Saturday, March 31, 2012

Relatively Newer Tshirt designs

One of Earthwave's goals is to spread awareness about well known as well as lesser known endangered (and in some cases extinct) species of wildlife in india. these tshirts have been given away at schools during workshops, awareness campaigns etc.. they also go on sale whenever Earthwave make an appearence in public on occasion.

These have been screen printed in gorgeous 3 colour combos. The printing process involves water based inks..which are significantly less toxic than regular ink.. also the tshirts themselves are being made from organic cotton.

here are some new designs(well almost a year old actually), that have not yet been printed.

Ganges Shark

The shark, though poorly documented, is known to inhabit only freshwater, inshore marine and estuarine systems. Its feeding habits are unknown. Its maximum size is in the area of 2 metres (6.6 ft). It is probably viviparous, measuring 55 to 60 centimetres (22 to 24 in) at birth.
The Ganges shark is believed to be seriously endangered. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the Ganges shark is one of 20 sharks on the “Red List” of endangered shark species. Widespread and rampant overfishing has depleted the population of these sharks. Their oil, along with that of the Gangetic Dolphin is highly sought after.

Sumatran Rhinoceros

The Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the smallest rhinoceros, standing about 120–145 centimetres (3.9–4.8 ft) high at the shoulder, with a body length of 250 centimetres (98 in) and weight of 500–800 kilograms (1100–1760 lb). Like the African species, it has two horns; the larger is the nasal horn, typically 15–25 centimetres (6–10 in), while the other horn is typically a stub. A coat of reddish-brown hair covers most of the Sumatran Rhino’s body.

Sumatran Rhinoceroses were once quite numerous throughout Southeast Asia. It is now estimated that fewer than 275 individuals remain. It is classed as critically endangered primarily due to illegal poaching and destruction of its rainforest habitat.

Click here for the whole set of endangered species tshirts

to buy the existing batch(dolphin, mallabar squirrel, vulture and tiger) check out the Earthwave shop

How to Block unwanted Calls and SMS in India

Don't want to read the whole post?
just do this: on your device type "START 0" and sms it to 1909. Then follow the sms instructions.
for further details read below.

People are generally confused.. or just have been ill informed about how to do this, so i decided to post a definitive guide on the subject.

To start with there are 2 things you can do. both seem to have had some effect on reducing the number of calls/sms i get from that scum of the earth that is the telemarketer.

Step 1
Register on the DND(Do Not Disturb)List
This is a service that your service provider will provide, you just have to look for it on their website. Since these website's keep changing, theres no point me posting links to them. But trust me theyre there. You should be able to find it fairly easily especially if you're already registered on their site(for paying bills, etc.)Just google "DND (add the name of your service prvider"eg: "DND Airtel" and you'l find it faster.

Pros: actually blocks a fair amount of unwanted calls
Cons: 1) still allows authorized telemarketers(guys who have arrangements with your service provider) 2) Somewhat difficult to find the web pages, numbers etc needed to register with.

Step 2
Register on NCPR (National Customer Preference Register)(heres the website)
This is the service started by TRAI, and is difficult to circumvent by your evil service provider and their telemarketer buddies.

the procedure for this is quite simple:
Customers (landline and mobile) who do not want to receive commercial communications can dial or SMS to 1909 (toll free) and register in either of the two categories:

Fully Blocked Category- stoppage of all commercial Calls/SMS
Partially Blocked Category- stoppage of all commercial Calls/SMS except SMS from one of the opted preferences

For registering option using SMS, for 'fully blocked category',
write "START 0" and send it to 1909.
Then follow the sms instructions.

For 'partially blocked category', send SMS 'START' with one or multiple options from the list of seven categories.

There are at present 7 preferences to choose from- Banking/Insurance/Financial Products/Credit Cards-1, Real Estate-2, Education-3, Health-4, Consumer goods and automobiles-5, Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT-6, Tourism-7.

For example: To receive messages relating to only Health products, then send SMS "START 4" to 1909. Similarly, for receiving messages relating to Real Estate and Education, send SMS "START 2,3" to 1909.

