The Skin Gun.. This is AMAZING…

I haven’t heard of this before, but wow. WOW. Watching this gave me goosebumps just thinking about if this takes off and works as advertised. So they use a patients own stem cells to heal their burn wounds, its brilliant, but I would love to know how it works in more detail!


Posted in 3D Printing, Education, Electronics, Health, Technology Products | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Learn Flash or HTML5+Javascript?

Creating a website from scratch is an art form,  it is also a blend of technical understanding and application.   As a developer you want your websites to look as great as possible, but you also want to go about it in the easiest way possible.  Websites can quickly become a complex mess of files and directories, so anything that can reduce the mess and keep the project streamlined is welcome. I have been using Flash for about ten years now and here are some of my opinions on Flash and HTML5.

Flash technology from Adobe ( before from macromedia ) has been around for a while now, but people who do not work in web development do not know what it really is.   Often times when working on a web project I will have to explain to someone what flash is and why it might be a good option or not so I figured I would just write a quick post about the differences of flash and HTML5 with javascript from a designers point of view.

In the early years of flash, there was a lot of excitement from young web developers about the technology and it seemed to be a well respected platform.  Over time though much has changed, and flash has two major strikes against it now.   First is that too many people did not use flash well and abused it in some cases and created many sorts of annoying experiences people associate with it.  The second major issue is that Apple does not support Flash on iOS devices meaning it is no longer multi-platform, and that does not seem to be something that will change any time soon unfortunately.

Apple has always in some ways tried to keep its technology separated from windows, so it is no surprise they are doing the same thing with flash.  Yet since so many people adopted the iPhone, this has made Apple a bigger player obviously and their closed environments are affecting developers from reaching wider audience.  It makes sense for Apple to limit this since they used to be a smaller player they taking a few extra measures to protect themselves.

Websites are complex, and a lot of work to setup from scratch.  So if your going to build one, you want it to be easy to do but you also want it to look good.  One of the issues with HTML sites for an artist is it can be a real challenge just to lay out your site well.  Some things are still pretty difficult to do that really should be easy.  It is not intuitive for the way an artist works, and you have to be able to work with code pretty well if you want to do any sort of sophisticate layouts.

So what about flash?  Well flash takes a different approach to how you layout your website entirely.  For people who are less skilled or interested in working with code, flash simplifies the design process greatly and enables sophisticated designs and layouts to be achieved.  Rather than positioning objects with code, you place objects just like you would in a graphic editing program.  Many photographers also like to have a website made in flash, because it can have a pretty clean and professional feeling.  It also makes it a little harder for the average person to download your images, but it won’t stop anyone who knows what they are doing.

You can easily lay things out visually on the page putting things anywhere you want, and flash handles the code behind the scenes.  You can also use flash action script to position objects with code at the same time if you like.   Flash video games are built often using objects that are dynamically generated with code in real time.

You can do amazing things with html5 and javascript, and by sticking to those languages to build your websites will allow your websites to reach the broadest audience because iOS is blocking out flash. HTML5 is search engine friendly too, and flash is not as friendly.  So if you do use flash it is best to mix it with some html content.

To make beautiful and highly interactive websites with HTML5 and javascript alone is not easy for an artist because you are not able to visually lay things out very well.  So HTML5 and javascript are much easier to work with for the those with skills in programming.  I hope that eventually some talented folks will possibly build editors which will allow for a more visual approach to working with HTML5 and javascript, hiding the code mostly from the web developer unless they need to tap into it.   This HTML5 editor looks promising, but it still isn’t quite as feature rich as flash.

http://aloha-editor.org/

Flash has many advantages, but another major thing it has which HTML5 and javascript might still not get for a while is a timeline and the ability to create animation over time.  Flash can be used to create animations, not just for the web but also for television or film with this feature.  In fact I animated a short cartoony animation for a friends short film that went to cannes film festival with flash.

Many cartoon TV shows look like they are using flash as well I have noticed.  I have used flash to animate a lot of parts in my demo reel, and because you can export animations as image files you can blend flash animation with cgi and film too.  HTML5 and javascript do not have a built-in ability to export animations, but someone might have built a script or something though to do this already and I am not sure.

