Obsession

The Fellowship of the Ring landed in Dec 17, 2001 in Singapore, and it changed how I saw everything on screen. I watched it seventeen times in the cinema, sitting through it again and again because there was no way to freeze a single frame and study the craft underneath. Each viewing, I chased another shot, trying to catch how it was built.

3ds Max was fighting me at every turn back then. So I went looking for answers the only way I could. Every national library in Singapore became a stop on my route. One library card was never enough, so I made cards under my dad's name, my mother's, my grandmother's, and my grandfather's, and borrowed DVDs and books through all of them. Bit by bit, that became my own private learning repository. I ripped every texture and asset I could, and studied how real professional work was actually made.

That obsession taught me something I want to pass to you. When a film lights a fire in you, follow it into the tool that frustrates you most. The frustration means you care, and the caring is what carries you through the slow, unglamorous hours of learning.

Chase the thing that moved you, take it apart, and rebuild it with your own hands until the technique lives in you.

You do not need permission or a perfect setup to begin. You need curiosity and the willingness to dig for what most people scroll past. That is where your growth waits for you.