Showing posts with label Online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Online. Show all posts

Monday, August 13, 2012

How Are Video Games Made - The Process From Start to Finish

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

It's time to answer that oh-so important question that's been burning in the back of your mind: "how are video games made?" Here is a very basic run down of how video games are made.

1. Core Team

A group of people whom come up with the general concept of the game. Numerous meetings will occur in which the group brainstorms about the game; figuring out not only how it will look, but also how it will work. The core team is in charge of the production schedule as well, which describes the tasks each person is assigned and when they most do them.

2. Game Breakdown

Every detail, task, job, and deadline about the video game is broken down into components and then added to a bulletin board. This board acts as the nerve center throughout the games production.

3. Artistic Concept

Artists sketch out the games characters & backgrounds with a very basic level of detail. These sketches are what the graphics artists use to create the characters and backgrounds in 3D on the computer.

4. Development Team

This team uses the latest in computer animation technology to bring life to all of the game's elements; adding colors, textures, shading, and even movement. This team uses the 3d characters and backgrounds created by the graphics team.

5. Programming & Engineering

This is the bread & butter of the game development stage; because without this part, there would be no game. Suffice it to say, the programmers & engineers make the game work. Their coding is what holds the game together and allows the player to actually play the game.

6. Testing

This is the final and most crucial part of the development process. This phase is to see if everything is working properly and as it should be. Testers will check for bugs and glitches and try to find potential problems.

The game testers won't merely be playing the game and seeing if problems will find them -- it's the other way around, as THEY will be the ones searching for the problems. The testers will do everything and anything possible in the game to ensure there is no abnormal situations or circumstances; walking through walls, disappearing, enemy AI problems, cinematic errors, you name it. If the testers miss ANYTHING, it could mean disastrous consequences -- in the form of profit loss -- for the company releasing the game.


"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."

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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Make Your Character Come to Life With Character Animation

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

Creating your own cartoon character is a fun and exciting activity. Do you remember the time when you were a kid, when you just loved to draw cartoon characters along with the squiggles? There is no rule that you have to stop this hobby if you are still into it as you grow into an adult. If you want to engage in character animation, there are a few factors to consider. First, think of the word character. What do you want your cartoon to be all about? Imagining what your hero or heroine's character will be can help you get an initial idea and determine how your cartoon will look like. Start with the basic geometric shapes. Circles, squares and triangles are a good way to start your drawing. Then put in the details as you go along. Remember to include in your study drawings the different facial expressions of your character, like what it will look like when angry, happy or sad. Draw about five to seven initial drafts of your characters before going on to the next step.

Once you're done with your cartoon and you are satisfied with the initial sketches, then the next step is to write the script, which is the challenging part. It is important to have a script if your character animation will involve several cartoon characters and voice actors. The longer your animation feature is, the better your script will develop. It will help you in creating a solid storyboard, which is a small series of pictures and drawings of your complete animation. It will contain the highlights and important scenes of your plot. Your scenes do not have to be detailed, the basic sketches and rough drawings will do because the storyboard will just serve as your guide. You can even draw stick figures and simple geometric shapes for the background. With this, you don't have to necessarily record your audios in order.

There are several free or paid recording software available both for the Mac and PC platform. But since this is your first character animation, just go for the free or trial ones. You will also need a good quality microphone. A mic that can filter out background noise is a good choice but can be costly. Time your voice according to your animation. Or time your animation according to your voice. But it should be stressed that you should time everything. Otherwise, your animation will look like a dubbed foreign cartoon where the lips don' match the words!

Study animation various software and stick to the one that you feel most comfortable working on before looking for more advanced software. Of course you also have to consider the effects you are going to us like the background noise, music and the sound effects. Again, because you have a storyboard, you don't have to do the animation in sequence. You can go through the scenes and just arrange them when you're done. As easy as that, you can distribute copies of your animation feature. Remember to ask for feedback so that you can improve on your next project. Who knows, maybe one day you will be able to join the rank of the elite in the field of being a character animator?


"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."

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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Rift DPS Guide - How To Create The Perfect DPS Build In Rift

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

Do you want to learn how to build the perfect DPS Warrior, Rogue, Cleric and Mage in Rift? Well if you want to know how to create the best DPS character to dominate your friends at Rift, here is small guide of what you should do to turn your Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric into DPS.

Warrior DPS Build Guide

The Warrior has eight souls in total, four of which are DPS souls. The DPS souls are the Beastmaster, Paragon, Riftblade and Champion souls.

