Adobe Photoshop
Autodesk Maya
Google Maps
Google Earth

Lets get started

For this post, i am using the map data from NYC’s gis website. Here is the link http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/

The first thing you need to do is decide the area on the map you are going to work on. I am going to start small, just a block from downtown brooklyn for now. My ultimate motive for doing this is to publish it inside BetaVille, the project i am working for as a 3D Artist right now. So, here is the block. All you need is a screenshot of the block.

Screenshot for building the buildings ground up.

Now, Open this up in Photoshop. We are going to use the pen tool to pen on top of the edges of the buildings.

Open it up in photoshop

Select the Pen Tool

Pen on top of the building edges

Export the paths to illustrator

Export Options

Now lets open up Maya and import the illustrator file into the scene. Notice that the plane is vertical to your grid. This happens when your up axis is Y. Now Select all of it and group (Command + G on a mac and Ctrl + G on windows). Rotate the X-Axis to a -90. It should now have nicely lined up with your grid.

Import the file

Looks vertical to the grid

Group them together and rotate

Now we switch the mode to surfaces and then hit Surfaces->Planar on the menu. Make sure the settings are the same as in the screenshot below by clicking on the little box next to Planar. After you make the planar mesh, duplicate it (Command + D on mac and Ctrl + D on win). Now hit the “w” key and move the duplicated mesh up till you can see the initial mesh clearly below it. Now select the initial mesh and delete it.

Change mode to surfaces

Use the Planar tool. Check settings with the screenshot before you use this tool.

Settings for the Planar tool

Duplicate the new mesh and move it up

Select the Old mesh and delete it.

Now you have a nice basic outline of the buildings in the new mesh. Center pivot and move it to the origin on the grid. Switch the mode to Polygons and select Edit Mesh -> Extrude on the menu. Select the small box near it to check the settings and match it with the settings in the screenshot. Now you will see the extrude mesh arrows, all you have to do is select the Y axis arrow and pull it up to give your buildings some height. Hit “5″ to view it in the textured mode.

Change Mode to Polygons

Center the pivot on the new mesh

Move mesh to the origin. you can hold "X" to make it stick to the grid

Select the options for Extrude on the menu

SEttings for Extrude

Right after you select extrude, this is how it looks. Hold the blue arrow and drag it up to add height to your mesh.

Finish Adding height

Press "5" on the keyboard to view the textured version

Now you have the basic figure of the buildings and some height as well. What you dont know is the actual height of the buildings. Lets do some google maps exploring and figure out the height. Pull up the block on google street view.

Look up on google maps

Look into street view

Now, the buildings in Brooklyn are roughly 12 feet high per floor. Using this, we can pretty much calculate the height of the building. You can also look for detailed info on the gis data from the city’s website. For our purposes we are just going to go with the 12 feet per floor assumption.

3 and a half floors, roughly 42 feet

6 floors , so roughly 72 feet

Around 10 floors, so 120 feet

Now lets go back into maya with this newly founded info and finish up the buildings. My grid is set to one line every 12 feet just to keep things simple.

Set the grid settings

Settings for the grid

Select the mesh and hit Mesh -> Separate

Meshes separated

Select the 120 feet building, Press "R" on the keyboard and pull up the height to 120 feet

Similarly for the 72 feet building

And the 42 foot buildings, do them together.

Now lets open up google earth to find out how big the block is. this is the final step to finish up the whole block. Use the measuring tool in google earth to measure the distance. Click on one corner and then click on the next corner to get the distance between the corners. change the scale to feet.

Google Earth Scale tool

Length of the block is around 202 feet

The width is 202 feet as well. A nice square block!

Now go back into maya and select everything. Adjust the mesh so that they line up on one edge to the center of the grid. You can pull the pivot to one corner by pressing (Fn + left on the mac) and pulling the pivot to where you want it. After this, just resize the length and width to 202 feet and we have a nice block from downtown brooklyn all built from ground up.

Switch to Top View

Move Pivot Manually (Fn + Left)

Move Pivot to the center of the grid

Rotate the mesh to line up with the grid.

Freeze transformations

Freeze transformations resets the transformations of the mesh to 0,0,0

Resize the buildings

A whole block from ground up. Thats it Folks!

Edit:
After you complete all of this, go into the outliner and pull out the meshes from the group using the middle mouse button. This makes them individual meshes. Cheers.

Pull em outta there with the middle mouse button.

Feel free to comment and ask questions.

Credits:
Ashwin Ramesh for figuring out how to do this.

Waiting in line at the Apple store's Genius bar. (W14th st, NYC)

I am dropping off my mac for its 2nd repair in 6 months at the apple store on W14th in NYC and sitting here, I wonder how thousands of people waiting to do the same can be engaged. Disney comes up with innovative games and shows for people waiting on line, why cant every store do the same? After all wouldn’t it change how people feel about their experience at the store. Keep in mind that most of these people are here because they have a problem with their product.

