Computer games of nowadays has attracted even wider range of age group than before. Computer games which once thought as toys for kids has become one of choice of relaxation for adults. The revenue from selling of the games has increased dramatically; getting even closer to the sells of top ratted Hollywood movies. More variety of games has been introduced to the market. No matter at what age you are, there will always be a type of game made to fit your age group. For example, games like Crook, Spry the dragon are designed for younger age group (below 15). Final Fantasy, Command and Conquer, Quake for people at higher ages group (between 18-40). Other titles such as Parrapa the rapper, Oddworld oddersy, crash bandicoot appeal more to female games. The animation intro sequence for the game I made is targeted for people who are already familiar with the comic book and characters, also to the people who enjoy faster pace of game and always living in the bleeding edge of technology.

Video games of nowadays consist of not only addictive game play but also putting beautifully rendered animation as part of their selling products. Animation is very much like movies, consists of a series of still images playing back at a rate that is quick enough to create an illusion of motion pictures. In the olden days, things were very different in making computer animation. The tools were rather primitive and hard to understand by most of the artists. Even if there were people creative enough in this area, there were forced to hold back their ideas due to the absence of powerful computers that we have today. The speed of computers has significantly increases in recent years. They are no longer toys for programmers, but also useful tools for artists in creating stunning animation.

I enjoy watching movies; television programs and reading comic books just like others. I guess the only difference is that I always pay more attention to that little things that others have always taken for granted or neglected. The picture of movies is what attracts me. It is like watching a television program without the sound, reading a comic book that has no word in it. However, I think I pay much more attention at the details of a movie than other people. For example, I would examine the environment of a movie, the movement in the background, to see if they were appropriate to the movie. More than often, you would be surprise to find out mistakes people made. You would also, learn to appreciate the effects they put in to ensure every detail is right. One of the best example is the film " TITANIC ", which the director James Cameroon had ensured every details, from the look of the ship, the costumes, down to every tea spoon within the film looked very much like the real things at right time and right place. I enjoy looking at the details like these within a film. Sometimes, I would turn off the sound while watching a movie. It enable me to look even move carefully at the details without any distraction from the sound. In another words, you would tend to pay more attention at the drawing of a comic book if it hasn't had any words in it.

After I finished my service in army, I made a decision of choosing visual communication as my major in a university. I was in much dilemma of deciding my subjects before entering the university. Part of me wanted to study something related to my interest, the other part was trying to convince myself to study something that would ensure my future with a decent job. I guess my life in army has given me a valuable lesson in better understanding the meaning of life. In the army, you were not always able to do things the way you like. Being yourself has never been harder. This is very much the same situation in real life, full of what should be right and what should be wrong. I think I have enough of these and it should be the time to decide for myself what I really want, or always wanted to be. If I were to study something that is not my interest, I wouldn't be taking it seriously. Looking back, I am glad to have chosen visual communication as my decision, the route that I always wanted to be.

In my days in the university, I studied more intensively in the area that I like, not to those that others had asked me to. I have chosen visual communication as my subject and was well aware that it was part of the commercial art. That is to say that the art works would be judge by many others. A successful piece of commercial art has the ability to control the emotions of the audience. That, to me, is much more rewarding than having only to produce a piece of fine art that would only please the artist himself.

Action movies and the so call violent comics have always been my favourite. They have been keeping me company for many years. As a kid, I always wondered how the actions in the movies were created. The action movies in nowadays, however, have injected creativity into the fighting scenes. Bloody scenes, like chopping the human heads, are no longer the key elements in attracting more audience. The audience has also learned to appreciate the creativity within the fighting scenes. It is like having to introduce art into the fighting scenes. The action would therefore become much more "dancing" like, rather than brutal fighting.

The comic books or illustration books in contrast, deliver another kind of feeling to people. Unlike movies, comic books tell their story via a series of hand drawn images put together onto a page. The images look rather "flat", motionless and consist only of two-dimensional images. However, if you were to read a comic book, you would be surprised to realise how "three dimensional" it is. It opens up your imagination, lead you into the world created by the artist. You would go through the same feeling just like the characters in the story. It is just like watching a movie, but only with different kind of feeling. However, comic book could produce another kind of feeling that no film could achieve. For example, the comic artist could have the reader to understand exactly what was the character thinking when the character was performing an action. You can't have the character in a movie to explain what was in his/her head while he or she is about to, for example, kill someone. The movie has to take another approach to achieve the goal. Therefore, reading a comic book could bring entirely different feelings to readers. The readers know exactly how the characters feel, thus making them to involve even more into the story.

In order to have people involve even more into the story of my animation, having a great story alone I not enough. Techniques and skills are also the important issues to consider. Creating a believable virtual world would certainly help.

In most the computer graphics and digital illustrations of nowadays, artists developed complex models, geometric lines for rendering lifelike images. However, the most common problem to these rendered images is that the artists tend to have their virtual world to be too perfect or too clean which made their rendered images even less convincing.

For on images to appear, as real, we need to have the elements of a long inhabited environment, such as dirt, decay or rust, to put into the virtual world that we build. This is one of the most important factors to get people to have people to believe in the world we created.

In my own animation, GUNNM, the presence of such elements is even more important to suggest the environment the characters were in. Furthermore, as the animation consists of only motion images and background music, there is no other method, such as voice over narration or supporting text on the screen to suggest to the audience of the time and place where the animation took place. Therefore, the environment in the animation played an important role as visual clue to the audience of the over developed city the characters were living in.