If you want a Warrior DPS build that is terrific for leveling, I recommend that you choose the Champion as your main soul and the Beastmaster and the Riftblade as your off-souls. Put 38 points into your Champion, 28 points into your Beastmaster and 0 points into your Riftblade. This is considered as a pure DPS Warrior build and is also great for raiding.

Rogue DPS Build Guide

The Rogue class has many DPS builds depending on your style of play. However, I recommend that you use your Assassin as your main soul and the Bladedancer and Riftstalker as your off-souls.

This is a terrific DPS build for dungeons and group play. Remember to allocate the majority of your points to your Assassin and focus on getting skills that allow you to inflict the maximum amount of damage such as Magnify Pain, Physical Trauma.

You may also want to consider building your soul tree towards getting the +5% critical chance and the Foul Play, which is a 4 second stun!

Mage DPS Build Guide

To build a Mage focused on DPS and nothing else, I recommend that you choose the Pyromancer as your main soul with the Archon and the Elementalist as your off-souls.

The Pyromancer will enable you to do lots of direct damage on your enemies as well as AOE. Keep in mind to watch your mana bar as you are spamming Fireballs at your enemies.

The Archon soul should be chosen as an off-soul because it compliment fire spells really well. This soul also gives you mana every time you land a critical.

The Elementalist soul is very important as well to this combo because you can summon a pet that can take all of the damage from enemies and also this soul increases spell damage and critical by 50%!

Cleric DPS Build Guide

Creating a good DPS build for a Cleric is difficult because they are not very strong and is used as a supporting role in a group.

However, if you have no choice and want to create a DPS build for your Cleric, here is what you should do. Choose the Cabalist as your main soul, and the Sentinel and Druid as your off souls.

This build will allow you to solo 2-4 same level mobs, heal and do some AOE attacks at the same time. Currently, this seems to be the DPS build that many players turn to if you have no choice but to play as a DPS Cleric.

There are many different DPS builds for each class depending on the situation you are in. Knowing which DPS build to create for every situation is the key difference between a pro and a noob Rift player.

If you want to know exactly what to do in every situation so that you can completely dominate your friends at Rift, using a step-by-step strategy guide will be very helpful and will definitely give you a huge advantage.

By using a strategy guide, you will be able to learn exactly how the top players of Rift will combine souls and allocate points to tackle each scenario.

All you have to do is follow the step-by-step instructions as well as the screenshots and soul tree maps and you will have created yourself the ultimate DPS build whether you are in PVP, PVE, solo, group play or raiding.


"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."

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Saturday, July 21, 2012

World of Warcraft - How to Farm the WoW Azure Whelpling and Make Huge Piles of Gold at the Same Time

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

Normally, if you are going to farm some pets, you probably just spend hours and hours killing beasts and then, hopefully, you finally get your pet - but often it's just waste of a lot of valuable time. However, this is not the case when you chase after the uncommon Azure Whelpling. You'll probably not spend more than 3-4 hours farming this pretty non-combat pet. And, as a bonus, you'll make large amounts of gold whilst chasing after him.

Just like the other whelplings, the Azure Whelpling is a flying dragon-like creature that follows you around. It's a beautiful azure-blue color, and constantly flutters about and spins around. It has a drop rate of 1 out of 1,000, and the mobs in the area are level 50-54, which makes this job a 'walk-in-the-park' if your character is over level 60.

How would you like to, not only obtain the pet, but also to make large quantities of gold whilst farming it? Here's the secret to doing both at the same time.

Bring Big Empty Bags

The Azure Whelpling is dropped by level 51-53 elite Blue Dragonkin. When you are killing the mobs, they will often drop blue items that you can either sell at the Auction House, or make them disenchanted and sell the resultant dust and shards. Obviously, if you have skinning as one of your professions, you can make even more gold, but you'll also need bigger bags.

Either way, you can make several hundreds of gold in just a few hours. Maybe farming for gold in this way is not ideal (it can become boring), but remember that your main goal for this mission is to get the Azure Whelpling, so the gold is just an extra plus. You'll also acquire many grey items that you can sell to the vendor, so once in a while you can take the trip to the nearest vendor and sell them.

Of course, in the ideal world you have either a portable mailbox, Jeeves or the Squire from the Argent Tournament, so you can install your own shop, bank or Auction House where, and when you need it. This could save you a huge amount of time.

Where to Farm the Azure Whelpling

You will find the Azure Whelpling in Azshara, in the North-Eastern Kalimdor. It's one of the prettiest areas in Kalimdor, so enjoy your trip to this area with its brilliant orange and red autumn colors.