On successful registration, customer will receive an SMS confirming exercised options and a Unique Registration Number within 24 hrs. The registration will be effective within 7 days of placing the request with the service provider. The customers can check the status of their registration by clicking on "Customer Registration Status".

Customer can also change the preferences after 7 days of registration or the last change of preference.

Pros: 1) easy to set up. 2)Supposed to, and infact does block the rest of the unwanted calls
Cons:if you do get a call/sms, you need to manually report it by lodgeing a complaint (by dialing or sending an SMS to 1909)

Note: both DND and NCPR registeration will happen with expicit knowledge/cooperation/whatever of your service provider.. so ya.. its probably not going to block 100% of those stupid calls.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Some Animation i did last month

A friend of mine @aarthipartha was working on a video project and needed some animation done for it.
She did all the of the shooting and editing. I worked on the animations(including logo animations) in flash and blender(some very basic previz).

Basically the client was a Builder who wanted to showcase various experiences that his clients have had before they bought one of his properties. So we decided to do a series of interviews.. and then use animation to illustrate the narratives.

we decided to go with some elegant silhouettes and simple forms on a grungy background

that illustrate the experiences that the interviewees are narrating


Heres the final videos that we delivered to the client.




Tuesday, March 13, 2012

TEDX Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKHTawgyKWQ&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3]

Monday, March 12, 2012

P3d now supports textures

If you have a WebGL supporting Browser, you will be able to see the fully textured models below




Also discovered another site that lets you display your Models in WebGL - showwebgl.com
heres one of my models there.. i had better luck uploading textured models there.. for some reason not all my textured models display correctly on p3d .. however they have an irritating watermark.

Update: the watermark is now much reduced. Thanks to the ShowWebGl team.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

My Green Terror's Sick :(

Same old song.. an infection of some kind has made a comeback (recurs every 6 months).. at first it was just one of the Neon Jewels that was sick.. but now my big Green Terror has got it as well. And this is the first Green Terror i've had that grew this big :(

This guy is atleast 2years old! (as is the Neon jewel now that i think about it).
He had just started to get his forehead hump as well.

Anyway have medicated the tank..

today was the second time i cycled the water in 36hrs(as per instructions).. lets see how it goes.

Would be a shame to lose these guys after so long.

learn more about these Cichlids at the links below
Green Terror
Red Jewel (mine is some kind of mix breed.. hence its not even red.. but a vibrant neon)

And yes i am aware that african and american cichlids don't belong in the same tank. I learnt that recently.. no thanks to the aquarist who happily sold me these fish.

UPDATE(tuesday 28 feb 2012)
the green terror died last night.

New Dell on its way

My current Dell Inspiron 1520 has been faithfully serving my work and gaming needs for over 4years now(it still plays all the new games, and i use it for a lot of intensive 3d work).. i replaced the batteries last year.. and did a few other fixes.. but now the lcd back light is dying.. and replacing that is a pain.. so i decided to upgrade to a new Dell XPS..


and its on its way


was on a budget, so couldn't get it fully loaded, but this was pretty good anyway

specs in brief: i7cpu 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.10 GHz,
ram= 6gigs ram,
storage= 1tb hdd,
graphics= 2gb NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M graphics with Optimus,
screen= 15.6" FHD (1920x1080)

only thing i miss is the s-video out that my old dell has. I use it all the time to watch movies on the tv. The new XPS has a mini displayport.. i opted for a MiniDisplayport-VGA Convertor .. now i need a VGA to S-video conversion solution :P
(it does have hdmi out, but i'm still in TV stone age)

NOTE: once this arrives, i will attempt to DIY an lcd backlight fix for my older dell in the months to come.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

When was the last time you looked into space?

My parents got me reflective telescope around 10-11 years back.. unfortunately i havnt been using it as much for the last 3years.. main reason - Light pollution in my neighborhood ruins the view of the night sky.

