PatternMaker with colors !

Shown below are some of my quick creations in PatternMaker aka Rangoli app(screenshots)

Click on image below to open the app.

And now comes PatternMaker with Color options. Though the currently colors are not user configurable. Each time you click on the shape you get a random color. I have intentionally kept the tool/application simpler in operation to keep down the complexity of having too many options. Though I am working at making the color selection more simpler than just adding a colorPicker !

The undo has become a little buggy after color change is introduced. Will fix it soon.

One most important feature that the app is lagging is save option. Will be done in next release. Till then you have to resort to printscreen option.

Perlin

Perlin noise is a boon for developers and designer as this is able to create natural patterns as in landscapes, water etc. Given parameters of different values it can generate wonderful patterns.

One of my projects needed a water ripple effect. So I researched a bit about this on internet and found very good examples done in Flash and Java. And Perlin was the common thing among them.

Flash 8 and above gives perlin noise as a function of BitmapData class, with which you can generate a texture or pattern in single line of code. And when it is animated it is amazing to look at what different things can be achieved. From wood texture to sea waves to clouds to cloth furling.

See example below.
This generates a cool satin/water like effect. And changing colors can give you more.
Try changing different parameters.

Illustrator 9

Taking some time out of busy work, I managed to come up with this.
Tried out blend option to blend two different strokes. And then touched upon a bit with blur and linear blur in photoshop.

First step toward future interactions

I have been waiting for this moment since very long. Designing and developing my own multitouch applications. But to do that I must learn about it. Numerous articles have been written about it and I'm not going to add much to it. However I want to jot down my experiments and learning for my own sake and for other beginners like me.
In the pursuit of doing so I have created another blog KTouch wherein I will be posting my experiments. This blog will work as my resource pool for future reference.

The multi touch feel

Ok so being an interaction designer you got to do things which makes people say "AHA" or "WOW"
No no it's really not like that. But that's the byproduct of whatever work we do. People are going to exclaim these words implicitly

Stealing some time out from their busy schedule few of the hole-diggers (well this is what we have started calling ourselves at IDC, it's an alias for Interaction Design students @IDC) have planned to make this DDS a big event by putting up some of the works which are going to take the eyes of the audience out from their head. I'm sounding too violent !?!?!.

There was one time during Techfest when even people from Computer Science and Electronics dept. of IIT were found numb looking at the applications designed and developed by Hole diggers.
If you remember I posted about in "Illumiletter" the gesture based input system for drawing and playing with letters. You can see the video here >>

And this time during DDS (Degree 44) we are going to strike back again with some jaw dropping works and experiments. Multitouch applications are in our focus now. We have been working hard on this to get it to work. Thanks to NUIGroup which provided open source files on building these applications and the product.

Plagiarism-1

In this post and the subsequent series of posts that are going to follow this, I will discuss what this word "Plagiarism" mean and what threat does it pose for the one who creates and the one who takes. As a designer and a honest person I thought it would be nice to take a note of this.

I confess that even I have done it many a times. But not after an instance when my professor pointed to graphical icons (they were small to represent sections) in my portfolio work and asked me whether I made it. Though my answer was no, he said that I had not done the right thing. I should have atleast acknowledged the creator. And that was an eye opener for me. Today it's me who's taking the portion of work of the original creator and publishing under my authorship, tommorow it can be some body else doing same with my (original) work.
I am not at sounding sarcastic or arrogant when I say "my" work nor am I being selfish.

Ok so here goes the first session with meanings of "plagiarism" from around the web.

Wikipedia says it thus
"
Plagiarism is the practice of claiming or implying original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement. Unlike cases of forgery, in which the authenticity of the writing, document, or some other kind of object itself is in question, plagiarism is concerned with the issue of false attribution.
"
And it goes on by classifying plagiarism as

• Academia
• Journalism
• Online plagiarism
• Other contexts
• Self-plagiarism

Now there is something called self plagiarism too, in which you reuse your published creation again and again without attributing to the original work and calling each a new creation. Now that's not fair too even if it's your own work.

Dictionary.com says thus
"

• the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.
• something used and represented in this manner

"

Now without being plagiarist myself I would thank Wikipedia and Dictionary.com for providing such a nice resource.

And you know what, am thinking of doing some creative assignment on the same topic.
Keep reading

My new post

I bought this from a super mall. At the first sight it allured me and I wanted to buy this little thing which can keep you busy for hours. And it's compact so can be carried anywhere. It can be your key-chain tag or hand band or head band and what not. The bright colors are promising moral uplifters.

Processing

Processing is said to be the programming language for designers. It is one of the most lethal weapon with designer to make dynamic stuffs. It's based on Java language. More information here >>
So I thought why not I should also try it out.

The constructs are very easy for a beginner. And the library of functions is very concise and intuitive from the name.

