After eight years in the field, he is one of the sought-after veterans of CGI special effects. His film credits range from Godzilla (1998) to this year's The Matrix Reloaded. He was the effects technical director at Esc Entertainment, the company responsible for most of the visual effects in the Matrix sequels - Reloaded and Revolutions.

His dream of working in special effects started when he was young.'As a boy, I was always fascinated with special effects used in movies like Willow and The Neverending Story in the 1980s,' he said.

He took his baby steps towards realising his dream by creating simple screensavers on an Apple II computer. After completing a fine arts diploma in the Nanyang Academy, Mr Fong packed his bags for the Savannah College of Art and Design in the United States in 1991, because at that time 'it was the only place to learn computer art'.

"Do not try to master everything about computer graphics, because you won't. Know the basics well - that is your biggest asset. Pick one area to focus on, like character animation or creating explosions. - Nickson Fong CGI whiz and chief operating officer of Digimax, a digital production company in Taiwan.

He got a master's degree in computer art in 1995 and sent a demonstration tape of CGI animation to several Hollywood studios. He landed a pre-production job for the DreamWorks SKG animated movie, Shrek, and more offers soon followed.

Industry insight

The visual effects industry, he said, was one in which people can be both individualistic as well as team players. People from different backgrounds, say the arts and technical fields, 'merge perspectives' and share knowledge. But the key trend is: 'There's no standard way of doing things.'

The industry's openness and its multi-disciplinary approach meant that starting out took him almost five years - even with a master's degree. 'You have to learn the workflow by starting out at the bottom... because everything is so specific. You learn modelling, texturing and animation - the basic elements of CG - before moving on. That is vital because although there are plenty of 'generalists', the production process is 'very much like an assembly line'.

'People who are very good at specific tasks' to create specific effects are in demand. Mr Fong himself specialises in cinematic explosions.

Challenges

The self-acknowledged geek builds his own computers and knows programming languages such as Unix and Linux. That mastery has enabled him to create his own software applications to perform specific tasks like stabilising shaky footage.

Keeping abreast of the latest industry developments - tinkering with hardware and software - is a must, he said. 'It's the only way to ensure you don't get outdated!'

The IT knowledge comes in handy in his new job at Digimax. Quitting Esc Entertainment recently for his new post was not without regrets. 'After all, I had spent more than a year working on the Matrix sequels,' he said.

He is now working to set up the animation studio for Digimax in Taipei and planning for a CGI movie.

Mr Fong loves technical challenges and building a new facility that will 'standardise a robust and intelligent way of tracking production data' is at the top of his list.

He is confident of sunny days ahead for Digimax because big studios are now looking to outsource their productions.

'I think we stand a really good chance of competing with Pixar and Dreamworks.'

Personal goals

On a personal front, the photography buff and occasional painter also intends to publish a book of landscape images taken with a medium-format film camera. A personal movie project using digital video (DV) technology is also on the cards.

People are now blasé about CG, he felt. 'My aim is to create very stylised CG that is not photo-realistic, but more colourful and artistic - like paintings.'

In the long run, he wants to come home. And he hopes that the movie and animation industry here takes off with government support. CG is a global field now and Singapore has a good chance to compete with countries like Japan and Korea. 'The hardware and software are now democratised, there's global access. The key factor is how each country cultivates its talents.'