Sketching !

The other day i was just checking my mails, when i came across this wonderful mail, with some really wonderful pencil sketches ! I was like - Wow! I have seen many pencil sketches, & basically, any good art work attracts me immediately. :)
Pencil sketching is a wonderful form of art..... a simple pencil can do lot of things !
There are many types of pencils for these - B, 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B etc etc., & each one gives a different effect..... like the 8B gives the darkest shade of all, & B, the lightest !
Below are some of the very cool pencil sketches i found while browsing..... really wonderful ones !! Yes, they are pencil sketches ! Aren't they amazing? ;)
Click on the images for larger view.

Experimenting with food !

Mirpakaya Bhajji ; Apple Pecan Salad ; Kothu Barota/Parotha ; Garlicky Spinach & Mushroom Pasta ; Vegetable Pizza ; Fusili with Pepper Pasta ; Garbanzo salad (in tamil - Sundal/chundal) ; Moong Dahi Vada Chaat ; ..........already feeling hungry, eh? ;)

These are just very few of the interesting recipes i came across in 1 of my friend's blog - http://chutkibharpyar.blogspot.com/

The amount of interest that she has shown into this, trying out new recipes everyday, making the ones she already knows..... the variety of stuff she has made is just mind blowing ! That's just how creative can people get ! ;)
Chinese, Mexican, Festival specials, Chaat, Making from left over stuff, Baked items .....you'll find just about everything in that website ! The images are enough for you to get started, so mouth watering the dishes seem to be ! :)

So get started, people ! Treat your folks ! :)
Cheers !

Virtual Pets!

Everything has become virtual these days, be it talking with friends, exchanging wishes, sharing photos etc etc etc. But never thought even pets would become virtual one day ! Jeez !
Social website like Facebook have come up with FooPets, Pet Society & few more applications, where in a person can actually adopt a pet, name him/her, dress him/her up, shop for him/her & do many more things !

Especially the Pet Society is a better application in that case..... ever wondered a pet staying in a "pet society", wherein you'll find only pets ! Pet meeting & playing with other pets !! :) Plus, you can play with the pet, bathe him/her, u get coins for simple things like playing with him/her with the ball, or skipping rope etc etc etc.! That's how creative people are getting these days ! It's very very interactive. Moreover, i just discovered somthing, you visit the other pet from Cafe, & then if the hygiene level is low, u just bathe that pet, & u earn coins !!! you feed that other pet if the red bar is not full, you again earn coins !! You visit the stadium, make your pet win the race, you earn 30 coins !! You bet on your friends, if they win, you win double the amount of coins you bet for !! You win certain no. of coins on daily lottery basis as well, but that's only for the 1st time u login in a day ! :)

Then, there are various trophies for many things, like certain no. of times you do skipping, certain no. of times you buy something, certain no. of times you bet for someone & the person winning it, & many many more things !! Ever wanted your pet to win trophies ?? Here you can actually do it !! Interesting, isn't it? ;)

FooPets is more of 3d, & the Pet Society seems to be more of 2d..... however people may percieve !

So enjoy with virtual pets, if not real ones !
Cheers ! :)

Sourabhee Debbarma - Indian Idol 4 !!

I know i'm posting this 1 too late..... but never mind..... :)

I haven't been following Indian Idol season 3 as well as 4, but i was all the more happy when i just heard this time the Indian Idol is a girl !! Yes !! Her name is Sourabhee Debbarma, & she's from Tripura ! :)

The grande finale was as usual an extravaganza show with the former winners of Indian Idol - Abhijeet Sawant, Sandeep Acharya, & Prashant Tamang. Also present were Monali Thakur, who gave here voice for Zara Zara Touch Me from Race; the hosts Hussain & Chang; last year's judges Udit Narayan & Alisha Chinoi; last year's finalist Amit Paul (jeez, i would still say he was better than Prashant ! :P) ; & hell yeah, not to forget, Mini Mathur, who ignited the stage on fire with her dance moves !!This is the 1st time ever in the history of singing reality shows (other than the VOI chote ustad, where Aishwarya became the VOI) , that a girl has won ! :)

There was some anthem for Indian Idol, which was composed by Anu Malik, written by Javed Akhtar, & sung by Udit Narayan, Alisha Chinoy & Kailash Kher.
Grande finale without celeb guests? No ! Never it has happened ! :)
So here they were - John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, & Neil Nitin Mukesh ! Cool, eh? ;)
For a change, the judges were very happy with the winner this time, as everyone agreed she was a deserving candidate ! :)

Well i certainly didn't see the grande finale, but the media helped me, u see ! :) Saw somethings on the news, & read somethings in the newspapers as well as on net ! ;)

But all in all, it feels great to hear that even a girl can win reality shows, contrary to the belief that girls have never & can never win reality shows ! :) *Thumbs up*

Cheers !

