Across the Universe

Khoya Khoya Chand- An Augmented Reality Book

Khoya is an interactive fantasy novel for children Illustrated, Animated, Conceptualized

and partly written by me.

What makes it interactive is that is uses a technology called Augmented Reality to bridge the gap between the tangible (a book) and the technological.

It also bridges my two loves (amongst many)- animation and print.

How it does this is that the book has a variety of 'markers' or symbols with limericks on how to use them, the reader, while reading a page, picks up these markers and brings it to their webcam, and using visual recognition the marker triggers off an animation in real time. So in a sense one 'brings the book to life'.

Using this technology one can become different characters in the book, unlock riddles or simply watch as the illustrations in the book start to move. :)

A User-interaction Video coming soon. But here are some spreads from chapter 1 for now.

It's designed for children above the age of 12.

Credit Roll:

Original concept, Illustration, Animation and Design by Shilo Shiv Suleman

Augmented Reality, programming and further conceptualization

Dhruv Nawani

Written by Shilo Shiv Suleman and Avijit Michael with inputs from Hari Adivarekar.

Contributers and Conceptualizers

Nilofer Suleman, Arshia Sattar, Molly and Maya, Anders Sandell, Ampat Varghese, Gayatri Ganju, Kunal Sen, Vani Sreekanta, Mana Dhanraj and the Toys Lab

Lemons

Though watercolours are closest to my heart, everyonce in a while

it's nice to step out of me skin and try another medium.

Lots of experimentation coming your way.

This be my first vector illustration :)

Love :)

These images are from a 5 year old little girls reinterpretation of pampa sutra : )
So what these kids have been doing as it turns out, is taking the stickers from me book and making books of their own!! yay!

These books were very coyly gifted to me a couple of weeks ago :)

More pampasutra prints :)

For the Kishkinda Trust in Hampi :)

More pampaprints up for grabs.

The Night the Toys came alive

Come one, Come all :)

The Night the Toys came alive. A preview of 'Khoya' amongst other

wonderful interactive toys for children

Khoya

This is a prelude of sorts to the book in a graphic novel form :)

Spring Comes

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself”

Illustration of masanobu fukuoka done as a good luck charm for someone :)

Also first time with fulll-digital illustration.

Khoya

Another spread from Khoya :)

please do ignore the text. its just been pasted on for now.

Needs editing and layouting and more :)

Love

Shilo

a page from Khoya

From Delight we came into existence.

In Delight we grow.

At the end of our journey’s close,

Into Delight we retire.

- Ashtavakra Gita 1: 18-20

Before, when the world was a spirit of itself, at first man lived in Harmony with other spirit (because he was intouch with his own).He was connected to everything by the network of light. Everyday on earth was a celebration of this love. And man's voice (strong and sweet then) was part of this great cosmic orchestra.

They would sing in crystal voices about this love. they would spin round and round with the stars. Whirling in ecstacy.Until one day man was distracted while singing. He was looking up at the skies and his heart was connected to this great network when suddenly his eye caught something glimmering in the distance.

It was a firefly.

'Light that is worn by something apart from the stars' he thought,the idea of having light was interesting to him and he thought about it for days on end.

He wanted it. And from then on, when he sang with the orchestra, it wasn't a celebration of love. It was a song of longing. Having always lived by his need- this 'want' was new and exciting to him.

7 days and 7 nights later he saw Fire again. One day when all the world creatures were asleep, he snuck up behind the firefly and trapped it in a small glass box.

He labelled this box and it gave him great pleasure that he could see it whenever he wished and it would never ever go away (it had no choice).

Soon he collected more creatures like this. He no longer sang in praise with the rest but instead arranged his collection meticulously in rows.

When the other spirits approached him to ask him why he didn't sing and why he was trapping these creatures and plants he said

'Don't you see? I discovered them and so they are mine'

The spirits didn't understand this logic at all.

But the truth is- that before any pandora's box was opened...it was first sealed up.

Long Live Fishes :D

Grandfather fish's secrets to a long long long life :)

(secrets will be revealed shortly as well)

Oooooo :D

Book by Cover

Some illustrations for idiscoveri.

Going to be used as book covers :)

The Nasha

The Nasha-

Concept Sketch from Khoya

the nemesis of sorts

The Rock Clan

known as 'Atut' (meaning unmovable/unbreakable in Hindi)

are the oldest creatures in Khoya.They’ve been here for millions of years.

Inherently still in nature, it is this very stillness that makes them excellent keepers of wisdom.

“Written in Stone”, they record the history of the universe. They are keen observers though their greatest sense is that of sensing movement and the sounds of the earth. They do not record by sight or meaning of the sound. By sensing the vibrations of the earth (because of their inherent stillness). this history is recorded not in the form of words but wave patterns...that change as they sense and record more. This process is wrongly called ‘weathering’ when infact it is just a manifestation of their internal recordings of 'what has been'.

Curious-reserved-silent and Still. Slow moving.

The following scientific experiment is inspiration to how patterns are made in the heads of the 'Atut'
sensing vibrations.
(the experiment is rather trippy as well)