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Avaiz, whose blog i read, is also an excellent digital artist[under Weird Work Studios©]. I recently visited his blog and saw this nice piece of work. Though he doesnt seem to do this often, these two pieces speaks for themselves for a talented amateur digitist.

[© Weird Work Studios : a4avaiz. I scaled it down to 768×576, Click on the image for a fullsize view]

I was also very much impressed with couple of his earlier creations like this:

[© Weird Work Studios : a4avaiz]

I remember being inspired by this work, I created a custom cap for myself like this:

Since Harini and I have our own kind of interests in art works, I threw a question at Avaiz asking him about the software tools he uses to create such nice pieces of art. He commented back on my blog. I figured I would post it here within the right context for everyone’s appreciation/benefit. Thanks avaiz and with your unofficial permission, I am linking to your works 🙂

My Question : what software do you use? These are really good, I just wanted to try my hand on it. Would appreicate if you share your tools/tips.

His Answer :There are many softwares out there, its best to start off with the standard ones. Adobe is a well known name in the market. It has many cards in its industry level pack, but the card everyone loves to play with is the Photoshop one. The scope for this soft is virtually, infinite due to the parameters that comes with each setting. You can start off with this one, play around and explore for there are lots of menus and options. Much basic ones are Macromedia’s Fireworks (this one is also vcool, lets you do basic stuff, but limited in functions), Jasc Paintshop, Pixia (freeware which is challenging photoshop), GIMP and many many many more..

Best of luck and time!

We have tried our hands with GIMP, which more or less is similar to Photoshop.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few” – Shunryu Suzuki

IdeaChampions has some good tips, tricks and ideas to foster your creativity and the spirit of innovation. Check them out. The web site has vast amount of information to fuel your creative desires.

Its been months since I have added photos to the album. While we are still waiting for the puerto rico pictures to be developed and delivered back to us, we had put the digital camera to work this past weekend. Enjoy a saturday night life with us in Manhattan.

With Arvind & Ranjini in Manhattan

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas & Prosperous New Year!

Fighting with Zee, SET for remote time, Sun TV in our home is hardly a winner. Niether of us are fans of the family dramas that rule the evening hours of the Indian channels. But one serial, Chidambara Ragasiyam has impressed me a whole lot. I like it so much that I have grown religious to watching it as I used to watch SpiderMan at 3 PM in DD in 1980s. Even when I forget everything, my mind clock exactly reminds me at 10pm on wednesday (Sun Tv in US is delayed a bit to account for west coast) and I get glued to the couch for a full 1/2 hour (Except for some annoying ads like kungumam, for which I switch to a basketball game or DiscoveryHD).

Marmadesam fame, Naga (naga001@hotmail.com) directs this thriller that clearly differs by miles from the rest of the Sun TV’s so called family soaps. And Naga has to be appreciated for being higly creative in all aspects when it is so easy for a director to get bogged down by the template-style serials that only care about good looking women who cry ostentatiously.

Naga, to start with, has done a great job penning a simple but spectacular story(and screenplay), an arresting thriller revolving around Nadi Josiyam and a handful of well-done charcters. Second, the individuals chosen for the roles were the odd ones out in the TVdom of chennai. They are not those you would see in every serial, eventually to confusing you to wonder, what serial you are really watching. Everyone one of the characters seem to be well carved and actors well chosen. They have done their part aptly if not extraordinarily. Thats more than enough for becoz the director has given your quality work in all aspects so you can overlook some subtle drawbacks.

Rehan scoring the music has done a neat but killer work by carefully recreating the theme “unknown” into the music. The grand theme music accentuated by strong percussion and skillfully rendered native sacred verses, is well conceived that it just pumps up your blood well before the serial starts. The title and credits designer must be whole heartedly appreciated. Excellent piece of work with finger prints design and some excellent origami work that begs you look into the screen while the credits roll. The sets and production design is also commendable more so becoz it blends well with the story line. A perfect 19the century rural home (with open-air mithams, that I remember seeing in my grandpa’s place in Thirukkannamangai) where Akash’s grandma lives to the more modern stylistically decoreated chennai house of YG Mahendran ( i dont remember his character’s name), the production design crew speak thru their sensible work. They knew exactly what they were doing. Unlike the more static shots of the other Sun TV soaps, here the camera is more a dynamic character that is so critical to the scenes. The wandering camera pumps more reality into the scenes and I always feel like I am watching all this happen live infront of me, while I swing above the characters freely in air.

