Ode to Magritte the Magician

Those '90s Games

I was recently hired to create an intro clip for a YouTube gamer. Doing intros is pretty usual stuff that a lot of people want, but what was unique about this gig, was that the guy wanted it to look and behave exactly like it was the early ‘90s. The age of NES! (We used to call it just TV Video Games)

You see, he’s a Minecraft player and absolutely loved the retro games. This meant I had to figure out what made those games look and sound and feel the way they used to, which in turn meant – Game Time! :D

For those of you who didn’t know, you can still play all the games that you used to, as a kid. There are emulators and Virtual ROMs(Links at the bottom of the post) available, that let you load up any NES game from any of the  ’99 in one’, ’21 in one’ or what used to be me and my brother’s favourite – ’76 in one’, that you used to own. Remember these? We used to call them cassettes :D

We now call those games 8-bit games, because those Nintendo systems had an 8-bit graphics processor. 8 bit, in terms of colour depth, is just 256 colours that could be displayed on screen. The creators had to make games containing visuals and audio, that could be processed by these processors to be rendered on screen. The result was that the visuals would be very low resolution and the music would be just beeps and clicks, varying in tone and tempo.

But, this did not hold them back one bit. Boy oh boy, they created some of the best games ever. It was so engrossing that I remember my parents used to hide the gaming system up in the loft and let us play only during the holidays. We had a Chinese Replica NES like the one in the picture below – I don’t think the actual NES was available in India then. The best part was, everyone had it and when cousins used to visit during the holidays, they brought their cassettes with them and we would sit and play these new games for hours on end. The system was powered by a 9V adapter and we usually kept running out of adapters, because the coils inside got burnt from being used too much. So another rule imposed by my mom came into effect at our house – switch off as soon as the adapter got heated up :D Like King Robert says, “Those were the days!”

Coming back to my gig, I figured out ways to create and bring pixel art (Artwork that is pixelated :D) to life. I put it all together and found that it looked like the retro games all right, but it definitely didn’t feel like it. Not being able to figure out what was wrong, I asked the gamer if he saw what was wrong with it. He saw it a couple of times and kind of blurted out that it was too smooth. Of course! Having strived to achieve smooth motion when animating things, I had bluntly done the same thing on this video as well. But again, the processors of the day, permitted only about 6-8 frames per second, which was way less than the animation standard of 12 frames per second that made Tom and Jerry and other Hannah Barbera cartoons super smooth. So back I went to make the video more choppy (Never have I ever done that before :D ).

Below are a couple of wonderful sites I discovered while roaming the internet, looking for 8 bit music to use with my video:

Make your own 8 bit Music - Link

An MIT Scratch project that lets you create your own 8 bit music.

An amazing YouTube channel that puts out 8 bit remixes of popular songs. Absolutely loved it. Here's the Link.

Also, here are the links to download the NES Emulator and the Roms. Enjoy reliving the 90s!

Virtual NES - Link 

ROMS - Link

Armur Animates

August 15th has always been a special day for me personally. I think it started when I wore a lot of makeup and played the role of a Terrorist in an Independence Day skit at school. That was when I learnt to let go of my inhibitions and started moving out of my comfort zone. I guess that taught me the valuable lesson that all good things lie outside your comfort zone and it is up to you to go seek it. Since then, I have done all sorts of crazy things on August 15th, including walking the ramp in a Fashion Show :)
Last year, it was another crazy leap, when I bumped up my personal goals and ambitions in cycling, from that of an endurance rider to that of a racer. How did I do that? I went ahead and got myself a shiny racing road bike - the Fuji Roubaix 1.3 :D Crazy investment, but one that has paid off in ways that I had not even imagined.That brings us to this year and my announcement! Not something crazy and spontaneous, but something I've been working on for several months now. I'm launching "ARMUR ANIMATES" - my own animation studio, offering Character Animation, Motion Graphics, Animated Intros, and Whiteboard Animation services.
From wondering "How the hell did they make that cartoon?", after re-watching every single Tom and Jerry Cartoon, (I bought the DVD set as a gift for a kid to enjoy, ended up watching it all first before gifting it :)) to actually understanding the process and making the characters actually do stuff, I've completely enjoyed the experience so far. Launching this studio and offering my professional services to others is taking it to the next level - which is beyond my comfort zone. Hence, perfect for Independence Day :D
Here's the intro video I've put together for the launch of Armur Animates:

Why is Cycling so Interesting?

Well, I recently came across this wonderful video put together by Eurosport, explaining the technical side of sprinting and how sprint trains work. It was a very well made video with colourful graphics and catchy sound effects. Having followed the sport since the days of Armstrong and being actually involved in it at an amateur level for over a year now, these technical aspects are kind of ingrained into almost every training ride I do and so I did not give the video a second thought. However, what surprised me was people’s reaction to it! It was shared millions of times and several of my friends shared it and tagged me on Facebook.

It was then that I realized what was so special about it. It explained the science behind the sport and implicitly explained why it is so interesting! Cycling is a Hi-tech sport like Formula 1, with new technologies and advanced bicycles coming up every season. There’s one big difference though. The engines powering the machines are you and me. This simple fact, adds an entire dimension to the sport, making it the fine art of balancing the science of aerodynamics, rolling resistance, pedaling efficiency and the likes with the intricacies of Human Physiology!

