Painted the old 3D Prints

Had these models printed years back.. theyve just been sitting and gathering dust.. so decided to "update" them.

used standard acrylic paints, and a paintbrush.



Angry Tentacle Guy

Before





After







Alien Centaur

Before





After







oh, and both models are available for free at Thingiverse(incase you have your own printer) and at the Shapeways store, in case you just want to buy one.



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Random thursday

Saw this article today about a new Muslim superhero(i know there are many).. this one stood out.. coz..

1)her first name rhymes with Malala,

2)last name is Khan..

and

3)She is of Pakistani origin..

Its like they had a check-list to make her as recognizably Muslim as possible.



Heres the original article with more details about the comic- http://designtaxi.com/news/362022/Marvel-Comics-Introduces-Muslim-Girl-Superhero/

So anyway I posted a few pro and critical tweets about it on twitter ..

https://twitter.com/chaitanyak/status/398480764603342848

obviously I was having mixed feelings about it.

Wound up getting invited onto an talk with the creator of the series G Willow Wilson on a BBC radio show.

I didn't get to say much(was quite engrossed in listening to them all..and a bit nervous).. just managed to say that i wasn't happy with her being another in a long line of Ms.Marvels .. should have made her an original sounding superhero.

Listen to the podcast here ,its an mp3 so click to listen or rightclick and download it(around 23mb)

The segment about the comic starts at 23:10

My part is at 32:32

The BBC page is here

----------------------------------|----------------------------------


Like I mentioned earlier, this isn't the first time someone's created a muslim superhero..

A recent one infact was a differently abled muslim boy - Silver Scorpion read it here.

and then of course theres The 99 a comic-book series based on characters that each personify one of the 99 qualities that the Koran attributes to God(soon to be an animated series). The first issue is available here for free.

and then there are all the characters already in the marvel and DC universes.. go google them.

UPDATE:
I read issue #1 of Ms Marvel.. and liked it. Of course she doesnt have any super powers yet.. lets see how it progresses. so far the storytelling and art have been great! 

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Install Ubuntu without a livecd or pendrive

So i decided to upgrade my desktop's ubuntu..



it had been rocking some version of Ubuntu 11 for a few years.. was time for a change. So i got the latest version (13.10) from the site,



burnt a live dvd and popped it in. nothing happend on boot! after a lot of fiddling i gave up on the live cd route, and decided to use a live usb. thats how i installed it on my Dell XPS earlier this year...



So i created a live USB.. and that didnt work either. Basically the motherboard was so old, it didn't support usb booting!



Since the wifi card was having issues i decided to try something i've never done before: Install Ubuntu directly from the hard drive.



Basically what you do is

1) copy the downloaded cd iso to a specific location

2) make an entry in GRUB2(this only works in GRUB 1.9 onwards) so that you can just boot the iso..



heres how you do it(required basic terminal navigation knowledge.. that i googled)



STEP1 - The Live CD is also known as the "Desktop Installer". It is the default Ubuntu installation CD. The ISO you downloaded has the name "desktop" in its name copy it somewhere easy to navigate to(later you'll need to type the address in terminal)



STEP2 - Copy CD/iso contents over to the system using the commands:

mkdir /tmp/install_cd
 mkdir /tmp/installer

 sudo mount disk-image.iso -o loop /tmp/install_cd
 sudo mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/installer

 sudo rsync -a /tmp/install_cd/ /tmp/installer

 sudo umount /tmp/install_cd
 sudo umount /tmp/installer

Replace the name of the ISO to whatever you downloaded and /dev/sda1 with whatever your new partition is(use system monitor to check the disk and partition names).



STEP3 - Edit your grub configuration file



GRUB1 users :

to edit the Grub file as root(so you can save your changes) run this

gksudo gedit /etc/grub.conf

or

gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Edit your grub configuration file to boot from the new partition by adding the lines

title           installer
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /casper/vmlinuz boot=casper root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=1048576 rw
initrd          /casper/initrd.gz

the first line after the title tells grub which partition contains the installer. hd0 stands for "first hard disk," and the 0 following it standards for first partition. You will need to change this if your installer partition is different from /dev/sda1. sdaN becomes (hd0, N-1), sdbN becomes (hd1,N-1) and so on. As you can see, grub starts counting from 0, which can be confusing.



