Demoreel 2007

Alright.. my reel is done .. at least for the moment.. i didn't like it much but I am tired and running out of patience for some of the test I am doing.. so I decided to leave them and make with whatever material I had. I dont have any shots from movies I worked in Weta Digital as it'll take so much time and effort to get the shorts released. Also I don't want to put them in there as well as they are not relevant to positions that I am gonna apply.

One thing that I realized is that i don't have much new materials in my reel. I am seriously thinking of going back to work on TVCs and post production where I have more involvement with whole VFX process. Big companies like Weta is fine but your involvement gets smaller as more people working on very small part of a shot.

So here we go..

Updates

I am sorry as I havent update anything on my blog.. Mainly I am busy finishing my reel.. As I'll be moving back to Singapore by year end, I will need my reel to look for job. I didnt sleep much working at home on the fx shots and finally, i kinda fell sick. So I will try to take things slow again.. I aint a teenager no more.. But I always felt I am being left behind in this fast moving vfx industry.. that made me work harder.. sigh.. I dunno.. Hope I will be okay next year..

Here some updates on some vfx shot I am working for my reel.

More Pyrotechnics

Some updates for the pyrotechnics simulations I am testing in maya..
When i was trying to achieve a flame/fire of large size using fluid sims.. usual methods need a very high resolution grid and hence took forever to sim and render.. so i tried to cheat with low resolution fluid grid and detailed textures.. this sims takes about a second/frame to sim and rendered at 9 seconds per frame on my laptop.



This is the update to my explosion sim.. added the dust cloud elements.. will add debris / sparks later..

Updates

I have been really busy and I didn't have time update my blog.
Also, I have been sadly watching the news of my country , Myanmar every day and nite.. those news made me even more exhausted. I really wish the Than Shwe and his military dogs will get their deserved punishment in this life for beating and shooting innocent monks and people.
I also want to give my respect to those who have the courage to defy the dogs.
May the people win ..

In terms of photos .. I broke my camera's battery door so I sent it to Canon Service center. I cant take any photo till next week.

Also, I am working on some shots for my demo reel and brushing my rusty brain on Maya and dynamics. I always enjoyed doing visual effects such as explosion , rigid body simulations but lately all my jobs didnt allow me to do so. And I get more rusty on this front. It's quite fun to go back and try the fx side on maya but at the same time, I am so frustrated by the fact that It took so long to get what I want it.. and sigh.. that I am not up to the standard..

anyway..
here is one of the a simple test I am trying on for my vfx sequence.. this is kinda like gasoline/car explosion of sort.. but its still in WIP..

Not @ Work

I'll be part of this photo exhibition.. woo hoo.. my first exhibition..
all of you are welcome.. :)

Weekend in Welly

I went out last weekend to the city .. went to cuba street first to have lunch.. I took these photos on the way to the little Malaysian restaurant called "Satay Kingdom". I was so hungry at that time I didn't even stop to take these photos.. I just shoot them while still walking. Hence slight focusing and framing problems.



After that , I went to Manners mall to meet with Theo.. and we had some great fun playing arcade racing games there. Took these photos on the way to Manners mall on Manners street.
I like the way how the sun is in backlit. I just set my camera to widest zoom (18mm) and shoot it on waist level without looking through it. I love how it turns out.


Finally we went to Sweet Mother's Kitchen for some snack. Theo ordered me this crazy chili beer in which there's a giant chili floating.. super spicy.. i cant take more than 2 sips.. but he seems to love it.
I just head home after that. Its not a really good day even though I had lots of fun playing games with him. My car was hit by a bus while it's parked on the street. Some concerned citizen wrote a note about the time and bus number and placed on my wiper but I cant do much as he didn't leave his number. So I cant count him as a legal witness I believe. Dang.. I hate wellington drivers.. I would never buy a real good car here.

Soi

SOI, originally uploaded by Maung Maung aka Mexx.

This is at the restaurant called "Soi" on evans bay. It's build on an extension to the . So it's pretty cool to be there dining.. surrounded by the sea..

Triplets

Lately I am inspired to do multiple frames format.. and I noticed my color treatment has became more and more desaturated .. :)

This is shot with Canon EF 100mm f2 USM lens.. check out the super creamy bokeh (out of blur elements).

Me

Me, originally uploaded by Maung Maung aka Mexx.

Taken by me wife.. :)

Kilkenny

Kilkenny, originally uploaded by Maung Maung aka Mexx.

A Keilkenny while waiting at airport is great..

Hunter Hunted

She took these photos of me.. when we're both sitting in my car on the way to supermarket..

I am really amazed by her composition and framing. I didn't tell her how to frame.


Only thing on this photo is the DOF is really shallow at f1.4. But I set it for her as its very dark. It's also at ISO 1000. You can see only one of my eye is in focus at this f stop. I'd have made similar mistake too.

This is taken inside supermarket. It a little out of focus. Cos I set my focusing mode to use middle point only. She just need to familiarize with the camera I guess.

So I am thinking of getting her a EOS 400D as a gift. Now we can share something both can enjoy.

Color Grading in Films

I always mentioned about how color grading in Hollywood films and commercials inspired me to do the grading in my photos. Here's is a little video that explain the process. It's not really new video. It's from making of the movie "king-Kong" from KongisKing website. It's done in Weta digital where I am currently working at. After watching that video, you'll have better idea on color grading work flow in films.
Click Here for the video (QuickTime required)

If you're interested more about film making and visual effects process behind the movie like King Kong, you can see more "production diaries" or "making-of" videos in KongisKing site. They are very informative and very interesting.

