Since the very first time experiencing
N.E.mation! 5
five years ago, I have always been amazed by the creativity and
determination of all the teams in every N.E.mation! challenge. And they
only seem to get better and more creative every year! The sky's the
limit for these impressive kids!
What is
N.E.mation!
you ask? Well, N.E.mation! an annual digital animation competition
organised by the good people at Nexus for youths to express their
thoughts on Total Defence. These students, having no prior experience in
animation before the competition, have been able to produce amazing
video clips that were screened on free-to-air television! This year, the
theme is "Together We Keep Singapore Strong", and as always, the
winning team will win a trip to visit renowned animation studios is the
USA!
This year, good things come in pairs, because I will be combining forces with my Man Man, Colin Chang, a.k.a.
The Minute Man SG, as the ambassadors of our 2 teams! [
The Man: "Hello Everybody!!!"]
So throughout the rest of the N.E.mation blog posts, whenever you see
square brackets with italic words in it, it's Colin speaking!
If you haven't read about our first visit to Team Cedar3, click here to read more!
Team ZLS #NE10C10
Our second team that we were introduced to was
Team ZLS from Guangyang Secondary School!
[
MinuteManSG: "Guangyang Secondary rocks too!"]
Lutfi was not in the picture because he was overseas,
but don't worry, we'll take another full group photo next week!
They
too had an interesting story on how they formed their team name. The
original trio who came up with the idea that got them into the finals
were
Zhi Xiang,
Lufti and
Shao Jun. So they took the first letter from each of the names to become Team ZLS!
They have a new unofficial Team name though, it's ZLSS.
[
MinuteManSG: "But where did the last S come from? Why the sudden plural form?"]
Well,
after getting into the finals, they enlisted the help of another of
their schoolmates, Shofia, to help them with their drawings and
animations! Hence the unofficial name ZLSS is formed.
[
MinuteManSG: "Oh! Why don't you share how they met for the first time!"]
Oh
yes! Shofia was previously from another team sent in by Guangyang
Secondary, and both their teams were working in computer labs that were
side-by-side, but divided by a glass panel. So the teams wanted to wish
each other good luck, but because they were separated by a glass panel,
they actually typed in their good luck message on someone's phone and
used that to communicate through the glass panel! That's so smart and
creative!
After a quick introduction, team ZLS
guided us through their storyboard. I can't believe how creative our
students can get these days! They portrayed their story in a very
different and interesting way! This shows how much our students can
achieve if we just give them enough space to explore and get creative!
For someone with an attention span as short as mine, it's a miracle I
stood and listened to the entire story with amusement.
Shofia
also showed us how they used the Wacom tablets to bring their
characters to life on screen! It was so interesting that I had to have a
go at drawing something, even though I can really draw!
Can you guess which one was drawn by me?
[
MinuteManSG: "Wow! That's a cute drawing of a girls head! Impressive!"]
Hahaha.
Well, actually I only drew the heart shape and coloured it in with my
name. The girl's head was actually drawn by Shofia! She's so talented
right?
[
MinuteManSG: "Oh. In that case, I'm taking back my compliant and giving it to Shofia."]
Here's
a preview of some of the characters that you will be seeing in their
completed video. I love the ah gong and ah ma the most!
If
you realised from the pictures, team ZLS are a little shy and they
don't readily jump into photos! But did you know that although Zhi Xiang
seems like the smallest and quietest member of the group, he is
actually the group leader of team ZLS?
[
MinuteManSG: "This just proves that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover!"]
By
now, you should have been able to guess that their clip has something
to do with soccer. And it was made even more evident by the soccer ball
that was sitting under one of the tables of their working space. All the
boys in the team love playing soccer and Shofia loves watching!
So
it was only fair that we asked the boys to show of some of their soccer
skills! Colin sportingly volunteered to pass the ball around with Shao
Jun...
Shao Jun displaying his soccer skills with a fancy flick
[
MinuteManSG: "Phew. Ok. I think that was enough exercise for 1 day."]
It was so much fun to see them pass, flick and juggle the ball with such skill and ease.
Their
storyline is really very creative and we can't wait to see the end
product. We are sure that this is going to be a very impressive video!
And of course, how could we just had to end the session with the mandatory wefie! Everyone say Lufti!!
[
MinuteManSG: "LUFTI!!!"]
Members of Team ZLS pen down their thoughts
HERE.
The Legendary Milo Thief
During
our chat with the teams, we heard rumours of an illusive Milo Thief,
who would steal packets of ice milo from the N.E.mation fridge. However,
no one has been able to spot this sneaky fella or catch him in
action... until now...
While we were preparing to
leave, from the corner of our eyes we spotted a blurry image zoom past
behind us. With my quick reflexes, I whipped out my camera and managed
to snap a couple of photos using the slo-mo mode... and managed to catch
him red-handed!
[MinuteManSG: "What the... You didn't tell me about this..."]
Although
we couldn't identify him due to his disguise and lack of clarity in the
photos in the photos, I'm sure we will be able to apprehend him next
week!
[
MinuteManSG:
"Well... Er... I think... I know that I... I mean... this guy should
not have stolen the ice milos from the fridge, but... Er... I think we
should give me... I mean him... a chance to explain himself. He probably
has a very good reason why I... I mean he... had to resort to
stealing..."]
And of course, a very special Thank You message to James!
Oh,
and if you are wondering how we managed to snap some of these lovely
photos with all 4 of our arms in the picture, well, the ever helpful
James from Animagine kindly volunteered to be our assistant cameraman
for the day. Thank you so much James for taking these wonderful shots as
well as gracing us with the honour of being able to come back again
this year to be team ambassadors of N.E.mation! 10!
Don't forget to stay tuned for more updates as we check on how our teams are progressing every week! See you next week!
For more stories, videos, photos and updates on N.E.mation! 10, visit
https://nemation.sg/.
