About
I got my first computer when I was 12-years old (1998). Back then, the Internet was a relatively new idea; and to be able to connect to the entire world from my little bedroom blew my mind – and I got addicted. While most boys my age grew up watching TV, playing Red Alert, basketball and soccer, I grew up with the computer, online.
In 2000 (Sec 2), I discovered Macromedia Director 7. I grew immensely fond of it because it could do a lot of interactive stuff; things Powerpoint couldn’t do. In the course of learning Director, I discovered Photoshop 5 and realized I could make all sorts of cute 3D glassy looking buttons. I had no knowledge of what was good or bad design, I just loved fooling around – they were my escape from school.
Then one day, I received a CD – it was just a nicely packaged portfolio by a company that sprang up during the dot com boom. When I popped it into my computer, my jaw dropped: the wonderfully designed interface that unfolded before me was unlike anything I saw in my entire life, everything about it fitted so nicely that I could still remembered how it looked like (although I didn’t remember what their company was called) – that experience was life-changing.
I took to working a little bit harder at Director, aspiring to become just as good. But I didn’t progress much. Daily school curriculum was getting to me, it didn’t help I wasn’t doing very well either. I lost interest in Director and Photoshop, stashing them in the back of my head for future reference.
A year later, my school made me learn Flash 4.
My first experience with Flash was horrid, all I got out of the (lousy) lessons was how to make a bouncing ball. I scoffed at it and complained about how different the timelines were between Flash and Director. I couldn’t understand why Photoshop don’t implement well in Flash. I really hated it.
Then one day in the library, I discovered Flash to the Core (Site, Book) and Skip Intro (Site, Book). Everything changed. I was utterly amazed at how one can create wonderful things out of a blank canvas, and how much intuitive Flash was compared to Director. As a result, my senior secondary school life was spent figuring out button states, scrollbars and physics. Praystation (aka, Joshua Davis) was my god, and I was his devoted follower.
I guess subconsciously, I wanted to be a web designer. I wanted to sit among the gods who could create wonderful things out of nothing at all. I enrolled into Digital Media Design in Nanyang Polytechnic and entered the Interactive Media track in my second year. A while later, Make Studios entered my life and everything else is history.
Currently, I am serving my 2 years in the Army as a web developer. My core skills are Flash (AS3) and PHP, (download my CV if you need to know more). Generally, I adore technology and love to use it to make life/work fun and enjoyable for the world.
Finally, if Make Studios manages to stick around long enough (unless Kingdom Come) and if they still want to hire me, you’ll find me there after September 2010.
Email me if you have freelance enquiries. Otherwise, you could check back on this blog or follow me on Twitter. Thank you for reading about my boring life.