KCIT Open Day 2008 @ IIUM

Our arrival was welcomed by the organizing committee, thus we were shown to our spot. We noticed that these event were joined by other several companies involved in the ICT field.

The main purpose of the event is to introduce to the students the real environment of the ICT Industry, that where we comes in.

Some of them are from Content Management Software Development, Online Job Searching Domain, and Internet Broadband areas. this event also joined by a Special Interest Group (SIG) which promoting Linux Based OS, UBUNTU.

Upon setting up, Faliq and I were visited by the Dean [Mr.Adam Suhaimi] of the Faculty whom congratulate us on Upin & Ipin which was so successful during the last fasting season, and he's looking forward for the upcoming second season to be aired on TV during the ramadhan. We were then invited for a breakfast before the event starts.

The responses from the UIA students during the exhibition was very good, they were all very supportive of us, and very inquisitive about the history of the company, the life on production etc.

On the 2nd day, we were joined by Ida, our voice cast of Fizi also, our (character rendering artist). She was persuaded to do the "Korang puasa penuh? Aku puasa setengah hari je.." lines over and over again by fans of Upin & Ipin.

The event ended with a closing ceremony and and the announcement of the treasure hunt winners

on behalf of LC, we would like to thank the committees of the event for inviting us. Insya'Allah in the future we will be there soon to promote Upin & Ipin's second season.

Discuss more @ the FORUM

Written by : Fuad Md.Din
edited by : Anas & Ida
photos by : Faliq

Who's that outside our office?

Discuss more in the FORUM

Si Polan.

Check out for more spy photos at the FORUM

LCP Animation Training Centre: 3D MODELING SHORT COURSE

LCP Animation Training Centre will be organizing a 3 weeks course on 3D Modeling and we are looking for 20 animation graduates to join the class!

Chosen applicants will have the opportunity to use the software Autodesk Maya 2008 and learn the most effective way in doing 3D modeling from non-organic objects to character design and model. Students will also have the opportunity to learn from an experience trainer involved in the production ‘GENG: The Adventure Begins’ and learn the real production workflow.

This course is fully sponsored by MDeC and applicants must posses at least a certificate in animation related course from local IHLs. We are targeting to start the short course on 4^th August 2008.Interested applicants please fill in the application form as soon as possible! Seats are limited!

HOW TO APPLY:

1) Complete the application form provided HERE
2) Prepare your resume for our reference.
3) Attach related certificate which proves you are a graduate from any IHL.
4) Send all of the above to:

Email: safwan@lescopaque.com

or

Office Address:
‘3D Modeling Short Course’
LCP Animation Training Centre
No. 1, Jalan Boling Padang G 13/G,
Section 13, 40100,Shah Alam,
Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Baby Director ;)

On 14th July 2008 (11 Rejab 1429), Muhammad Ielham Iskandar bin Mohd. Nizam was born! Congratulations to Nizam and Dini. Everyone here in Les' Copaque was so happy and excited with the new born baby.

A day earlier, Nizam and Dini narrowed down their baby name to 2:- Muhammad Ielham Iskandar and Muhammad Khaleed Ielham. Unable to decide, they asked for everyone in the office for their own opinions, and most people voted for Muhammad Ielham Iskandar... Hence they both agreed that the baby will be named so.

Muhammad Ielham Iskandar means...
Muhammad – Praised one, Prophet's name
Ielham – Intuition
Iskandar – A King's name

Baby name meanings taken from:-Link

Baby Ielham is crying... (Auntie) Eejean tries to calm him down... Ala..La.. La..

Does Ielham looks like his daddy or mummy?

Happy Birthday Muhammad Ielham Iskandar and welcome to the Les' Copaque's family :)

Discuss at the Forum

New day, new faces

Smiles from familiar and unfamiliar faces greeted me as i was about to sit at my place and start my work. Who are they, you might ask? Well, they are the new batch of interns from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka , of course! So here they are in no particular order.

This is Mohamad Zaki bin Ishak a.k.a Zaki. AT UTem, he's taking computer science , majoring in Interactive Media. He's now training his ears and learning as much as he can about audio from Anas.

Zirul

Jam

These two guys are no stranger to the Les Copaque team but for all the newbies, i introduce you to Jam and Zirul. They have been trained by the LC team before. Now they are sharpening their skills in animation and rendering. (Click here to read previous post about them)

Next is Mohd Adili Bin Norasikin or otherwise known as Ed. He is also taking Interactive Media at UTeM and now he is building props and sets out of basic cubes alongside this guy who is next in line.

