Into The World Of Maya

If we are to talk about computer animation and the software associated with it, there is one name we can’t afford to miss?that’s ‘Maya’! Maya is the leading name in 3D animation and rendering software for its high-end features and unique capabilities. Getting its name from the Sanskrit word for ‘illusion’, Maya indeed lives up to it by its powerfully impressive potential, which have enraptured all the animation-crazy creatures of the present world.

To let you in this world of illusion and Maya, you must know its origin. This is an integrated 3D software package, developed from Alias’ Power Animator. Maya has been released in two versions?May Complete and Maya Unlimited (the more advanced version). Many popular feature films of today owe their fame to Maya. For instance, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day have their fame rested on the power of Maya 3D animation. Maya’s originator Alias Research merged with Wavefront-TDI and this resulted in great synergies; both combined their best software strengths taking each step closer to the discovery of ‘Maya.
Alias moved the Mac product ‘Alias Sketch!’ to the SGI platform and modified it further with the code name ‘Maya’. This was when this word first came into use. Later, Alias|Wavefront merger took the Maya saga forward inspiring customers to switch to this high-end product. When Alias was acquired by Autodesk in 2005-2006, this software came to be known as Autodesk Maya.

Maya not just takes prides in its versatile modeler, character animation and visual effects capabilities; it is also strongly popular in video game development. Its node-based architecture helps in creating complex animation and rendering links. Because of its complex functionality, it is quite difficult to learn this. However, Maya tutorials are plenty over the web to help learn comfortably or take guidance.

Maya has also been used in some of the finest animated television shows that time has ever produced. It has a customizable interface which helps in bringing about various high-end visual effects. This is one interesting feature in Maya?its adaptability to third-party software, functioning in the garb of another software. So this precisely explains why Maya is the software of choice in big studios where customized codes are written for production.

Granite is a Healthy Material For Home Applications

Granite has been quite popular and cost effective option for kitchen countertops. Off late, there has been an inherent confusion about the existing radiation levels in natural granite being used for kitchen countertops, bathroom vanity, floor tiles etc. According to the Environmental Protection Agency website citing Radon is a cancer-causing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste, its presence in your home can pose a danger to your family’s health. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non smokers. Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in America, and claims about 20,000 lives annually.

While the fact is radiation is present in the air, in the water, in the soil and also in the sun rays which is of natural occurrence, whilst there is human made radiation like x-rays, building materials and cigarette smoke. The cause of alarm is when the radon level is 4 pCi/L (pico curies per litre) or more, but the radiation or radon emission from granite products are just small fractional value of the levels at which it poses health hazard. Moreover the amount of radiation in external air and excessive cigarette smoke is much higher than the defined safety level.

Granite by nature is radioactive, but one cannot definitely say whether it is a material which should not be used at all for home applications. The issue of potential radon threat from granite has resurfaced many a time triggered by manufacturers of substitute materials for kitchen countertops. Study done on 13 most popular granites used for countertops in the US by MIA’s independent research revealed that the greatest amount of radon emissions found was 0.27pCi/L while emission from others was almost immeasurable.

The U.S. Surgeon General and EPA recommends that all homes be tested by self or by a hired a professional for the radon emission from granite. One can get the safety kits from the National Safety Council or from some of the home improvement stores. This surely is a step ahead in the right direction for those interested in using granite in application such as kitchen, vanity, fireplaces and outside BBQ. Leaving aside all the baseless rumors, MIA documents and articles have proved as granite to be a healthy material for home applications.

Get Your Outdoor Lighting Right

Choosing the proper lighting that both accents your home as well as keeps it well lit throughout the night is very important for any responsible home-owner toady. For this reason, many home-owners will spend a lot of time searching for that perfect outdoor lighting for their home. Of course finding the right lighting for your home is not an easy task or otherwise everybody would just go out to the local hardware supply store and pick up whatever was available. When it comes to your home’s outdoor lighting, what exactly are you looking for and what is your budget??

These are the things you must ask yourself before searching. It all comes down to your particular budget and how much money you are willing to spend as well as what you are looking for when it comes to choosing the proper lighting for your home. Once you know how much you are willing to spend and what exactly you are in search of, finding that perfect lighting fixture will be a much easier task.
There are just way too many choices to choose from when it comes to finding the proper lighting for your yard. These can include things like the different types of available light bulbs that can range anywhere from LEDs to Xenon bulbs. It can also include things from wired to battery power and even solar powered lighting fixtures depending on the type of light and the amount of light that you are in need of in order to keep your home well lit and secure.

Remember that if you want to make a house truly a home, you have to make sure that everything that is in the home as well as outside the home reflects your personal tastes. Of course we can’t forget to mention the importance of keeping your yard well lit to ensure that your home is secure from any possible intruders or potential injuries as a result of traversing the yard after the sun has gone down.

Actually The Concept Of Animation

Animation is based on a principle of human vision. If you view a series of related still images in quick succession, you perceive them as continuous motion. Each individual image is referred to as a frame.

A frame is a single image in an animated film.

Traditional Animation Method

Historically, the main difficulty in creating animation has been the effort required of the animator to produce a large number of frames. One minute of animation might require between 720 and 1800 separate images, depending on the quality of the animation. Creating images by hand is a big job. That’s where the technique of keyframing comes in.

Most of the frames in an animation are routine, incremental changes from the previous frame directed toward some goal. Traditional animation studios realized they could increase the productivity of their master artists by having them draw only the important frames, called keyframes. Assistants could then figure out what belonged on the frames in between the keyframes. The in-between frames were called tweens.

Once all of the keyframes and tweens were drawn, the images had to be inked or rendered to produce the final images. Even today, production of a traditional animation usually requires hundreds of artists to generate the thousands of images needed.

