Happy New Year 2010!

31 December 2009 Posted by Rocky Raccoon 3 roars


Animonsta's Happy New Year 2010 card to you!

Salaam and Good Day,
Congratulations! 2009 is almost at an end and what a great year it has been. For us Monstas, though we have been in operation for 3 months, many wonderful things have happened. We have been featured in numerous news papers, grown strong support from the community on our Facebook, Blog and Youtube (thanks to you guys), gained good feedback from the industry such as the Kre8tif! Digital Conference and X Media Labs, and finally we are in the final stage of negotiation on securing deals for BoBoiBoy including television broadcast, sponsorship and licensing. All will be revealed soon when we have secured the deals. All in all we enjoyed our achievements and challenges we faced in 2009.
As the last day of the decade comes to a close, the team behind Animonsta Studios would like to thank everyone who has given us tremendous support and feedback since our incorporation. This includes everyone from government bodies, industry players, the press and media, as well as friends and families. But most importantly we would like to thank YOU! Yes you, the reader, the audience. We thank you for following our blog to this date and hope you will follow us into the new year as we bring BoBoiBoy into reality; BoBoiBoy television broadcast in June 2010. Woohooo I can't wait!
Happy New Year 2010 everyone!
ps- the writer would like to note that to this date he is still awaiting his futuristic flying/hover cars that has been promised to him in the year 2000 by science fiction.

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Animonsta in Animation Xpress (23rd December 2009)

24 December 2009 Posted by Rocky Raccoon 4 roars



Salaam and Good Day to all,


Animation Xpress just published another article on their coverage of the Kre8tif! Digital Content Conference 2009 particularly about the speakers and what they shared. They've also covered Nizam's talk about Universal Content with Local Touch. Thanks again to Animation Xpress and Amrita Valecha for the great writeup.

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Concept: What's This?

21 December 2009 Posted by ikouje 1 roars
An update from the Concept department!! The following are a few things that will play big roles in BoBoiBoy. Let's guess what they are, and what's their roles in BoBoiBoy!

p/s: There will be no prizes for those who get them right. :) Sorry!

That's all for now!! We will come out with more soon!

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Kre8tif! and X-Media Labs

13 December 2009 Posted by Rocky Raccoon 4 roars

 
Salam and Good Day,

Recently Animonsta Studios participated in the Kre8tif! Digital Content Conference 2009 event organized by MDeC that began from the 7th to the 9th of December. Among the Monstas that participated was Nizam, Yongpin, Safwan, Dzubir and myself.

The event was the first of its kind bringing speakers from the local and international creative industries. It was an invaluable experience as much knowledge was shared by the speakers who gave insights from the business, creative and technical perspectives. Even Nizam was invited by MDeC as a speaker where he gave the talk on our new Animonsta concept; "Universal Content with a Local Touch". We thank all who attended his talk and gave support hoping it was informative for you. Local companies also had exhibition booths setup to share their projects but Animonsta did not participate this year as we are still in the early stages of our production. Perhaps we will do so in the future? Overall it was a very good and informative event and hope it will be continued by MDeC in the coming years. Great job to the MDeC team who organized the event. I know you guys were running around like crazy to make sure it flowed smoothly.

Right after the Kre8tif! event, we participated in the XMedia Labs event on the 10th and 11th of December. The event had around 16 mentors (most of which are from the same Kre8tif! event) who were set up with registered local companies for a one on one mentoring session. Local companies pitched their projects and were given feedbacks on how to improve on the creative and business side. On top of that it allowed companies like Animonsta to create networking and co-production opportunities with international distributors and companies.



 With Henry LaBounta - Chief Visual Office, Electronic Arts (San Francisco)
 


 With Tim Brooke-Hunt - Head of Children’s TV at the ABC (Sydney)

Among the many mentors that we met were Pradeep Mittur (Digital Entertainment Consultant, Formerly the Asia Pacific head of Walt Disney Internet Group and Paramount Pictures Digital), Juhaidah Joemin from AI Jazeera Children's Channel, Henry LaBounta from Electronic Arts, Tim Brooke Hunt from ABC Sydney, Sandrine Pechels from Bejuba Entertainment and many more.

Overall they commented that BoBoiBoy has quality, great story and commercial value that can travel internationally. However they also commented that the series's visuals appeared to have a 4 - 8 age group design focus despite the story was targeted for a 6 - 12 group. From the feedbacks we believe we need to upgrade the visuals to make it better suited for a 6 - 12 age group as you will soon see in the coming weeks and months as we share our progress.

We thank the both X Media Labs and MDeC for organizing the event as well as the great mentors for sharing their knowledge and experience. We hope to see everyone again in the future.

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Animonsta in The Edge Malaysia - Netv@alue2.0

12 December 2009 Posted by Rocky Raccoon 4 roars


Thanks to Doreen Leong for the great writeup and to The Edge. Since the netv@alue 2.0 isn't published online, I have taken the liberty in typing it out in our blog. Enjoy!

Life after Upin & Ipin
There are high expectations of the creators of the local hit television series Upin & Ipin and 3D animated feature film Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula. Many wonder if they will be able to create another successful project since leaving Les' Copaque Production Sdn Bhd, which produced the TV series and the film.