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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Shadow of the Crater (Part III)

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

"The Demonic Forces of Planet Mercury"
Part V and End

((Planet Mercury and Asteroid m76) (A story previous unpublished From' the Cadaverous Plants,' series))

Part Five

The Ancient Cat Demons (Return of the Minds of Saturn)

Chapter Seventeen

The Ancient Cat Demons

It was a long time since the Minds of Saturn had return to Mercury, once conquering it some 950- years prior, what had they been up to? Well in a nutshell, I shall let you know, but first, let me reintroduce you to the Minds of Saturn-a hair bristled stiff demonic force in the earth's solar system, a savage growl to their stone like faces, with yellowish green eyes. Their ancestors once roamed the earth with the Great Cats, and ruled it, about 26,500 BC. The Great Cats (of the 4th Era of Earth) of that era were possessed by these ancient ancestors, who were forbidden to rule in the flesh, and so tried to in the bodies of the cats, this so called demonic force, being driven from their first abode.

Perhaps all this paranormal, or mystic activity, was thought to have been able to subdue the world, but instead their quest was crushed, but not before, near genocide had taken place on earth, with only 2000-humans living on earth, left to repopulate it.

The question had come up,

"Whatever happened to that ancient demonic force, for not even the most ruthless force in the Galaxy, knew this (the Minds of Saturn), and if they had, it was erased from their memories. As far as the earthmen went, his memories were also erased from this once world crisis, perhaps the most horrid crisis other than the Great Flood, and thereafter, man, seeing the world around him, untrained to see this paranormal world, thought nothing of it.

But Ura'el, the archangel, was called upon once again by the Great God of the Universe to put an end to this era, as he has been called from time to time.

Augusto, a mammoth creature from the ancient land of Lemuria, known to have been a philosopher, and historian, with four hands, and a head similar to a horses, large feet, and thick behind, knew the secrets of that time, he wrote them down, for they were handed down to him, and he and placed them in a library in the South Pacific, kept by the Bird People, those with long ears and similar to him in figure and tradition, although with only two arms, not four.

In those far-off days, the angelic forces, along with their giant sons, all ate flesh, and those they killed, their souls cried to the heavens until God heard their voices and sent Ura'el. Other angelic beings that came with Ura'el were Suru'el, Raphael and Raquel, and many of the angelic beings were sent by force, put in chains, and brought to the Prison House of Angels, deep in space.

Zoov'al (also known as Zoov'al- Epitaph), had sought for years his ancestors whereabouts, often racing homeward to Saturn to find clues and so forth, and even to Mercury and earth to its South Pacific Islands, and studying the culture of the Bird People, and thus he found a link, it read, and I shall translated it in better English for the readers,

"It was a rude time for the Cat Demons, the demonic force that found an open gate to try and rule the world, and in the process assembled a great concourse of warrior cats, and ate the human children, the heads of women, and man himself. They grew to enormous sizes, some eighty or a hundred feet tall, most were slender, and heads were forty feet from the ground, rapidly they ate mankind from earth, and when the four angels came from heaven, they captured them, took out there essence from the cats and poured gold over them, gold leafs, for gold can contain a demonic force, a demon, let it be known, evil in the form of demons, you don't kill them, you contain them, and this was one of their prison. Thus, they put these leafs into a box, chained it, and dropped it into a well, six miles deep on, Phoebe, Saturn's Large Moon; their children were left on Saturn. I, like them, am a creature from the other side, but I did not lose my soul, as they did. And so now it has been documented for posterity's sake." Augusto 13,500 BC.

Zoov'al, now on Phoebe, warriors about him, would no longer need to search Saturn, Earth or Mercury for his answers pertaining to his ancestors were completed, he would free them, and then return to Mercury, to see if any more life forms had developed. And so he ordered his followers, some one-hundred to search for the well, doubtless, everyone knew him-Zoov'al was the chieftain, but once he freed his ancestors, would they affirmatively allow him to be the head, according to calculations, there were five-hundred of these Cat Demon cast into these so called gold binding leafs. A question he felt would be answered later, but for now it was a search he often thought to be empty, now quite the opposite.

Chapter Eighteen

In Search for the Golden Leafs

I think, Zoov'al's followers sense his antagonism, for he kept tugging at their wills to find this well, he even carried a leash and growled at them ominously. He was obsessed with this new quest. No one could completely comprehend why it was such a pursuit, that this savage brute did not turn and simply say, "It's all a squander of time."

