ROMPIN: A man became an overnight sensation for using 391 Rubik’s cubes to produce a portrait of the personality couple Shamira Muhamad, better known as Shuib Sepahtu, and the late Siti Sarah Raisuddin.

       Zabli Ab Hadi, 35, did not think much of his instant fame as his intention to upload the video of the portrait on his Tik Tok @abam.takaful last Wednesday was done as part of his job as manager of the Kampung Pianggu Internet Centre here.

       “I was asked by some people to teach them how to upload videos on social media applications, prompting me to produce the video to make it easier to understand.

       “As for the content, I feel it is not wrong if I share my interest in solving Rubik’s cube which had been my hobby since the age of 14.

       “I only knew the video had gone viral that night after being told by a friend, but I did not take it seriously. The next day I was surprised to see it had garnered tens of thousands of likes and shares,” he said when met in Kampung Pianggu.

       The Pahang-born man said it took him about three hours to complete the portrait.

       Zabli said he was glad that his wife Nor Aimi Zaini, 35, did not object when he used their RM2,000 savings to buy 400 Rubik’s cubes online to produce the portrait.

       Watching his fingers manipulating the cubes speedily to find suitable colour arrangements before placing them on the frame evoked a sense of awe, but he repeatedly said he was not a fast Rubik’s cube solver.

       “To produce a portrait also requires homework. The original portrait must be enlarged using Adobe Photoshop to see the pixel arrangements before it is changed to four-colour tones due to the limited colours of the cubes.

       “We can only count the number of cubes and the colour arrangements through the pixels because the picture is not so clear at the preliminary stage.

       “The portrait is clearer if seen from afar or through pictures in the camera or smart phones as it is based on the arrangement of the pixels,” he said, adding that the portraits he produced would not last long as the cubes would be stored back in boxes after the portraits were immortalised in the form of pictures. “Because of this, I am still considering requests to produce portraits,” he added. — Bernama