Fire Effect...

Yeah, I'm done with my new profile picture...

And no, it's not lightsabers anymore...
It's the "Fire Effect"!
And of course, I did it all on good ol' Adobe After Effects! [ smiles ]

Well, take a look at the pictures for yourself...

So how are the pictures?
Oh, what about the effects? Does the fire look authentic enough?
[ Note: The background is actually a composited black screen that I illuminated with a red lens flare in Adobe After Effects. It's all digital - It's not a real background! ]

Oh, FYI, I didn't actually WANT to take the second picture ( The one with double flaming hands! ).
My brother thought it would be "appropriate" for the fire effect...
I suppose he's right, right? Does my pose in the second picture look "appropriate" to you guys? Hehe!

Oh, and I actually wanted to attempt the "green screen" effect, but I scratched the idea. It was a bit too complicated and time-consuming for me......

Anyway, I'm gonna use one of the two pictures as my new general profile picture...

So yeah, that's it.

May the Force be with you...

August Test 2010 is over!

Alright, my August Test is over!
So, here I am, finally updating my blog again...

Well, actually, there's quite a lot of interesting stuff that happened during my 3-week absence from Blogger.
Unfortunately, I can now only remember some of it. Let me try and recall:
1. Went to the National Museum. My brother's "Bengkel Kecemerlangan UPSR" was organised by Kuntum Magazine here, so while waiting for his UPSR Workshop to finish. I followed my parents into the National Museum. I also took a lot of pictures there too. But I'm too lazy to upload them here! [ smiles ] You can go and check them out on Facebook if you want...
2. Lost Adobe After Effects! Err, my old computer refused to boot up for some reason, and the worst part was that I did NOT back-up all my programs, files and folders! I had no choice but to run a full system recovery ( re-setting the computer to its original factory conditions ). I lost EVERYTHING! [ cries ]
However, my little brother somehow managed to download Adobe After Effects again, despite the fact that it is EXTREMELY difficult to get Adobe After Effects CS4 nowadays... I owe him big-time!
Plus, after this incident, I learned a valuable lesson - I have to make sure I back-up my essential files and folders from now on, just in case something like this happens again!

Well, that's all I can remember...

Oh, I'm planning to make a new profile picture.
Of course, I'm gonna incorporate some "special effects" into the picture! [ smiles ] I can't wait to be working on Adobe After Effects again! It's been too long! WAY too long!
Stand by, yeah?

Uhh, and finally, here's an important notice:
I'm only going to get to use the computer until the end of this month.
Starting on 1st September, I have to start studying for my End-of-Year Examination...

So yeah, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Prefect's Dinner 2010 Pictures

Okay, in my last post, I said that I would post the pictures I took during the Prefect's Dinner 2010 that was held yesterday, right?
Well, there sure are a lot of them! 43 pictures, to be specific!
That tops the number of pictures I took during the 2009 Kuantan holiday ( There were around 40 pictures during the Kuantan trip, if I'm not mistaken ).

Oh, and before we move on to the pictures, I would like to apologise, because some of the pictures are rather blurry. Like I mentioned in my last post, this is probably caused by the dim lighting at the hotel. So, sorry for any blurry or pixelated pictures, yeah?
( Please, no comments about the pictures being blurry, unclear, or pixelated, kay? I don't wanna hear about that... )

Well, here they are:
Well, yep, that's all of them.

And now, an important announcement:
Starting at 4pm today, I will officially be banned from touching the computer until the end of my August Monthly Test.
Therefore, I won't be able to update my blog until then...
Wish me luck for my August Test, yeah?

May the Force be with you...

Prefect's Dinner 2010

Alright, I went for the Annual Prefect's Dinner 2010 at the Grand Blue Wave Hotel, Shah Alam yesterday...
And I'm sure you guys are dying to hear about it, right? [ smiles ]
Okay, let's start from the top, shall we?
[ WARNING: VERY LONG POST AHEAD! ]

Right, at 2pm, my mum brought me to Hazwan's house. Then, at around 3pm, Hazwan's dad brought Hazwan and I to the Grand Blue Wave Hotel, which is roughly a 15-minute drive from Hazwan's house.
The dinner is actually scheduled to start at 7, but we had to go there early to help out with the preparations and whatnot...