And that's my one of the earliest experiments with Processing. I have taken a square stroke and moving it to and fro and at the same time rotating it. I have lowered the transparency of the stroke to give it a neon feeling.

Very cool effect.
This tool is generally used for interactive installations and also for data visualizations.

My first attempt on illustrations

Well I have tried this in past also, but never took it seriously.

Now this is some serious work from me. I thought about doing some illustrations with some thoughts in mind and drew it.



[the above one is a copy from newspaper]

Time management for designers

Designers are free souls. They like to do work whenever they like. There are no time constraints for them. Till now what I have experienced is that we do most of our work in the last minutes of submissions or deadlines. Though we try to follow a strict timeline and management system, last minute change is cent percent expected hence whatever significant work is done is in the last minutes/hours.

So do you agree with this?

Well I don't agree fully. It's true that creativity needs time ( a lot of time for really creative and logical work). But then what's the use of it if it doesn't happen at the required hour?

We need to atleast chalk out our activities and deadlines and most importantly what is to be done. The last part is the most important and deadly one. As a designer you need to fix your mind to one thing that is most appropriate. You can't experiment till the last minute and still say that the work would have been done better. Well then it's not the final design.

One of my professors is too good in this. From the very beginning of the project he's quite clear of what needs to be done and how much time it'll take. And then he plans the things leaving buffer time at the end to cope up with any unexpected jobs. Yes true that the kind of foresightedness he has comes with experience, but we need to start practicing it from now.

My Logo - 2

Here comes another one.



This has rounded edges for the main element which shows k (lower case) in a fancy way.
The leg and arm of k is tilted as if to hold globe in it.
It also has 'c' written inside which goes along with rescent
so the word becomes 'k-rescent' or 'crescent'. I have always longed for a company with name crescent and also thought of registering it. But so many companies out there has booked the name.
I have tried to capture and depict the elegance and and charm of a crescent moon as if it happened rescently only.

Meanwhile I was trying to look around web for inspiration and I came across this site.>>
I would just say marvellous

My Logo - 1

I have been trying on this since last few years.
Making a logo of my own. Which can depict my personality traits and attitude and skills.

All has been done on paper. So many scribbles and doodles and every time I come up with new idea and the old one stays on paper.

So today before this idea goes off, I quickly implemented it.


Well the logo goes along with Web 2.0 standards ;-)
Typographical elements and principles were used to arrive at this one.
If you see the stem of K is quite thick which means steadiness.
The leg is stretched outside to acquire more strength and if you see carefully, K looks as if it's standing tall.
The orange color gives vigor to logo and the shiny tint gives it advanced professional touch.

Hmmm so lot explained.
Well I have many of them in my mind and on paper. Will be putting up all of them soon.

Cool online photo editing

Well desktop is slowly moving online.
We have lot of softwares available online which can partly serve the functions done by desktop applications.
I found this cool photo editing online application which applies filters, modifies images in just no time. And the interface is too cool to resist yourself from using it.

This is the original image I used.


after applying the soft filter



And this is after applying infra red filter



Try it out picnik

Make a comic strip

Ever wanted to make a comic strip from a sequence of photographs you have.
Want to make a scenario (interaction designers))))))

visit this
http://www.comeeko.com/

Well I made one myself.

In case you don't want to go through the pain of creating your own login
use mine
username : kernel_test
pwd : kumartest

What is art?

Trying to find out the answer from common man.
What is perceived as art.
Is it physical or abstract? Is it good or bad? Are there any types?
What effect does it create to the viewer?

These are some of the questions that we have in our mind. But never set out to ask?
Atleast I haven't ever tried. But now as a part of one of my assignments looking at the varied (and weird) definitions of art from people who are not at all related with art (ohh! how do I know who is related to art and who is not). I'm myself not clear.

So the journey begins...

Google sketchup

Oh my God!!!

I had always wanted to have such a tool. Modelling 3d graphics was never so simple and effective and faaaaaast.
Here is Sketchup from Google. Simply superb tool for modelling in spaces. Developed for the conceptual stages of design, SketchUp is powerful yet easy-to-learn 3D software. It is the pencil of digital design. This award-winning software combines a simple, yet robust tool-set that streamlines and simplifies 3D design inside your computer. SketchUp is being used by anyone with the desire to Dream, Design and Communicate in 3D!

This is my home.



And this is the outcome of tweaking around the software just for 15 minutes. Imagine what wonders it can do if we take it seriously. Really helpful when we want to project our thought process in space and time.

Go for it www.sketchup.google.com

Note: from my software wishlist one is down..

A new look to blog

Since morning I was trying to give a new and dynamic look to my blog. And there it is.
Just can't wait for tweaking more things with this.

First stop animation

I was just playing with flash and my friend with camera and the stick board in our class room. And he came up with a series of images. I quickly transferred them on my comp. and to flash and voilla the result is an animation.

Watch out!!!