Artist impression for TeamSystem

The client emailed me some elevation drawings and photos as reference for the artist impression they commissioned me to do.

This is the site model of the factory ( I guessed so, looking at the design.)


Side entrance view of the actual site.


Before the actual illustration, it is always safer to get the angle right, as it is not done in 3D softwares. Gave them 2 options to choose, based on their brief over the phone.

Then, they come back to me, saying that they want a front view, as they want to see teh central building. Given the wide proportion of this building, we won't be able to capture it in the first 2 angles.

Another draft.
The client come back to me saying that the pitch roof will be chnaging to an arch roof.
Now then I know that they want to show their own client( of this building), the artist impression of the new roof of the central building.
They didn't explain it in the initial brief. I keep wondering why do they need an artist impression in the first place? For their keepsake, since the camera cannot capture the building, given the fence and containers in front of it.


Came out this 2-point perspective, based on their elevation.
Changed the roof to an arch one.


Added in the colours in Photoshop after scanning in the black and white linework.

This building is quite mundane and flat.
I put in a yellowish orange sky to contrast with the blue building. Added in motion blur to give the whole perspective some dynamism.

The lineworks are done freehand. But I felt that the lines are really unacceptable crooked when I zoomed in to render the details. Got to do extra works to straighten them.

Added in the company signage, some shades and textures on the building, road and the pavement, so that the whole artwork will not look flat and raw. You may not see the details at this scale.

Hand-painted the trees using my tablet. Yes, still need to hand-draw it, even on a computer. It is just drawing on a different medium. But most people (my clients and even those who are computer-literate like web designers) think that Photoshop or computer can do wonders and magic. You don't need to know how to draw. Just a few clicks and the computer will do everything for you. To some extent, yes! But for this kind of illustrations, beside having some Photoshop knowledge, you need to have the skiill and experience. And it is not easy. You will know the difficulty in using a tablet to draw on a tablet, but not looking at it but the screen. Then you have to control the strokes and weight of the brush.

So much on the computer illustrations, back to the drawing. Added in the fence, some cars and human figures generated from 3d Studio Max RPCs. Made them translucent so that it will not block the building's frontal view, which is the most important for this illustration.

Printed out the finished artwork, and realised that I missed out something.

Did the amendments, and printed out the above copy, before mounting it on a board for the client's presentation.
Can you tell what have I missed out? At least my wife can't tell the difference when I showed her the 2 printed copies.

Illustration for Optara - School of the Future

On School of the Future again.

This time, in SIngaproe context. Thus, I put the 4 schools on the Singapore island. These schools photos were found online. I made some modification to them, to create a neighbourhood feel, based on what the client had briefed me. Text will be added in to this scaaned copy later.

Think a lot more jobs on these School of the Future illustrations to be done in the coming weeks and months, from what the client had told me.

Arist Impressions for First Ship Lease Pte Ltd

These sketches were done live at Labrador Park. An disastrous event!

After I have finished the above pencil sketch, I started inking and the guests came into the cell. My view was fully black. I spent almost 1.5 hours to get this done. Can you imagine? Later, instead of peeping through the moving guests, and thank goodness I have the scene captured with my camera, I sketched and colour based on the image display on my 2.5 inch LCD.
As I was engaged for 3 hours to sketch 3 scenarios, I can't put more details in, given the limited timeframe.


The nightmare became worse at this sketch. The linework in black and white was still fine. However, when it came to the colouring part, I can't see the true colour under the dim yellow lighting. (I was sketching outdoor.) This was a totally different from the previous sketch. The previous one was pale in colour, as under the yellowish indoor lighting, I kept telling myself not to apply too much colour, so that it will not look too heavy.
This one, the lighting was very bad. The shadow casted on the drawing when I coloured, can't see the true colour, can't find the markers I need due to dim lighting. All these frustrated me.
I had highlighted to the client (the event organiser) the day before the event, that I would need a good and adequate lighting for a good illustration to be done. If they can't provide me a daylight lamp, at least adequate lighting, with a table and chair.
Lighting was not provided when I was on site!!!
I highlighted this to the client when I am going to do the below sketch. Before this, they told me to go in the restaurant and look for a place to sit and start sketching the scenario. However, when I went in, there's no place for me to sit at all. I told her the problem. Her client came to talk to her and she was distracted. And I was ignored. Fine. I had to make do with what I can do now, given current situattion. I used the camera to snap and draw from there. Still under the dim lighting.