This all made his followers, his warriors who sought blood and victory, now searching for the dead, disheartened; for here was a considerable force trying to rescue a dead force, that would only bring havoc to his future campaigns, and in the process, his army was dog-tired.

The area they now searched appeared more open and seemed to have been at one time a coastal area. Thus, Zoov'al quickly anticipated this was the mainland. Farther back there was a range of low rocky hills, visible, with flat-topped masses of rock, small mountains dotting the landscape, in fact, he found an underground stream, by searching out a cave, winding down from among the rocks as if draining into well. His conviction was to follow its flow, and the result was his imagination came to reality, his eyes cast upon the long curious well, I cannot explain his sensation, it was not casual observation though, he jumped into it, and instantly sank to its bottom, and he gazed fixedly at the primitive box, where his ancestors were kept. Instincts froze him completely, He gasped, firmly held the box, and slung it over his shoulder and tossed it up through the water like a javelin to the surface, where he peered over it, not opening it, as twenty of his solders stood next to the damp walls, filled in his silence, his speech-gap with whispers and fear, yes, fear in their throats, voices, and legs and weighing bodies. Fear of the unknown, for the bearer of the box could open up Pandora's Box, and open up Heaven knows what. Like bugs upon a wall, unscalable, they clung, cluster, jabbering and attempting to calm themselves down, to hide their curiosity, and the longer they waited, the less of a desire they had to open the box.

Gr, the second in command, said, "Wait," and all the eyes went on him, even Zoov'al's. And Gr left for several minutes, and when he came back, he noticed Zoov'al was hairless; he had been pulling out his hair dancing about the box, making a startling appearance for all to see. Gr had something in his hands, and he whispered to his demonic force, then his hands became hot likened to fire, and he grabbed Zoov'al with the help of twenty, and threw boiling hot liquid gold into his eyes and ears, and Zoov'al's sockets became solid and his ears plugged from any sound, and he was brought to a fire, and in the fire was a tub of gold-liquefied, and they throw him into it, and he sank, and when he came out, he was flat and melted into a leaf like form, no bigger than a horses ear.

Next, Gr and his now commanding army, threw back the box, into the well, and tied the one single leaf of gold under one of the chains wrapped around the box, and it sank to the bottom. Thereafter, said Gr, yelled,

"Now we go to Mercury, and have fun," and the great brute force did just that.

Part Six

The Machine

(Thirty- miles deep in the Mercury's crust)

Chapter Nineteen

The Machine

The depth, at which the Moirommalits had made their settlement within the crust of planet Mercury, was thirty-miles deep, they had built what they called 'The Machine,' in fear someday what had suddenly happened, would happen, a movement within the surface of Mercury's crust, it moved resetting the geographical poles of Mercury by four hundred miles. The third eldest brother to-now dead Queen Amelia-Az-had taken the kingship of the Moirommalits, Luhtco-Az (third brother to Amelia-Az), thus making him the commanding officer of the Giant Machine, and the settlement inhabitants.

As it was calculated among the officers of the ship, or Machine, the temperature within the inner chambers would increase by one degree each mile upward the machine dug its way out through the crust of Mercury to the center of the Great Crater, the Shadow Creator, where they had lived previously.

It was now 107 degrees, and the blood of the Moirommalits were starting to lump, at 137-degrees, which the chambers in the Machine would be at by the time they reached the floor of the crater, all would be dead or near dead. The supply of cool air would be exhausted, for some unaccountable reasons the mechanics did not know, they only knew they could not fix or produce stationary temperatures from start to finish of the trip. Their abilities were not to that level of any scientific hypotheses, yet it was better than staying at the settlement where they figured the temperatures would rise to over 160-degrees, even more rapidly perhaps.

The Giant Spiders on the surface would be another task they'd have to endure, fight, or figure out how to live with once they got there, if they got there, but that would be embraced at a later date should they make it to the surface, but it did cross their minds, for the second thought on the matter was to commit suicide, and be resurrected on some other planet, but they'd all be separated.

From there on, the machine dug hour after hour uncomfortable in the unbearable heat of the machine's chambers. At the seventh hour, ten-Moirommalits had died: three women, five children, and two males. At this rate, the commander figured they'd be no need to figure out an outcome with the Giant Spiders.

Slowly the machine rose up closer and closer to the surface, nearing it each hour, it was the fifteenth hour, and another five people perished, bringing the once 90-inhabidents to 75.

