blind to the harship of the penguins–we have eyes and can see what they go through on the screen, so when the filmmakers decided to hammer what’s essentially redundant information narrated by voices that gives the penquins fabricated human qualities into our heads, it becomes tiresome and irrelevant. The electronic pop music itself is cute at times, but one particular track was completely inappropriate in style, tone, and pacing (when the young penquins had to endure harsh snowstorm for the first time), and this is coming from a musician who’s got a soft spot for electronic pop music. After finding out the American version changed both aspects I didn’t like about the film, I wished I had watched the American version with the straightforward documentary narration by Morgan Freeman, and the re-scored music instead–that would’ve changed how I felt about the film completely.

In the end, it’s a matter of difference in taste. I’m not a cold and unemotional person–that has nothing to do with it. It’s about preferences in execution and style. Steven Spielberg is a perfect example–he used to be harshly criticized for his excessive sentimentality in execution, but in the recent years, he’s gotten much better and learned to convey the same intensity of emotions without being overbearing and saccharin. I much prefer his recent films over his older films for that reason. To me, it’s about one very important rule in storytelling–”show, don’t tell.”

Weblog:
I’m a huge zombie fan, but I have to say, I’m completely underwhelmed by all the zombie games that’s been made thus far–including those still in production. Why are they all focussing on endless carnage, as if the only thing that’s compelling about the zombie genre is the blood and gore and the severed body parts. That’s like saying the best thing about thrillers is the gunfights. Totally, and completely missing the point in my opinion. I have a zombie game design that I’ve been working on, and it’s exactly the kind of zombie game I would pay good money to play. I want to talk about the design in detail, but you never know–it just might get picked up by a studio one of these days. So for now, mum’s the word.

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Elena got sick after we arrived in the States–her immune system finally caving in from all the stress and sleep deprivation before and during the move. I seem to be fine thus far–which is miraculous, as my immune system is about as strong as an eggshell. But you know how it is–the moment you make mention of your state of good healthy, some unseen force off somewhere will say “Oh YEAH? We’ll see about that!” Screw knocking on wood–I want to take a baseball bat to the cantankerous fucker.

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It’s a really strange feeling–finally being back in the States for good. I told Elena just yesterday that I kept feeling like I might get yanked the thrown back into China any moment. It’s a subtle and unexplainable fear, which has no real justifiable source, as my life in China was far from being hard. In fact, I lived very comfortably–broadband internet, expensive restaurants, tons of DVD’s and video games, and lots of freetime to work on whatever I wanted. As long as I stayed at home, life was in fact, quite peachy. I think it really comes down to the overall quality of life. In China, the environment as a whole is far worse–the government, the media, transportation, lack of global awareness, social inequality, corruption, environmental pollution, insane traffic, low moral standards, lack of education, dirty streets, rampant poverty..etc–it creates a sense of oppression that weighs heavily on your spirit. The minute I was back in the States, I felt like my soul could breathe freely again. As much as the people running this country can be real assholes, I love America and all that it stands for. Most people will never understand that feeling until they’ve lived in a country that does not hold dear the value of freedom, justice, and equality.

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I mentioned about the bad power supply last time, and I did get it replaced. It’s sad that I know more about putting together computers than the guys working in the computer department of Circuit City. I mean, I’m about as un-techie-like as one can get, but even I know how to put together a computer correctly and troubleshoot hard drive booting sequences in the bios. I ended up turning one of their computer on display into a little DIY station and took care of everything myself. Sales guys would walk by and see me ripping out the peripherals of one of their computers and ask “Um.. do you need help?” It was kind of funny, in a pathetic way. Anyway, a brand new 400 watt juice machine is now powering my workstation. Sometimes simple things in life are worth celebrating.

News:
Elena and I are now in Sunnyvale, California. The family friends we’re staying with already have broadband connection setup (and compared to the cable connection I had in China, theirs is blazing fast), so I’m actually typing this on my own desktop workstation (which was taken apart and flew with us on the plane). However, for some reason my powersupply isn’t powering any of my hard drives, and I had to use an external power connector to power the hard drive with Windows on it. Unfortunately, everything that’s important are kept on the other hard drives (I never store anything important on the OS drive, in case I have to reformat and reinstall the OS), including all of my works, email archives, pictures, mp3’s, videos..etc. Tomorrow I’ll get a new power supply and see if that changes anything.

Weblog:
We survived the trip, coming out the other end of San Francisco International Airport with only sore shoulders and backs, a throat infection, and sleep deprivation (children who won’t stop crying or shut up throughout the flight). Our luggages were overweight–all of them, but no one charged us any penalty fee–locally or internationally. We felt blessed.

While on the plane, we watched every movie they showed, because we couldn’t sleep with the spawns of Satan crying non-stop anyway. Watching Kingdom of Heaven for the second time made me like it even less than the first time. During some parts, it felt like Ridley Scott was bored out of his mind–as if he was just going through the motions. Seeing Bourne Supremacy for the second time also wasn’t as fulfilling as the first time (although it’s still a good movie). Seeing it the second time, the handheld cam and the quick cutting got a bit annoying. It’s a style of photography that’s overused these days, and when most people use it, they almost always overdo it instead of using it in appropriate amounts and during appropriate times.

