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.

weekend sketch..gunship from Avatar

chopper from avatar by ~chaitanyak on deviantART

fingerpainted on my android tablet using autodesk sketchbook

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."

Hypocrisy in Hollywood

see the full infographic here

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

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

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

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)

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

Syndicate

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

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