The internal heat was now at 121-degreets, the legs and limbs of the Moirommalits were lumped with blood clouts, and their hearts were beating, pounding for better circulation, as was their head dizzy, and necks lumped with blood clouts, and spinal cords were bent, and caused more pain, spasms and for forth. With fourteen more miles yet to go, or thereabouts, the Commander figured in fourteen hours, whoever wasn't dead would wish they were. The more solid the ground the slower the machine went, and at times the machine went even slower than slow, it came to a standstill, and at times the machine went faster, but not as fast as one would wish to make up for loses, thus the thirty-hours they thought it might take to break surface ground, could be extended to thirty-three or four.

Feverishly, most all the Moirommalits watched the thermometer, and the temperature it showed, as the heat rose, and listened to the generator as it pumped out cool air, only to be overwhelmed by the heat of the 75-bodies laying about in the machine and the heat of the machine and the heat around the body out the outer skin of the machine, seeping inward: the air almost unbreathable, suffocating its inhabitants hour by hour. The strain seemed to be causing some skin rashes, even an unknown neurological disease, diarrhea, the shakes, most tried to sit erect, but fell back to the floor dizzy like. Their minds were affected, as well as their bodies, and many lost consciousness, as they struggled against the inevitable.

What had caused the crust movement on the surface of Mercury (and on into the lower depths of Mercury's crust, and beyond that), no one knew? Perhaps an quake, for a trembling took place, several of them, for it also opened up a fissure, to where the Commander saw it, and like a loose screw, allowed the machine to enter it, and find its way into the upper part of it, thus mechanically speaking, a sudden surge in speed of the machine came to being, it was a hollow, and like a drill the machine cut through the dirt rapidly, running more loose as in air almost, and flashed by the sides of the fissure, the long point of the machine not needed to drill even, passing through strata like butter, and on the twenty-fifth hour, it hit the surface, with only two more dead, making the remaining inhabitants at seventy-three.

Now an intake pipe was opened to the machine, which allowed the thin air of the surface to enter, which was equal to Moiromma´s air in fineness. As for the Commander, this all left him in a state of disintegration, but as the doors opened to the machine, he along with his citizens, felt the flood of fresh air pouring into the machine, and consciousness returning to the many.

(Conclusion) The following day, the soldiers of the clan, along with the Commander, scaled the rim of the crater, saw the giant spiders below, in the Shadow Lands, saw many of their carcasses, about, they had died from the suffocating heat rays of the sun, and dehydration, burning and so forth that had come about by exposure, and then the Commander with his elite solders, saw coming out of the sky, down to the surface, towards the shadow of the crater, the Minds of Saturn, they were legendary for destruction, they were pouring in like locust. Thought the Commander, watching all this, '...what next!" meaning, the Spiders vs. the Minds of Saturn. He thought about this, then ordered his men back into the crater's lower levels, as to be unseen, and he along with a few others watched to see the outcome, hoping they'd kill each other off, but the Commander figured, the Minds would destroy the spiders for fun, and should they find them, there would be a Third Great War, and if not seen, perchance, they'd leave like they did per near, a thousand years ago, when they fought the Locust Demon.

The End

Index of Character Names, and Locations

Luhtco-Az (third brother to Amelia-Az)
Gr, Zoov'al's second in command
Zoov'al ((Epitaph) (leader of the Minds of Saturn))
Augusto of Lemuria (Philosopher, and Historian)
Raphael, Raquel, and Suru'el (angelic beings)
The Cat Demons (of Phoebe)
Prison house of Angels
Agaliarept, Satan's Henchman in Hell
The Tor Rat (the cave rat)
The Foist (second eldest brother to Queen Amelia -Za
Bat-Condor (inner cave flying rodents)
Princess Amelia-Za
Luhtco, the elder brother to Princess Amelia-Za
King Luhtc (of the House of Uhluhtc, of Moiromma)
Malsi 1st (Demonic Pigmy of Cibara)
Malsi 10th (Demonic Pigmy of Mercury)
Siren the Great of Moiromma
Cyr, the Commander (Peruvian)
King Luhtc (of Mercury and Moiromma)
Jokaneen (of Cibara and Moiromma)
Royal Guards of Malsi the Tenth
Nogrut (brother to Malsi, ruler of the five regions of the Shadow lands)
Tfarcevol, Philosopher of Moiromma
Locust henchman, king of the demonic force, Azaz'el the II
Crick'el and Amasras, once, both being archangels
Ura'el, the bright and holy one the God of the Universe.
The King Spider, Black Mandible
Royal Chief Guard of the Mole People

