Tang Seng Yeen

The Past and the Future

tangsengyeen — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:46:19 +0000

Well. it’s been almost 6 months since I last posted on my blog… busy with so many things (and I rather update on Facebook). This year, I’m gonna keep my blog active (I hope).

The Past: A Quick Glimpse into the Last 6 Months

Participated in a few running events

Participated in Singapore River Regatta Dragonboat Rowing Competition (Photo Courtesy of Veronica Chew)

Participated in a Video Competition using Stop-Motion Animation technique (for the first time). This piece of work is shortlisted as the top 5, will only know the result on a later date. I will post the details and the video here once the result is out. I had set up a google site for this project (experimental, not much infomation on the site): https://sites.google.com/site/tranovation/

The Future: New Year Resolutions
I had spent some time thinking and planning my new year resolutions, here are the 3 major ones:

1. To be certified/qualified as an Interior Designer – Found a part time course at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, intake in July.

2. GUNPLA Competition – To allocate time for Gunpla, and participate in competitions with the aim to achieve some awards.

3. Back to Riding – I missed riding bikes.

These are the 3 goals that I have to constantly remind myself throughout the year. The rest are very short and easily achievable goals which I will not share here.

Back to continue work on my render

tangsengyeen — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:01:08 +0000

Finally, some time to come back to work on my 3D stuff. Here’s the progress of my EPU.

My First Dirt Bike Riding Experience

tangsengyeen — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:12:32 +0000

First of all, I would like to thank Vincent for organizing the trip which injects in me the passion for riding again. I had switched to public transport and stopped riding for 1year and 2months now. This trip was meaningful to me as it reminds me: Once a rider, always a rider.

Riding History
It wasn’t easy going through the riding course some 4 years ago for me to be a qualified rider on street road. And after that, riding on the road everyday for hours was not easy. It takes a lot of endurance, sweat and blood to be a true rider. It was never safe riding on street road. There is a saying, “To be a full fledged rider, you have had to been through an accident yourself”. I had about 5 accidents: 3 as a rider, 2 as a driver. The worst was when I had an accident with my super4. I fractured my left wrist and was on 2 months MC.

Starting the Ride
Well enough of history, let’s get back to the exciting riding trip. 10 of us gathered on 24 April Saturday morning at Changi Village, had our breakfast, and then set off from Changi Ferry Terminal. We took an hour’s bum boat ride to Malaysia, Pengelih. We were picked up and driven to Tristan Park. Upon arrival, we did some administrative stuff, geared up, given a safety briefing and were introduced to our 2 guides. Gentlemen, start your engines!!! Off we go. The guide leads us into the plantation and so, my 1st dirt riding begins. As there were different levels of riders in our group, the guide was leading at a slow and steady speed. It is definitely more difficult compared to riding on street road. I really need to balance and have good control of the clutch, throttle and steering as the uneven terrain can easily disorientate the bike. Well, shortly into the trail, Keng Yang’s clutch cable snapped and we had to stop and wait while the guides fix the bike. So we suntanned and took some photos. We continued our journey into the trail and came to a very muddy patch. Nice, this is where we all got dirty. Poor Ashton, his biked was stuck in the mud, and he had problem starting the bike after that. The guides had to change the spark plug right in the mud to get the bike to work. So the rest of us started going around seeing who gets the most mud out of this! One lesson learnt here: DO NOT TAILGATE. We rode for about 3 hours and returned to the starting point for lunch. We rested for 1 hour before heading out again. I had a serious problem with kick starting a bike. Out of the 50 times I tried, only once I got the engine to start. So during the 2nd half, whenever we stopped for a break or to wait for someone’s bike to be fixed, I will practice kick starting the bike. It was thanks to Elvin’s help that I kick started the bike for the one and only time.

Up Hill
The trail after lunch was much more exciting. There were a lot of up and down hills, and long stretches of trail where we blast the throttle. Eventually, we climbed to the highest point of the entire trail, and were greeted by the nice scenery and the big hot sun. Then it was time to head back as our return boat will leave by 4.30pm. Overall it was really worth the trip, although there were a lot of mechanical problems with our bikes along the way. My only regret is that I still couldn’t kick start a bike…
Special thanks to our cameramen:
Elvin Chong, Vincent Nai, Ashton Chong

More materials added…

tangsengyeen — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:21:20 +0000

Previously, the orange stripes and police wordings were done using image textures. It renders out not bad with mental ray. However, with Vray, the car paint material is just too reflective. I had to manually cut out the stripes and fit it another material to have the result as shown above. Well, this is looking right, at least it looks more realistic compared to my old render.

Vray Render

tangsengyeen — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:29:19 +0000

Well, somebody commented that my render for the 3D EPU car was not that realistic. So, I’m setting up a new scene. I am experimenting and self-learning Vray, so might as well do a proper render for my 3D EPU car.
Here is my new showroom lighting setup:Here is some test materials applied onto it:

3D Studio Max 2011

tangsengyeen — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:10:56 +0000

3D Studio Max 2011 Features
Seems like there are quite a few interesting features in this upgrade. Downloaded the the 30 days trial and will try it out this weekend!!!

The Lab

tangsengyeen — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:02:49 +0000

This is my idea for the setup of a lab at my workplace. It has a classroom layout as it can be used as a project briefing room as well as to conduct course internally. There is a table and some red chairs right beside the window if you noticed. That will be the discussion/meeting area. The white board in front can be used for conducting courses, meeting, or as a notice board for project updates and schedules. The lab will be fitted comfortably with 7 people.

Interior Lighting

tangsengyeen — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:36:08 +0000

Model Courtesy of 3D Sense Media School. I did the lighting setup for the scene and this was a test render. It was rendered with Mental Ray in 3D Studio Max. I’ll take this piece to learn and experiment with the lights until I am confident in creating and setting up an interior scene for my portfolio.

Portfolio Update

tangsengyeen — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:41:00 +0000

Added 3D Architecture to my portfolio. Check it out!

Architectural Visualization

tangsengyeen — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:45:54 +0000

Still working in progress. I notice that there is a demand for 3D Architectural Visualization Artist and thus, going to do some of these renders for my portfolio. This simple model was created in 3DS Max and rendered using mental ray.