Hazwan and I made our way to the first floor. We had to rendezvous with the other Prefects in the Rebana Hall. When we reached the hall, we saw Aisyah, Amirah and Liana were already there.
Well since I was in charge of decorations, I had to blow up the balloons and tie them. I asked Hazwan to help out.
I tell you, blowing up balloons and tying them up is the most rigorous, not to mention hazardous task I've ever been through! Aisyah attempted to blow up a balloon, and it exploded in her face at point-blank range! The same thing happened to me too - While I was blowing the balloon, it just exploded in my face, and I felt as if someone just smacked me hard on the face!
We had to tie up the balloons too. And seriously, it's frustrating! My fingers hurt like crap trying to tie the knots on the balloons' necks, and somehow, my left index finger and right thumb actually started bleeding! Unbelievable!

Theeban, Arief, and Raihan arrived a while later. Theeban handed me my AJK tag ( It states that I am the "Deco Wizard"! Hee! ), and I had to wear the tag throughout the duration of the Dinner.
A while later, Hari arrived at the hotel. Hazwan, Hari and I then went up to the 17th floor to check out our room ( Yup, the Prefects decided to book some rooms, so that we could put our bags there, change, shower, et cetera. ). The room was quite nice, I guess...
We dumped our bags and made our way back to the Rebana Hall. By then, Jas was there already.
I was happy to see several people helping me to inflate the balloons. But then there was another problem, I had not tape! I mean, I HAD tape, but the tape wasn't very good ( It wasn't sticky enough! ). I asked Amirah, and she could only provide some masking tape. Unfortunately, the masking tape doesn't allow the balloons to stick for very long. Man, I was frustrated!
At last, Pn Nik Salida arrived, and she brought some decent rolls of tape along with her. Thank goodness! Right there and then, all my problems were solved!

Okay, since I was done with my balloons, I helped out other people with their tasks. I helped to sort out the gifts, fix the red cloth lining on the main stage, and helped teacher with the hampers...
At around 6.15, Hazwan, Hari and I decided to get ready for the Dinner, which was going to start at 7pm. So we made our way to our room on the 17th floor. When we were done sprucing up, it was already around 6.45pm. We went back downstairs. Almost immediately, Theeban told me and Hari to go down to the lobby and keep an eye out for the VIPs ( Form 5 Prefects and teachers ). We had to greet them and inform of the Dinner venue...

Time flew by, and guess what? The VIPs were very late! The Grand Entrance was scheduled to start at 7.30. But even at 8pm, most of the VIPs had not arrived yet!
Well, our Headmistress came at around 8.30pm, I think. Finally, Hari and I were allowed to go back upstairs...

After the Grand Entrance of the teachers and the Form 5 Prefects, there were the speeches.
First up was Arief ( Head Prefect 2010/2011 ), then Amin ( Ex-Head Prefect ), then Pn Nik Salida ( Discipline teachers' representative ), then En Mohd Din ( PK Hal Ehwal Murid ), and finally Datin Aisyah Jaman ( Headmistress ).
Immediately after the speeches, we were allowed to eat. It was a buffet dinner, and there was a whole lot of food! Uhhh, there was rice, fried noodles, steak tenderloin, mutton, mixed vegetables, fish fillets, and a whole lot of other stuff that I can't remember...
So yeah, dinner was rather satisfying.

While everyone was eating dinner, there were lucky draws and performances.
The Form 1 Prefects did their performance first, followed by Forms 2, 3, 4, and 5.
After all the performances were done, there was a "slideshow" depicting pictures of the senior Prefects.
Then, there were the games. After that, there was the awards and prize-giving ceremony.
And then, there was the karaoke session.
Lastly, there was the photography session...
In the end, the Prefect's Dinner 2010 came to a close at roughly around 11.45pm...
So, after taking a few pictures and singing Happy Birthday to Evo ( her birthday's on 1st August! ), Hari, Hazwan, Jas, Evo, and I made our way to the hotel lobby. We hung around there for a while, and at 12 midnight, Hazwan's parents came to take us back to his house.

I slept at Hazwan's house that night. And the next morning, my parents came to fetch me back home...

So yeah, that's Prefect's Dinner 2010!
Oh, and of course, I DID manage to take lots of pictures using my handphone!
And trust me, there's a whole lot of them! [ smiles ]
I'm gonna post them all in my next post...

Oh, however, the pictures are kinda blurry and pixelated, probably because the lighting at the hotel was rather dim, so the pictures don't turn out very good...
But oh well...

Stand by for my next post and the Prefect's Dinner 2010 pictures that I took!

May the Force be with you...