Mindflyer for Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific / TLC WorldRiderZ

This is an animated titling work for Discovery Channel’s TLC program about ” WorldRiderZ ” together with Chris Leow from Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific and a production team from Frameworks.

WorldRiderZ is a production that rides around the world to raise awareness & prevention against children Chronic Kidney Disease and organ transplant. You can read the info here and like the FB page here ( https://www.facebook.com/worldriderz )

The brief required a very child-like look and feel to the character drawings with readable titles.

This is the completed title after final compositing work by the Discovery and Framework team. Click and view on youtube.

1) I started the project by understanding the brief and looking at the footage and understanding what is required.

2) Next I whip out some sketches and propose some design ideas on how simple the characters can be. While doing so- in the back of my mind, I am always thinking about how they can be animated.

3) I started sketching with markers on paper but when I got the gist of how to make it happen- I switch to Photoshop and tune a crayon brush to get the look I want.

4) After the sketches have been approved- I do some test animation and get some feed backs. All the test animations are small b/w files I output as animated gifs.

5) Once approved- I start started to render all the animation. All final files were delivered as layered Photoshop/ PSD format.

I hope to do more animation work in future especially those with my original character designs.

You can view more of Mindflyer’s work here: http://mindflyer.com/ or on.fb.me/mindflyer

Mindflyer’s iForum illustration for &Larry

Had the privilege to work with the &Larry’s team for a new year end promo at Takashimaya’s iForum. Super fun job illustrating my imaginary super fun playground. This is a variation of my earlier work- “Children’s World” but at a more crazy level! Don’t ask me what I eat, I just DRAW !

My folio is here: http://mindflyer.com/

Do join my FaceBook page here: http://on.fb.me/mindflyer

Mindflyer’s Tangs Christmas Campaign with Work

It’s been a privilege again to work with the wonderful team at Work Advertising for Tangs.

I was asked to draw Christmas ornaments and write lots of text in a blotchy ink style. After some testing- I managed to get the desired look. Most of the ink work were done by hand and “lovingly smudged” and cleaned up in Photoshop.

What the team at Work did was wonderful. I love how they added colours and texture to it and bring it to life!

( Paperbag and mailer photos taken by Beatriz Ng )

Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, mindflyer, Tangs Christmas 2010, Singapore Illustrator, michael ng

Mindflyer’s Tangs Christmas Hunt

This is my new game illustration for Tangs Christmas Hunt. Had the opportunity to work on another game with Kevin of Spoon for Tangs. Basically the brief is pretty open- make it Christmassy and it should look really busy visually. We explored some direction before settling on an Alice in Wonderland inspired fantasy city.

I am one of those mad people that love challenges like this. Had a real good time doing this illustration even though the timing was shorter than I would have preferred.

Do try and  play the game and win the prizes. Link is here.

Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, mindflyer, Tangs Christmas Hunt, Singapore Illustrator, michael ng

Process- Tangs Christmas Hunt

This is my original approved concept idea sketch.  Its inspired by Alice in Wonderland in a crazy maze city filled with sofas and furniture and Christmas decors.

After the idea was approved – I worked on the various components to make an interesting fantasy city for hiding the objects filled with details

At the same time I was also working on a detail sketch of the city, setting the scale and how the city will look like and highlights the important areas to make the theme stronger. Planning is very important to make the work go smoothly. As usage a copy of the detailed sketch was given to the programmer to work on the game backend/ programming and to test it on a dummy interface to ensure that the illustration can work properly in the game.

Once I am sure the illustration is all sorted and heading the right direction based on my detail sketch, I start planning how much Christmas decor I need to convince the client on the Christmas look of the game which is important for the festive mood of the campaign already active.

Having gotten’s client’s approval, I proceed to fill up the city with all my components. Changes were made along the way to ensure the pieces fit well.

Notice that I do have a basic isometric grid (light blue tiles) to guide me along under my sketch

After all the pieces were filled in colour, the final step is to hide all the required objects in the correct number in a separate layer.

All hidden component’s position were then shown to and approved by the client before the final illustration is exported and used in the game.

Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, mindflyer, Tangs Christmas Hunt, Singapore Illustrator, michael ng

HP City of Dreams “woot! woot! 45″

I was recently invited to be a guest designer in the HP City of Dreams “Live Our Dreams, Fly Our Flag” campaign - commemorating Singapore’s 45th National Day for HP.

This is my rationale:- “The national day flypass by the jets has always been the highlight of the event signaling the start of the parade/ celebration! Mindflyer’s Flying Circus troupe’s flypass hopes to usher in more peace, openness and creative freedom in Singapore!”

My aim is to make a fun and lively piece that depict a mood of celebration and optimisim without being overly nationalistic.

If you’re now inspired to design something of your own, join the open contest now here. Closing date: 31 July 2010.

Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, mindflyer, flying circus,  Singapore Illustrator, michael ng, HP City of Dreams, Hewlett-Packard