KRU Academy
(This is us goofing around with the green-screen in their sfx teater)
Yesterday was a significant milestone for me and my colleagues in Sead Studios. We have been appointed as partners in a Memorandum of Understanding Ceremony with one of the pioneer in the animation industry in Malaysia. Many Malaysian would be able to identify themselves with KRU an icon of the music industry back in the 90s.
A good mix of R & B, Hip Hop and Pop. After creating a name for themselves, they are the first to invest and venture into the animation and sfx industry and amongst the successful production they had to date can be seen in this production which is top notch.
We are blessed to be chosen as a partner to train their students enrolled in their academy as one of the industry leaders. 5 short animation using our Intellectual Property (IP) of Awang Khenit by their students were showcased to us for comments and recommendation and to me, the overall quality is pretty impressive.
The students were required to come up with their storyline, introduce their work and their inspiration and the software they used and the methods of animation that they used. I find that their presentation albeit a short one was very catchy because it included the element of comic in their story telling. We had a good laugh and that to me, is a successful introduction.
Room for Improvement
Well, they did okay but being in this industry for a few years there are some pointers which I think could be incorporated to give the entire animation a different and slightly more entertaining appeal.
- A more twisted plot
- Infusing sub-plot into the main plot
- Better script and more voice talents
- Experiment with different animation methods
A lot of focus is the storyboard and the main plot, but the students have forgotten that they could make the entire story more exciting if they put small distractions as comic relief and sub plots to give the entire animation more dynamics.
But overall it was great effort.
We were shown their artwork and the animation studio where I did this pose and the backdrop is supposed to be a scene from Avengers.
All I can say is that we came a long way from the days when cartoon are given simple animation and voice over that are nothing like what it is today. With industry pioneers like KRU Studios and KRU Academy which is the training ground for many future industry movers, at least the animation and cartoon industry will not be seeing its sunset soon in Malaysia.
This is one of the impressive production by KRU Studios that involved quite a bit of investment in special effects which was still a very new thing to our film industry back then.
More in Store for Us
There are a lot more in store for the fans of Awang Khenit and with this new collaboration, we could be exploring the possiblity of doing a full scale silver screen animation. Let's see what the crystal ball has to say.