Hoshua Staub, art director and CG production director at Cyan Inc., describes the importance of the used look in computer animation. " Objects in 3D environment must appear as though they were really there and, in fact, had been there for a long time," he says. " By adding the agents of age, we are attempting to create a world that not only looks real, but one that looks alive."

I strongly believe in the words he says, and find it applicable in the animation I am making. Therefore, lot of times and effects were used in making sure the environment of my animation turn out to be " less perfect", or to have an "aged" looking into it. Currently, the best way of achieving the result is through the use of texture maps. Texture maps, is a way in applying custom made textures or real textures from photos into the surface of the computer models. Many artists took both methods that are to edit the textures taken in real life and transform it to suit the need of their works. More than often, such method produces an even more realistic environment. Other methods include post-render filtering. A method that takes the already rendered image and applies filter effects, such as noise, blur, brightness and contrast to it. More straightforward method includes direct image manipulation, which the artist directly edits the rendered image to produce the result needed. Texture maps method is most widely used method of all the choices suggested.

Apart from having a good technique in creating an animation. It is also equally important in putting together for the final output. Therefore, it is vital to have a good sense in editing. Rhythm would be considered as one of most important thing in producing a successful editing job.

The rhythm, however, should be the hardest thing to deliver to the readers. The rhythm of a film is depended very much on editing, background music and sound effects. "Editing" is the most important thing of all. It could decide what kind of feeling the audience would get watching the film. A good editing would make an action movie much more exciting to watch.

"Rhythm" comes from the Greek word "thein", which means - to how. "How" - the way a piece of music is put together. "How" - a work could be carried out more productivity. In another words, rhythm has become part of our daily life, the rhythm of the songs we listen, the rhythm in the nature world and the rhythm in our heart beat. In fact, rhythm is some kind of pattern is recognise, and it can be applied into our daily works to have them done more effectively. Movie directors and songs composers would be the most successful examples of applying rhythm into their works to make them better. Comic book artists, also have their own unique way of expressing the rhythms. Comic artists have their drawings drawn into various sizes of boxes on a page in order to tell the story. It is very much the same to the movie story board, except the movies story board is drawn onto fixed size boxes, with less details than comic books. The layout of these "boxes" (some kind of grids on a page) would therefore play an important role of telling a story in a more successful manner. For example, if the artist wants to have the attention of the readers onto certain moment of the story, he or she would have the drawing drawn onto a bigger size of box, sometimes as big as the size of the page, in order to express the important of the moment. In contrast, smaller boxes, with drawing in lesser details would therefore be unimportant, or the actions are carried out in shorter time. If you examine it close enough, you would realize that this is one of the ways to express rhythm in comic books. The rhythm of a motion picture is depending on various things like background music, sound effects, movement of camera, and the performance of actors and actresses. However, in my own animation, I could only express the rhythm through the use of characters, background scenarios and the movement of camera. It is very much like MTV (Music Television) only with computer-generated characters and backgrounds rather than real actors and actresses in telling a story.

Therefore, the very first thing to decided, after knowing what characters and backgrounds to use, is the type of background music for the animation. According to my experience, it is always better to have the video to follow the pace and rhythm of the music rather than the other ways. As the music is the only thing that audience would hear, the rhythm of music would therefore be the most crucial factor in affecting the mood of the audience. The video has to keep up with the rhythm of the music in order to produce a successful animation.

Before I start working on this project, I would be spending more time onto structuring the story line and choosing the background music, which I think should be an important thing.

I am enjoying various kind of music. Pop music and classical music are my favour. Pop music always been top of age. Young people are easily accepting it. They want to be pioneer. They want to be exciting, different, shock by what they are listening. It can not runaway from strong drum beat and quick rhythm. On the other hand, classical music bring people to another confine let people feel instrument talk but words.

Classical music can family with people even you are not listen it often. Vavaldi was born in Venes on Italy. Italy was an important area by the period of time that so called "Baroque". It was a right time and rights place for rear his grandeur music. The most symptomatic is a violin concerto called 'The four seasons' in his music. It public at DC1725 but still popular now, so modern as you listening, totally escape from the bound of era.

The headlines of "The four seasons" are no.1 Spring, no.2 Summer, no.3 Autumn and no.4 Winter. Each of them is standard concerto that constitutes by three movements, slow and fast. According that, it should be 4 independent concerto, but were been one concertos because their relativism. The content of "The four seasons" been arranged in group by "The sonnet", the poetry neither to sing praises nor love but describe the nature. The movement that I choose is no.2, second movement. It's describe in the asperity summer, northerly comes suddenly, rain pours, thunderclap, fulmination, people fright, hailstone destroy everything.

I have chosen the music "Storm " from Vanessa-Mae, in her album "Vanessa-Mae" to be my background music of my animation. In this album, she successfully combines modern and classical music together, taking modern music into another level that we never thought possible. She uses electrical violin in her music, and produces the kind mood, or feelings that is suitable for the story of my animation. The music started of with the feeling "something is about to happen". Then, the pace of the music then went up, reaching the climax before soothing down again. The rhythm fits into the story of my animation, where tension is slowly building up minutes before the match "Metal Ball" begins. Then, follow by the actions and eventually reaching total destruction before everything is settled down again.