When all these 3 sketches were done, the client's partner told me that she expected more fromthese sketches. I told her the problems I faced and the ignored part. I was left with no choice, but needed to complete them within the timeframe.
Looked at the quality of these sketches when captured under dim lighting. Even after some touched up with Photoshop, the quality was still very bad.
My conclusion, and I was very sure about it after this event- In the future, if the client can't provide me with good lighting environment to sketch, I won't take up that job. It affected my mood, and most importantly, my artwork quality. I couldn't tolerate this! And I was not happy after this event. Yes, not happy at all, with the artworks produced and the way I was treated.

Amended walkway perspective

Amendment - the client had no budget for the framework Blue Screen had proposed. So got to make changes lor.Here, the frame was taken out, added in the existing walkway light, and a red carper with the rangoli designs. The flowers on both side of the walls were added in Photoshop after the 3d scene was rendered.

amendment...

Added in the curtain and change the Rangoli on the carpet, as requested by the client. This new Rangoli didn't looked better than the previous one. Had a feeling that the client will change again. Sigh...........

Perspective illustration for Blue Screen Production Pte Ltd

This was the 3D job which kept me busy for the whole week, and shacked after this.
Good relief that it was finally done! And hopefully no changes....... then it will be considered job closed.
These were the visuals for ABN-Amro NRI Credit Card Launch in Asian Civilisation Museum on the 27th April 2007. Blue Screen engaged my service to create these visuals for their client.


This ballroom (River Room) was created in 3dsmax. In fact, I can go down to shoot some photos and used it as the background, modelled the cones, planters , showcase and stage in 3dsmax. That should save me quite some time. But being lazy, and also felt that I may not get the angle I want. The security guards may not allow me to wind up blinds at the door etc...... I decided to model the ballroom in 3dsmax.
What were done in Photoshop editing were the cocktail tables, the volume light effects on the stage (this will take a long time to create the effect in 3dsmax), the human silhouettes, teh artifacts, and the lantern lights hanging down from the ceiling. No point modeling this since I can cut and paste from the photos provided. All these saved me time on other parts of the project.


This is the river terrace visual. I modelled the lighted sphere, sitting platform, cushions and bolsters, plinth with lighting systems, stage for the musicians. Then the rest were all done in Photoshop.
The first part of the visual was editing the background. The photo given was in the daylight, without the tent. I tried dimming down the sky and building, but the result looked fake. I went to Google Iamge and Flickr to search for Boat Quay's night scenes. The latter was better in terms of resolution. I cut and paste in. The result was convincing. (Later, I found out that the night scene was taken along Clarke Quay river bank. Hahaha... Hack care. No one can tell after the umbrella and lighting with silhoutte pasted in.) The tent was also cut and pasted. Of course with some editing. It will take a long time to create the cloth effect at this scale, in fact impossible, taking into consideration of the tight timeframe and amount of work involved.


This was all done in 3dsmax. It was a walkway leading into the River Room, where the black part was. Quite lucky in getting this lighting effect with a few hours. The Rangoli effect on both sides of the text, within the frame was created and edited in Photoshop to use as map before putting into this scene. In fact, the client wanted the Rangoli (made of rice) for the text too. I told them that the details won't be seen at this scale. So they didn't insist on it. They will tell the client verbally instead.