Heres an interesting TED talk covering the whole light pollution subject.. and its impact on how we view the sky.


TED Fellow Lucianne Walkowicz asks: How often do you see the true beauty of the night sky? At TEDxPhoenix, she shows how light pollution is ruining the extraordinary -- and often ignored -- experience of seeing directly into space.

Lucianne Walkowicz works on NASA's Kepler mission, studying starspots and "the tempestuous tantrums of stellar flares."

Thursday, February 16, 2012

New FarCry 3 Stranded trailer



This new(heres the old one) FarCry 3 Stranded trailer.. does make me think about how far away September feels.

Ironsky theatric trailer

I prefer the older trailers, but this one features non Nazi spacecraft as well

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Common problems beginners have with Blender VSE

This might be a part of a longer series.. too early to say. Anyway heres the first few common problems beginners have with Blender Video Sequence Editor(VSE)

Where is the VSE editor?
Use the screen layout dropdown menu on the top bar to switch to "video editing". refer image below


When video clips are imported, the audio and video strips are of different lengths!

weird right?

heres what you do.. before importing the video, check its properties for frame rate.

In blender match that same framerate for your project. Now when you import the file, both audio and video strips will be the same length.

When you export video.. theres no sound?!
Heres what you do, when you set the output format, certain formats will not give you the option to st "encoding" for audio. select the ones that do.. like xvid, mpeg etc.

then under this new Encoding area, you will be able to set a codec for audio.
I just use the presets.. it automatically sets appropriate video and audio codecs for you






Sunday, February 12, 2012

Camera Tracking experiment

Had some footage of a basement car park.. decided to try some camera tracking late last night..
Camera tracking is where you get your cg camera to mimic the movement of the camera that shot the video footage.. thus allowing you to composite 3d geometry into the scene, such that its position and movement matches with the objects in the video(in the Background Plate)..
Havn't yet figured out how to render the final footage using the nodes to composite the background plate with the 3d geometry.. but here a screen grab of what i managed to do last night


I followed these detailed tutorials by cgboorman on youtube:





hope he does a follow up on compositing soon

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

how to put a 3d model on your blog or website

If your into 3d modelling and sculpting, your often left wondering how to share a model with a client who has no 3d program experience..

heres a quick tutorial on how to post an interactive 3d model on your blog or website using p3d.in and webGL.. the 3d model loads up without any fancy plugins or anything.. the visitor just needs a webGL enabled browser.. like Chrome

Steampunk Cross

Did this a while back in blender and sculptris...
(click and drag to manipulate the 3d model, middle click to zoom)


    steampunk cross smooth
    by Chaitanya Krishnan
    on Sketchfab



Heres what it looks like in metal(3d printed via shapeways)


Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Centaur model in P3d

originally modeled in Sculptris, then optimised in Meshlab

all my viewable models at - p3d.in/u/chaitanyak

P3D.in

watch my Abomination model load up in your browser(ideally chrome) in seconds ..no plugin needed! plain #webgl click here - p3d.in/1U8Wp

to see all my models in webgl go here(login required)



to see it in action look below
just click and drag to rotate. more advanced controls(middle mouse or "S" key for scaling, Right click or "D" for move/pan) are a bit buggy when its embedded in a blog

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Syndicate

really liking the look of this game.. no surprise, its from the guys behind the Chronicles of Riddick games




Thursday, February 2, 2012

Rise of the machines!

saw this fantastic video today.. about nano quad-rotor drones doing synchronized flying(see below)..
this got me thinking..

remember the horrifyingly efficient airborne and on road killing machines from the terminator movies .. or the terrors from Battlestar Galactica.. Matrix etc..

theyre here now!
see the videos below..

theyve started to master flight:


theyve mastered firearms(and been given hardcore names like S.W.O.R.D):


theyre learning to walk .. with heavy payloads:


theyre already killing(by remote control so far.. i hope):
see MQ9 Reaper

marry all this tech and skills and.. you get the picture:


Insane new Farcry3 trailer!

