Story of an Under Construction Web Page

Before I begin let me warn you of a long blabber. With that said, here's the story!
Not so long ago there was a webpage that was faceless. It was under construction and all it had for a face was a plain statement "Web page under construction." It saddened it immensely that it's creators were negligent of its appearance. The most depressing part was, while it was visited by many everyday, the webpage would only leave its visitors disappointed with nothing to show or give.
One day a kind designer took pity on the faceless web page and decided to do something about it. The designer created a mask for the web page to wear while it waited for it's final identity. The mask was so good that to the web page's delight it was visited by an ever increasing number of visitors. The web page was never sad again and its visitors were not disappointed any more.
That was the sweet story of an under construction webpage. I have recently started taking interest in this blog. In my enthusiasm to write about my work, I created a couple of blank static pages as you can see in the top bar of this blog. People visited these pages expecting something nice to see but disappointingly there was nothing on these pages. So while busy developing the content for these pages I thought of putting a "web page under construction" statement on each of these pages. Such a simple quick fix solution! But is it worth visitor's time and effort? Worse, would he or she ever return back to check the blog again? I tried to recall different under construction pages from various websites that I had visited in the past. I could recall only those pages that were unique and creative in handling the issue. They didn't leave their visitors empty handed. If you come to think of it, the ways in which an under construction page can be shown creatively are immense. The design could be all wacky yet relevant to what the website is about. For example an under construction page of a website dealing with bakery products could show a cake being baked in an oven with a tag line, "this page is being baked, check back soon".
I decided to create my own "page under construction art".The result is what you see in the beginning of this post. I wanted the artwork and the subject to be well suited for a designer's blog. A friend of mine, Zinal Patel suggested me to create an animation to suit my profession as an animator and also to signify the inclination of this blog's content towards animation. I wanted the design to be such that, those who have met me earlier or have known me as a person should be able to relate with it yet the design should make sense to others who don't know me. So I made the character in the animation a caricature of mine and no I don't wear that costume for work. The character in the animation trying to work balancing himself on an unstable platform creates tension in the scene. Because of this the scene has the potential to turn into an adrenaline moment which keeps the viewer interested in the final outcome of this tension. It took me three days to create the above animation. It is created entirely in adobe flash to keep the size as low as possible for web viewing. The size of above animation is 50 KB.
That is all I have to write about a page under construction. I think, I have already blabbered enough. If you have any queries, post them in the comments and I'll be glad to answer them. 

Prithvi (Earth)

Prithvi (Earth) from tuhin paul on Vimeo.
This is an old animation that I along with a team of my friends worked on in year 2008. We were still studying at NID (National Institute of Design) at that time. This was not supposed to be a standalone animation video earlier but an interactive flash animation as a part of an installation. As a custom in NID we were to make an installation for display during the convocation ceremony of our super-seniors. After thinking over many different ideas we zeroed in on to this one idea of showing evolution of human society with the passage of time and its effect on earth. The reason for having the animation interactive was to make the whole user experience more engaging. We also took up a challenge of incorporating interactivity without having the user to be acquainted with computers. It took us a week's time to finish this and put up for display. More details about this project is available here.

Back again

It's been almost 2 years since I have posted anything on this blog. For those who have just read my previous post, I would wait for the laughter to subside. I keep on making a mockery of myself :P. I am glad that at least I am still sticking to my decision to blog. I find it a little tough to write and to write something that looks like a nice read to me takes quite long. Another thing that dissuades me from writing, is the question that comes to my mind every time I decide to write, "what am I going to write about and is it worth writing?" One fine day I came across a blog by Mark Kennedy. Mark Kennedy is a story artist at Walt Disney Studios and has worked as head of story in Disney's film Tangled (2010). In his blog he writes about animation, storyboarding, visual design and everything that he is passionate about and that is worth writing about. I think I should do the same too. So to begin with I spent a day on cosmetic makeover of this blog. I hope I'll continue blogging this time at least more frequently than one post in a year or two.

Would blog regularly :)

Thats right. I have decided to write regularly. One day I created this blog and in next three days I posted three times on it. This was two years back. Since then Its been gathering dust. Today to comment on someone elses blog I signed in and just paid a visit to my own blog. The three posts welcomed me. I was delighted to read them again. It was like listening to a two years younger version of mine. Also I think there are many ways in which writing helps.

It makes you think else we dont we wont evolve :P

I sketch a lot and I think its exactly like sketching. It lets you see your thoughts more clearly.

Just what I realized today, through this you can speak to your past as well as future. Nice I know :)

It tells how I have changed over time.

And I want to write stories that I would later on Animate or illustrate for a book.

So I must blog regularly

The Orientation

Ok... we had this 2 day orientation. Dont know what were we being oriented towards. At the end I am totally disoriented and so are others. We have no idea what are we supposed to do. Some of us (in fact most of us) got ragged and I was missing from the scene. But I guess thats ok. A healthy relationship doesnt demand a ragging. Many of us have work experience of 1 - 2 years. Course commences on 18th.

Running around

As I have got selected for NID, I am busy doing a lot of jogging these days. And doing it all day long, from early morning to late night. Sometimes for acquiring transcripts from the administration block, sometimes for getting the documents attested, and sometimes to ask the people at academic office at NID whether they have received my Draft. But I guess its ok. I can now boast of a busy schedule.