For someone just getting into web design, it might be hard to suggest what to do.  Flash might never go away, and the issue with apple might become easier for developers to bypass, so learning how to use it might not be a bad thing if you can.  Especially if your an artist who is not exceptionally inclined to work with code.

HTML5 and javascript can pull off some pretty nice graphics and animation too though, and so if you can restrict yourself to working through code to create art, then it is definitely worth learning about.  If you not only want to do web design but also some day get into doing cgi animation or 3D vfx then you definitely want to learn how to animate with flash.

Posted in Computer Graphics ( CGI ), Education, Interactive Design, VFX, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

3D Studio Max and Animation Master.

It is not really a fair comparison between these two programs because they are in such different leagues.  Regardless, I thought I would write for a bit about the two 3D programs I have spent the most time with and just some of their interesting differences.

When I was in highschool, this really cool friend of mine showed me 3D studio max.  I was really fascinated with it but did not get a chance to really jump into using it until I took classes in College.   My first thoughts where that the user interface looked kind of technical and bit bland.  I remember at that time when my friend showed me 3DS Max, I was working with a program called Animation Master which I thought was really cool.  

Here are some short animations I made from around that time..


Actually it still is a really cool program and fairly easy for a beginner in 3D compared to a program like 3D studio max.   It is fairly inexpensive as well, and if you want to get started with making animated characters in 3D it is totally worth the money.

Here are two more animations I made a few years later..




Animation Master was well suited for creating characters in its time, although by today’s character animation standards it has not proven to be innovating as much and keep pace with the industrial strength programs such as Max, Maya, Softimage, C4D, but the software is coming from a small startup company and they are selling it for a really low price.   One of the main advantages Animation Master had over many of the other programs was the way it dealt with creating a 3D surfaces with a different sort of approach.

A 3D model is made up of lots of little polygon triangle  that are attached at the edges creating organic shapes from these little polygons requires some advanced tools and knowledge.  In Animation Master, you create surfaces by connecting vector splines, which are naturally set to a smooth interpolation.  This means that the surface created with splines, will have a naturally smooth quality to it by default.     The spline surface is still created with polygons, but they are invisible to you completely.   Connected polygons tend not to be smooth actually by default,  instead they can have a very faceted or jagged look when viewed up close.    You can increase the number of polygons that make up a surface, and you will have an illusion of a smoother surface.

Here is a link to check out Animation Master from Hash, Inc.

http://www.hash.com/index.php

AM has a lot of wonderful tools for making characters and animating them, it is perfect for telling short stories with characters.   You can make characters talk using imported sound files, you can blend between animations and walk cycles, and smartskin is a really great tool for making joints look natural when they deform.  Easily creating proper looking deformations of a 3D characters joints when they bend is something that is still not easy to setup in some professional grade software like it is with smartskin in AM.  Often times, complex rigs must be created which take more time.

AM has features which allow you to blend your models with photographs and video, so if your a photographer and looking for a way to begin blending some decent 3D into your images it might be a great fit.  The greatest downside for new users to AM is that your 3D models will often tend to have a very cartoon like feeling until you become really skilled with the modelling tools.  This is because objectss are almost always naturally smooth and organic by default.   It is really ideal for making cartoon like 3D characters.  You can make somewhat realistic humans too if your willing to spend a lot of time on it, and you can still create somewhat mechanical models, but the software is lacking in something called parametric tools.

http://usa.autodesk.com/3ds-max/

3D Max is a parametric modelling program,  that means you can create objects and affect a variety of parameters about them to achieve a shape you want.  For example, you create a sphere by clicking a button, then adjust a ticker control to increase or decrease the radius of the sphere.  Once you create a primitive model, such as a box or sphere, you can then convert it into a shape which you can edit arbitrarily.

In other words, you can add or remove polygons to the shape you created as you like forming it into new and more complex shapes.  Polygon Box Modeling Technique, is a method of starting with a box primitive, and splitting and cutting and reforming the box into various shapes from a spaceship, to an alien monster, to a human being.   One issue though is that because the objects are made of polygons, they do not have smooth surfaces by default.  They have faceted surfaces, and you must apply a modifier to smooth the surface.  This is usually done by increasing the number of polygons creating the surface until it seems smooth.