The human body is like no other engine. We all know about the basic nutrients like carbohydrates, fats and proteins. I knew about it too. It was stuff I had learned in school and picked up from a conversation here and there – something along the lines of “Fats are bad”, “Milk is good, it has proteins”, “Parle G - G for Genius!”, Blah blah blah.  So when I started riding really long distances on my bicycle a year and a half back, I had only these hear-tell things to guide me and guess what happened - I failed miserably. So I scoured the internet just like always, to actually understand what the hell was actually happening inside me! Well, it turns out that the body uses all three nutrients to produce energy that we then use to do stuff. In fact, it produces energy from all three different fuel sources, all the time, all at the same time!

Protein is what makes up the muscles, organs and all the other crazy stuff that’s inside you. Let’s just skip that part here. Carbs is something the body cannot store a lot of. HOWEVER, the body can store all the fat that we eat. It just dumps it under the skin as {BIOLOGY ALERT} adipose tissue {BIOLOGY ALERT ENDS}. Oh yeah, I’m talking about the flabs on your belly, you’re guiltily looking down at now. That’s kind of like our biggest fuel tank and, turns out… surprise surprise, it’s also the best type of fuel! That explains why our body preserves it like it’s its gold or something.

So when you are cycling, or for that matter doing any activity like running or swimming, the body tries to make maximum use of its best fuel. BUT.. Yeah, just like all good things, there’s a catch here too :( - it is a slow process. It is fine when you are riding along slowly, but when you need to run like Usain Bolt or sprint like Mark Cavendish – it just doesn’t work. So what does the body’s command center order? Just like the Mad King, it says, “BURN THEM ALL !!!!”. Whoops. No, that’s not right. Sorry about that Game Of Thrones hangover. It says, “Burn more Carbs !!!”.

That gets you going like this:

BUT (Damn it!!!), it leaves behind this:

Well, not quite smoke, but {BIOLOGY ALERT} lactate ions {BIOLOGY ALERT ENDS} in your muscles. Oh, that’s just something that makes you feel like this:

And if you still keep going at the Road Runner’s pace, this is what will happen:

Ah yeah, I guess that’s one too many ‘The Road Runner Show’ reference. But that’s almost exactly what happens. You burn out or hit the wall. You’ll come to a crawl.

So that brings us back to me and my long long rides. How do I keep going for days on end? Simple - “Don’t go fast!” Let the body use a lot of the highly efficient Fats and less of the Carbs, drink a lot of water and when you feel like you are going to run out of carbs (You feel hungry), eat High Carb foods. Follow this and you can practically keep going on and on. There’s just one other thing that could come in your way though. Sleep. You keep going long enough; Jamie from your own Kingsguard will stab you in the back! Err, excuse the hangover. Basically, your body knocks you down and as a result, you may even fall asleep on your bike (Ahem ahem, yeah I know you’re looking at me)(in case you are wondering why, read this).  Oh and ‘one more thing’ (Gosh, now I feel like Steve Jobs), fatigue starts setting in after a bunch of hours. It manifests itself in different forms – your butt might start to hurt (ouch!), you might get headache, leg pain or something like that. That’s when mental toughness comes into the picture. TAT TA DA! Just keep this in mind, “the only thing worse than all that pain is the guilt you feel when you quit”. So keep chugging along.

If, “that’s all fine, but I want to go faster as well! It’s the speed that thrills me” is what you are saying (like I’ve been saying for a while now), keep reading.

Remember when the Command center orders “Burn more Carbs !!!”? That point is called the {BIOLOGY ALERT} Lactate Threshold {BIOLOGY ALERT ENDS}. Below that point, you are like the beloved Hero (Honda) Splendor – normal speed and awesome mileage; above it you are like the Rut tut tut ing 2 Stroke Yamaha RD350 – great speed and acceleration but lots of gunky smoke and poor mileage. That’s not the end of the story though, because like I said, the body is like no other engine. It can adapt over time!

All you have to do is to keep telling it that you need to go faster. Tell it? No not like talking to yourself or something like that. You go fast and take it beyond the lactate threshold for a while and return back below it, before you burn out. What does that do? It sends pain signals (ever heard cyclists boast proudly about suffering? This is it) straight to the command center. You keep doing this often and regularly for a period of time, the command center gets super pissed off at you for making it suffer. THEN, just to make itself comfortable, it goes back in time through the Weirwood, assumes the name Brandon the Builder and raises a magic wall. Wait NO, that’s not it. It just does some cool biological stuff to be able to use the super fuel – fats, even at the higher speeds! The result? Speed of RD350 with the mileage of Splendor AND no gunky smoke! Woot!

Simply put, this is what training is. You just keep playing this game with the command center again and again until you are like this:

Damn, I can’t get enough of Chuck Jones. But I guess that’s enough Biology and GOT for the day.

That's all folks! {PHYSICS ALERT} May the wind always be at your back {PHYSICS ALERT ENDS}

My first foray into Animation

So about a month back, a friend of mine, Sharada, did an amazing oil painting. This was at a time when I was just starting out with Adobe Illustrator. The first thing that struck me when I saw the painting was the colors. It was bright and it was vibrant! I loved it.

Then, the techie in me started calculating if it would be possible to recreate it digitally, how would the colours be, where would the anchor points go and such stuff. I got back home and decided to actually give it a shot. My god! It was complex! It was only when I got into the details that I started seeing how the different sections were not just one colour but a seamless gradient of two or more colors. Wow!! I think I learnt to truly appreciate art that day :) Kudos to you Sharada.

Not someone to give up on a task, I put in the long hours and recreated it, but that was not all! New ideas had cropped up in my head and I plotted to make an animation of it actually being painted. So then began the long hours to break down the image into frames of it being painted, which finally ended last night!!

Now all that's left to do is to share it with you guys and await your valuable feedback :) So here it is folks: