Welcome to InkBlot!
Hi there, I am so glad that you signed up for InkBlot. This is my first foray into sharing my ideas, thoughts, and insight into the hobbies and topics that interest me. You might see some of the following topics on InkBlot:
Movie Reviews
Deep-dives into how things work
Tech Event Recaps
Events/experiences from my life
Cool videos I found
The music I’m listening to
and whatever comes to mind.
I want InkBlot to be a freeform extension of how I think and share my thinking with others, so you can always expect something new whenever I make new posts.
Wait, who are you?
Before we go any further, let’s kick things off with an introduction.
✌️
Hi, I’m Ritesh Kanchi.
I’m a junior in high school who highlights as a designer and developer.
I love creating and designing software that is both intuitive and elegant, something that just works.
I’ve worked on tons of different projects over the past few years, here are just a few that I’ve worked on:
I’m also an WWDC20 Scholar, and participate in FTC, FRC, and UIL in my spare time.
That’s just a bit about me, and I hope to share more about my work as InkBlot goes on.
So let’s kick things off.
I’m going to start this issue off short, as it’s an introduction with a small taste of what to expect with InkBlot.
Cool? Cool. Let’s get started.
Videos of the week
Last week was pretty busy, with exams and tests every other day, and not much sleep. During the midst of it was me, trying to keep up with the work, but also procrastinating by hopping on YouTube and finding something interesting.
Here’s some of my video highlights;
a journey into ai generated rooms
AI always continues to fascinate me. From GPT-3, all the way to the DLSS on the RTX 3080, AI has a spot in the tech world that keeps expanding.
One of my friends shared me this video, and I was honestly expecting more 😅. We’ve seen AI create fake people and even fake environments from crude drawings. But it seems at the point of making rooms, it struggles.
Now, there might be limitations due to computing power, training, etc. But all in all, pretty solid. These generated rooms reminded me of artwork from the 18th-19th centuries, with that grain and the neutral colors. It’s a pretty cool video, so check it out.
Tame Impala - Why Won’t They Talk To Me? (2020)
I’m going to be totally honest; you will be seeing lots of Tame Impala in InkBlot, it’s just a thing. While Why Won’t They Talk To Me is a great song, that’s not the reason I chose this video. The song is from 2012, so quite some time ago. However, this video’s main reason for existence is Adobe.
From October 20th-22nd, Adobe held their annual Adobe MAX 2020 conference virtually for the first time ever (it’s a year for firsts, isn’t it?) At MAX, they announced tons of updates and new features for a variety of their products. Here’s a quick overview:
Adobe Illustrator for iPad
Photoshop Neural Filters
Speech to Text in Premiere Pro
Roto Brush 2 in After Effects
This video was made with Premiere Pro for Adobe MAX 2020, Shot & Edited by Alex Haygarth.
The main thing that I love about this video, isn’t the fact that it’s Kevin Parker playing all the instruments separately and being composited in, but when Kevin is doing the same thing in different depths.
At 1:32, you can see three Kevin’s in the background, next to each other, singing and moving with the same verses (one may be reversed). Now you may think, “Oh, but that’s as simple as copy and paste!”, but consider this:
There is a pillar in front of them, so that needs to be accounted for. The floor is shiny, so there needs to be a reflection for that. Shadows are also something that always needs to be accounted for.
At 2:17, the same thing is happening, except all the Kevins are playing guitar. This is different than before, as there’s a depth, the furthest Kevin is the smallest, and thus has the smallest shadow and reflection. Same with the middle Kevin, but larger than the furthest.
3:48 has the same thing with the drums, except, you can now see the different angles of the drums. This means that the single motion recorded would be recorded from different angles to achieve this depth effect.
3:54 has an effect on a larger scale compared to 1:32, with ten Kevins, versus the three.
And again at 4:15, the same effects.
All in all, I think it’s a very cool video, showing off the power of Premiere Pro, with a bit of ✨magic✨. Was AI used here? I want to say it is, due to the complexity of some of these shots, but maybe it wasn’t, and there’s just a set way to achieve the effect and make it look natural.
What' I’m listening to
Every week, while I do listen to different playlists and albums, I usually find 3-4 songs that resonate with me for the week.
Useless by Omar Apollo
This was a song from an artist I’d never heard before: Omar Apollo. I really like the opening guitar, as well as the vocals that feels as if it’s “behind” the guitar tune. Everything starts piecing together as you go deeper, with the same repeating pattern on the guitar, beats from the drums, and background singers. All in all, I think it’s a very full song that has a lot going for it.
Space Ghost Coast to Coast by Glass Animals
Space Ghost Coast to Coast was from Glass Animals, a band I’ve grown to love in the past months. It starts off very calm and quiet, and picks up pace quickly. Everything just falls into place perfectly, and the abstraction brought from the instruments make it work. Lots of different types of sounds that just work together and complete the song. The Stripped Back version is just as good, with more of a drum beat that controls the song. There’s just an extra speed to it.
Is It True by Tame Impala
The Slow Rush came out a while ago, I keep coming back to it, finding new things to listen for each time. Is It True is a prime example of this. It starts with a very simple rhythm from the drums, then adds a synth/keyboard on top of it for complementary sound.
Throughout the song, it maintains this rhythm, with the very dragged out vocals making the vocal slow but the beat fresh and safe. If you listen carefully, you can isolate each separate instrument, which is harder to do nowadays with all the different sounds composers can make. One of my favorite renditions was Tame Impala on the Stephen Colbert show, where he played three instruments to create the song, piecing them together.
That’s all folks!
And that’s the end of the first issue of InkBlot. I’m going to (try and) hold myself accountable and try and push new issues each week, but we’ll see. Things are pretty weird and always changing still, but I hope to have at least one constant thing.
You can check out more about me and what I do at my website, https://ritesh.tech
You can also feel free to hit me up on Twitter if you have questions or just wanna chat, either works.
Until next time, 👋