It has lots of tools now for creating organic models such as 3D characters as well as it can create buildings and mechanical objects a bit faster and more accurately.  The recent addition of CAT ( character animation tools ) to 3D max is really awesome allowing you to create some decent animation and very quick rigging for animation.   There are some amazing plugins which have come about to create all kinds of sophisticated effects, but you can be sure it is not cheap.  You can also create some pretty neato particle based effects using the built in particle flow systems.

One other thing that is pretty cool about 3D studio max is that it has built in access to the scripting language of the program.  So you can create your own scripts with special features that can speed up your work, or allow you to do complex things a lot faster. The software is a lot more expensive, but you can generally produce greater results.

Every year, 3D Max is getting new additions built in.   Every year it gets better along with all the other autodesk products such as Maya, Softimage.   Animation Master it seems has reached more of a plateau in that they are not really adding too many impressive or useful new features it seems at least from what I can tell of the feature list and what I remember last time I used it.  Animation Master was steadily improving in the years I was beginning in 3D and it was amazing to see it evolve.  It seemed for a long time that they were adding in one impressive feature after another, and all of it was really exciting stuff like real-time rendering, cloth, and hair systems.

One of the issues with spending a lot of time in animation master, is that if you decide at some point you want to work in a more professional application with more advanced features, you will have to almost start over with what you know.   All the major 3D programs are built with similar concepts, but they all work very differently and have a different layout.   They all have different ways of doing things.  Other programs use parameter based model creation a lot more extensively, and they have a very different approach to many things which will take time to get comfortable with if your used to AM.

I definitely would recommend it for a young kid or teen who wants to get into 3D character animation on the super cheap, as you will definitely learn about many of the most important concepts about 3D that will carry over to many programs.  However again because of its unique way of going about things you will have a ton to re-learn when you transition to something like 3DS Max and so if you can afford one of the better programs, in the long run it might be better since you could become comfortable working with complex software earlier on.

I can say that Animation Master is really a great solution more for a hobbyist than a professional.  The main reason I say this is because it does not have anywhere near as much 3rd party involvement or interest.  A few groups were developing plugins for AM around the time I stopped working with it, and some of these plugins were really cool, but not many other good plugins came about.

Another important thing for those to consider who like the idea of working in video games some day, AM is not anywhere near as widely used for games as 3D max, if at all.  Many games over the years have been built with 3D max.

With programs like 3DS Max, there are a number of plugin options.   There are plugins to create realistic trees, to render your images more realistically, to create better characters, and just about everything you want to do.  There are plugins to simulate fire, explosions, and smoke, liquids, and dynamic effects.  All kinds of great stuff.  Not to mention that there is already an extensive collection of scripts using the built in maxscript editor which are available that are quite useful.  You can find all sorts of neat tools and time savers, and just a ton of useful things.

http://www.scriptspot.com/

The way that scripting is integrated, it allows for technical 3D artists to create amazing effects and tools, which is why Max is one of the top programs also used in film visual effects.  Technical directors can achieve some pretty awesome results, but it takes a lot of time to get good with Maxscript if you are not a programmer.

Maxscript in my experience is sometimes a bit inconsistent the way it works compared to how it is defined in the manual as well which is confusing for a beginner.   I don’t feel the documentation is written so that it is easy to understand how to use the code examples in the help files and they do not give nearly enough good examples in the manual of code snippets.   For example there have been times when I have had to write two similar lines of code just slightly different and it makes no sense why this is required when the two lines should have the same syntax.

Animation Master does offer a scripting option I believe, but it never seemed to be as easy to jump into as max script to me.  In the past they used to put an emphasis on their latest features being added but it looks like now they do not list the full set of features on their website anymore.

 

Posted in 3D, Computer Graphics ( CGI ), Technology Products, VFX, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Letting the subconscious mind do your homework.

