Cain Lam Wai Meng
Project Director, Roar Studio and Senior Project Manager, Big Red Creative, 2009
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Creative Multimedia
4D animation is very complex. It certainly takes a lot of trials and errors because it involves two side-by-side videos meant for the right and left eye to create the ‘out of screen’ visual effects.
28 August 2009
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The Dimensional Route
Written by Christine Chan
Limkokwing is the sole university that emphasizes on creative thinking. Unlike others that focus on hours of sketching, Limkokwing encourages profound brainstorming sessions and active participation in the idea development process.
Project director Cain Lam Wai Meng was in love with the world of arts and movies for as long as he could remember. Recollecting his school days when his Science books were scribbled with more drawings than formulae, Cain credits the following for moulding him into what he is today: watching the movies of Quentin Tarantino and Wong Kar Wai, as well as an education at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.
“Limkokwing is the sole university that emphasizes on creative thinking. Unlike others that focus on hours of sketching, Limkokwing encourages profound brainstorming sessions and active participation in the idea development process,” Cain said. “It’s the essence of creative and innovative thinking.”
As a student of the Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Creative Multimedia (formerly known as Advanced Diploma in Electric Design Multimedia) program, Cain had what many would call a ‘winning streak’. Joining national competitions made available via Limkokwing, he bagged Gold for ‘Best Graphics’ and Silver for ‘Best Experimental Film’ in the professional category of the 4th and 6th Malaysia Video Awards respectively.
Cain would not attribute his winnings to pure luck. Erratum, which won Silver in the ‘Best Experimental Film’ category, took three long weeks of hard work and determination to complete, including one week of camping on campus with his college mates working on the project alone.
The keys to success, states Cain, are hard work, punctuality, discipline, and a sense of responsibility. Driven by these qualities, Cain decided to make a major leap in his career when he ventured out to set up not one, but two companies: Big Red Creative and Roar Studio.
Big Red Creative offers 3D and 4D animation services on top of website development and branding. On the other hand, Roar Studio specializes in television commercials.
The keys to success are hard work, punctuality, discipline, and a sense of responsibility.
“Getting the right people for the right job is the biggest obstacle,” says Cain, when asked about the difficulties faced in his line of work. The industry, he says, lacks professional animators and designers.
The obstacles have proven to be small hindrance to Cain as he continues to set himself on his ‘winning streaks’, this time bagging clients instead of medals. His reservoir of clients now includes Astro, Galaxy Production, Maxis (Hotlink), Celcom (Xpax), Sime Darby, Sony Ericsson as well as broadcasting companies that cater to an international audience such as Jia Yu TV and Zhu Jiang TV in China.
On top of those, Cain’s companies also boasts of projects which involve celebrities such as Wang Lee Hom, Eason Chen, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion through video ads. Other projects that have been helmed by his companies include advertisements for Fruitella, Speedy Video, Nutrikids and Astro’s coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
But the most unique of these projects is probably his 4D creation, ‘The Haunted Office’, a 4D theatre presentation at A’Famosa theme park. With eerie looking ghosts and monsters jumping out from the screens, accompanied by impromptu blows of sound effects by Peter Wong, Cain’s associate, the attraction was an immense hit among tourists and locals.
“4D animation is very complex. It certainly takes a lot of trials and errors because it involves two side-by-side videos meant for the right and left eye to create the ‘out of screen’ visual effects,” said Cain. That explains why ‘The Haunted Office’ took up to 10 months of hard work for a 9-minute long piece!
Big Red and Roar offers exposure in the development of creative, strategic and innovative thinking. Creativity has no limits, no boundaries.
Encouraged by the overwhelming response from the public, Cain is now involved in the creation of even more theme park attractions, including ‘4D Underwater’ at A’Famosa theme park and and Petrosains KLCC’s 3D Dinosaur project.
“Big Red and Roar offers exposure in the development of creative, strategic and innovative thinking. Creativity has no limits, no boundaries.”
What’s next for Cain? “My main aim now is to win the MSC Malaysia Intellectual Property Creators Challenge (IPCC) Series,” he says. IPCC is a competition for content creation in collaboration with the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC) and ASTRO, and Cain is one of the five shortlisted contestants eyeing the top spot.
“We are working our very best to win the competition. It is the development of a 3-minute pilot for an upcoming reality show. This is a gateway for our ultimate goal: going into television series production.”
