Cartoon Your Face in Photoshop - Tutorial

To create a cartoon effect for your photo follow the steps in this tutorial. Here is what we are about to do:


Step 1
Open your image in Photoshop! Goto Filter -> Artistic -> Poster Edges.


Step 2
Select the magic wand tool  and eliminate the background. You may need the lasso tool  in case the background is complicated.





Step 3
Now you need the magic wand   again to eliminate the face colors and details.

Step 4
After that Goto Filter ->; Sketch ->; Graphic Pen.



Step 5
Next you need to select the Lasso tool and eliminate the dots and details that appear. 

Finally it should look like this.


Step 6
Apply color #ef6536 to the background. Apply color #fbd954 to the face and skin. Your final image is ready.



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Simple File Upload in C# .Net



Here are a few simple steps you can follow to upload files in C# ASP.Net using the File Upload Control in Visual Studio:
Step 1:
* Create the file upload control in the design view. The ID of my control is "File1".

Step 2:
*Here is the code to upload a file.


protected  string   uploadFile(string userid, string oldFileLocation)
{
    if (File1.PostedFile != null && File1.PostedFile.ContentLength>0)
    {
        string fn = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(File1.PostedFile.FileName);
        string SaveLocation = Server.MapPath("Folder") + "\\" + userid + "_" + fn;
 
        if (!fn.EndsWith(".doc") && !fn.EndsWith(".pdf") && !fn.EndsWith(".docx"))
        {
            return "Invalid File Type!";
        }
 
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(oldFileLocation))
        {
            System.IO.File.Delete(oldFileLocation);
        }
 
        File1.PostedFile.SaveAs(SaveLocation);
        return "File Uploaded!";
    }
}



Note:
*I have used "userid" to ensure that uploaded files have unique names.
*I have created a folder "Folder" to save files into.
*I have added a check for the format of the uploaded file. You can vary the valid file type.
*I have also done a check to delete the existing file for that user.
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2010 Summer Internship

I just finished with my Summer Internship at a Software firm: Prosix Softron Pvt. Ltd. 

The last 6 weeks of work were very interesting. I worked in C# ASP.Net to design web forms for several projects undertaken by the company. I learned to use Ajax and SQL as a part of development of online software systems. I gained knowledge about the important aspects of network security and learned to use various Visual Studio tools for the purpose of login, file upload, file export, report generation and many other. I worked in Visual Studio Environment with SQL Management Server. It was a great learning experience both at the personal and the professional level.

Prosix Softron is an IT Services and Solutions provider established in 1988 in Lucknow, INDIA and now having it’s offices in Noida, Delhi and USA. Prosix has a wide ranging experience of application of Information Technology, involving software development, bulk data handling, sale & support of licensed software and hardware, facility management & application re-engineering. Solutions from Prosix have been widely appreciated in domains like Financial Institutions, Manufacturing, e-Governance, Railways and Defense.
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Emergency Management System - CS2103

CS2103- Software Engineering was a very interesting module i took in my Year 1 Semester 2 of NUS life! This module teaches the basics of the process of software development and involves a major group project to be completed in a team of four people. In my year of study the project given to us was implementation of an Emergency Management System (EMS).

My group comprised of me and my three friends all year ones. Initially we felt that the module might be difficult to manage as we may face tough competition from the rest of the cohort which comprised mainly of year twos and above. However, as the semester progressed this module turned out to be interesting and manageable.

We used C# in Visual Studio 2010 beta, PHP and SQL to code our project. What I realized after taking this module is that Software development is more than just coding. We spent countless nights figuring out the workflow of our system, defining key terminologies and logically refining our system.

Though our Iteration 1 was pretty bad and we ended up with a "fair" grade, the way we picked ourselves from then on, is something I really feel proud of. We came back with a finished logical design of our system and a cool Command User Interface in Iteration 2 which was appreciated by our invigilators. This filled us with confidence that the battle is not over yet and we could still get ahead in the race.

After a period of 13 weeks what we produces as a team was something really good ( in the sense it was more than what we had expected from ourselves at the start of the semester). I recieved with an A Grade for this module. Really satisfied with how things went regarding this module. I am really thankful to my team for their super support and understanding (*hint* only they know what I mean here ;))

Here are a few screen shots of our K4 Emergency Management System:

Main Login


Admin Panel


Dispatcher Panel

Do contact me if you wish to know more.


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Photoshop Kills

I did layouts for SHaddup (Sheares Hall monthly gossip magazine, a product of the Sheares Hall Publications). Just wish to share a couple of them that i really like:

Shaddup#4 - Left Page
Shaddup#4 - Right Page


Shaddup#5 - Left Page

Shaddup#5 - Right Page
-Photoshop Kills ;)
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SHout-For the Shearites Out There!

The Sheares Hall portal "SHout" is for the Shearites to be updated with the hall activities and to know more about the upcoming events. It is managed by Sheares Hall Publications and is under the technical supervision of the Sheares Hall IT team. 


As the Design IC of the IT Team 09/10 I was given the task of revamping SHout. This was my first experience with Content Management Systems. The website is built with Joomla. 


For those hearing it for the first time: "Joomla!" is an open source content management system platform for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets as well as a Model–view–controller (MVC) Web application framework. It is written in PHP, stores data in MySQL and includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization. 


The entire project was a fun and learning experience. Though I did not get paid for it but the appreciation I received for my work is truly satisfactory. I feel proud to have contributed to my hall with this web portal. Take a look here:



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Blosics 2 = Timepass :D

I came across this very interesting physics game! Great for timepass :D Enjoy it right here..



Or

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Cadeau de Nature - A Nature's Gift


Sheares Hall Photography Competition 09/10 is open. Every year Sheares Hall Photocomm holds this competition for the shearites to appreciate their photography skills. There is a theme every year and this year's theme is "Cadeau de nature - a nature's gift".

The webiste for the competition is my first "officially" launched website. I learned a lot of PHP and dealt with MySQL for this purpose. Here is the link.


Forgot to mention this was the main reason why i had to prepone my tickets and be back to hall 12 days in advance. After seeing the website up and running I realized I made the right decision. (A great leaning experience). Well people have told me I am workaholic.. if thats so.. so be it!
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C++ Game Programming Tutorial


If you are interested in programming games using C++ and do not know where to begin, this is the article for you! Here I have provided a tutorial to teach the basics of game programming using the Allegro Library in C++. If you not already know, Allegro is a external library for C++ that allows functionalities to code games with graphics and user interface.

Before you begin:
  • You must have some basic knowledge of C++
  • You must have Allegro Game Programming Library installed and working with the C++ compiler of your choice. For information on this refer to: Install Allegro

This tutorial is a comprehensive powerpoint presentation. It comes with a demo game and its code.

In the tutorial:
  • You will learn about the very basics of game programming.
  • In the process of this interactive learning you will also write a very simple game to gain some hands-on experience.
  • You will learn the syntax and the purpose of the common in-built functions provided by the Allegro Game Library.

You can download the tutorial here:

This tutorial was prepared by me for absolute beginners. If you have any doubts or find any errors do let me know. Any comments are appreciated!
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This is Amulya Khare's blog cum website. You can know more about him by viewing his profile.

Read about his views and ideas on topics that grab his attention.

Also you can view his work and projects.

Included here are some resources and articles that you might find interesting or helpful.