Your stuck on an island, with a bunch of crazy people



Tuesday, January 31, 2012

DIY fix for Broken gamepads analog stick

Finally fixed the Gamepad.. Had discovered it was working with my android tablet, so decided to resurrect it.
Basically the right analog stick had broken and was just sliding around doing nothing..

so i flipped it over and found a bunch of screws.. philips head.. scrounged around a and found an old screwdriver that fit.. and opened it up..

found that the circuit board was also screwed onto the top of the gamepad.. and to get to the analog sticks i'd have to remove it. After removing it and gently extracting the two sticks i found the problem

one of the shafts had broken :( and could no longer fit on the controller's peg/pin

Now i could use some super glue.. but i didn't want to take the chance that it would come apart again.. it was a pain taking out all those screws!
so decided to go with good ol M-Seal

Most people use this for plumbing or art projects and don't think its good for anything else..
I beg to differ. Its a good adhesive, and once hardened is pretty sturdy.

and so...
i used it to not just stick the broken pieces together, but also reinforced the shafts on both the joysticks.. just in case(i really don't want to have to unscrew all those tiny screws again).


the Epoxy compound starts to harden immediately, but will only be rock solid in 30min at room temp.

so while i waited i kicked back and watched a bit of tv.

after 30 min i put it all back together and started playing :lol:


only to realise a few seconds later that the right stick.. though it works fine mechanically..
is not translating correctly to the tablet.. :ko:

it was giving me
left and right = up and down
up and down = left and right



don't think theres anyway i can fix that.. without desoldering, rotating and then resoldering the damn thing.. not to mention all those screws again :faint:





Sunday, January 29, 2012

Input Textbox with default text in flash forms

Figured this out today(with help from Anoop and Bala),
Documenting it for future reference(coz i never remember this stuff).

How to make an Input Textbox with default text(in flash forms)
Simply creating an input text field in flash allows the user to type in stuff.. however if you wan't to add "default text" that will be visible until the visitor starts typing.. thats a different story..

here's how to do it:

1) Create your form artwork


2) Create a text field. Type in the text you want as the "default text".

make it an "input text" field in the properties panel
also remember to embed whatever non system font you plan on using.



3) Give the text field an instance name


4) Copy this code to an empty frame

txt_email.onSetFocus = function ()
{
if(this.text == "Type Your Name Here")
this.text = "";
};
txt_email.onKillFocus = function ()
{
if (this.text == "")
{
this.text = "Type Your Name Here";
} // end if
};


make sure your default text is exactly the same in the code(two locations) as well as in the text field

thats it.. should work now.
for more advanced tutorials(about the rest of the form, try this awesome site. this was just for my own reference in future projects.

Gamepad with Android Tab

Just found out that my old off-brand gamepad works with my acer tab..




Problem is while wiping it clean(hadn't used it in years) i broke one of the analog sticks :(
will have to DIY a fix later





ShadowGun Exansion Pack

Just got the Shadowgun Expansion Pack!

Was just about to play some of the old levels, when it told me that there was some 250mb download available.. so i got it.. and its the expansion pack called ShadowGun:Leftover ..
heres what the first few seconds look like-



So basically the story picks up exactly where it left off .. should be fun :)

UPDATE:
so heres whats new so far:
1) a new "roll" button has been added, that lets you... roll.
2) The new Toltek badguys are some kind of soldier/science team that are there to recover whatever tech they can.. so they are supposed to be smarter.. which is why you hear them talking etc. they wear gas masks..infact theyre a bit like the badguys in Halflife.. the ones in white.
3) These new bad guys bring new weapons.. one of which you get to use early in the expansion pack, its an energy firing weapon with a mag capacity/charge of 100 shots. am looking forward to what other new weapons may come.
4) The new bad guys will occasionally unleash a bunch of the old mutant drone type baddies, to slow you down.
5) Theres a new Badguy whose a bit like the predator type with the gatling gun from the old game, but with a lot more armour.. he's tough to kill.. so far used up loads of ammo just killing a couple of them.
6) All the old baddies and weapons are still there.
7) A new "jump" button is available at certain parts of the map.. that lets you jump across a chasm..or down a vent, under a beam.. etc. so far its been cinematic events like the earlier trapdoor/hatch ones.
8) there have been some fixes in some of the graphics glytches.. like earlier some of the flying and spider drones' explosion animations were missing.. theyre all there now. Theyve also added some awesome looking bullet trails
9) Other smaller artwork tweaks and changes i noticed are icons for the weapon's caches, and some of the textures on boxes and stuff now have the "Toltek" logo.
10) theres a new "see/look" icon on some of the consoles.. that lets you access security camera feeds.. mostly fun cinematics so far, nothing tactically useful yet.

