3d Printed Puch 250 SGS

This model was comissioned by a goldsmith.. aparently his client loved this bike and wanted it as a pendant in gold..

Displayed here in Blender's matcap gold.

Modelled entirely in Blender using some photographic refrence material.

The final model is  quite different and this one wasnt used.. but it stayed a favorite.

    puch 250 sgs 014

    by Chaitanya Krishnan

    on Sketchfab

That hand break lever is a 1mm thin hair!

there was space on the build platform so i crammed in this dogtag model..

UPDATE:

Cutting it out of the scaffolding proved to be quite a task. Usually one can just tear off the scaffolding.. its designed to break away easily.. but this time i realised that there were a lot of delicate teeny tiny details on that side.. like the kick start lever.. which as it turned out was a couple of hairs thick.. so anyway i wound up sitting with the clippers that came with the printer.. and manually clipping each and every bit of scaffolding. 

Heres the unsanded result..

Heres the Puch that was finally used by the client.. i guess i'll be printing it next :)

    puch 250 sgs 024_merged
    by Chaitanya Krishnan
    on Sketchfab

The 3d Printed Bird

The next proper print was something i modeled a few days back.. 

Its a bird in the mockingjay pose… modelled and sculpted in blender..

    Bird 001sculpt
    by Chaitanya Krishnan
    on Sketchfab

I printed a simplified version(complex version is at the end of this post).. all the long tendril like feathers are pretty bad geometry.. it was a very rough sculpt.

Its gorgeous in the transparent material, but the beak and talons didn’t print properly

so i then tried out the black resin and its been a big improvement.. !..

heres the more complex one i plan to print eventually

    bird sculpt

    by Chaitanya Krishnan

    on Sketchfab

First set of 3d prints

So a while back I was commissioned by Sketchfab to do models of various 3d printers. Some of these were very basic models..they didnt need much detail

    Form1 by formlabs

    by Chaitanya Krishnan

    on Sketchfab

Formlabs the company that makes that Form1 3d printer contacted me a few weeks back.. they want me to do a more detailed model.. so have sent me the printer for a month!!!!

Its one of the best(very detailed prints) and expensive printers out there.. and i started printing with it a couple of days back.. heres one of the first things i printed.. and then painted..

heres the 3d model of the creature

    Brain Bug
    by Chaitanya Krishnan
    on Sketchfab

A quick sculpting and texture painting exercise in Blender. heres the animated model

Miniponics DIY Aquaponics for under 10$

Vinil is a friend from way back.. we both along with another friend set up the office aquariums at the studio we worked at.. Vinil continued his passion with aquaponics..



visit his blog and Facebook page for more details and dates for workshops he conducts around Bangalore.

The Evolution of Games Graphics

From naïve origins to the rise of cinematic realism: an account of graphical milestones in video games.

A fun and informative 5part series by Ahoy

Got Lollipop last night

Got the much awaited Lollipop update last night.. er.. early morning at 2:10am. I checked the phone for what sounded like a Vine alert.. and saw the system update notification right on top..  

It was a 479.5mb download so i connected it to the charger and let it download..

Then the installation took about an hour.. because i have all these apps and games that had to be "optimised" .. 

Voila! Lollipop in all its glory.. that flappy bird'esque game is frikkin difficult though!

That stunning wallpaper is 

Yellowjacket Incinerator by Scebiqu on deviantART

get it at http://scebiqu.deviantart.com/art/Yellowjacket-Incinerator-299783664

Holding the power button just gives you one elegant option now- a confirmation to shut down.

On rebooting i was welcomed by the new lockscreen.. i usually prefer to stick to custom lockscreens using GoLocker.. but have disabled that for a few days to see how the Lollipop lockscreen does.

Unlocking it brought me to my Nova Launcher home screen.. all widgets and the theme still functional.. 

quickly switched to the Lollipop homescreen and realised its still lacking the icon density customisability that i expect from a homescreen.. after using launchers like nova and Go i can't go back to the measly 4 icon rows on a full hd screen.. so will not be using this homescreen.

The obvous compromise will be with quick launching voice features and search.. which i didn't really use on Kitkat anyway. The other thing missing will be all the slick animations and stuff.. 

As a designer i do appreciate the work they put into all the new graphics and animations .. but after a few hours i'd had enough. will play with it a bit later.. but i just cant go back to 

a 4 icon grid. 

The rotation toggle was actually missing! For those who were looking for it i already had a power toggle app installed that did that for me.. but with lollipop one can actually make do with the built in toggles. There is no customisability.. so i forsee installing a power toggle app again https://play.google.com/store/search?q=power%20toggle

Anyway a quick visit to accessability settings and turning "Auto-rotate screen" off and on again.. enabled the toggle.

now to test my games and stuff.. will post an update on performance soon.

UPDATE (20|11|2014  7:42): 
bugs.. 
1) when someone calls me.. am unable to slide-to-unlock the lockscreen and answer the call! this happened 3 times.. have now uninstalled go locker incase that was interfereing.. (although it was disabled anyway).