This is Mohd Raffe b. Md Yusoff a.k.a Ropi. As been mentioned earlier, he and Ed are working together to build new sets for the upcoming "Upin & Ipin" tv series.

So all 5 of them have now officially started their Internship at Les' Copaque. We welcome them into the LCP Family and hope they will have a great learning experience in their 6 months internship programme.

Wait....what's going on here?

Discuss at the FORUM

New and Improved Forum

We've just re-designed our forum with new web graphics and set it on a much more stable forum engine to fix of previous spamming problems as well as having a much better user interface. Unfortunately we had to wipe the slate clean and refresh both the user accounts and the previous posts to clear up spamming accounts so we hope everyone will register their accounts and join in the fun. We have new interfaces, new avatars but all I'm wondering is, where is Sapy? Fuad! I want my Sapy avatar!


Les' Copaque Forum

Hmm? What are they doing?

Visit from Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Intergrasi Gopeng.

On the 7^th of July 2008, LCP received a visit by students of Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Intergrasi Gopeng, Perak.

During their visit we explained to them the Animation production process here in Les'Copaque. This time, Faizu and Nell took up the challenge to handle the whole visit and showed the kids around. Even though Faizu has done this before he was just as nervous as Nell. The students were brought up to the production level where each department’s representative gave the demonstration of how things are done.

Before going up to the production level, Faizu and Nell gave the students a brief explanation about the pipeline that is applied here in Les'Copaque by using a simple table that is drawn cutely so that they would have a rough idea on how things are done before going into details.

The first stop was the audio room, which is where the voice actors and the foleys are recorded. Here the students were introduced to Saf (one of our audio designer). Saf shows the students equipments and procedures that is needed to make quality sounds for our movie. During their visit there, the students were especially interested when Saf explained to them how we used normal everyday items to simulate the sounds that we needed for sound effects, such as rolled up cassette tapes to simulate footsteps on grass.

Then the students were brought up to the production level where Safwan and Faizu explained to them the steps on how we make a 2D concept drawing into a 3d model. From there they understand that modeling is more like sculpting, only it’s not with mud.

Next, Ejean explains to them how the cute characters like Upin & Ipin were brought to life from the models that are made by the modelers earlier. Ejean showed them how animators have to act out the situation with the audio that is given earlier before as a guide for them to assist them on giving the “mood” or the message of the shot they need to animate

Afterwards Hidhir explains the rendering process in Geng, talking about how the rendering team is divided into background and character rendering and how they put the colors into the animation.

Lastly they paid a visit to the newly opened Les Copaque Merchandising. There they were able to buy some Upin & Ipin merchandise, such as T-shirt and CDs as souvenirs of their visit here at LCP and with that their tour came to an end. We here at Les'Copaque thanks the students of Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Intergrasi Gopeng, Perak. for visiting us and wish them the best of luck in their studies.

written by : Faizu
photos by : Hidhir & Safwan

RECRUITS!

As what you have been told, our studio is spreading its wings. We already have Geng's corner, LCP Merchandise and later we will start the production of Upin & Ipin TV Series. So without further a due, here are the latest addition of the LCP crew.

We'll start off with Mat. Mat handles deliveries and dispatch jobs, sending important documents and helping the leaders get the finished products (tapes and such) to clients and others. Aside from the legal stuff, Mat loves futsal and joins us on our game sessions whenever possible.

This is Ida Shaheera Azhar a.k.a Ida Mandarin (mini pop quiz: Why is Ida called Ida Mandarin). She also studied Arts and Design at Uitm Shah Alam but now she's scribbling her ideas as a scriptwriter. She also won a RM15,000 grant at the Digital Comic Design under Professional Category. Can i say awesome?

Mohd Ezuwan bin Ramli or wan is our new Graphic Designer. He also studied at Uitm Shah Alam, majoring in Arts and Design. Currently, he fights alongside Faliq, working hard to design Upin&Ipin/Geng merchandises.

Here is Mohd Firdaus b Mohd Fauzi a.k.a Daus. He studied at Uitm Shah Alam, majoring in Arts and Design. He was recruited as a Graphic Designer and now he works his magic with the compositing department.

Mohd Faliq bin Mohd Isa is one of the driving force of LCP Merchandising. He studied in Multimedia University cyberjaya, majoring in Virtual Reality. Now, he is one of the LCP crew, working to finish up the designs for the merchandises.

