Ronald Fong

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noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:32:00 +0000

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World's Top Animation Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:58:00 +0000

Here's a list of the best places to study 3D animation in the world.
This ranking table is from 3D World's 98th issue.

1 Supinfocom
2 Filmakademie Baden-Wuertemmberg
3 Gobelins, L’école de l’image
4 Ringling College of Art and Design
5 Vancouver Film School
6 Ecole National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs
7 Royal College of Art
8 Bournemouth University, NCCA
9 University of Southern California
10 Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
11 CalArts School of Film/Video
12 National Film and Television School
13 Ecole Emile Cohl
14 Savannah College of Art and Design
15 School of Visual Arts
16 University of Wales
17 Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques
18 University of Teesside
19 RMIT Univeristy
20 Rhode Island School of Design

I've got friends studying in Supinfocom and Ringling and I'm so happy for them!

I have been to Gobelins before and hence I'm so happy and excited for them to be amongst the top three! Gobelins, L’école de l’image has a superb learning environment, teaching force, and technical assistance such that I could focus thouroughly on character animation!

I have also always been very impressed by student works from Ecole Emile Cohl (EEC).
It goes to show that these 20 schools listed are really of superb quality!

I hope one day Nanyang Polytechnic's School of Interactive and Digital Media can be amongst these! Jiayou! (;

Click [here] to find out how they compiled this ranking ;)

Happy Lunar New Year 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:21:00 +0000

花开富贵, 迎新年
恭祝大家, 虎年行大运!

It's the Year of Tiger
Wish all a healthy and prosperous Lunar New Year!

Planning for Animation Sequence

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:13:00 +0000

This is the planning for a secret animation sequence. It's an easter egg on this website. ;P
It's done sometime ago already and I thought I'll just upload the thumbnail stage here. Cheers! :D

3D Basic Bird in Maya

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:39:00 +0000

This is a long outdated video which I prepared almost 2 years ago.
It's not fully meant to be a tutorial hence the fast foward, but it'll be great if anyone finds this useful :P

I was modelling a basic 3D bird in Maya for a short film production I did in school called Gan Cheong Kin (GCK) Season 3.

It's kept really basic because of the style of the film, but it can be brought futher for zbrushing or mudboxing. The model is available from the free downloads section

Have fun!

Happy New Year 2010!

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 08:05:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

Say hello to 2010, may all the unhappiness in Year 2009 be forgotten!
Let's work together to achieve our new year resolutions! :D

This is the work in progress and composite breakdown for the 2009 Christmas Greeting Card I made for all my friends and visitors. =)

This videos shows how I created a 3D Christmas Card from the initial sketch to a 3D model and finally a 3D rendering.

Hope this inspires some of you out there who wants to create your own 3D Christmas Card!

I used Maya and Photoshop.
Took me about 2 days to complete this piece.
You may see the larger-size image here

Car Rendering

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:39:00 +0000

Final Test Render:

Final Lighting Setup:

Received 3D Model:

3D Shading, Lighting and Rendering I did for my friend, Ling Wei.
He is really passionate about 3D modelling.
If I'm not wrong, this is his first 3D car model!

It's impressive, right? :D

I was trying to achieve a basic studio shoot rendering.
It's a pity I do not have nice images or HDRIs to do a photo realistic composite.
Hope you'll like it Ling Wei!

3D Model by Chen Ling Wei
3D Rendering by Ronald Fong

Merry Christmas 2009 Greetings

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:08:00 +0000

Ronald Fong wishes all friends a Super Happy Merry Christmas!
Hope you like this greeting card! :D

Best wishes for YEAR 2010!

Merry Christmas 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:52:00 +0000

Season's Greetings!
Merry Christmas!
Take care and have a wonderful new year ahead! :D

Die-log Short Animation - Voice Your Die-log

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:24:00 +0000

Hello!

The objective of this short animation is to encourage viewers to voice out their fears and thoughts about death.
The concept is to show that the more we fear death and refuse to break the silence of death, the more we will live our lives in vain!!
That is what exactly happened to Mr. Blue Ball! So let's share our fears and break the silence on death today!

It's for an Eyeka Asia Competition.
Spent a total of about 15 hours for this from scratch.
I learnt a lot from creating this piece of animation in such a super short time. It's a lot of fun trying to make creative decisions as quick as possible
Not forgetting the need to fight away the temptation to fix all the relatively minor artifects.

There wasn't any time at all for refinement so please forgive the final gather artifects in some areas. oh, and the primitive modelling..
Some of the shots should be held longer because the text cannot be registered by the audience.