GRUB2 users :

to edit the Grub file as root(so you can save your changes) run this

gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom

With Grub2, the bootloader in new installations of 9.10, the procedure is a little different. You should edit the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom and add the lines

menuentry "installer" {
        insmod ext2
        set root=(hd0,1)
        linux /casper/vmlinuz boot=casper root=/dev/ram1 ramdisk_size=1048576 rw
        initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}

Note that Grub 2 counts drives from 0, but partitions from 1, so /dev/sda1 becomes (hd0,1).



STEP4 - Having done that run

update-grub 

to rebuild the grub configuration.



Reboot and hold "shift" to see grub(incase its hidden) and select the installer.





for more detailed instructions.. like how to install ubuntu to a different partition etc.. check the page i found this originally - here.



For the entire list of methods available for installing Ubuntu on a problem system, check this comprehensive page.







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The Hyderabad Graphic Novel

Got my copy of The Hyderabad Graphic Novel(written by Undurti and drawn by Chattoraj) a few weeks back, and finally finished reading it!

The book has been published in the large magazine format usually preferred by European publications like Asterix and Tintin.. and the cover is absolutely gorgeous! see for yourself..





I'd already read the online chapters, and loved them.. but now that i had the book i was able to see how they fit together. Especially with the Auto Rickshaw(the Tardis of the novel).



Finally getting to read the rest of the young poet's journey was quite fulfilling. The plot about the city planning and the architect's grand plans was a new one for me.. it was unlike anything i had read in a while.. the hystoric detail and philosophical/occultic references made me feel like i was back in one of Umberto Echo's books! The book is well researched and well written, I'd recommend it for anyone with an interest in historical fiction.. although be warned it is heavy reading.. and some of the themes may be a bit difficult to grasp for readers lacking enough background knowledge on some of the historical figures mentioned. This may lead to a slowing in pace for those readers.



For the most part its quite good, in fact I found some parts pretty entertaining :)

A must have for every serious graphic novel reader/collector.



my rating:

Artwork: ✩✩✩✩✩

General plot: ✩✩✩✩★

Overall: ✩✩✩✩★

as far as Indian graphic novels go: ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩



The book is not yet available for purchase online, however some complete chapters are available on the website for reading online hgnp.wordpress.com/read or downloading and reading offline(pdf, cbr) hgnp.wordpress.com/download



for more info as well as the availability in various Indian cities(Hyderabad, Bangalore and others) visit the Facebook page - facebook.com/HydGraphicNovel



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Blog Action Day: Human Rights

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.



Today's theme is Human Rights!



When one thinks about ghastly human rights violations, one generally thinks of certain African nations and then south east asian countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan.. very few people realise that there are violations of that scale occurring in India as well.



Heres a quick run down for those who need a refresher:



1)Police brutality, extrajudicial killings, and torture.

according to a 2002-09 study, over four people per day died while in police custody,

with "hundreds" of those deaths being due to police use of torture.



2)In this country, human rights defenders have been killed, tortured, ill-treated, disappeared, threatened, arbitrarily arrested and detained, falsely charged.



3)Freedom of speach ... remember when blogger/blogspot was blocked years ago.. in 2011? - refresh your memory how about the time Reliance took it upon themselves(without authorisation from the govt.) to block certain websites.



4)Slavery(yes we have it in India, under various other names, click here to learn more)



ok the list goes on and on.. and i'm no expert on the matter, so will just point you at this page where you will find everything



I'm going to concentrate on one incident that blew my mind. Back in 2011 the govt actually banned a website that hosted cartoons against corruption!

heres a glympse of the objectionable material..



the cartoons in question were

1) the one depicting of the national emblem(original has four Sarnath lions of King Asoka) with 3 bloodthirsty wolves,with the motto “Bhrashtamev Jayate” (long live corruption)

2) the representation of the Parliament as a Toilet

3) mother India(in tricolour) being gangraped by a politician, a beurocrat and a demon "corruption"



to see the cartoons, click the image above or head over to cartoonsagainstcorruption.blogspot.in



Crime Branch, Mumbai banned the website of Cartoons Against Corruption during the hunger strike of Anna Hazare in December 2011. Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested in September 2012 and was sent to judicial custody till 24 September on charges of sedition, which is a non-bailable offence.



He was subsequently granted bail and released. Mr. Trivedi has now turned fulltime activist fighting against censorship in India.. and runs a campaign(along with journalist Alok Dixit) for internet freedom called Save Your Voice



More on the incident and its fallout here



my last BlogAction Day post was a light hearted post on Climate Change(2009). see it here



via Inaccessible is Accessible http://my.opera.com/chaitanyak/blog/show.dml/109340182

Moebius Rail Cross

Had this idea and doodled it in church one sunday.. then forgot about it.. just remembered it today, and quickly modelled it before i forget again.

If you look closer theres a few ballbearing size spheres that will be trapped in there and free to roll all over the moebius track







click to view in 3D



If you have your own 3d Printer you can download the model for printing from - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:156146

If you don't have a 3d printer you can buy it at shapeways.. go to the store here, and choose the material you'd like to print.

-------------------------------------

heres a variation

Flat Twisted Moebius Cross



click to view in 3d







If you have your own 3d Printer you can download the model for printing from - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:156195

If you don't have a 3d printer you can buy it at shapeways.. go to the store here , and choose the material.



via Inaccessible is Accessible http://my.opera.com/chaitanyak/blog/show.dml/107123172

Russian Doll Mod 2

Did another set, this time painted entirely with acrylic paints







gave it to my friends at Timescape.

...



In case you missed it, heres the old one - Russian Doll Mod 1



via Inaccessible is Accessible http://my.opera.com/chaitanyak/blog/show.dml/106227772

RoboCop Reboot!

In case you havn't seen it yet, heres the brand new trailer for the new RoboCop movie.



The movie stars everyone's favorite detective from the Killing - Joel Kinnaman as the titular character. As you see in the trailer, the suit has been redesigned..

I was tempted to sculpt a model of it(maybe i will some day), and someone even suggested i should :)

..but since time is a bit scarce right now, i only managed this:





click to see in 3d



Blender's Suzanne model tries out RoboCop's old and new gear.. :p done in a couple of hours on Blender .. as a quick modelling exercise.



heres another render





the model is available for download here:



(click to download)















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Get Android Kitkat now!

Thats right, you read the title correctly.. you can download Android Kitkat right here .
enjoy! :cheers:

You'll need blender to open and use it though. get that here.

To take it for a spin right now in your browser, just click below

Android Kitkat by Chaitanya Krishnan on Sketchfab

For those still confused, its a 3d model of the mascot.. not the actual mobile os :lol:

It was modelled in a few minutes on Blender, textured on Inkscape and Gimp.. and completely free to download.



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Blender's Quick Explode

This was an experiment with one of Blender's "quick effects" - Quick Explode

this can be found under Object/Quick Effects/Quick Explode.



It works out of the box.. you may just need to set the start and end times to integrate with your animation. here i've also modified the brownian motion value, and gravity. tweaking more of the random features would have reduced the number of parallel moving particles.. and made it more realistic .

I also left the propeller pods intact and just manually animated them spiralling away from the exploding mass. One can then make them explode separately at will



the aircraft is my own quick design.. click the image below to see it 



and here's a variation on that aircraft ..click the image below to see it 


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Refreshingly different Zombie game

Have played a few zombie games.. this one is brilliant in terms of gameplay.



get it here



If your a fan of fruit ninja and other rapid swiping games, you can adapt those skills to a new gameplay.. here instead of slashing stuff, you have to avoid this severed zombie hand(all in gruesome 3d)! while you avoid the hand your racing against time.. so do pick up the glowy things.. they add time to the clock so you can keep playing.



The gameplay is actually quite easy to pickup and fun to play again and again.

The intro sequence needs some polish, but the game makes up for it in spades.



My honest scores for this game:



Gameplay:✩✩✩✩✩

Game Graphics:✩✩✩✩✩ that severed hand is just awesome.

Sound:✩✩✩★★

Intro:✩✩★★★



Note: i played it on my ageing Acer Iconia A500, it ran pretty smoothly.



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Finished 5 books of A Song Of Ice And Fire

Am finally all caught up on George R R Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire. ...HBO can no longer shock me with cliffhangers and random deaths anymore.



Had planned on reading it ever since i watched the first episode and learnt that the show leaves out a ton of stuff that happens in the book.



I also already had one of the issues of The Hedge Knight Graphic Novel.