The frames marked 1,2, and 3 are key frames. The other frames are tweens.

The 3ds max Method

This program is your animation assistant. As the master animator, you create the keyframes that record the beginning and end of each animated sequence. The values at these keyframes are called keys. The software calculates the interpolated values between each key to produce the completed animation.

3ds max can animate just about any parameter in your scene. You can animate modifier parameters, such as a Bend angle or a Taper amount, material parameters, such as the color or transparency of an object, and much more.

Once you have specified your animation parameters, the renderer takes over the job of shading and rendering each frame. The result is a high-quality animation.

The object’s position at 1 and 2 are the keyframed models at different times.

Comparing Frames and Time

Traditional animation methods, and early computer animation programs, are rigidly locked to the concept of producing animation frame by frame. This is okay if you always work in a single format or do not need to specify an animated effect at a precise time.

Unfortunately, animation comes in many formats. Two of the more common formats are film at 24 frames per second (FPS) and NTSC video at 30 FPS. Also, the need for accurate time-based animation versus frame-based animation is critical as animation becomes more common for scientific and legal presentation.

Different animation formats have differing frame rates.

3ds max is a time-based animation program. It measures time, and stores your animation values, with an internal precision of 1/4800 of a second. You can configure the program to display time in a format best suited for your work, including traditional frames format.

Many of the examples in the following sections describe time using the frames method for the sake of tradition and familiarity. Keep in mind that you are really animating using a very precise time-based method, and frames aren’t created until you instruct the software to render your animation.

Identifying Animation Tools

You can locate the basic animation tools in the following areas of the interface:

Track View-Provides detailed animation editing capabilities in several floating or dockable windows. See Track View .

Track Bar-Provides quick access to keyframes and interpolation controls. Can be expanded for function curve editing. See Track Bar.

Motion Panel-Use this panel to adjust transform controllers that affect all position, rotation, and scale animation. See Working with Controllers.

Hierarchy Panel-Use this panel to adjust all parameters governing the linkage of two or more objects. These include inverse kinematics parameters and pivot point adjustments. See Hierarchy Panel.

Time Controls-Use these controls to move through time in the viewport displays. You can move to any point in time, and play animations in the viewports. The time controls, documented in Viewport Controls, include:

- Time slider

Auto Key buttonAuto Key button

• Set Key buttons
• Animation playback buttons
• Current frame field
• Key Mode toggle
• Time Configuration button

How to make a video game in seven days

There is plenty of free software and resources out there that will enable you to quickly make your own video game. All you need is a plan and some persistence. Here is the plan. Today’s software for game making is fairly complete and you don’t need to be a programmer to learn how to use it. It is much like an automobile; you don’t need to know how to build one you just need to know how to drive. With a little bit of effort and some practice you can use the freely available software to make games that will unleash your creative potential.

Day 1 - Gather up the necessary resources and get familiar with it

You will need a computer and if you are reading this article you probably already have that! You should also download the necessary game development software. There are two that I recommend. Either get the Genesis 3D game engine or the Reality Factory Game development software. Of the two I suggest the Reality Factory software but if you have a really old computer and are concerned about your ability to run software then get the Genesis 3d software. Both these programs are readily available and easy to find on the web. Just do a search engine check for keywords Genesis 3d or Reality Factory. Install this software and run it. Tinker with it and get familiar with it. Experiment with all of the different screens and setttings then go through the help files and tutorials. Get an initial understanding of what it will be like to make a video game with the software.

Day 2 - Begin learning the software

Get a notebook and label it “My Video Game Making Reference Book” Locate a tutorial on the web for the software you have used. Don’t rush through this process. There are plenty of available tutorials for both of these programs. Take your time and go through the tutorials and take notes in your book. Keep a page for tips, keystrokes, and routines for getting things done.

Day 3 - Take a break from the computer

Now that you have an idea of what the software is all about you can design your game on paper. First write down the concept and goals of your game. For example: Your game will be a game about how the player has been trapped in a dungeon and has to fight his or her way out to freedom. Or someone has been captured in a dungeon and the player has to break in and rescue him. For your first game keep the concept relatively simple. Something like you want your player to explore a dungeon, kill all the creatures, and find a treasure chest is perfectly good. Make it a small game with maybe ten to fifteen rooms and some outdoor areas. Sketch out every room and place in all the doors and major items like stairs, furniture, treasure chests and monsters.

Day 4 - Build the empty shell of your game world

Crank up the computer and using the game software build just the buildings, rooms and structures of your game world. Do not yet populate it with furniture, doors, monsters or any other type of extra. Just build the structures of the world. Apply only basic textures to the surfaces in the world. Do not at this point worry about the colors, lights or textures of anything. You want to just build the grey shell of the world so you can text it and see if it works properly and if it is how you want it to be. After the world is built insert a character into it and walk around to see if it is as you planned it.

Day 5 - Add the details to your game and make it look real

This is the day where you work on the look of your game. Go over all the structures and add textures, lighting, models, characters and all of the other accessories that will make it look right. Right about now you might be thinking: “How do I do all that?” But the great thing about the software you are using is that models, characters, tables, chairs, doors, and lights are all pre-built and come in a library with the software. You can just click on them and place them right into the game.

Day 6 - Have somebody play your game and give you feedback

Are your platers clear on the objectives of the game? Do they understand what it is all about? Do they have to ask questions? If anything is unclear to the player of if anything is difficult start up your software and modify the game.

Day 7 - Complete the game

Add any extras like a splash screen that displays the name of your game or add sound effects. If you are ambitious you can create your own models or textures to give your game a unique look.

Making a video game is really not a hard process. If you have a plan and the discipline to put some time into learning the software you can have a small but complete game one week from today.