Despite the super tight schedule, I understood the importance of a timing reel and hence created a super quick timing reel before I went into the production phase. Shall upload that soon too!

In conclusion, it's an rewarding excercise working on this short animation. Hope you enjoy it!

cheers!

RF1 Car Design

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:05:00 +0000

Designed this car during my free time :)
I don't have the luxury of taking time to turn this design into a 3D model though :P

Sketch Session

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:44:00 +0000

Hi all!

Had a guitar, sketch and chat session last night with Zi Chao! :D
I think it's really cool to be exchanging pointers every now and then.
I learnt a lot in these sessions!

Here are some of the gestures from last night! :)

IAS Awards Channelbox Profile

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:53:00 +0000

Hey all,

Channelbox has been recognised as one of the
Most Promising New Media Creative in Asia Pacific!

We did not come in first, but..
Ranked second and third are the following entries by us!
Ronald Fong, Lee Yong Yi, Tan Zi Chao (channelbox) - Impossible is Possible
Ronald Fong, Lee Yong Yi, Tan Zi Chao (channelbox) - Eyeka Creative Challenge

Here is the IAS Awards Channelbox Profile I designed for the upcoming Advertising Hall of Fame Awards event!
:D

Iori Yagami

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:10:00 +0000

Hello,

This is a really quick and rouch fan doodle of Iori Yagami.
He's easily the coolest character ever in the King of Fighters!
Took a couple of hours for this piece.

Hope fans like it! :D

Minifong Initial Sketch

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:14:00 +0000

Hey all, this is an initial sketch of my new character, MINIFONG.
I did this sketch few months ago :)

Plans to make him 3D and do some wacky stuff but not sure how my schedule will be.
Thought it'll be good to just post it to share my progress ;D

cheers!

Digital Portrait

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:23:00 +0000

Hey, this is a digital painting practice done in 40 mins.
I'm thinking of doing some 3D speed modelling in about 30 mins to 60 mins too.
Not sure if that is feasible but I'll give it a go soon!

Probably model a simple 3D cartoon character like.. Sonic 3D!
Hope you'll like this painting!

Photography in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:39:00 +0000

Demo Reel 2009 Featured

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:46:00 +0000

Hey guys, I was informed of a good news few days ago!

My Demo Reel 2009 has been featured in the The Cinema, Oct '09 at deviantART as an "Art Feature".

Click here to view the featured article.

It's been described as "A neat demo reel, a pleasure to see"
Thanks to the editors of deviantART!
This may not be a big achievement to some, but for me this is very encouraging! :D

Just in case you'll like to watch the embedded version I uploaded to deviantART, here it is:

Beelzebub by Ishan Shukla

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:24:00 +0000

Hello!

Here's one of the winning entries for CGSociety's Secret Agent Challenge by Ishan Shukla. This entry won the Video Individual Excellence Award. Congratulations, awesome work Ishan!

I find the art direction super cool and overall very impressive for an individual effort.
Will like to share it with you guys :)

Enjoy and cheers!

林俊杰 | JJ Lin - Digital Speed Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:28:00 +0000

Hey there!

This is a digital speed painting of my idol! Talented Singaporean singer-songwriter JJ Lin (林俊杰) Lin Jun Jie!

Always wanted to paint JJ Lin (林俊杰) but I started this series with Jay Chou (周杰伦) because I'm afraid I might not do a good job with with it. Looking at the result, I think I'm quite satisfied except that I spent too much time on it, took me about 5 hours for this piece!!

In terms of resemblance, I think I did a better job with JJ Lin because there was feedback that the eyes of my Jay Chou painting looked like those of Gary Cao's!

In any case, I hope JJ won't get mad if he sees that this painting doesn't resemble him very much! XP

In fact, compared to the Jay Chou (周杰伦) painting, this painting is of much higher dimensions. That's probably why I took about 3 times longer!

I plan to a series of such videos of celebrities because I think it's super cool to watch the painting process! :D
I'm kind of addicted to making such videos! Hahahaha!

JJ Lin Painting Full view:

JJ Lin Painting Close Up:

I'm open to suggestions to who to paint, so please leave a comment! :D

Next up: Open to suggestions. Jackie Chan, maybe? Or Lee Hom?
Note: JJ Lin Digital Painting Added to Portfolio (still)

周杰伦 | Jay Chou - Digital Speed Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:14:00 +0000

Hello!

This is a digital 'speed' painting of talented taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou (周杰伦) !
I plan to do a series of such videos of celebrities because it's so cool to watch the painting process! :D
I'm kind of addicted to making such videos! Hahaha!