This was the reception area. Quite simple as compared to the first 3 visuals above. The only 3d modeling done in this visual were the pedals in front and the frame work with the ABN-AMRO watermark behind. The spotlight in the middle. In front was the while cloth. The highlight on the cloth was done in Photoshop. So were the rest. There was an existing painting and chairs in the original photo provided. I needed to clone and wash them away. The 2 Indian Statues and Rangoli on the floor and flower decorations above the door was edited in Photoshop, with shadows added. Oh yar, the Indian pot with lights was also modelled in 3dsmax (from previous scene) and pasted in here.

P/S: These 4 visuals were posted based on the time (also priority) I finished them. In fact it should be in sequence of reception, walkway, River Room, and River Terrace.

Perspectives for Accenz

Artist impressions of the interiors of a container, in which the event organiser will do up the place for a seminar held here. The first 2 perspectives were the previews generated based on what they have described to me. However, they changed the design without updating me. Luckily, the changes were not drastic.

Saw the stage, table and the blue backdrop. According to the first meeting, they were there. Walls were white.

I changed the angle captured here, reason being it was captured at a widely distorted angle. The oil drum appeared at the corner of the captured view, and looked being squashed to oval instead of circular shape. At this angle, the oil drum was in the centre. The angle of distortion was not that obvious.

These were the final design.

These 2 scenes looked simple but took long time to render because of the details of the net.
The above perspective (seminar room) took me 6 hours to render at A4 size while the bottom one (registration area) took about 10 hours. Luckily, the result was quite satisfying. At least, the client felt that they were quite close to what they wanted.

I had shifted the oil drum to the centre foreground, to reduce the distortion.
The biohazard logo on the oil drum was done in Freehand, and imported into 3dsmax.

As I can't get the net texture map, I did it in Freehand, opened and edited in Photoshop, and mapped in 3dsmax. The holes were done using opacity map with the black and white inverted net map.

Perspective for Pokerface Production Singapore Pte Ltd

This perspective and plan were meant to be used for pitching a job.
It was meant to show them the layout, lighting and overall effect of the studio set.

First preview based on what the client wanted.


Changing on the backdrop's dimensions and graphic.

Testing using the spotlight effect, but disasterous. Hard to control, so I deleted them.

Tried using Vray lights. Effects turned out quite good. The texture of teh sofa and the shadow looked realistic.

Changing the colour of the stage, as the client felt that the dark gray he had chosen looked too dull. Added in the overhead lighting to get the studio feel. The couple on the left was pasted in using Photoshop, added in the shadow.

This was the final floor plan rendered.
Noticed the logo on the floor changed? The client felt that the previous one was too plain.

He didn't have the logo in ai/eps format. Didn't know the font too. Thus, I had to construct it in Freehand and import in 3dsmax.

This was the final version. Took me about 2.5 hours to render in A4 size.

I think I had improved on the light rendering in this project, as compared to those done previously. Perhaps there were less items and details here. Easier to control and render.

Green Residential Building illustration for Building & Construction Authority

These illustrations were huge. The top one was about 82cm in width. The bottom one with the labels was about 1.32m in width. The client requested for it, as they will need to blow it up further, for exhibition panels. These will be used for their portal of Green Building too.
The top illustration linework was hand-drawn (constructed) and scanned into Photoshop for rendering, using graphic tablet. The magnified unit was done in 3dsmax, and later edited in Photoshop.
These will be the final artworks, and I really hope so. The client still have to show the management for approval. I had a feeling that they will come back for some changes, given that some many people involved. Each person had their own opinion. If you didn't see me posting this illustrations again, that will be a good news for me.

BCA job - draft 5

Yo! Really last job for today. Need to send this to the client before I go.