Have you ever slept on a problem and found that the answer mysteriously comes to you when you are not focused on it suddenly, almost effortlessly? It is probably not a good idea if you have a report due, but for some problems that take us a lot of mental energy to figure out, they can be solved on occasion by your subconscious mind.  

I was just thinking about how I have had these problems I have tried to solve bugging me because I am getting nowhere with them for a while.  Suddenly I have figured out a plan and have started to make some progress on these problems which have left me stumped, but it seems sometimes as if my mind had figured out the problem on its own over time.  

Throughout human history, there have been breakthroughs which were achieved supposedly when people had solved big questions or problems by sleeping on it. Check this out..

http://www.luciddreamlessons.com/2009/03/04/incredible-famous-dreams/

I have heard of many more which I cannot remember accurately, maybe you have heard of some as well?

So.. How is it that the subconscious mind is able to work on problems while we sleep?  Aren’t we supposed to be resting, healing, restoring?!?!  What is this nonsense of our minds figuring out complex problems in that non-focused state?  Also, if our dreams can be so weird and senseless sometimes, how can any order come from that chaos?

The human brain is an interesting thing, I have heard the argument before that we only use 10% of our brains.  I’m still convinced that for many ( such as myself  ) that this is truly the case, just kidding, but seriously, according to scientific american that is actually just a myth.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=people-only-use-10-percent-of-brain

and another article here..

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100253379

This article below seems to have the view that it is not a myth about the percentage of brain power we use, and that there is potentially vast room to grow still, which could explain how some people have super intelligence and others do not.

http://scienceray.com/biology/human-biology/how-much-brain-do-we-use/

So if all these brain systems are functioning in our sleep, when does the brain actually get a chance to rest?  If we are so active mentally in our sleep state, why can we not remember what was going on most of the time when we wake up?  I am not sure how it works, but I am sure that our brains do solve problems on their own because it has happened to me many times.

The subconscious mind is a place where everything is stored.  I guess in geek terms, it is kind of like your computer hard drive, and you have a billion files ( if your like me ) spread out everywhere in multiple locations, directories, and sub directories.  You may not be able to remember what is in every file in detail because we can only load so much information into our temporary working memory, but those files are all there.

So the brain remembers things we experienced, even if we don’t necessarily think about it or remember it all the time consciously.   When we are sleeping, perhaps our minds can more easily access the files in our minds which to us if we are conscious of it can seem pretty weird.   Imagine if while you were awake, your mind was re-experiencing all your past experiences, it would be a bit overwhelming and you would not be able to focus on very much I would imagine.

This sleeping mind, it workout some pretty interesting and complex experiments from those fragments of random things we have learned and ‘input’ into its database.    In our sleep state the brain doesn’t need to focus on, well, focusing.  I mean we don’t have to perform conscious tasks such as walking, writing, speaking, eating, pooping on a toilet.  All things that actually require some intelligence and focus to do well.

Intelligence and how the mind works is still confusing. Certainly science has not been able to fully map the way the human mind functions. Everyday though we get closer. Some folks have something magical, an ability to recall anything they experienced on command.  Photographic memories, amazing mathematical and intellectual genius.  I would like to know how much of a difference there is between the way their brain is functioning compared to your average person.  I would not be surprised to hear it is that much different though.

For the rest of us with low, average, or slightly above average intelligence, we need to remember that sometimes the brain can figure out our issues if we give it time to do its thing. So if you’re struggling really hard with something, it is OK to give yourself some time to rest on it. ;)

Check out these articles, they cover the phenomenon of solving problems while we sleep in a bit more detail.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090608182421.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37926551/ns/health-behavior/t/sleep-it-dreams-help-solve-days-problems/#.T7jsB0W3N8E

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8090730.stm

Posted in Education, General Life, Health, Human Brain | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Technology is changing learning and education forever. It is inevitable…

I’ve thought more about it and I really do think it is inevitable.  Education has to evolve on a larger scale and some of the traditional approaches aren’t going to cut it anymore.

I think there are many ways different people learn, and I don’t know what is best for everyone,  but I do know that it is never going to be a case of one hat that fits everyone.  Those kids who are not well suited for the academic grinder are being made to feel terrible about themselves.  Even if they may turn out to be highly skilled in some areas.