I think every store out there should be thinking about how to keep their customers engaged while waiting in line, be it to check out or check in. It could be as simple as a trivia game on screen to as complex as a social interaction based game. I was discussing waiting line games with my friend Ashwin and he threw out an idea for a mobile app that would ask you if you like the person in front of you or immediately behind you and people would be able to see what other people say about them! Think about it, you could meet and laugh with totally random people!

We also talked about a trivia based game where people had to keep moving on to the next screen every time they answer a question! This could take a completely social experience where a bunch of people try to answer the question along with you. At the end of the day, if we keep people engaged, they wont even notice the time flying past them.

But it all comes down to how much the company would invest in keeping their customers on the waiting line happy.

-Arun

My cousin posted this on facebook, just couldnt resist posting it here!!!!

A young Indian in the US was asked by his mother to explain the significance of “Diwali” to his younger brother, this is how he went about it…

” So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him.

But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a bitch, and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or something….

Since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so…. he decided to get his wife and his bro

along…. you know…so that they could all chill out together. But Dude, the forest was reeeeal scary shit… really man…they had monkeys and devils and shit like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked with darts and

bows and arrows… so it was fine.

But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man, and also his bro, Laxman, pissed… all the gods were with him… So anyways, you

don’t mess with gods. So, Ram, and his bro get an army of monkeys…

Dude, don’t ask me how they trained the damn monkeys… just go along with me, ok…

So, Ram, Lax and their monkeys whip this gangsta’s ass in his own hood…. Anyways, by this time, their time’s up in the forest… and anyways… it gets kinda boring, you know… no TV or malls or shit like that. So, they decided to hitch a ride back home… and when the people

realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home… they thought, well, you know, at least they deserve something nice… and they didn’t have any discos or clubs in those days… so they couldn’t take them

out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and shit… and since they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also…so it was pretty cooool… you know with all those fireworks…. Really, they even had some local band play along with the fireworks… and you know, what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding.., that was the very first

music-synchronized fireworks…. you know, like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you know. And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started.”

The mother fainted

I had a lot of those moments and I ve leart a great deal from executing them and not executing them. I have a feeling people need to understand the mistakes that are done commonly even though making an error is the best way to learn. So here are some pointers.

1. The IDEA

This is the most important of all. It defines what you want to do. You need to be clear on what you want to do. You can’t sell cars when you want to be selling spaceships.

2. The Market

You need to understand who your target audience. Not just who they are, but what they do and what they like and dislike. You cant sell chicken to a vegan, if you do – well you ve got great marketing skills. Which brings us to…

3. Marketing

This is not something you learn. This is an instinct. A right word at the right tome can make you a million dollars. You need to do your homework before you set out to market your idea or product. You shouldn’t have a problem if you the two things above right. You ll still require one other thing…

4. Pricing

This is one place you need to be clear about. You need to know at what prices to offer your servuces or products at. It’s not business if you end up making a loss even after you ve got the clients and finished the work on time. New entrepreneurs often find themselves in situations where they have to compromise on the price. This is where you need to get your marketing people to act smart. You need to set the minimum price for the work you will be doing. This should cover all the expenses involved for the whole team that might be involved in it. Everone has to eat, drink and sleep, that is the why they need to work.

5. Training

This is one of the most important part of a job well done. People can’t do something unless they are thaught how to do it. That is why there is so much demand for experienced people in any industry.

6. Satisfy your employees

The important part of getting a team to do their work is to keep the team moivated in all situations. It is okay to make a small investment if that means keeping your people happy and working. Seriously, buy that wii.

7. Keep your promises

Never promise the client that you can get the job done in 2 days if that is all it actually takes. Always leave time to correct errors and to make up for lost time. It’s always better totell the client you will get it done in 4 days and deliver the product early. It reflects on how fast you can get the job done. But this does not work at all times, it’s a risk but a calculated one. If it works you get a lot more business but it doesn’t well, you start all over again.

8. Always respond to your email

On some days, you will get hundreds of emails. On others, you will get none at all. You need to read everything and make intelligent replies to all of them. Be smart, always be nice. You never know when you will need one of them to help you out.

9. Be Organized

There is no alternative to this. You need to be organized at all times, keep your calender up to date. Attend all the events you are invited to. Attend all those breakfast things that people go to. Speak to people, get your brand out there.

10. ASK

You need something done, but you don’t know how to do it. You need to get someone to do something and you are trying to be polite. Well, before you know it, the person would be gone and you would have to go look for someone else who can do it. All it takes to get something done is to ask. There are endless things that can be accomplished by asking. People get huge deals by asking, people get stuff for free by asking. You might get that break you need by asking. SO, ASK.