Creative Softwares & Chroma Key

As kids we have all seen sooo many cartoons, including the now-we-feel-boring-to-see-them epics..... though i feel the best ever cartoon was tom & jerry, it is still the best ! :D .....I've always had this fascination to know how these cartoons are made, how the characters are made, how they are animated, etc etc etc etc .......... lots to know !.....

Ya maybe tom & jerry was made using GIF animation or something else; but ever wondered how some of the characters like the ones in Shrek were made?? They were made fully in Maya, including the lighting & animation part !

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Image Ready, AutoDesk's 3Ds Max, AutoCAD & Maya , & Google SketchUp - these are some of the famous softwares which are very very... widely used for all creative things in the world ! AutoCAD is mainly used for making 2d drawings, & even for making some 3d models & even rendering them; but most of them prefer 3Ds max or maya for modelling & rendering as the quality of the end result is excellant in both ! When you make models in 3Ds max or Maya, & render them in the same, it gives you a more realistic look, and that maybe because of wider range of options, materials, lighting options & many other things in those 2 softwares, which are not there in AutoCAD. Even Google SketchUp is an excellant software for modelling, & it is a user friendly software too !

Ever wondered where the shootings of the movie 300 were done?? Well, it the shooting was done right in the studios ! Yes ! But before everything, a very elaborate storyboard was made, which showed the clear picture as to how the background has to be, how the charaters will be, what they'll wear, their expressions, etc etc etc.......... Then certain things like the mountains & hills & what not, that were there in the movie, parts of these were made using clay on the sets, yes the clay models were made, & the shooting was done., with a blue or green background. The main backgrounds were added later using a technique called the Chroma Key effect. For this effect either a green screen or a blue screen is used, as i have mentioned before.

There are quite a few softwares for this technique, like even Maya & Adobe Photoshop & After Effects are used for this. This technique allows the actors to put themselves in some totally imaginary places & situations like , in some space ships, or like he/she is dangling from a rope bridge over deep valleys n all, or flying through the air like some super man, & make it look completely real in the movie. Nowadays this technique is used so so so so.... often we people don't even realize it! Like, the news reporters are made to look like they are on location when they are actually not, or rather maybe sometimes cannot go, and also some complete segments in particular TV shows can be created this way to make it look like the scene was actually shot on that location, without even going there !! Interesting, isn't it? ;)

Example:

Amul Star Voice of India 2008

Ravi Shukla from Delhi ! Yes, he is the winner of Amul Star Voice of India 2nd Season, after Ishmeet Singh from Punjab had won the 1st season title in the year 2007 ! :)
It was surely very sad to here about the death of Ishmeet, who was then just 20 yrs old, as he was known to be a very simple & nice person. Though that time people wanted Harshit to win, who was 1 of the finalist among with Ishmeet, luck was with the latter, & for good.

Anyway now back to Ravi Shukla.....

He can be called a "lambi race ka ghoda". Yup! Seriously ! 24 states, so 24 contestants, out of them 12 got eliminated each week, & then we got the Bemisaal Barah ! When the bemisaal barah were selected, no 1 ever thought Ravi Shukla had any chance to win. But his hard work, & ofcourse his lady luck, Anjum, got him this coveted trophy ! :)
http://svoiblogs.indya.com/category/ravi-shukla/

The Grande Finale was celebrated at a fabulous location in Karjat , which if just a few kilometres away from Mumbai. Ravi Shukla was then bestowed with Rupees 25 lakhs from Star TV, the prestigious Voice of India trophy, a Chevrolet Spark car, and a ofcourse, not to forget the three years contract with T- Series! The 2 finalists, Ravi & Saptaparna, also received two gold coins from the show's main sponsor, Amul ! That's great, isn't it? ;)

Well, yeah, this time there was a girl too in the finals ! And to be very honest, she is an awesome singer ! Saptaparna Chakraborty a.k.a Ismail Darbar's Roshni ! :)

The 3 judges this time, Ismail Darbar, Sukhwinder Singh, & Monty Sharma did a good job no doubt, but they can be bestowed with a title - The most confused judges of all times ! 3-4 times the rules of the show were changed, & once the contestants were removed by audience, & brought in by judges again ! That was ridiculous! Why the hell would they tell the audience to select then?? :-/ Weird!

More info - http://voiceofindia.indya.com/

Big Fat Break !

Hey people, here i am, back with a bang, again with lot of updates for my blog after a long long long time, or rather can say it was a big fat break for my blogging! :)
So now that the blog will get updates regularly, make sure you all too check it regularly ! What say peeps? ;)
Cheers !

Click here to go to the new pages & update yourself ! ;)