Omens Studios – a boutique animation studio providing original concept development and CG production services with offices in Singapore and the United States – has been involved in big Hollywood blockbusters such as Eagle Eye, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Astro Boy. The company’s client list includes studios such as Disney and DreamWorks.

Mr Wong, who had previously worked in various game studios, tells of how his love for animation led him to Hollywood, and how he is fast making a name for himself.

Tell us more about your work on movies such as Transformers, Astro Boy and Eagle Eye.
I was at Third Floor Studio, working on the previsualisation of sequences on Eagle Eye with a team of artists. At Imagi’s LA studio, I was at their layout department, working with a team of artists on layout for Astro Boy. For Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a small group of us was at (Hollywood director) Michael Bay’s office working on previsualisation of the action sequences.

What was your experience working on such big blockbusters?
The most challenging experience was doing previsualisation on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The previz team was made up of five artists including myself, supervised by Steve Yamamoto. Most of them had been working with Michael Bay for a while, some since Pearl Harbour, so I was the newbie.

It was a somewhat daunting experience, surrounded by some of the most brilliant minds in the business, not to mention, Michael Bay, one of the most visionary and demanding action directors currently. You can imagine the high standards of action sequences he wanted for the film. There was really no place for egos. Often times, our days and even weeks of work were discarded simply because they did not meet what he wanted. It certainly was the toughest job I ever had, but also a great learning experience.

What advice do you have for other aspiring animators/designers wanting to break into Hollywood?
Work really really hard, stay motivated, meet people, and do not be afraid to ask for help. You will get much farther faster by working with good people and finding the right mentor to guide you. You will be surprised that people are very willing to help.

It is a mentally demanding job and, at times, physically demanding as you will be expected to work long hours. Be prepared to face tough criticism of your work and tough competition from your peers. Don’t beat each other up, but aim to produce the best possible work.

As for breaking into Hollywood, I think the global economy is affecting the film industry. You no longer need to be there to work on the best project or with the most talented artists. There is a lot of great work coming out from studios all over the world, from New Zealand to UK, Canada, some Eastern European countries, even India and China.

What did you do prior to setting up Omens?
I was working in the game industry for almost seven years, at companies like SNK and Sony. After that I decided to have a change of environment, so I moved up to LA. My wife was working at Disney Feature Animation then and I started doing mostly freelance work at different studios, before setting up Omens.

What do you think of Singapore’s media/animation scene?
When I started in this industry more than 10 years ago, there were probably only a handful of production studios in Singapore. Now, not only are there many more, but there are also some really good ones such as Lucas Animation and Double Negative – not to mention local animation studios such as Scrawl and Sparky and film production houses like Oak3, Zhao Wei Films and 668.

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