2) weird glytch where the entire screen locks out except for the menu/task manager button which can be pressed to bring up the carousal of running tasks.. but nothing is clickable. have to reboot. After this occured 3 times.. ive now disabled Nova Launcher as well.. lets see if it happens in the android launcher.

A different kind of war based game

This War Of Mine provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle. For the very first time you do not play as an elite soldier, rather a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city. 

During the day snipers outside stop you from leaving your refuge, so you need to focus on maintaining your hideout. At night you get a chance to scavenge nearby locations for items that will help you stay alive.

Make life-and-death decisions driven by your conscience. Try to protect everybody from your shelter or sacrifice some of them to endure the hardships. During war, there are no good or bad decisions; there is only survival. The sooner you realize that, the better.

Heres the other poignant trailer featuring a survivor of the conflict in Sarajevo

available on Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/282070/
compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux/SteamOS

Puch 250 SGS Twisted version

Done entirely in Blender. A modified version of my old Puch model

Puch 250 Sgs Bent by Chaitanya Krishnan on Sketchfab

heres the old one

puch 250 sgs 014 by Chaitanya Krishnan on Sketchfab

and the full post about it is at http://chaitanyakrishnan.blogspot.in/2014/03/puch-250-sgs.html

Interstellar

Saw it last night in a regular theatre(non 3d non imax) and it was good enough. Of course i won't have a frame of reference unless i go see it again in imax/3d(hmm i don't know if its in 3d).. but i really can't sit through it again. 

Still my verdict - ✩✩✩✩★ 
let me explain why i can't give it a 5✩ rating

Caution.. spoilers start here:

1st✩
The science was good.. the Escher-esque time-bookshelf-tapestry was mindblowing.. This was the one movie that treated time dilation realistically and made it a seriously heartbreaking part of the plot.

2nd✩
The characters were mostly well developed.. though the robots seemed to have tons more personality than the other crew members.

3rd✩
The robots were brilliant. Took me a few scenes to get used to their weird monolythic form.. 

but like i already mentioned.. what they lacked in form they made up for in spades of personality. I'd watch a movie with just these weird robots in it.

4th✩
The ship and space sequences were great.. all the cg was pretty faultless.. except for the trippy event horizon shots..when you get really  really close to the distortion it tended to look like bad cg.. to anyone not familiar with the science its trying to depict. 

Minus★
The damn flash back bits.. did every bookshelf sequence have to be rewatched? got tedious and seemed like a dumbed down way of showing time/travel/contact.. 
Also what bugged me is when Murf runs upto Tom waving the watch around and yelling "it was him" ... just after setting fire to poor Tom's farm. The guy seriously looked like he was about to kill somebody.
The final reunion between Coop and Murf was .. so weird.. theyre meeting after decades.. and it lasts a few seconds of  "it was me"s and "it was you"s  and then she tells him to take a hike, she's got her own kids to spend time with now.. er.. wha?



Final Thoughts.. I loved it for the most part.. wish it had ended a full half hour earlier.. but ok.. i can live with the ending.. i guess. I do recommend it to anyone interested in Science Fiction, space travel and Leaving this messed up eco-disaster of a planet for greener pastures.

Stage themed board game

Stage themed snakes and ladders game level..done a long time ago.. never got used for the actual game..

    Stage themed board game
    by Chaitanya Krishnan
    on Sketchfab

a GI(global Illumination) test render of the more or less finished set

the final render with numbers, textures and lighting..ready to go to Flash

 a game of chance, where you roll an onscreen dice to make your character move to the next square.. simillar to snakes and ladders, but with a rock show theme

Mockingjay Rebels Interactive Posters

Mockingjay releases in a few days.. and as i was looking through tweets about it.. i saw the new posters for the Mockingjay rebels.. they inspired me into creating an annotated 3d model :) enjoy.

heres the interactive version..

    Mockingjay Rebels
    by Chaitanya Krishnan
    on Sketchfab

3d Scans of My Old Paper Machines

I took these pics of some of my old paper machines. Incidently my final project was a pop up book. i wanted to turn them into 3d models using Autodesk 123d Catch.. however the software/service failed to create the models..

The pictures were just gathering dust on my computer, and just when i was thinking of deleting them to make some space i happened upon Autodesk Recap360 another model creation service by Autodesk.. so i gave it a shot.. and voila! it worked!

After a little mesh cleanup on Blender
here are the results..

    Paper Machine Crocobot
    by Chaitanya Krishnan
    on Sketchfab

scan made from these 24 pics

Heres the other one 

    Paper Machine Robot

    by Chaitanya Krishnan

    on Sketchfab

Made from 21 pics

3d scanning after a long time

I took these pics of a bird bath and then some of my old paper machines.. i wanted to turn them into 3d models using Autodesk 123d Catch.. however the software/service failed to create the models..

The pictures were just gathering dust on my computer, and just when i was thinking of deleting them to make some space i happened upon Autodesk Recap360 another model creation service by Autodesk.. so i gave it a shot.. and voila! it worked!

After a little mesh cleanup on Blender
here are the results..

    Bird Bath
    by Chaitanya Krishnan
    on Sketchfab

made from these 

will post the scans of the paper machines in the next post..