The Baby Is Coming!

Received a real good news the other day. I am finally going to be a real uncle in October. This is happening too fast. The wedding in December was like yesterday. I still haven't finish editing my sister's wedding video. Have to finish it by this weekend. If not I have to include the birth too :). That's the intro title you are seeing. Watch out baby, we are going to rock 'n' roll :)

The Storm Is Coming To 'Paradise'

After weeks of testing in AfterBurn I finally decided to do the 'Stormy Clouds' in Vue 6 Xtreme using the new MetaClouds. It has less options compared to AfterBurn for 3DS Max but it has one important feature that I need most, individual cloud modeling. Each of the cloud's blob can be moved and scaled as I wish. Almost like sculpting it. The animation of the cloud texture is based on the Z value, that is Z=time. For this sequence I used Z=0.2 and that will give a steady rolling texture.

Down South And On The Other Side

The other day my 'step daughter' Breianne wrote to me and send a couple of photos. On this one Danielle is on the right and Breianne is on the left with her son Wyatt, my little darling. The guy in the middle is still a mystery. They all live in Tennessee. Where you may ask. Well it's down south and north of Jawjuh, Hot-lanta :)

Living In An Incubator

Finally after months of waiting my company JAZ Multimedia got the 'green light' to move in the Incubator Centre at Plaza Sentral. I am glad that it is fully furnished and quite well done. I just bring in my new laptop and just plug it in for the free Internet access. Well not just a laptop, just bought a new electric thermos for my on going supply of hot tea. For the next two years it is going to be a lot of hard work, 24/7 most likely. Would someone send me a two year supply of Hershey's bars of toffee and nuts nougat :)

Here are a couple of other shots of the Incubator:

Technorati Tags: MSC,KL Sentral Incubator

Old Friend With A New Soul

I was down south last weekend visiting my dad. Met an old friend, a Roland MP-600 electronic piano that I used to practice on during the 70's for my classical class. Not too fond of the electronic sound but it was the only piano that I could practice at night with the headphones on without waking up the neighbours. In 2005 I retrofitted it with a microcontroller, LCD display and a specially designed interface to connect to modern sound modules and computers via MIDI. Now it can pretend that it is a Steinway or Boesendorfer. Here is my original schematic: http://www.imagefuse.com/info.php?id_pic=11837.

Ships Of 'Paradise'

Finally done modelling all three ships for the feature trailer 'Strangers In Paradise'. Primary model done on Rhino and will be completed in Maya for the finer details and texturing. From left to right, the Pirate Boat, the Main Ship & the Ghost Ship. These are ships that sailed around the waters of South China Sea in the 1800s.

Spicy Sunday

Found a new recipe from the Pakistani collection. No fancy name. Just Ginger Chicken. I was quite curious about the initial preparation. The meat is boiled in water rather than fry with oil or ghee. Though oil and butter are added later. I suggest to go easy on the pepper for those who cannot tolerate hot & spicy. For my standard it is just below the devil's mark. It is tasty with a slight variation of my usual spicy food. Here are the ingredients and operation manual:

Ingredients:
chicken 1/2kg
green chillies 3-4
turmeric (haldi) powder 1/4 tsp
garam masala 1/2 tsp
coriander(dhania)leaves 1/2 tsp
chinese salt 1/2 tsp
oil 1/4 cup
butter 2 tbsp
tomatoes 3-4
ginger 1/4 cup (chop)
garlic/ginger paste 1 tbsp
black pepper 1 tsp
salt 1 tsp
ketchup 1 tbsp
yogurt 1/2 cup
red chillies 1 tsp

Method:
In a pan add chicken, ginger garlic paste,tomatoes cook until water dries. Then add chinese salt, salt, red chillies, black pepper, turmeric powder, butter, oil cook until oil separates. Then add (whipped) yogurt, green chillies, ketchup, tiny slices of ginger, garam masala, cook on medium heat for 3 mins. Then garnish with coriander leaves and serve with raita and naan.