Notes on Writing these Stories

Part One, written 7-3-2006/revised and reedited 10-24-25, 2008 ((Chapter two added, 10-25-2008) (originally written in Lima, Peru, and revised and reedited in Huancayo, Peru.)) Part Two was written 4-2004, called "The Locus Demon of Mercury," renamed "Hot Face of the Sun," it originally was a poetic tale, taken out of its original form and added into "The Continuing Sage of Mercury's Demise" (Written in St. Paul, Minnesota); Chapter six, was in part, written 1-2005 (in St. Paul, Minnesota) revised in October, of 2008. Chapter Seven, "The Second Great War," was written 10-25-2008, in Huancayo, Peru. Chapter eight and nine, "Obliteration," and "Mercy's Demise" written 10-25-2008," at "La Mia Mamma," Café, under an umbrella under the sun in, El Tambo, Huancayo, Peru. Parts of Chapter Ten, mostly description, taken from notes of "The Cadaverous Planets," written in 3-2004; and rewritten for "The Mole People of Mercury," 10-26-2008; the following chapters of the Mole People, written thereafter in the month of October, 2008; "Along the Carter of Moiromma," Chapter 11, and "The Armistice," both chapters written on 10-26-2008, at "La Mia Mamma," Café; chapter 13 "The Giant Spiders of Mercury," written in the night, 11:46 PM, completed 10-26-2008; chapter 14 and 15, The "Death of King Luhtc," and "Amelia-Az's Quest," written in the morning of 10-27-2008; chapter 16, written forenoon "The Tor Rat." Part 5, "The Ancient Cat Demons," Chapters 17 & 18, competed the evening of the 27th of October, 2008. Part Six, Chapter Nineteen, "The Machine," written 10-28-2008.


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Saturday, June 30, 2012

3D Animation Movie Maker - The Evolution of Making Animations at Home

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

I guess a lot of people would like to make their own movies. By that I mean to go beyond editing together movie clips taken while on holiday, to making movies which tell a story. In most cases professional actors are expensive and most friends don't make good actors. This is why making a 3D animation movie is a satisfying low cost alternative.

I remember a holiday movie my father made in the 1950s. It had an animated title filmed, like the rest of the movie on 8mm celluloid film. When I asked him about it, he told me he had put his camera in a clamp pointing at the floor. He then created the first letter of the title using a piece of string and filmed it for a couple of seconds, then he created the second letter and so on. It was several days later, when the film came back from the developing laboratory that he discovered that his desk lamp had not really been adequate to illuminate his work properly.

Then along came computers. It took a while before computers got good at graphics, even stationary ones. But of course they did eventually get good, not only at rendering still scenes, but also animations. Unfortunately Hollywood studios being able to afford high powered hardware and software did not make it accessible to the amateur movie maker.

The high price of professional 3D animation software led to the concept of Machinima. In Machinima inexpensive computer games are used to record 3D animated movie clips. Some computer games have a camera or record function built into them, and for others which do not, there are additional utilities such as Fraps, which can be used for recording the game action.

Popular Machinima games include Quake, Unreal Tournament and SIMS 2. These games come with the ability to design your own sets and characters, either as part of the main game itself or using utilities, which are provided with the game. Admittedly getting exactly the movie clips you want from these games can be challenging. I never did find out how to part characters in Unreal Tournament or Quake from their guns, which meant unless you wanted to make a shoot 'em up movie, they were not ideal. No doubt obstacles like this could be overcome, but it seemed you could not get very far unless you were prepared to get immersed in scripting language.

Of the three games I have mentioned, SIMS 2, is probably the easiest to use for making Machinima, except that the characters, or in our case actors, tend to have minds of their own. So your movie star may wander off part way through filming, or someone else you don't recognize, might suddenly turn up and disrupt the scene you are shooting. With SIMS 2 you might even find your movie set spontaneously combusting during filming if you forgot to buy fire insurance. Perhaps this is like movie making in real life, but I would prefer not to have to put up with all of these uncertainties.

So you may wonder why no one has produced a budget software product, specifically for the purpose of making 3D animations at home. In fact Microsoft did exactly that in the mid 1990s with a product called 3D Movie Maker, which they targeted at the kids market. However the product was designed for early PCs, so it was pretty basic, on most home PCs it was slow, and it was soon discontinued.

Recently there has been recognition of this unfulfilled need. Reallusion in particular, has developed a 3D animation movie maker called iClone. This software is pretty much a dream come true for anyone who wants to tell a story using 3D animation. In its basic form it costs about the same as a new top end computer game, while the more advanced and more useful Pro version is still very reasonable.

Although you could make a whole movie in iClone, I find it is best to use it to construct a series of 3D animation movie clips and to then edit them together using Microsoft Movie Maker, which comes as part of Windows, or using a more advanced home movie editing suite such as Pinnacle Studio.

