Be modest! It is the kind of pride least likely to offend.
- Jules Renard (1864 - 1910)

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.
- W. C. Fields (1880 - 1946)

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.
- David Friedman

Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition.
- Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919), to his students

We buy our way out of jail but we can’t buy freedom, We buy a lot of clothes when we don’t really need them, Things we buy to cover up what’s inside.
- Kanye West

Every profession has its demands. Doctors are consulted for free medical advice, lawyers for legal information, and IT technicians are hassled to treat blue screens and troubleshoot problematic wireless networks.

Writers, being no different, are always asked where they get their ideas from.

At first I used to give flip answers to my friends who dared to ask. Sometimes I’d say, ‘From the Idea-of-the-Month Club,’ or ‘From a little idea shop in Marsiling,’ or ‘From a dusty old book full of ideas on my shelf.’

Then I grew tired of the not-very-funny answers, so these days I tell people the truth:

‘I make them up,’ I tell them. ‘Out of my head.’

People don’t like this answer. I don’t know why not. They look unhappy, as if I’m trying to slip a fast one past them. As if there’s a huge secret, and, for reasons of my own, I’m not telling them how it’s done.

But of course I’m not. Firstly, I don’t know where the ideas come from myself, what makes them come, or whether one day they’ll stop. Secondly, I doubt anyone who asks really wants a three hour lecture on the creative process. And thirdly, the ideas aren’t that important. Really they aren’t. Everyone’s got an idea for a book, a movie, a story or a TV series.

Everyone has it – the people who come up to you and tell you that they’ve “Got An Idea!”. The proposal is always the same - they’ll tell you the Idea (the hard bit), you write it down and transmute it into something people would like to consume and the two of you can split the money fifty-fifty.

The Ideas aren’t the hardest part. They’re a small component of the whole. Creating believable people who do more or less what you tell them to is much harder.

And much harder still is the process of simply sitting down and putting one word after another in skilful sequence to construct whatever it is you’re trying to build: making it interesting, fresh, groundbreaking, new.

In truth the hardest part is the translation of ideas. The metamorphous stage of turning an idea into something people can appreciate and admire is truly an art form.

The date 19th December 2001 holds one of those serendipitous moments where my life took a complete turn. Watching a certain movie with a certainly long title, I knew for certain what I was going to do with the rest of my life – I wanted to be a storyteller.

You might say that it was my ideas that fuelled my passion for media. Although I must admit I was for a long time harbouring hopes to become a film director to best translate my ideas, I soon found out the limitations of such a medium. One cannot create fantasy worlds or odd-looking characters without them ending up looking cheesy or tell stories centred on cups and saucers or rats and cheese on film.

I needed a medium that would never restrict me in telling tall tales with astounding details without breaking budgets or backs. Fortunately I stumbled upon one such medium while I was pursuing my diploma in Multimedia Technology from the then and always prestigious Singapore Polytechnic – 3D animation.

The truth is I never had an eye for drawing. The process seems so analogue and dated, often leaving me very frustrated. Although I have been for years slowly developing my drawing skills since I left the polytechnic, once I had grasped the fundamentals of 3D, I knew for certain this would be the medium that would allow me to tell tall tales for a more sophisticated audience who wouldn’t mind swimming in the pool of post-modernism and watching anthropomorphic characters living out their lives.

I love art with a passion and this was enough to inspire me to proceed with my masterworks. As I matured, I gradually improved my techniques and developed my own style. The subjects of my artworks have also evolved and matured through time. Where once I drew cartoon characters, superheroes, and school projects, I have begun to create entities that demanded attention. Moreover, I have also dabbled my hand in painting. I have sculpted landscapes with pencil and paper and have also begun painting gods and apes and lions and dogs.

I know I still have a long way to go to achieve artistic mastery. Yet I am thankful that I always feel inspired to go on because there are people who notice and appreciate my work. Although I create to satisfy my insatiable and ‘chocolate craving’ for art, I also share my talent with others. Sometimes I model 3D objects, design cards, paint for people and even extend my creations as personal gifts to those who are close to me.

There were also times when I joined web design competitions, won in some of them – no glittering prizes but motivations mostly. I am aware that I still have a lot to improve though. That is why I never cease honing my skills and perfecting my craft. Moreover, I know I need to be patient and firm because these are gifts and talents that only time and education can give me.

To me, works of art, especially 3D animations, possess a certain depth and meaning. The masterpieces which an artist creates is already a great reward for his toils and efforts. Yet more than that, his works are his life. Every sketch of a pencil or every stroke of a brush or a frame of an animation carries the passion and the inspiration of an artist like his breath and his heartbeat. His works are the reflection of his beliefs, ideas, and imagination which he masterfully fuses and transforms into an expressive creation. His masterpieces are the windows into the profundity of his mind and soul.

All I know for certain is I have tales to tell and I need to get really good at telling them.

Author’s Note.
The Author wish to thank his Polymath Friend (Latiff) for taking the time and bribe to edit this essay.

GUPUSAGA, LLP. Yap that’s what my registered company is called.

So what do we do? Well for starters, it’s a web-designing, intra-net publishing, mobile phone trading, stock photo selling, construction vehicles auctioning and video game renting business.

There are a gazillion things you could spend your time thinking about, but many of us concentrate on those things that we find most upsetting or distressing.

I feel you should not ignore what bothers you, but don’t let yourself focus on it so much so that you forget about the things you enjoy most.

And I don’t not need to show you the stats that people who regularly ruminate over negative subjects and unhappiness are less likely to feel content than those who do not.