Behind The Scenes Of N.E.Mation! 5

Last Tuesday,

I went behind the scenes of N.E. Mation!5 to check out the working environment, the props and the work process of the 10 finalists who made it to fame.

Just in case you missed the previous blog post of the 10 finalist, here's a recap:

Do You know?

That 5 out of 10 of the groups are from Lower Secondary?

While the rest of you students are hanging out with your BFFs in town, playing Football Manager/L4D2, sleeping in until the late afternoons, tanning at Sentosa and enjoying entertainment and leisure etc, the students of N.E. Mation!5 animation contest were spending most of their time in the dark auditorium, squeezing their brain juice dead and testing their limits of patience to present to you the very best of their creations.

From 9am-10pm daily for 3 weeks,

the NYP auditorium was like their second home.

Divided into 10 compartments, these 10 awesome groups of students were each allocated a space of their own to work on their chosen proposal.

A idea of how ONE of the compartments look like inside:

Not to forget, there were a team of animation professionals from Animagine for guidance.

There is a booth with a row of desktops situated just outside the students' compartments.

As always, Joseph from Animagine is always gracious about sharing the process of animation.

Leading us patiently from one compartment to another, he explained in details from the students' stories, to the creation of their props, to the frame by frame work, last but not least how the students' accomplished their almost-completed video. while the rest of us bloggers are busy snapping pictures away, of course.

(the day we were there, they have 3 more days until their submission deadline)

Picture yourself doing this:

First, you stand in front of a camera to take hundreds of photographs showing yourself walking a distance.

Next, you print out these hundreds of photographs and start cutting them to the right size, one by one.

Thirdly, you make a stand for each of these photos so that they can stand on their own.

Then, you arrange them one after another in a line, like dominos(make sure they do not topple!)

Last but not least, you take a photo of each, one after another, meticulously tipping the first photo after every shot of it.

Do you think you have the patience to do such a time-consuming task?

I don't, seriously lazy.

But these youths of the future Singapore do!

And they made it, step by step.

Look at more props each one of them made. They are beautiful!

Love this oven. Look at the words printed on the buttons.

They are different from those you see and buy.

This is LIMITED EDITION!

Specially made flour package. And the cake smells so yummy(it's real!) you just feel you wanna eat it all up! After completing the video of course.

The puppets on the table are HANDMADE by these students from Kent Ridge Secondary School themselves- ALL BOYS TEAM. It's amazing how challenges can push a person's limits to a new breakthrough. Young boys making cotton puppets when I can't even thread a needle although I'm a girl!

The most interesting stuff I came upon are actually the little post-its and paste-its the students wrote all around their space. They are so cute and innovative I can't get my eyes off them! Here are some examples:

Although it's a dark and cold auditorium, the love and warm passion of these animation lovers(the young and younger) filled up the entire place, making this journey a wonderful and enjoyable one to travel to their destinations.

To me, every student is already a winner, although competitions are harsh and cruel where they can choose only one overall winner.

Appreciate their hard work, applaud for their courage to take up such a brain-taxing challenge.

Tears shed,

laughters shared,

love embraced,

passion rage,

and bonds tied.

These group of students have come a long way from where they came from at the start.

You can show your utmost support by casting your votes for them!

HOW?

'Like' the N.E.Mation!5 facebook here now for the latest updates.

Click on this link to be directed to N.E.Mation! official website for photos, videos and blog updates of the finalists!

Participate in their greatest die-hard fan contest and stand to win weekly prizes and an I-pod touch worth $328!

Don't forget to VOTE for them when you can to show your support!

Okay, after all these blogging I am hungry!!!

A courtesy of 24Sevens Communications, we had a sumptuous dinner at the Naked Fish Shoppe in Grassroot Club next to NYP.

We had corn soup(YUMMY!)

I choose Salmon as my main course.

I can eat 3 more plates of this Salmon I ordered, LOLX.

And dessert...

A dinner is nothing without great company!

I was surrounded with the sweetest blogger friends!

Keith, Sidney Ruben and Trixy

Not to forget my beloved YONGWEI who's sitting next to me before he says i have forgotten about him.

It was my greatest honour to be able to dine with COL Lim Kok Siong, the director of Nexus. He was sitted next to Yongwei, who made us all laugh like mad throughout the entire dinner with his lame knowledge once again. It is unbelievable how fun-loving and approachable COL Lim is despite his position high up as a director.

Let's not forget Diana here from 24Sevens communications. Without her invitation and coordination, I would not have been able to attend this wonderful event!

Most importantly, I would not have been able to win a Canon S95 from the previous blog post I posted about N.E.Mation!5. If you hadn't read about it yet, click here.

Feliza, a new blogger friend I've made at the event, won herself a camera too!

Another pretty babe on my friend list! Yippee!