Other key points to note about iClone are that if you want to get up and running very quickly, there is a good library of actors, scenes and props, which you can purchase to add to the collection, which comes with the program itself. On the other hand if you are short of cash and prefer to build everything yourself and have plenty of time to spare, you can do that too using the tools included in the software.

One optional utility, which I recommend purchasing bundled with the iClone, is Reallusion's 3DXchange. This allows you to import content from other sources, including Google 3D Warehouse, which is a fantastic resource full of free models of buildings and other props, to enhance your 3D animations.

I find it amazing to think that with a budget of less than ,000 I can now purchase a PC and the software required to make 3D animation movies, when twenty years ago I would have needed $ millions for less capable facilities. 


"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Article Writing for MLM Leads - What This Looks Like

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

It's time to write a good old fashioned "how to get MLM leads using article marketing" article. We've had a nice run with the warm fuzzy analogies, but it's time to get to work.

This "how to" stuff is just as important as making you feel good. I want you to go away understanding what you need to do with your day when it comes to writing your article. I'd hate to see you get blocked from the most useful article submission sites because you weren't aware of the importance of the rules I'm about to outline for you.

Let's talk rules.

Rule #1 for composing an article to get MLM leads:

* Everyone is your pupil.
* I'm talking about schooling your potential students in what you know. We're in a business of duplication so if you teach what you practice then you'll have a foundation for building a relationship of trust with your hopeful leads.

Rule #2:

* Don't self promote! Keep your topic on what to do, what to know, and how to do it. It's promotion enough just that you're the one sharing the knowledge. Don't say "hey I'm the coach for you!" or anything like it. (There is a place for third person self promotion in the signature box. Keep it simple. Take care how you word your plug.)
* Interpretation: Just share your knowledge. Give away your best stuff. Share, share, share.

Rule #3 for writing an article to get MLM leads:

* Talk to one audience.
* It's a mistake to talk to a "group", and it's a mistake to try to cover more than one target market in one piece of content.
* It's so important to help your audience feel that you understand them. They need you to communicate to them on their level - and believe me there are plenty of other articles to write. So focus on that one person as if they're sitting across a desk from you.
* If you feel that you have something to say to both audiences then write two articles. It's as easy as that.
* Again - connect with your audience on a one on one level. Help them. They're needs are at the front of your mind and you're trying to help them solve a need. They're only looking at your article in the first place to find a solution to a problem.
* Examples: (Do this) "Hi there my friend. I know you've been struggling to make ends meet and you're trying to use your MLM to earn some extra money..." (Don't do this) "Hi there my friends. You're all struggling to make ends meet and I know all of you want to use your MLM to earn some money..."

Rule #4:

* Knowing what to say is as simple as looking at what your mentors are writing. Just get a little inspiration by wandering over to your favorite coach's blog.
* You can either write a review about what they said and what it brought to your mind, or you can simply write a similar article in your own words.
* It'll come to you if you'll sit and type. Even if it takes a little longer than you think it should.

Rule #5 for writing an article to get MLM leads:

* Keywords go at the front of the headline -
* In the description (toward the first few words) -
* In the first 90 characters (first few words) of the body copy -
* Every 100(ish) words of your article -
* As the anchor text for your text links in your signature (in the signature box) -

That's about it. You can do it! Print this article out if you need to and pin it up next to your computer so you can refer to it and keep yourself on track. You can also write your own article like this.

Make sure you teach what works! Go get 'em.

See you at the top!


"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."

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Monday, June 25, 2012

Roasted Coffee Beans and the Art of Blending

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

The majority of roasted coffee beans currently consumed around the world make up blended coffee, a mixture of two or more varieties of beans. A smaller percentage of coffee drinkers brew single bean or single variety coffee. The vast majority of packaged coffees on grocery store shelves are blends.

It is common practice in all coffee consuming countries to mix different varieties of roasted coffee beans possessing different characteristics to obtain a smooth and balanced cup. This is called blending, a process requiring technical, geographical, and agricultural knowledge. The very best blenders/roasters, those using their blending skills and craftsmanship to develop the world's best tasting coffees, are considered artist by many coffee lovers.

Developing good blending skills takes years of blending experience before a blender acquires the skills needed to become proficient. A good blender must know all the properties and characteristics of all the different coffees grown, especially those he uses regularly. In addition, because each year's coffee harvest is different than the last, he must know how the characteristics of this year's crop vary from previous years harvests.

