Producing the Dunia Eichak 3-D animated series was a labour of love. Siti Syameen Md Khalili speaks to the man behind the creative content team
FOR someone in the niche creative content scene, Azman Azahar, surprisingly, was not academically trained for it. A communications graduate from the International Islamic University, Azman is the driving force behind creative house Addeen Multimedia Sdn Bhd. The 34-year-old insists that he is a creative person inside, something that he says runs in his family.
Brought up in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, he developed a keen interest in visuals and sounds at an early age.
“I guess I inherited my father's genes. He was an accomplished violinist. My brothers and I developed an ear for music. They were also very good at illustration and colouring,” says Azman, who is also vocalist and bassist for traditional Malay folk ensemble Dewangga Sakti.He was also a great fan of cartoon shows and spent long hours watching his favourite characters on TV.“Tom and Jerry is my all-time favourite and a great inspiration. Their love-hate relationship makes for an engaging story. I love the animation techniques too.”
But Azman did not act on his creative passion until he finished college. His job stint at Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), however, appeared to rekindle that passion.“At the Creative Multimedia Department, I was involved in various programmes related to the industry. The creative side of me came alive,” he says.
After nine years, he quit and set up Addeen Multimedia in 2008. The pull of the creative world was just too strong. Today, he is part of a team that make up Addeen’s creative arm, producing apps for smartphones and multimedia applications for high profile events. But his biggest challenge is yet to come.
ANIMATION
In 2008, his team came up with a 3-D animation project under the brand name Dunia Eichak. The story follows Eichak, a 10-year-old gadget-loving city boy whose family moves to a village in Tasik Chini, Pahang.
Azman describes Eichak as a curious lad. “It was not long before Eichak ventured out into the woods. One day, while fishing, his line gets stuck. He pulls at it but falls into the water instead, accidently opening a portal that transports him to a parallel world reigned by creatures who walk and talk. He befriends most of them.
“It is the dream of all kids to be whisked away to a fantasy world, hence their preoccupation with games and cartoons. We take this lead but at the same time we don't want them to get lost in
Dunia Eichak and come out with nothing. That would be a waste. In many western cartoon series, kids are often portrayed as outspoken, even with their parents. This is not so in the East. So, we hope Eichak will be our way to inject our own interpretation of good values based on our own moral compass.”
According to Azman, producing Eichak was a real challenge.
“The animation project went through many stages of development and evolution since it was conceptualised in 2008. Initially, the main character was not even a boy, but rather a brave little mudskipper that fights dragons and monsters to keep his home in Tasik Chini safe!
“Coming up with Eichak was a labour of love — it was a highly meticulous process. The graphics used are rich, detailed and vibrant. It was easy to get carried away as we created the kind of animation we ourselves would like to see on TV. For me, personally, it was my creative outlet as I’d always been passionate about music, movies and animation.”
The project won a government grant, via the MSC Malaysia Intellectual Property Creators Challenge (IPCC) Series 2009, which consequently helped the company produce a three-minute animation entitled Eichak In Riddles Of Chini.
“The three-minute animation garnered us recognition as it showed the industry what we were capable of,” says Azman.
Encouraged by the support and recognition, the same animation clip was previewed at a digital media conference helmed by MDeC, X Media Lab 2010 where Addeen met up with industry leaders from around the world.
“We sat with, among others, Lea Hoyer, the director of development for Disney Television Animation, Juhaidah Joemin from Al-Jazeera's Children Channel and Zareh Nalbandian, who served as executive producer of the animation film, Happy Feet. They were all impressed with our work but agreed on one point — that Eichak was just not suitable for TV. It was too graphics heavy and coming up with a single episode would have taken months, whereas with TV, a new episode is expected every week. It was a project more suitable for a feature film,” says Azman.
“It took quite a while to review the situation. We could not proceed with Eichak as it was, but we refused to quit. So the only way forward was to start again from scratch.”
According to Azman, the team attempted to keep a clean, Pokoyo-like animation that was vibrant and went well with characters that appealed to parents and children.
“If the old Eichak catered to adults who wanted characters to be detailed, rich and fierce, this time we minimised the features to tackle the hearts of kids aged 6 to 10, while retaining a gripping storyline,” he says, adding that the team worked with Autodesk Maya 3-D animation software as well as Adobe tools.
AFTER THE STORM
Though it has been a bumpy ride for Addeen, as far as the 3-D animation venture is concerned, the future looks bright. There are already six installations of Dunia Eichak’s public service announcement aired on TV3.
“I am happy with the progress we have made so far. Our animation is in the final stage of negotiation with TV3. If everything goes well, Dunia Eicak The Animated Series will be aired on TV3 next year,” he says.
Mohammad Shafieq Syazwan (better known as Afiq of Idola Kecil 1) lends his voice to the main character. Other voice talents include Ahmad Ikhwan Mohamed Rashid (as Chip), Firdaus Abdillah (Fenggo), Ahmad Shariffuddin (Jimi), Mohammad Zaini Sharudin (Koozie), Razima Shahira Abdul Razak (Didie), Fazleena Hishamuddin (Elly), Rashedah Mohd Ismail (Bobbie) and Azalan Hussain (Pawang).
Apart from Afiq, Eichak is also getting some serious star power from rock queen Ella. “Addeen appointed Amiruddin Syawal of Family Tree Studio to come up with the audio works and songs for the series. It was through Amiruddin that we managed to secure a song called Kunci by Ella, as Dunia Eichak’s theme song,” says Azman.
WHAT’S NEXT?
He adds: “We are at the early stages of coming up with our next IPs. Dunia Eicak The Movie is one of them. It will also be in 3-D. Our target is to be one of the leading animation and Visual Effect (VFX) houses in the country.
We have a pool of 15 good animators and VFX artists who can do quality work. I have confidence in our technical/animation capability.
“As a company, we are new but most of our talents are mostly experienced and some are seasoned players in the industry. We are looking to increase our animation team from next month.
The plan is to continue investing in hardware, software and manpower. What’s for sure is that we are not planning to be a one-off player.”
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