The problem was the pricing.. even the paperbacks were so expensive. Then one day at a bookstore i saw people crowding around a pile of collector's sets that had all 4 books.. so i was also tempted to buy it.



A quick and prudent bit of research on my phone and wikipedia, told me that there were 3 more books as yet unreleased.. so some of these fans lining up to buy the "collector's edition" were basically in for a dreadful shock.



Eventually though i found it available as digital Kindle downloads(at a fraction of the price).. and when it went on sale in July i picked up the Kindle versions of the first 4 books.. got the 5th a few weeks back.. and just finished reading it earlier today.



And i did it all on my phone and tablet(kindle's handy android app) :) saving tons of cash in the process.





Managed to get the first 4 books

A Game of Thrones

A Clash of Kings

A Storm of Swords

A Feast for Crows



as a set for INR 274.71

(costs INR 2,313.47 in print. even the digital version now costs Rs. 1,576.84)



You can get it here.



Got the 5th book A Dance With Dragons

for INR 502.45

(price fluctuates, you may now get it for lower. but the print version is still expensive)



You can get it here.



Now waiting for The Winds Of Winter (tentatively planned for release in 2014.) & A Dream Of Spring to release.



So do i recommend reading the books?

YES!!

No offence to HBO or fans (who think the show is perfect), but i feel the creators of the show are more interested in shocking the viewer with graphic sex and violence than actually delivering enough of the actual story.. which is why its taken 3 seasons to get to the middle of the 3rd book! That said the series is pretty well made and i will keep watching. Its fun to see all the characters in the book come to life on screen.. especially with the stellar cast. And i'm a big fan of the vfx enhanced direwolves in the show









ok am generally a fan of creature vfx and cg work





however if you don't like waiting 7-9 months between seasons that end in jaw dropping cliffhangers, just read the book. GRRM's writing makes for swift reading.. and reading it in the kindle app(synced across multiple devices) was a joy.



Tips: on the small screen of the phone i found that scaling up the font to max made for easier and faster reading, with no strain on the eyes. Infact i then went to the tablet and made the font bigger there as well.



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Russian Doll Mod

Had picked up this set of russian doll(Matryoshka doll) knock offs from a trip to Channapatna a few years back..



The quality was not so great.. and the enamel was a bit chipped


So anyway i recently saw a cool image on facebook.. someone had painted their set..

It seemed like a simple and fun thing to do.

To here's my version of it:



I used automotive paint for the basecoat..

Painted the lighter shades first.. am using acrylic paints.

Drew the details with markers.. I used to paint this, but you get decent paint markers now.

Need to drop into the nearest Channapatna handy-crafts place and pick up more of these cheap knock-offs to mod.


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Adobe Hates Android Artists

Adobe has withdrawn the Ideas app from the Android Play Store.



According to the official blog post(December 20, 2012), they will only be developing the IOS versions for now.



Sad news for us Android users yes. however don't lose hope.. You can still google and download the apk file(from alternate sources) and manually install it(should work on anything with Android 4.0 or newer).



For an alternative that is actually a lot better, check out my comparison of Ideas with Infinite Design here.



unlike Ideas, this one has a lot more features and a fairly decent tablet ui as well..a bit cluttered compared to Ideas, but more intuitive.

Key Features:

-Infinite canvas (pan, zoom, or rotate)

-Infinite layers and unique layer options: Split, Merge, Flip, Duplicate, and the ability to apply a perspective transformation to a layer.

-Carefully designed brushes to ensure optimal workflow on the go.

-Five types of symmetry: X-Axis, Y-Axis, Arbitrary Angle, Radial, and Kaleidoscopic.

-Infinite undo/redo system.

-Import images.

-Special Effects include four types of blurring, inner or outer shadowing, and embossing.

-A fluid interface designed for fluidity and fully optimized for touchscreen devices.

-Save as JPEG or PNG (with background or without background).

-Export to SVG for editing in your favorite graphics editor. Tested and works in Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape.





Note: now that Ideas is no longer available on Android, Infinite Design is now the best vector drawing tool on the platform. other alternatives worth a try are Scribmaster and Vector Artist


.. if your only looking to output hi rez art and not particularly looking for a vector solution,



Autodesk® SketchBook® Ink is pretty good. Its like Sketchbook pro, except that it uses a resolution independent engine. This allows you to export your raster artwork to 8000x12800pixels (102.4Mpx).



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