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Bob Dullam built a full size working replica of The Tumbler from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The whole thing was built from scratch without blueprints, using only photo references found online. The total cost is an estimated $50,000-$70,000. He did the project for fun, and does not plan to sell. “You wouldn’t want to sell this if you had one, believe me,” Bob writes.

Source: SlashFilm

TrueSpace, one of the popular 3d production systems in the market - is now free. Here is a piece of art produced using TrueSpace:


It used to sell at a price around $600 before Microsoft acquired the parent company Caligari some time back.

TrueSpace, which is now actually a Microsoft product, is available for download at www.caligari.com (free registration required).

Different people have come up with different opinions about this relatively surprising news - to set free a $600 product. But the general opinion is that Microsoft has taken this step to compete with Google's SketchUp - which is also available for free - and allows you to upload content to Google Earth directly.

Here is an excerpt from the official blog posting:

As you'll recall, several months ago we acquired Caligari because of their advanced 3D toolset - trueSpace (among other assets). I've always felt sketchy about other 3D freeware, so starting today trueSpace 7.6 is now available for download.....FOR FREE! And, there is a direct connection into Live Search Maps so you can create SUPER high resolution 3D models using trueSpace, then right from the environment upload the model into Live Search Maps as a collection item. Once you've created your collection, you can import your collection into your Virtual Earth application and BAM you have your own custom 3D models in your Virtual Earth application. We'll host the models right in our 3D collections cloud! This is going to be a long post - get some coffee and make it diesel.

TrueSpace is way ahead in terms of features and power when it comes to comparison with SketchUp - so time will tell how the audience react to this.

I personally use Blender 3D, but choice is always good.

Talking about how technology affects human lives, well, here is a great example. I was talking to Munir some time back and suddenly he started giggling as if somebody finally gave him a "chocolate" after 2 years' gap. Once he felt he can settle down and type something else than just 'hahaha' or 'lol' or 'hehehe', he told me that his boss at his previous workplace is getting engaged this Sunday - but the twist? he is in Bahrain - and the rest of the necessary people to be involved are in Pakistan. So, it's going to be a "Remote Mangni" - nice buzz word after "web 2.0". We've been hearing about such stories of "online nikah" and all that - but we find it inconvenient for some reason. But is it really inconvenient? or just unconventional?

I'm sharing (with Munir's permission, of course) this chat transcript between him and his boss:

Boss says:
arranged hae

Munir says:
nice

Munir says:
buhat buhat mubarak ho

Boss says:
yes ..but I am in bahrain

Munir says:
phir?

Boss says:
remote ho gi..mairi taraf say ammi pehnayen geen ring

Munir says:
really

Munir says:
lush

Howz that!? =)

I was able to watch this Indian movie titled "Iqbal" - which is a story of a farmer's boy who wants to become a member of the Indian Cricket Team. The movie is good in itself with some really touching scenes - and as expected from an Indian movie: a lot of emotions.

Iqbal stars Naseeruddin Shah as the mentor of Iqbal, and a host of other characters. I loved how Iqbal's family members have acted in the movie. Especially Khatija, Iqbal's younger sister who helps him in every way possible - and is Iqbal's official interpreter - since Iqbal cannot hear or talk by birth.

I think movies like this should be more frequent from the Indian cinema. I have lately grown sick of the usual indian masala films that I cannot digest even if I have to see them for about 20 minutes.

I remember Satya, which I really liked - and it is one of my most favorite movies for some reason - and I always feel that Indian film makers should come up with similar stories more and more frequently. I agree that such movies may not generate the amount of revenue any masala film usually generates - but the situation is changing - and there are always people who are interested in intelligent cinema - that consumes you for a long term message - and not just a couple of hours of non-sense.

Additionall, I think it is the responsibility of the film makers to change the taste of those addicted to useless nonsense by introducing movies like this. Nagesh Kukunoor, the director of Iqbal is one of those people I guess, who want to change the taste of the audience by incorporating entertainment and real life values, to create a better experience. He has already directed similar kind of movies such as Rockford and Hyderabad Blues.

One of my very good friends wrote this poem and shared it with me. I really liked this one, so posting it here after permission from my friend who asked me not to show his name here for some reason. Read on and I think you'll like it too.

Kuch Log Aisey Hain
Jo Hawa Mei Urtey Hain

Azad Rehte Hain
Aur Gungunatey Hain

Ik Soch Rakhtey Hain
Khamosh Rehtey Hain

Kuch Log Aisey Hain
Jo Muskuratey Hain

Aasman Chhutey Hain
Per Zameen Pe Rehtey Hain

Buntey Nahi Sitarey
Roshni Detey Hain

Kuch Log Aisey Hain
Jo Hawa Mei Urtey Hain

Azad Rehtey Hain
Aur Gungunatey Hain

 

I went to the Capri cinema a few days back to see this movie with a fair bit of excitement as this is "Indiana Jones"... BUT I was utterly disappointed, and not just me but everyone around! This time the move makers try to be 'oh so cute' rather than focusing on something that makes sense.

One reviewer on IMDB got it right when he said:

When you come out of the cinema screen, turn around and look at the expressions of the people walking out behind you. I did, and it was a collective 'Has someone just farted?'

I went with Ahmed, Adeel and Hamid, and we had good fun together but we all were dissapointed with the movie.

OK, let's face it: Indiana Jones survives a nuclear blast just by hiding himself inside a fridge! and that fridge was inside the house where the nuclear explosion took place. Everything in that house literally melted of that massive nuclear explosion but here we go, our indi jones is well and alive and the fridge is just fine left after everything just vanished.

Here's another one: The enemies are an army of their own with advanced weaponry in their hands all the time and they're shown having machine guns firing with full flow onto the indi jones and crew, yet none of the indi jones members are hit by even a single bullet.. i'm pretty much sure those enemies weren't blind.. and they were soldiers so shouldn't miss a shot from 6 to 8 feet distance.

Now this one: In the end, out of no where does this UFO come into place and flies away.. i kinda laughed a lot at it.

There are so many other moments during the movie that you just literally get shocked to see: surviving three consecutive deadly waterfall jumps and landing safe in a boat in two of them and just safely in the water in the third (and most disasterous) one. That was so lame honestly.

well, i was so wrong when i felt that ppl like Lucas and Spielberg can't make stupid things.. actually they're humans and they just proved that! I'd still give it a 3 out of 10 for some eye candy/stunts and some funny moments...

Well, We just got done with our projects submission and exhibition on the 29th of May. I got 2nd prize for the computer graphics project I did. It's not too cool if an art student looks at it but for a computer science department, it was good enough to get 2nd prize. The group that came 1st did some software for Network Programming. I was just 0.75 marks behind the group who came 1st but well, whatever happens, it happens for good I guess.

I had to do all of it in a hurry, I had so many plans for this animation, but all went in vain as I just ignored those plans in order to get the animation done in time along with other course projects such as Network Programming and IS Audit (I hate you). But again, everybody has their bit of stories and reasons for most things all the time.

 

Here is the link for downloading the animation (size is 5.5 MB):

http://www.thesocialgeek.com/Kamran_CG_Project.zip 

Make sure you see the animation with your speakers turned on, otherwise it's no fun.

* also, the animation might show up too dark on some monitors. So please adjust the brightness accordingly.