you can see some of these things in this trailer-

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sketchbook Project 2012

Done with the 2012 Sketchbook.. will be mailing it off tomorow.

you can see it online here
or below


alternate video link here(in case youtube is blocked for you)





for hirez pics go to the photostream here or ebook here

the previous one, for 2011 can be seen here

Friday, January 20, 2012

Discovered Bastion today


Was browsing through the Chrome store today, and found this jewel of a game. Its called Bastion and is the first offering from Supergiant Games. The gameplay is typical RPG isometric gameplay set in a visually stunning universe.
The game's artwork immediately pulled me in, see the samples below..

the environment design is brilliant

the characters are well executed

and the action can get quite frenetic sometimes..

yet the game runs smoothly and apart from the loading screens(the chrome version downloads content frequently) i give the game ????? :jester:


The narrative that accompanies the gameplay is basically like a running commentary of all your actions ingame.. fun to listen to :lol: see the video below to get an idea:


Anyway the game is available for Xbox, PC (via several sources including steam here) and in the Chrome browser itself. The chrome browser version(get it here) gives you a free level to play, after which you can choose to purchase the game.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

DayTripper


Just finished reading the graphic novel DayTripper by FabioMoon & GabrielBra
..quite different from what i usually read..loved it! Thanks to a friend who lent me her copy.
will now hunt for one myself.

Daytripper starts of with Bras de Oliva Domingos, son of a famous Brazilian writer and a writer himself (he writes some thoughtful obituaries for the local paper). His mother(calls him “Little Miracle”) due to some incident during his birth.
One evening he has to attend a gala in his father’s honor. He gets there early and walks into a nearby bar for some cigarettes .. this results in his death during a holdup. theres an obituary.. and then.. the next chapter starts., the story continues as if the climactic event never happened and you get to see several vignettes from his life.. and severla other potential "end points" with obituaries. quite "trippy" :coffee:


Incidently Daytripper won the 2011 Eisner Award


More info on the authors at their blog
.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Relocating the Blog eventually

When i started this blog in 2007 it was meant to be something i used for documenting stuff that i tediously figured out with - Ubuntu, Custom PSP Firmwares, PSP Homebrew etc. I wasn't a blogger and expected to lose interest in it, in a few days.. really had not forseen that i'd one day have this many posts :)

I picked the MyOpera community because i was already a member in the forums.

never really compared the pros/cons of blogger and other more popular platforms.

So now it was time to look into migrating the website to a more customisable and flexible platform.. that i could host on my own server. I wanted to be able to customise the theme a lot more, add widgets, ads etc.. Wordpress was the first blog platform that came to mind, coz i had set up a bunch of them for friends and clients. Was already pretty familiar with the backend.


Thats how i decided to start a mirror of my blog on my own server. I used a wordpress plugin called feedwordpress which uses the RSS feed from the opera communiity hosted blog to pull content and post it to the wordpress system. the only drawback is that the rss feed can only give it 20 posts.. so the new blog has only got the last 20 posts :P

Anyway, will see if i can find a way to migrate the whole blog over there eventually. for now will be using both the one on the Opera community (can't abandon the awesome community)
my.opera.com/chaitanyak

and the one on my own server(always a good idea).
chaitanyak.com/blog

Friday, January 13, 2012

Assassin's Creed Revelations





As soon as I complete all the Arkham City side missions, will be getting this(need to make space on my hdd).