11. Watch your step

You are your brand. Always watch what you say in public. Everything you say is attributed to your brand. Watch your language at all times, especially if your brand is related to kids in anyway. Watch what you post on the social networking sites.

12. NETWORKING, NETWORKING, NETWORKING.

You need to tell people what you are doing, at the same time you need to know what others are doing. Its all about networking. You know someone who knows someone who knows someone who can get you a deal on something you’ve been searching for. And, before you know it you will be great friends with all those people.

13. Talk to people about your idea

One of the mistakes entrepreneurs do is to keep their idea a huge secret from their friends. You will find that if you tell people about the idea, you get a lot of critics that is very helpful in how you proceed with the plan. But be smart about who you tell it to or someone might just use the idea. Get a lot of views on how you will be executing the plan. Trust me, it helps. A lot of problems in your proposal will be uncovered along with possible solutions.

14. Get some goodies made

People love goodies and handouts. It is one of the most effective ways to market your brand. It might just be an awesome wall paper. It can be as cool as a gadget that you can giveaway. But there has to be something that they(your target audience) can relate to.

15. Have FUN

You are not going to make it big unless you  enjoy what you do. Have fun doing it and there is nothing better.

I did not think all his views were correct. All the arguments were based on the thoughts of a lot of people cleverly pieced together to make a sound logical argument. I agree to Nicholas Carr’s view that the Internet has changed the way people think, but i do not agree that it is google that brought about the change. Google revolutionized the change. People evolve, in the way they think, in the way they work, in the way they search, in the way they live. All google did was to act as a platform to facilitate the change.

It has in no way made people stupid. If someone wanted to read a book, they would just go out there and get one. I read books, i turn to google when i need specific information about anything.  Someone said “I do not memorize what i can find in a book” and say “I don’t need to remember things i can find out from google (like, the weather!!!)”. But i know where to draw the line. Everybody does,  no one looks for each and everything online.

Looking at the evolutionary aspect of things, man started out by drawing symbols and then assigned sounds to the symbols. Sounds started getting personalized to the regions and hence languages came about. Then came the writing, then the books, then the radio, then the television, then the computer and then the World Wide Web. At one point, the only information sources were books or news channels on the radio. Now that there is this huge platform to share literally anything one wants the whole world to have access to, people have a problem with it. Of course it is going to change the way you look at things, but it is not going to essentially change how you process the information you gather from various sources.

Moreover, we do not tend to forget things very easily unless we have selective amnesia or any other disorder of that sort. Think about it, your neighbours cat got stuck on the roof, would you forget all about it after you see all those people trying to help the poor dear out? You go to google, you look for something, 99999 times in a million, you get what you are looking for. End of story. You don’t keep going back to it unless you need to.

All that said and done, google has become a way of life. There will not be a day of life without someone telling you to “google it” at least once. It only goes on to show how much we rely upon the search engine for information and it has absolutely no relation with the mental status of people. But that is one man’s view.

SAVE FOR YOUR DREAMS – Just because there is this new gadget in the market, or the new house is for sale, you don’t have to go out and start buying them. At some point in life you will come up with this idea which will have a light bulb glowing above your head. That will be a total turning point in your life where you will want to have some(read ‘a lot of’) cash on you.

ALWAYS BE POLITE AND HELPFUL – You never know when you might need the help of someone you never thought could help you. Never ever swear in public. Help anyone who asks your help. Your favor will not go unnoticed.

NETWORKING, NETWORKING, NETWORKING – Attend all those breakfasts and meeting that you get invited to. If someone comes up to you and asks a question, try to answer it or point out the person who can answer the question.

READ – This is perhaps the important of them all. You need to know what is happening out there. Look into views from different people. Take part in discussions and know the lay of the land in general.

ASK, AND IT WILL BE GIVEN – In most cases all you need to do is ask. You want to work with the multinational organization, ask. You want someone to advertise on your website, ask. You want someone write a post on your blog, ask. The bottom line is ASK. And hey, be nice when you do it.

MANAGE YOU TIME – This one is obvious.

Now, a little about Miss. Notkin and SavvyAuntie.com – her startup. One fine day, her niece wanted to talk about Dora, the cartoon character. Well, she had never heard of dora so she was totally at loss about what to tell the kid. Then it struck her as a business idea. She started up the website which specifically caters to Aunts and its all about their Nieces and Nephews. Gift ideas, diet plans, cartoon characters, game ideas, some old fashioned ranting, its all there. And it is growing in a very healthy pace.

SavvyAuntie.com – A brilliant idea with an absolutely brilliant person executing it. Take a look.

23. fanniemae

24. whathathgodwrought

25. chessboard

26. stalemate

again, dont ask me how !@!

This is one of the worst managed gigs i ve ever come across !! ! !

Don ask me how !@!

21. welding