Taran3D at Indian Summer Festival

We’re thrilled to be part of the 2020 Indian Summer Festival.  This online celebration of South Asian arts & culture explores Indian culture, traditions & people through an exciting series of events including workshops, exhibitions, film and food and much more.

Join Taran3D and The Sikh Museum Initiative on Monday 17th August 6pm-7pm as we take you on a virtual journey to unlock the past and explore Sikh relics and artefacts, all digitally reimagined through our immersive technologies.

From the comfort of your own home, let Taran Singh and Gurinder Mann accompany you to delve into these cultural artefacts and learn how they travelled from the Punjab to public and private collections in the UK.

To join our event click here or you can see the full programme at indiansummer.org

Taran3D Anglo Sikh Virtual Museum
  • Taran3D Anglo Sikh Virtual Museum

Workshop: Making 3D worlds SketchUp Meets Unity at STEAMhouse

This two day workshop is designed for beginners with little or no previous experience of 3D modelling. You will learn the basics of drawing and 3D modelling in SketchUp and use it to create a 3D environment which we will then make interactive using the Unity3D game engine.

SketchUp is a simple to learn 3D modelling software that makes it easy to draw digital 3D objects and spaces. The programme is used for a wide range of 3D modelling applications including  architectural design, woodworking, product design, game design, exhibition design and 3D printing. We will use SketchUp Free, which is the no cost version of SketchUp that runs online in a web browser.

In addition to SketchUp, you will also be introduced to the Unity3D game engine, which allows you to import and interact with 3D content in real-time. The Unity game engine has an intuitive workflow and allows you to create interactive environments that you can ‘walk’ around. The Unity Game engine is also free for personal and learning use.

Day One – Introduction to SketchUp

  • How to draw and extrude shapes
  • Measuring and inferencing along the correct axis
  • Modifying 3D geometry – moving, rotating, deleting
  • Building a space

Day two – Introduction to Unity3D Game Engine

  • Basic navigation
  • Importing and manipulating SketchUp models in Unity3D
  • Creating interactive digital spaces and environments

Storyshare Interactive

I was commissioned to create an interactive storytelling application for Storyshare CIC which is an organisation that works with communities to chronicle and portray memories of their culture and heritage using digital media.

The 2G(Second Generation) Stories project, funded by the HLF aimed to archive interviews of those that were born in Britain after their parents emigrated from other countries. This is an extraordinary generation who have grown up pioneers. Developed in an unfamiliar British culture, one that their parents knew little about. One where they have had to blend their parent’s Indian culture with a British one and create a hybrid. They wanted to please their parents and their peers. Meet their own needs and those of their family and friends. This often led to struggle and conflict but also sometimes created a more resilient individual.

The Interactive I was creating needed to give visitors at the launch or pop up exhibition events an insight into the intimate interview material by giving snippets of audio recorded from the interviews with the participants. The storyshare team allowed me to go away and freely explore how the interactive could be achieved.

The Interactive needed to work on a touchscreen and be easy to navigate for anyone seeking to explore it, it needed to be eye catching, distinctive and quick. I noticed early on how the photographs taken throughout the project gave a real sense of being in the participants personal space and environment and thought it would be great if this could be used as the main graphical element of the interactive.

The photographs were arranged into random circular buttons on the homepage and I wrote a random algorithm script which would auto scale the buttons up and down to give it an organic alive feel and also catch the attention of visitors and prompt them to click the buttons.

On the participant pages I decided to use one distinct photo of the participant with their bio information stamped onto it and large unmissable buttons for the user to play the audio and video excerpts. The participant information was being sent to me in various packages so i decided to create a database system that could easily take participant information and automatically generate the controls required for the audio and video content. This made the system easier to manage and easily scalable. Extra participants could be added near the launch date without having to do any extra coding.

Really enjoyed working with Dee Patel at Storyshare CIC and I even took part in the project which was a very insightful experience. It was really interesting to listen to different peoples journeys, experiences and advice.

Interactive 3D for the Anglo Sikh Wars Exhibition

last year I  was approached by the Sikh Museum Initiative (SMI) and commissioned to produce a series of interactive 3D exhibits for an exhibition that was exploring the history surrounding the Anglo Sikh Wars that took place in 1845. The exhibition would take place at Newarke Houses Museum in Leicester from 11th March to 4th June 2017 and include a series of 7 expert lectures, outreach events and children’s activity sessions.

My role in the project included working with the SMI team to design the layout of the exhibition space as well as the initial branding and marketing material. I designed a concept for a logo which was further developed by an amazing artist called Kam Singh Samra from Birmingham, his visual design was not only distinctive but was the linchpin for the whole project. 

Anglo Sikh Wars Leaflet Design

Anglo Sikh Wars Leaflet Design

Logo Design by Kam Singh

Logo Design by Kam Singh

Use of 3D Visualisation to design the space

It became apparent very early on that designing an exhibition to fit in the physical space is very difficult, especially when you are going to be doing most of the work remotely. Therefore in our first visit to the Newarke Houses Museum, the rooms were surveyed to ensure accurate measurements. Read More

3D Charaina of Guru Gobind Singh Ji

Charaina of Guru Gobind Singh Ji by Sikh Museum Initiative on Sketchfab

Taran3D joined with the Sikh Museums Initiative to recreate one of the 4 Charaina (Body Armour plates) of Guru Gobind Singh ji worn by him in the battle of Bhangani in 1688

 

The first phase of this project was unveiled at the Third Dasam Granth Seminar in California, USA on 9th April 2016. It featured an interactive digital recreation of one of the 4 armour plates, which features Gurbani from the Akaal Ustat, written by Guru Gobind Singh ji.

charaina3d_close2

interactive version allowing viewer to rotate and zoom into details

[pullquote type=”3″]
“The ability to recreate and share these artefacts in digital form and make them available via modern technology will give future generations of Sikhs access to pieces of history which are either lost or inaccessible”
Taran Singh, 3D Artist
[/pullquote]

The plate in question is the most damaged of the 4 and missing parts of the pattern were recreated by taking similar sections of the pattern and gurmukhi letters from undamaged parts of the armour.

missing parts of gurmukhi script

missing parts of Gurmukhi Gold script recreated

The whole armour was created from scratch in 3D using low quality catalogue photos. The Gurmukhi was painstakingly hand painted digitally and each component of the gold koftgari pattern was created and then pieced together to make up the full pattern.

We believe given access to the actual artefacts, we could create more accurate and better quality digital representations that can be used to preserve and educate future generations.

The second phase will involve completing the other 3 plates of armour and creating a touch screen based exhibit.

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