A blend typically consists of two or more varieties of coffee mixed together. However, the more common practice is to use several different varieties of coffee when creating a blend. The purpose of using several varieties of coffee in a blend is because if one of the varieties used in the blend becomes unavailable for some reason it will be much less noticed in a blend using five or six varieties as opposed to one using two or three varieties of coffee.

The first consideration when blending coffees is, of course, flavor. Flavors are described as:

  • acidy
  • bitter
  • smooth
  • neutral
  • flat
  • wild
  • grassy
  • groundy
  • sour
  • fermented
  • hidey

A blender begins with an idea of the taste and flavor they are wanting to experience then combines different varieties of coffees to create the desired taste. Typically a properly balanced blend will have a full rich body as it's foundation to which the blender adds a coffee variety to give it some acid character and another to provide increased aroma.

A coffee blender's personal preferences play a huge part in how a coffee blend finally turns out. Some blenders prefer a coffee with a pronounced acid taste. Another blender may prefer a non-acid cup. As they say, it's all a matter of taste.

Coffees are divided into four primary groups:

  • neutral flavored
  • sweet flavored
  • acid flavored
  • bitter flavored

All East Indian coffees (except Ceylons, Malabars and other Hindoostan varieties) are classified as bitter. Old brown Bucaramangas, brown Bogotas and brown Santos are considered bitter as well.

Acid coffees typically come from the western hemisphere and are grown in countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Bogotas, Caracas, Guatemalas, Santos, etc. Aging an acid coffee can reduce it's acidity to the point where it becomes sweet or sweet-bitter.

Red Santos beans are generally a sweet coffee and highly prized by blenders. High-grade washed Santo Domingo and Haiti coffees are sweet both as a new crop as well as when aged.

Well schooled coffee blenders do not mix two new crop acid coffees or two old crop bitter varieties unless their bitterness or acidity is counteracted with coffee varieties having opposite characteristics and flavors.

Some coffees are better when new and some are better after being aged for awhile. However a blend of fine old crop coffee with a snappy new crop coffee gives a better result than either type used separately.


"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."

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Saturday, June 16, 2012

Creating a Yahoo Mail Account

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HOW TO MAKE 3D CHARACTERS :

Yahoo Mail is one of the most widely used and diverse E-mail applications today. Creating a Yahoo Mail account is a relatively short process. To create a Yahoo Mail account, start by entering to Yahoo's website into your internet browser. On the top right side of the page, there will be four options to choose from: "Sign In", "New Here? Sign Up", "What are you doing?" and "Page Options". Click on "New Here? Sign Up". After clicking on the "New Here? Sign Up" option, the browser will load an application page for Yahoo Mail. This will have several sections for you to fill out completely to create your account. Let's begin.

The first section is labeled "Tell us about yourself...". This is where you will enter your first and last name, or any name you choose. Next, select your gender from the drop down box "-Select One-". After this, there will be another drop down box labeled "-Select Month-". Select your month of birth from the menu, then type in the date and year of your birth in the fields next to it. "I live in" is where you will choose the country in which you are currently residing. Finally for this section, you'll need to enter your postal or zip code.

The next section to be completed is "Select an ID and password". Select the box next to "Yahoo ID and Email", and enter in the e-mail address you prefer. Now it's time to choose a password. There will be a password strength meter on the right side of this box. To create the most secure, or strongest password, you will want to enter an alphanumeric password of at least 8 characters. Make sure this password does not resemble your Yahoo ID, or any personal information pertaining to you. Repeat the password you have chosen in the box labeled 'Re-type Password' exactly as you have in the previous box to complete the "Select an ID and Password" segment.

The third section, "In case you forget your ID or password..." is to help in case you do not remember your account name or password in the future. If you have another e-mail address, type it into the "Alternate Email" box. Underneath this, you will see two "Security Question" options. Use the drop down menus to select your security questions. The answer you enter, under these drop down questions, should be an answer you'll remember by memory only. Do not write down this information if you want a secure account, as this information can be used to access your account. Also, make sure the questions you choose are the questions you are most likely to remember correctly.

"Just a couple more details..." is the final portion. This is where you will enter in a security code that tells the website that you are a real person. If you're have trouble reading the jumbled characters, click on the "Need audio assistance?" option. This button will play a word or code to you over your speakers that you can type into the field labeled "Type the code shown". Under the security code, you will see a "Do you agree?" check box. This box must be checked to allow Yahoo Mail to create your account. You can choose to read through the rules in the links provided.

And with this, you now have a Yahoo Mail account. Enjoy!


"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."

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