Now, a trivia!

Any observant reader will notice that Faliq shares the same surname as our very own Shafiq. That's because they're brothers! It is also interesting to note that their physical appearances are very much different, almost opposite. That's all for now, there's more coming ;).

Photographs Taken & Edited by : Azim
Post By : Ida Rahayu
Edited By : Anas

MDeC visit to Les' Copaque Production

(from left: Mr Niran Noor, Dato' Badlisham Ghazali, Mr Fuad Ahmad, Mr Hasnul, Zaid, Nizam, Mr Burhan)

The month of July is upon us and what better way to start it with a wonderful visit to the Les' Copaque Production Studio from the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) , especially from the CEO of MDeC, Dato' Badlisham Ghazali himself. It was Dato's Badlisham's first visit to Les' Copaque and we were very honoured to have him here. The soonest they arrived we gave them a warm welcome and brought them to the newly established Geng's Corner restaurant where breakfast was served.


Firstly they were brought into our office, straight up to the production level as they were really eager to meet the staff of Les' Copaque Production. Nizam and Zaid gave them the tour, showing them every single department and explaining what they do. The above picture is where they observe animators Sengkee and Nazmi doing their magic.


Later Yongpin and Naz demonstrate the later process of animation pre-edit, where completed animation shots are compiled together in the time line and are processed for quality and consistency. Any changes can be made by redistributing the shots back to the animators. Poor Sengkee and Nazmi, hope your shots are accepted.


Naz and Yong Pin explain further, how the pre-edit prepares the list of shots ready to be rendered by the Rendering team.


Yuki, Ahwei and Mumu demonstrate the overall rendering process where shots are broken down into different layers for efficient rendering process as well as flexibility for the later Compositing process. They also went to other departments including Script, Audio, Modeling and were extensively briefed.


The LCP staff were really happy to have Dato' Badlisham meeting every single person in the office to understand better on what they do and to get to know them better. He was even interested in the songs Ida was listening to at the moment of her rendering work. Let's hope Ida was listening to happy music.


Lastly the production tour ended upstairs where we showed them our training facilities and the server room where our server has a total of 16 Terrabytes to accomodate the massive storage requirement for the rendered shots. Anyone knows how many Gigabytes that is? The server also acts as a network hub where all computers are connected in the production.


Finally we gave them a presentation downstairs on our business plans and a special sneak preview screening of one of our latest completed scenes, showcasing the action scenes from Geng: The Adventure Begins. They enjoyed the show and gave very good feedback. No doubt this boosted our confidence with our product and will definitely drive the team further into completing the film. Satisfied, Dato' Badlisham and others went back with full stomachs (lunch at Geng's Corner) and Upin & Ipin DVDs. We would like to thank Dato' Badlisham Ghazali, Mr Niran Noor, Mr Fuad Ahmad and Mr Hasnul for visiting our office and hope it was as enjoyable for MDeC as it was for our staff.

pictures by Faizu, edited by Fuad

Malam Penghargaan Industri Filem 27 Jun 2008

Baru- baru ni FINAS telah menganjurkan satu malam anugerah bagi penggiat industri filem tempatan yg berjaya memenangi pelbagai anugerah pada festival filem peringkat antarabangsa. Malam Penghargaan Industri Filem yang diadakan di Hotel One World Bandar Utama itu memperlihatkan 14 buah filem tempatan yg berjaya menerima anugerah dalam kategori masing-masing.


Mohd Nizam juga turut berjaya menerima anugerah bagi filem UPIN & IPIN bagi kategori animasi. Penghargaan ini berdasarkan pencapaian cemerlang selepas memenangi Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival 2007 (KLIFF 07). Anugerah ini menaikkan lagi semangat warga kerja Les Copaque yang mana sedang dalam peringkat awal pembikinan siri baru UPIN & IPIN yang bakal ditayangkan pada Ramadhan nanti.


Nizam dan Zaid bergambar bersama Hazimin Sulaiman iaitu pemenang tempat pertama dari akhbar New Starits Times (NST) dengan rencananya bertajuk Animation Studios In Funding Blues. Beliau jugalah yang bertanggungjawab menulis kebanyakan artikel berkaitan dgn Les' Copaque mahupun GENG. Beliau memenangi anugerah khas iaitu Trofi Samad Idris yang merupakan penghargaan FINAS terhadap sumbangan besar wartawan dalam insdustri perfileman negara.



Oleh Mohd Zarin