The story is compelling that the audience gets engrossed in trying to solve the mystery themselves ( though they wont! ). The trick is also not to make it easy so you will keep coming abck to next serial to find out what the heck is going to happen. I consider myself to be a NOT a dumb viewer ( if not intelligent ) and every serial has only made me feel good that I chose to watch it and makes me want to come back next week. I think, in this world of chaotic TV media, such a feat is a great accompolishment.

Few other worthy programs for which I take the time to sit thru the whole half hour are …

‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ in Zee, great singing talents, accompolished judges and a wonderful host, Shaan. Sun TV screwed big time with Sabdha Swarangal where niether the host is engaging nor the guests are while the participants try to in vain. If I get to be in front of the TV when this is on, I sure watch SaReGaMaPa.

“Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai”, a reality-like interview-like talk show. But the host lets the guest and his/her friends/families speak, while he just skillfully engages them and the audience. Depending on who the guest is, I watch it.

Suki Sivam, on mornings in Sun TV. Its a fresh early morning treat to hear him talk about art of living. He is a man of wisdom but most important, a knack to explain some great prophecies in simplest of the terms. We wont leave with an empty hand for sure. More than the art of living, he is also a master of public speaking.

Solomon Pappaiah, on mornings in Sun TV. Who better than he do we need everyday to help us understand the inordinate verses of great Tamil classics & epcis on ‘How to live’. A perfect definition for ‘wit’ – ability to express in an ingeniously humorous manner.

While I like the above spots on TV, as of today, Chidambara Ragasiyam is the only one that drags me into it while others I watch more ad-hoc.

Instead of wasting her time and capacity to torn Sankaracharya’s reputation, I wish jayalalitha puts her political cleverness to work in getting BMW to set up its Indian operations in Chennai or elsewhere in Tamilnadu. When a heavy communist Kerala could be in the probable list without doing much to woo BMW, Tamilnadu can do lot better with one of nation’s best natural and human resources. Neither the chief minister knows priorities nor the citizens(in reacting to CM).

Written in a two part series, Rajesh Jain gives a glimpse of some the things characteristic of the thriving India. One observation got my attention in that post is this line about Internet Telephony :

Smart Indians are also buying Vonage boxes in the US and getting them to India to make calls to the US for a flat rate of $30 (Rs 1,350) a month. Geography indeed has no barriers!

Someone I know told me very recently about how he actually is subscribed to Vonage here in US, but installed the actual Modem/Phone in Chennai (India) and using it as a local US phone. Of course, they need to have broadband in India. After struggling thru the chennai broadband provider to set up the Vonage box across their firewall and fighting it out with their customer service to fix some technical issues ( USB port/firewall port), he somehow managed to set up the phone working. Now, he and anyone else interested in talking to his family in India is making local/long distance calls from all over US, never realizing that the call actually goes to India. They, in turn, make calls to anyone in US as just plain long distance. All for $29 that you pay for Vonage. I doubt if this will continue for ever but until BSNL or Vonage either one figure it out and block the idea, this seems to be a smartest move. I never thought about this idea frankly.

What if all the intenert cafes in chennai and other cities in India, buy vonage and start offering calls to US in dirt cheap rates? ( even less than Rs.2 running rate ). I am betting atleast few hundred clever minds are going to make some good fortune out of this before it bursts out. Watch out on your next trip to India when someone hads over a package to their family, it could a Vonage phone!

Perhaps, its part of Vonage’s plan. Vonage is already offerning local phone numbers, as an add on to your primary phone, for $5. So you can get a local phone number for UK and attach it to your primary phone. Your folks in UK can now make local calls from there with this new local UK number and it iwll ring up on your primary phone here in New york. All for localcall charge for your buddy. Its just picking and available for UK, Canada and Mexico for now. May not be too long before it gets to India.

This did make me laugh [Source : CartoonStock.com ]