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Published More apps on the Android Market!

A few days back I posted a tutorial on how to use Conduit to build apps that use content from rss feeds earlier. While the possibilities are limited to simplistic apps.. it is possible to create stuff that people will actually like.

heres a perfect example:
The Unofficial Behance Networks app

As a regular Behance.net user(my portfolio) i keep receiving email updates from them. A few days back i got a mail announcing the cool new Behance App! Unfortunately there was only the iphone version available. Instead of cribing about it, i decided to be a bit proactive.. if not devious and created an Android app myself! And this was the result.
Click here for the Android Market link
According to my developer panel's stats i have

349 total installs (users)
174 net installs (devices)



I dont know what the first number means am just going to assume that there are 174 users for my app right now.
Anyway heres the Windows Phone version.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heres a new Scifi art gallery app i just created using various themes on the deviant art site. The great thing about the Deviant art site is that it qives you rss feeds for every search query you make!
lets see how this does in the coming days.

Deviant Art Scifi

Click here for the Android Market link

Heres the Windows Phone version.

Monday, January 9, 2012

App just got blocked

Heres the android installer for my Deviant art - erotic art and pinups app
that got blocked by the android market today


http://filesocial.com/btbu42
enjoy

Update:
heres the version for windows phone users http://bit.ly/A14itm

This blew my mind: 3d painting

ICN gallery proudly presents Goldfish Salvation by artist Riusuke Fukahori from 1 Dec 2011 - 11 Jan 2012.

Artist Riusuke Fukahori's London debut exhibition "Goldfish Salvation" transforms ICN gallery into the world of goldfish. When struggling with artistic vision, Fukahori's pet goldfish became his inspiration and ever since his passion and lifelong theme. His unique style of painting uses acrylic on clear resin which is poured into containers, resulting in a three-dimensional appearance and lifelike vitality.

This video gives you a glimpse of his amazing painting process.

Exhibition: 1 December 2011 - 11 January 2012
Opening: 1 Dec from 19:00

Artist will also be painting the gallery window on Dec. 3 between 2:00-3:00pm.



UPDATE:
don't know why the above video is locked now, but you can see it below

Just got a Pocket Wireless Router

Decided to buy this a few days back after months of waiting and perusing reviews on various tech sites. Its the Lava W150 Pocket Wireless Router.

Basically laptop is now a akin to a "desktop" semi-permanently affixed to the dining table at home :)
Now that i have a tablet and a phone that travel with me, i was looking for a way to use my existing Tata Photon broadband usb dongle while on the go.

With this device i now have a wifi connection wherever i go.


Features:
?Supports EVDO and 3G Dongles

?50 meter range outdoors

?Multi User Support - Upto 32 users on Local LAN
(i have no way to test this so will take their word for it)

?Ethernet Support (RJ45)
(plan to check this later)

?Plug and Play
This blew me away. Connecting a usb dongle to a pc requires you to install drivers and stuff the first time.. here theres none of that hassle. it just works out of the box. I guess since its an indian/chinese brand it came with all the drivers etc, corresponding to all indian service providers preloaded.

I just had to login via a browser and set passwords ..
for the device control panel, and the wifi security(wpa-psk).

?WiFi Standard 802.11 b/g/n - Speed Upto 150 Mbps
?Secure Access through WEP and WPA - Built in Firewall

Full list of features and Cost at the online store here.
Fiarly detailed review here.

The built-in 2300 mAH Li-ion battery can be charged using a standard USB charger or a USB port on a PC. A fully charged battery can provide wireless network access for up to four hours...

...The W150 has a transmission power setting, which is set to 100 percent in the factory defaults. We recommend setting this to a lower percentage as you might not need the 50 meter range when using it outdoors. The lower transmission range will not only ensure that your signals are not intercepted by unknown persons around you, but will also extend the battery life substantially.

-tech2 review