Actually, I wanted to do a JJ Lin one first because he is my idol and I really like his music. However, I was afraid I might not do a good job so I started with Jay Chou first :P

I'm open to suggestions to who to paint, so do leave a comment! :D

The final result:

Next up: JJ Lin Jun Jie (林俊杰)
Note: Jay Chou Digital Painting Added to Portfolio (still)

Vintage Pin Up

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:52:00 +0000

Another digital painting practice :)
It's really quite interesting to study light!
Almost hitting 2 hours for this piece, slightly longer than I expected.

Hope you'll like it! :D

*Note: Vintage Pin Up Girl added to portfolio (stills)

Pulcinello, Waltz of Joy and Story of I wins Crowbar Awards!

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:04:00 +0000

I'm SO SUPER happy for Pulcinello, Waltz of Joy and Story of I team!!
They swept away numerous awards at the Crowbar Awards 2009!!
Congratulations guys! We had a celebration dinner last Saturday and it was an awesome get-together and catching-up opportunity. Hope we'll have another outing soon! :D

Awards are as follows:

BEST OF FILM
Category Film - 3D Animation
Title of Entry Pulcinello
Student(s) Gabriella Mesenas, Hong Kai Wei, Lee Yong Yi, Sheetha
Lakshmanan, Tan Jing Hua, Tan Tai Chi, Tan Zhi Chao, Vanessa
Yeap Min Rong
School Nanyang Polytechnic

Awards Gold
Category Film - Film Craft: Art Direction
Title of Entry Story of I
Student(s) Syarah Mahmood, Jinky Gilbert, Phang Ni Zhen, Rosalind Sam,
Stella Ng, Theodora Hui, Wei Linfang
School Nanyang Polytechnic

Awards Gold
Category Film - 3D Animation
Title of Entry Ronen-Waltz of Joy
Student(s) Anastasia Christina Mas', Jacqueline Chow Pei Qi, Carol Lee, Oh
Han Wee, Edwin Liew Wen Jun, Tan Yong Gang
School Nanyang Polytechnic

Awards Gold
Category Film - 3D Animation
Title of Entry Pulcinello
Student(s) Gabriella Mesenas, Hong Kai Wei, Lee Yong Yi, Sheetha
Lakshmanan, Tan Jing Hua, Tan Tai Chi, Tan Zhi Chao, Vanessa
Yeap Min Rong
School Nanyang Polytechnic

Sassy - Digital Painting Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Hey :)

I love to paint and so here's my latest digital painting practice. I also recorded my slow and full-of-mistakes painting process so that I can spot my mistakes and I hope it benefits you too!

You can actually see that I had proportion problems at the beginning when blocking. Hahaha! I'm still trying very hard to learn to paint digitally! :D

I kinda like the result of this piece because I can finally get more form in my painting particularly in this piece. The final color scheme is also very close to what I was looking for.
Took me about an hour to complete this painting from scratch.

It's a fun and nice exercise and I'll improve along the way and hope you'll like this video demonstration!

On a side note, I will be serving my National Service from mid-September 2009 till about a couple of years later. Probably less updates during this time, but do check back because I'm planning for a surprise in this website!

Hint: Digiron will strike back with his new-found weapon!

cheers!

Got Something - 11 Second Club August 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Minifong) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:22:00 +0000

Latest Update (6 September 2009): Ronald Fong's 11 Second Club August Entry Finished 60 of 188 entries! That's about top 32% and I'm happy about that! I will strive to bring this percentage down in my next entries. :D

Here is my entry for the 11 Second Club August 2009 Competition! :D
I had some difficulty uploading my clip to the competition earlier, hope it gets through! This is my first submitted entry to the 11 Second Club!

I learnt from this exercise that I have to keep my poses simple and "stupid". I had some poses which were much more difficult to read that what I have now, but I discarded them after generous critiques from my friends. If I find time, I'll pose a compilation of my work in progress before I arrived at this final. I am aware these poses can be greatly improved and I have some unusual acting choices here, but nevertheless and most importantly, I can feel that I'm improving!

Critiques and comments are most welcomed!

Title: Spooky Spooky

Description:
2 buddies landed themselves in a spooky environment.
One of them, Charlie, gets duped into scouting the eerie passage! ><

Time Taken: Approximately 35 hours

Transcript:
"I'm not sure what we've got here Charlie... but if we've got what I think we've got, we've got something! There's one way to find out..."

Software: Maya, After Effects

Skills showcased: Character Animation, Compositing, Lighting and Rendering