The Lenses and Me

I know all the photographers are more or less crazy about lens. And it's for good reason. I think they are probably the first thing you should invest. Camera body is important but without good lens, its useless. And you can keep the lens for many years but the camera body will keep changing esp in this digital day and age. So. I'm just gonna share about the lenses I have, how I use them and pros/ cons of them. Ok .. first of all , this post is not technical reviews about them. If you wanna know more about the sharpness and lens chart, you can find many information from the manufacturers site. And there's Fred Miranda's lens review site. A very good place to read lens reviews. But here, I will just talk about the pros and cons based on my use. Different photographers will have different needs and taste.
I'll start with my canon prime lens.

1. Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM
This lens have many unique attributes. Its the speediest(brightest) , sharpest and lightest lens I have. And its the only prime lens I have. I use it on many subjects and its used to be my main lens of choice . Butnow I am using more Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC for its flexibility.
I had EF 50mm f/1.8 before I bought this lens. That lens was really good value for $$ but It's lacking in USM, 5 blades diaphragm (bad bokeh), cheap plastic construction. That's why I upgraded to this f1.4 version. And I think it's a good choice.

Things I like about this lens;

• Fast f1.4 aperture allow me to shoot in any possible low light situation.
• Fast and quiet USM focusing.
• Super smooth Bokeh and depth of field
  
• Very light , Easy to travel with
• Super sharp. Probably the sharpest non L lens.
  

Things I dont like about this lens;

• minimun focusing distant could be closer
• 50mm on crop body like EOS 30D is a little long. Not suitable for tight indoor portrait, landscape etc. That hinder me from using it exclusively as a normal lens. Currently thinking of trying EF 35mm f/2.0 or EF 28mm f/1.8 USM. 35mm f/2 is very reasonable price around US$200 so i think I'll give it a try. I enjoy the fixed focal length aspect of using prime lens. It forces me to be more creative on framing and composition.

Some of my favorite shots with this lens.

This one is shot at very very low light with ISO 1600

This shot is very tightly cropped. Hence look a little blurry.

I will continue on these lenses later.

2. Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC
3. Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC
4. Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 Macro LD Di

but I already wrote quite detailed review on Canon EFS 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Kit lens here and here.

Coming Soon

She's coming soon. I'm so excited ..


Who is she? Love of my life.. :)

Standing

ကြ်န္ေတာ့ရဲ႕ေျခတစ္စံုပါ..

Lunch at Sweet Mother's Kitchen

Okay.. I'll try to post something out of my mundane regular life. We went out to this great Mexican restaurant in town "Sweet Mother's Kitchen" last Wednesday. They serve really good authentic Mexican food. (We as in bunch of colleagues from Layout department. )

For some reason, Pete running back from the parking meter.

The inside of Sweet Mother's Kitchen ..

It's such a lovely day in Welly.. We had a table outside the restaurant.. It's nice but Wellington sun can be really burning.. Thanks to the Ozone hole above Antarctica, New Zealand have really high skin cancer rate. But some dudes are throwing Rugby on the street . You can also see part of the giant camera monster sculpture made by Weta Workshop in dedication to Wellington's Film heritage and industry.

As usual, Pete ordered lots of stuffs for Lunch. He's a vegetarian and he work out hard twice a day so its not much of a problem to keep fit.

On the way back.. on Courtney place..

We bought some chocolates too.. Woot.. They are really good..

Last rockstar

This is the last of my self humiliating rocker photos .. I croppped the left to get rid of the SB-24 on the tripod..
somehow .. it reminds me of Nirvana's Smell like teen spirits video..

Keep on Rockin'

Well.. What can I say.. I am bored, I have some strobes, I have a lens to test, and I have no model to shoot with.
So here I am.. rocking hard..(the only other hobby of mine that I dig) and taking photos of myself.. which I am not really comfortable of..


I shot them in my room so I had to photoshopped out some unwanted stuffs like light switches and table lamps. But the challenge here is lighting. the SB-24 strobe on tripod was cloned out and replaced with fake lens flare in PS.

strobist info, 430ex on my lower left with sto-fen omni bounce 1/4 power triggered with ST-E2 .. from my behind right, SB-24 on tripod with 8"x6"blimp sofbox in 1/2 power triggered optically.

I used eBay radio remote to get the focus and self-timer to get rid of the remote from my hand .. and started rockin' :P .. and shot a few of them.. And this is the one that I liked..

This shot is from the same place, my camera is on my Manfrotto tripod. But the remote is on my right hand where you cant see it. I wanted to experiment with shallow depth-of-field and wide angle effect that the new Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC can offer.

strobist info, 430ex on my lower left with sto-fen omni bounce 1/4 power triggered with ST-E2 .. from my behind right, SB-24 on tripod with 6"x8" blimp softbox in 1/2 power triggered optically.

Pool , Beer and Basketball

Me and theo went to Southern Cross yesterday.. Its a nice bar in welly .. the same one we had Flickr Wellington group meeting..
We went there because we thought there's a live band playing .. I checked this stupid site and it said theres one playing.. But its not.. Ended up we play some pool and came back.. But its a fun night out though..
Here's some photos I took ..




If you wonder .. I lost all the game to him.. hehe..

Today .. I took some photos of my colleagues playing basketball in the parking lot.




Tonight though.. I went out for dinner. And saw these guys playing at Sandwiches.. So just went in, had a beer and listened a few songs.. I couldn't take much photos as the lighting in sandwiched is really bad .. Very dim and just 2 dimly lit spots on the stage.. Results?? disastrous..



Hope to take some nice gig pictures soon.. Got to find a nice bar in Welly with good band and stage. Any idea?