Now, this draft changed in proportion, after I changed the layout according to what they wanted. Think they will want to shift again because of the proportions. They will use this green Building illustration on their website. This proportions will not work well. Surfers have to scroll down to see the magnified home unit. Sigh.... never ending changes... how to finish by early March? This was only 25% of the whole process...... 'pai tan'.

fourth draft for BCA

Juggling with my jobs on hand. Now back to the illustration for Building & Construction Authority (BCA), Singapore. This was the fourth draft, and hopefully no more changes, and straight to the actual vector artwork illustration. I added in labels on the illsutrations with annotations on the right. Also made some amendments to the comments like larger green etc.

Sigh..... life is tough. Just rejected an urgent one-day-delivery order. That client was my customer when I was drawing in Clarke Quay. The orders for this coming week was full. I am overworked, having a tough time in clearing orders this week before going for the Chinese New Year holidays. I keep telling myself life is not work, but my life just surrounds with work. This is very sad. If I don't work hard, how am I supposed to pay off the high monthly overheads etc? No joke! My money drains off from my bank account almost everyday. I have to keep pumping in money. Can't imagine if one day when this drawing machine breaks down........what will happen? And now, I have been coughing my lungs out for the past few weeks. Looks like no mandarin oranges this new year. Shit.... cough still must eat a bit. Mandarin orange is one of the stuff which gives me the atmosphere of Chinese New Year.

Green Building illustration project for BCA - progress

Not a fun job.
Got to design and put in the features the client wanted for a Green residential building.

Gave them a more generic prototype since they had no preference on the type of building design. Then they decided to have a point-block type condominium.

Another draft before the second meeting, showing a rough layout and angle of the perspective.


Done some 3d modeling of a magnified home unit last night, showing the cross ventilation etc.
The sketch on the left took me few days to complete (unbelievable!!!), coloured in Photoshop just now.
Sigh..... can't speed up.
Can't imagine when the final illustration had to be done in eps format using Macromedia Freehand.
The same nightmare will be back soon.

3D illustrations for Knowledge Director - School of the Future

At this stage, the client - Knowledge Director, was going into more details in the chair design for the School of the Future.
I came out a simple design for them, such that it was easy available in the market. Just modify a few parts, and it will be done.
It was just a normal swivel armchair, with a top for the Tablet PC. A spotlight over the shoulder, and a hanger for the laptop bag at the back of the chair.

Various angles of the swivel armchair, modelled in 3dsmax.


These two images rendered in 3dsmaxm were to illustrate a classroom surrounded by screens to create the virtual space. The top illustrated lessons on galaxy/universe space, while the bottom on photosynthesis.
These people were receiving informations from the screens, as well as the Tablet PCs in front of them.

illustrations for Knowledge Director - School of the Future - learning and gaming

Further development, illustrating how the student learned through web conference with the professional from the other place of the world. in this case for instance, both parties can see view the universe from the broadcasting, and communicate at the same time.



Learning through games like flight simulating.
Playing games like treasure hunting in virtual reality, using high technology like touch screen.
On the left, game station which can detect movement of the hands and bodies.


The following 2 illustrations below were Muslim versions, for proposal to schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (The above 2 illustrations were for Taiwan schools.) I added in the songkoks for the guys and Tudong for the girls.

illustrations for Knowledge Director - School of the Future for River Kutai, Indonesia

These artist impressions are used as proposal to River Kutai in Indonesia, selling them the concept of School of the Future. Based on the few miserable photos of River Kutai provided by the client, I had to come out with a series of sketches illustrating their visions, based on imagination.


An overview of the River Kutai and the boat with teacher and students on it.

Closer view.

Using Tablet PC to learn.

Mosque in the background.

On the land.

Desktop PCs at the rear the boat, students and teacher having lessons in front. As these sketches are more emphasis on concepts than functions, details and feasibility will be further developed at a later stage. (Client's requests too)

River Kutai and building skyline in the background.

From urban to rural areas.

Reaching the rural area.

Landing on the kampung site.

School of the Future in the rural area.

Townscape sketches based on the Flash video provided by the client.

Wireless communication at the foyer/atrium space.

Wireless communication at the green.

Wireless learning through Tablet PCs in the lecture theater.