Thank you for such a wonderful get-together event.

I love it!

N.E.Mation! 5: It's not just a worm issue.

I was pleasantly invited by 24seven Communications to attend a Stop-Motion Animation workshop held in NYP for Bloggers last Friday.



To attend the SAT workshop on a FRI is pretty ironic I'll say, but I did it!



The S.A.T. Workshop provides a basic introduction of the art of animation through hands-on exercises. Great for animation first-timers- a Dummy Guide for Animation.

There's a saying, "When your stomach is hungry for food, your brain will not be hungry for knowledge ". Acutally it's Mint's saying. But I guess the organisers thought of that too. Buffet dinner was served before the actual commencement of the workshop!

Some of us actually helped ourselves up to 4 servings! That's how yummy the food was!

At first I thought I was going to be 'stuck' at the workshop for 3 whole hours with Yongwei- my nightmare. I was so relieved when I saw great company!

From top left: Sidney Ruben, Trixy, Priscillia and Christine!



That's Yongwei, who couldn't help but laid his hands on EVERYTHING he saw, even before the workshop began. Like a mother, as usual, I have to nag him to stop. But as usual, he is that problematic kid all mothers will gossip about on void decks curious-learning boy who initates to maximise his learning before others.



Joshua and his instructors from Animagine were there to share with us what Animation is all about. Their passion and love for Animation have helped to nurture many artists and storytellers to tell their stories through animation.




The ultimate task:
To create a worm character and present a story via a stop-motion video at the end of the session.



Of course, the materials and software used were well-prepared of. We were given plasticines and moulding tools to work on. On top of that, Joshua gave us a short 10minute guide on how to make a worm.



Everyone got to work in no time at all!








I teamed up with Trixy, and we started working on our worm. For the first time, I did NOT freak out when touching a worm. In fact, no other girls did there. For the first time, I actually think that worms can be so adorable!






They said, pets usually look like their owner.
Don't you think so?!
Both Trixy and the worm had a ribbon on their heads.




Our worm has got sore eyes. Guess what's our storyline?





This is my favourite clip done by Ruben and Mus.
Their video is about a caterpillar which evolves into a beautiful butterfly!

How did they manage to make such a beautiful butterfly in such a short time?





Check out the brows of Christine's worm! So cheeky!


We were also a goodie bag full of goodies. And here are some of my favourites:



Do you know that Animation plays an essential part in Singapore?



With only 300 students in the first season, N.E. Mation! has grown to attract over 2000 participants this season- N.E. Mation!5. Since its inception, over 5,200 students from 148 different schools have submitted their stories to N.E. Mation!.

Several of the 45 clips produced so far have won local and overseas accolades over the years, such as the Mediacorp Viewers Choice and the Annecy Awards(it's like Singapore Stars Awards in the Animation world).

This is my favourite clip, 'Mingle with Lingo' by Cresent Girls' School which was awarded the "Prizes for Effort" in the DigiCon Award 2009. The team had used magazine cut-outs in order to produce this wonderful clip.



The theme of N.E.Mation!5: Singapore is our home.

The concept of home can mean different things to different people. It can mean a roof over our heads to just a place in our heart when we feel displaced and lost. What does 'home' means to this year's contestants?

This year, out of 100 shortlisted clips from hundreds of submitted stories, the top 10 clips were chosen and will be judged by a panel of judges(50%) and open for public voting(50%).

To the public: You can vote for THREE of your favourite clips in January 2011.

The Champion Team announced will be able to FLY TO USA for their award!
Dreamworks here they come!

When talking about Total Defence, what does it means to you:
Military Defence, Civil Defence, Economic Defence, Social Defence and Psychological Defence. When Singaporeans take personal responsibilities and partipate in protecting the Singapore way of life, they are playing their part to help keep Singapore Secure.

I remembered once when I was in Secondary School, My girl guides and I had written a cheer using the 'Mickey Cheer'(super trendy then) and we had participated in the Total Defence Cheer Contesst. It goes something like, "Total Defence you're so fine. You're so fine you blow my mind. Hey Total. Hey Defence..." Add the poms-poms and the cheer steps and our team got into the finals that year!

Will dig out the photographs! =p


VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE CLIPS!
By word of mouth, you can help spread your knowledge of National Education to people and friends around you!



So where and how to know more about N.E.Mation!5 ?



Become a Fan of N.E.Mation!5 on facebook like me!
Click here to 'like' the page.

EASY!



I got hooked on the Animation Making and I was overjoyed the organisers gave us a copy of the original animaker software so that I can continue to play with it at home!




Mint Hearts Her Life and everyone around her!
And my worm of course.

Thank you 24Seven Communicatons.
Thank You NEXUS.
Thank You Animagine.

TGIF!!!