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Tomorrow begins a long string of things I need to take care of–get car insurance, a cell phone, replace my workstation’s powersupply, change of ownership for my car (my dad is awesome–he’s got an old Acura in great shape he’s not using, so he just hands it over to me. Saves us the headache of going car-shopping)..etc. I also need to teach Elena how to drive (oh joy!)–which probably won’t as scary as many think it would be. I’ve taught ex-GF’s how to drive in the past, and I managed to get through each time without exploding with impatient anger–which I’m sure some husbands/boyfriends would find impossible. I’m pretty mellow when it counts.

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While looking at a bunch of concept art a few days ago, it occured to me that as amazing and imaginative some of them are, on their own, they collectively convey a singular notion, and that is “what if?” Presenting the “what if’s” is what good concept art should do, and the answers to the “what if’s” are the stories the concept artworks support–be it a screenplay, a video game, or a comic book. Inevitably, the what if’s are never as exciting as the answers, because our curiosity is only satiated by answers, not questions. I think that’s precisely why I’ve always been a storyteller at heart and an artist second–the story is what engages my emotions and intellect.

News:
Elena and I are packing up at the moment, ready to move back to the States (California). I’ll be taking apart the computers soon, so this might be my last entry for a while. If things go smoothly, I should be back online in a couple of weeks.

Weblog:
This is going to be my last entry from China–Elena and I are probably on the plane as you read this, heading home to California (home for me, but for her, it’s a new adventure in a foreign land). Fortunately, she’s already been to the States once a few months ago, and it left a really good impression on her. As far as I can see, her only problem now is the language barrier, which will take care of itself just like it did for all the other immigrants (well, the ones that bothered to learn English anyway). We’ll be staying temporarily in Sunnyvale, then move to wherever my next job will be at. Life will be hectic for the next few months. I’m kind of dreading it, but it’s about time I moved on to the next phase of my life–whatever that means. I don’t even feel like I’ve completed the current phase, but I guess that’s how it always feels–that life moves at its own pace and you can only keep up.

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In July I’ll have to fly back to Asia again, as Singapore’s CGOverdrive 2006 has invited me to be a guest speaker. I’ll be doing a workshop on digital painting that’ll last an hour and forty-five minutes, and although I’ve decided on the content of the workshop a few times, I keep changing my mind. If you were to hypothetically attend, what would you like to learn from me in an hour and forty-five minutes?

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While packing, I realized that I have about eleven hard drives that I’ll have to put into a carry-on bags (I do not trust that they’ll be fine in the suitcase if I check it in at the airport). I’ll also be transporting the motherboard and the two optical drives in the carry-on bags as well (not to mention my Canon 1D MKII, flash, and four lenses–although the lenses will probably be in the suitcases to be checked in). The computer case, keyboard, mouse, Wacom tablet, LCD monitor..etc will go in two seperate suitcases–I’ll make sure they’re well padded. I transported my workstation that way when we moved from Malaysia back to China two years ago, and it was certainly heavy and painful. I can’t think of a better way to transport my workstation safely though. No way I’m going to trust anyone else with over one terabyte of data. I’ll need to have a fully functional workstation as soon as we step off the plane so I could get right back into the swing of things, so shipping by sea if not an option. I don’t trust the cargo loaders anyway. My other machines will be shipped by sea as I don’t need them as much. If those get trashes, I won’t be as devastated.

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A few days ago, Elena told me that while helping her sister move, she saw an entire box filled with handbags and purses. I thought she had pointed that out in order to justify her own obsession, explaining that “all women are the same–I’m not the only one.” Then I found out everything in that box were hand-me-downs from–get this–

…Elena.

This woman has given away more handbags and purses than she owns–boxes of them (counting her cousins, aunts..etc), and she has the audacity to buy more?

I looked at her coldly and then said with a calm voice, “If I ever see you come home with a new purse again, I’ll break your legs.” She saluted me, grinned, then turned on her heel and walked out of the house with her little skirt flapping behind her. (She was mimicking me. I often respond to her naggings with a salute, do a military styled heel turn, and then head back to my studio.)

I don’t know how it is with other women (and I can’t remember much about my ex-girlfriends), but Elena ranks handbags and purses on top of her girly fancies list, then comes shoes, clothes, and finally cosmetics and beauty products. She used to own a cosmetic shop and have used just about all the brands or makeup, perfume, lotion..etc, so they no longer interest her. She’s got lots of clothes she’s never even worn once (and she feels slightly guilty about it), so she’s got pretty good self-control when it comes to clothes. Shoes are more of a practicality issue to her, as she hates shoes that are uncomfortable to wear, so it’s rare that she finds a pair that’s both attractive and practical. But when it comes to handbags and purses, it’s like something in her brain just switches off (or clicks on, depending on your perspective), and her eyes would light up like the Neko Bus in My Neighbor Totoro. I suppose it’s kind of cute to watch her lose her cool like that, as long as she has no plans to come home with a LV bag–unless it’s a knockoff. She gets the real ones as gifts from admirers and rich friends/relatives sometimes, but they don’t seem to excite her as much as when she finds them on her own. My Kitty Cat is strange like that.