My first businesscard! I am excited

Front and back vertical format.
The gear system represents the technical aspects of rigging. However, rigging also requires an eye for aesthetic or art so I have those gears made from faces (And they will actually work in practical if put together properly). So the gear system made from faces is my logo. And it will be driving an Inverse kinematics chain pulling head on the other side. IK is something I am very interested in for research hence IK highlighted in my name too. Also because it brings attention to name quickly.

Blue and brown are not my typical colors, so I feel good being adventurous this time. However this color scheme is widely used in graphics designs (esp blogs). And so it's not unique, but I like it. (please ignore the white border)

One month :)

On 13th Dec. 2008 I got married to a beautiful and a sweet girl, Ami. And today is exactly one month of our married life. Even if we got married a month ago it feels like we have been married for longer than that. That is probably because we enjoyed every little things together. It's more than 2 years since I left for my studies and today as husband and wife we stand together stronger than ever; fighting time, fighting physical distance and uncertainty of economy. I can't tell how lucky I am to have got such an amazing girl as my wife. She has inspired me to become a stronger man and made me more determined to chase my dreams. I don't hesitate to say, Ami I will marry you in all my next lives as well.

Comic Art

Here are two drawings I did in a sequential art class (Sequential art is about comics) in Fall 2007. I learned a lot about perspective, drawings humans for comics and creating environments. It was really a cool experience. Drawings for comics is so much fun and demanding of course.

The first one, everything is from imagination.
The second, the location is from a place near river street in Savannah, but characters are drawn from imagination.

The great fun about these both two was the story. The primary goal of Comics is the story. And that's why I really love the sequential art, because you are telling a story through series of drawings. And yeah my professor had worked in DC comics and I think Marvel comics as well for a long time. He did spider man comics and many more. Check his blog here and scroll through to see his amazing artwork Tom Lyle

Color Theory

First work is done with Acrylic Gouache and this how it was done. First we had to find a piece of cloth with some pattern. Then trace the design on 11x11" square of bristol board. And take a small square of the same cloth glue it to the traced design where it belongs. And then expand the design by matching the cloth colors and painting the remaining design (If you see a little closely and you can see the glued square) . For painting remaining design, area remaining after gluing the square, was divided into different sections and each section was painted with different color processes. One was inverted colors of original colors, one was compliment of original colors, those are the two that i can remember :) And I think there were 4 or 5 sections total including the original colors.

The second work was for color theory class. We had to create a motif and from that create a pattern. Then took selected colors and paint the whole pattern. I used Acrylic paint on a canvas paper. Thanks to my professor who helped me see that we can create very different and creative designs using the same motif. This is I think the first time I have used such bold and bright colors. I wanted to get out of my confort zone of using mild colors. So this assignment was a great learning experience. (The photograph of this one looks a little dull compared to original work, sorry about that)

Kids: Drawing & Imagination

This is an excerpt from Mark Kennedy's post on his blog:

"if I remember correctly, it said that most kids stop drawing around age seven because that's the age when teachers and parents start to tell kids "you're drawing that cat wrong, cats don't have seven legs" and so drawing stops being fun and starts being a chore, which makes kids give it up completely. And why not give it up? Schools and parents rarely seem to put much importance on art or learning to draw, those are always the first school programs cut when budgets shrink (it seems to me, anyway) and so very few people keep drawing throughout their lives."

A very good lesson for parents. I have to keep this in mind because I will become a parent one day and I won't want my kids to go away from creativity and imagination.

Old work: Design

Ink on Smooth Bristol (2007)

Acrylic Gouache on Smooth Bristol (2007)

Old work: Drawings

Some of the frames from movie "The Hero". Really liked the cinematography in this movie.

If you haven't seen me then you will need the drawing on top right corner to identify me.

A storyboard frame for my idea about houses on tree trunk. I had a lot of ideas about this but could not flesh them out properly in time. For example I was thinking that the top is the main floor of the house so to go up and down there will be a mechanical system (based on weight shift) acting as a lift.

Power of storytelling and sand animation

I like sand animation because it has a spontaneous feel to it and also because it's a play with light and shadow. So the medium itself is quite intriguing. But if a strong storytelling is combined with this medium it can create a deep effect. Here is one story after watching which I felt story impact strongly. I think it has a graphical novel kind of feel but still a lot different because of the medium and the way it's done with transitions. I think it's brilliant!

Animated SAND-Movie by Thomas Lidy, 2006. University of applied Art Vienna

Critiquing own animation?

I am taking 3D character animation class and I am learning a very important part of the process, which is critiques. And more important part I think is to critique our own work. While animating we look at the same work again and again for a long time and this creates a pitfall where you either cannot see your mistakes or you stop liking it as much as you liked when you had started. That's what happens with me generally.

When I come up with some really nice poses I get attached to them and I only see good side of the poses. So when i am told to change few things in the poses I like, it is difficult to think that changing them would improve my animation. I have learned that while critiquing my own work if I become unbiased and try to see what is not working first then it helps me understand why I need to change poses. After that it is also a good idea to see what works or which part helps in telling the story so when you make changes you keep good stuff and throw bad stuff out. I am still getting into this process. I think this method might work for me.

A beautiful short: Leo's Song

Power of storytelling! This reminds us again that we really don't need fancy animation or highly complex rendering to tell the story.