Eight of the Original team at Les' Copaque had left the comapny to set up Animonsta Studios Sdn. Bhd.
"We left Les' Copaque to seek new opportunities," managing director Nizam Razak tells netv@lue2.0. "We bbelieve with the experience and knowledge that we have gained, we will be able to produce fresh animation products that can penetrate the universal market."

However, Nizam stresses, Animonsta was not set up to compete with his former company.

"Our objective is not to compete with Upin & Ipin. We are not fighting in terms of which character is cuter and so on. Our product is for a different and wider market segment. We also want to create more sources of revenue for our product... how to commercialise it. For instance, the main character BoBoiBoy likes to brush his teeth, which means toothpaste companies can advertise their products in the show," he explains.

Animonsta, which is a brand and content developer was set up in September this year and aims to bring new content with good value sfor the universal market. Its first product is BoBoiBoy, which relates an adventure of the main character BoBoiBoy and his friends who gain superpowers to fight aliens who invade Earth for coffee.

BoBoiBoy is a television series comprising 26 episodes of 11 minutes each. It will later be made into a full feature film for release in the cinemas.

Once completed, BoBoiBoy will be Animonsta's first intellectual property which will enable the company to capitalise on the product - if it proves to be a success.

While things appear to be going as planned, creating another successful animation series after the phenomenal success of Upin & Ipin is no easy feat.

"There is definitely pressure to deliver another successful series since audiences would have higher expectations of BoBoiBoy. But thanks to our experience and knowledge from our previous product, we wil lbe able to meet their expectations. The bigger pressure is actually from delivering t othe international audience because BoBoiBoy is designed as universal content with a local touch," Nizam says.

"We have the elements of alien, spaceship and superhero, then we inject a multiracial and diverse culture. We later want to show it to Disney in the US and to the Middle East.

"We want to design our characters in a way that local viewers can relate to while at the same time, overseas viewers will find them new and interesting," he adds.

Indeed being able to penetrate the overseas market will be a huge achievement for BoBoiBoy. But the project is still in its early stages and Nizam hopes to finalise an agreement with a local broadcasting station before targeting the global audience.

"For us it is better to secure a partnership with a local TV station first before going for the global market," he says.

He reckons that the agreement should be inked by early next year at the latest. The television series is slated to be aired on TV3 and TV9 beginning June 2010.

Research and development
In the meantime, Nizam is doing R&D via the Internet, reaching out to people on Facebook and YouTube.

"We put the BoBoiBoy character of Facebook, YouTube and blogs. Although Facebook is more for adults, at least we will get feedback from parents on whether their children like the character," he says.

Nizam explains that R&D is crucial before broadcasting the product.

"We need to understand our target audience before the product is released. We do a lot of promotions, flash games, to create the hype and test the market. Most animation companies complete the characters and then air the series... it will be a huge problem if viewers don't like them.

"We have invested RM100,000 of our own funds and this can last us six months. With that money we ca nput on a show reel. Meanwhile we are applying for funding from Multimedia Development Corp, Cradle and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation."

Nizam stresses that with funding, the company can move along in the next six months. "Right now, we need to secure sales at a local TV station and sponsorship."

"We are doing things differently. We are going for multiple TV channels, pre0promotion... this is why it is taking us some time to get the agreement with the TV station ready," he says.

He adds that companies normally produce a pilot first but even with that it can be difficult to sell. "Some companies have 10 episodes ready but cannot find a buyer."

As for Animonsta, Nizam says the team has put in actual production efforts into BoBoiBoy, such as product modelling, animation and developing the script, so that there is a ready product before the pilot is released.

Suffice it to say, Nizam's feet are planted firmly on the ground and he has no illusions that his next project will be a sure hit. If BoBoiBoy turns out well and achieves success beyond the local and regional markets, it will be a first for the company and the industry.

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Animonsta in The Star - In Tech (08/12/2009)

08 December 2009 Posted by Rocky Raccoon 4 roars

Monstas on the loose

By JO TIMBUONG


After giving Malaysians the adorable duo, Upin and Ipin, the boys from Les Copaque are out to make a name of their own.

HELPING OTHERS: (l-r) Animonsta team members Kee, Anas, Mohd Safwan Ab Karim and Nizam at their new home in MAC3, Cyberjaya.

THEY are known as the creators of the popular Upin dan Ipin series, but the original boys of Les Copaque have since left the outfit to set up one of their own, called Animosta Studios.
Realising that there was a bigger world waiting for them, Animonsta Studios managing director Mohd Nizam Abdul Razak and his team, comprising creative director Muhammad Anas Abdul Aziz, executive director Mohd Safwan Ab Karim and operations director, Kee Yong Pin decided to detach from Les Copaque’s apron strings.
While the immediate thought for the breakaway was a conflict of interest, Nizam said that the decision was mainly driven by business and career interests.
You can read the full article online here. Thank you to The Star and especially to Joanne for the wonderful writeup. Get it now at newsstands wherever!

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BoBoiBoy in Animation Xpress

01 December 2009 Posted by Rocky Raccoon 3 roars
We've recently been featured in Animation Xpress, featuring BoBoiBoy as the next big IP in Malaysia. We would like to thank Animation Xpress.com and to Amrita Valecha for the wonderful writeup. You can read the original article here





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