My whole life growing up I was told by schools that I am essentially a failure.  I never got exceptionally good grades in my academic classes and many of my teachers seemed to despise my personality because I did not fit in with the rest of the kids.  I was made to feel constantly like an outsider by the schools, and I feel that has affected my self confidence throughout my life of my ability to accomplish things and feel good about it.

When I reached college, it felt a lot more exciting, because I could finally begin to study the things that I found interesting.  However, again there were academic classes forced on me, and I was frustrated with it being a distraction from learning about things I am passionate about.

I can tell you that I think the way that my learning methods have changed since I was a kid is an amazing thing to me. To go from reading books and feeling like I am forced to try and comprehend all sorts of uninteresting complex information, to being able to look up and target the things I want to learn about quickly, is just an amazing and wonderful thing.  Yet I am still feeling affected in so many ways by the experiences I had when I was younger in the way that I was labeled in schools as being a problem for not fitting into the typical mold.

I find it easier to learn things in a video format than I did when I was trying to absorb information from books. I don’t have a photographic memory but I find learning with video to be far superior in many ways and my memory for visual information is far superior to my memory for words or numbers.  I am sure I am not alone and many people who are more artistic minded might struggle as they are processed through the academic grinder.

Not long ago there was scarcely any video on the net, now you can look up just about anything and find someone has made a video about it. Give or take a few random things here and there, but for the most part you know what I mean.

I think it is interesting that schools would still invest so much money on printed materials these days, when it would make more sense to just invest the money in creating high quality video for education. A lot of jobs might be lost, but also more work on the video production side would be gained. It is also going to only get easier for teachers to make high quality content as software tools are getting easier to use all the time.

Many intellectual folks are leaning towards this trend of using progressive methods in digital learning, but I don’t know, although if we suddenly run out of power to run our computers one day I guess a lot of information would suddenly be inaccessible. Hard to say what is the best call at this point because loosing power is a reality that could occur any day from what I have heard. A massive solar flare could wipe out our entire electric grid supposedly, not to mention a billion other ways we could get the juice cut.

Salman Kahn gives a pretty good talk here about his take on using video to reinvent education. He talks about his method of teaching which is very interesting, he makes the students watch his lectures online, and then he has them doing their traditional ‘homework’ in the classroom where he can interact with them and aid them. He makes a lot of great points, and this is worth a watch for sure.


I think this is pretty interesting, because I did not always have someone to help me with my homework and many times I just didn’t understand. Most of the time, I didn’t care about it though, and that is another topic.

I think kids should have more time to learn about things that they find really interesting which may be outside of the realm of academic study. Not every kid has an interest in math, history, etc. Yet they are all forced to memorize and study it and penalized if they do not. It really sucks to be a child and feeling like adults hate you because they think your stupid if you do not memorize the information required of you.

Here we have another very interesting video that directly addresses the topic of boys and how they may help from an approach that they will find more engaging and interesting. Video games!!! :)

Ali Carr-Chellman brings up a lot of interesting things and about the violent nature of boys and how modern school attitudes are towards their inherent nature make them feel alienated. It is awesome to hear from a woman how she has noticed this sort of negative perception many women have about men and video games. Her whole talk is fascinating. In her closing part, she talks about the importance in designing better educational games and this is something I believe would balance the whole issue out a bit more. For a long time I have felt that educational games are something which has always been poorly invested in but hold perhaps the greatest potential.

Games are getting more investment that are entertaining, and it is hard to make education entertaining. Yet if you look at a game like minecraft, it is very educational in so many subtle ways. Despite its simplistic graphics, it holds a depth of complex concepts to be understood in a super fun way. Where does metal come from? In minecraft you dig it out of the ground, smelt it in a furnace, and then you can fashion it into a tool, or weapon if you so require.   It is more simplistic than in real life and you wouldn’t want to try digging for diamonds in real life the way you would in minecraft.  I do believe it gives kids a fun way to understand how some of these things in real life work in a way they enjoy without having to approach the more technical aspects of how it might be done for real.  It can foster an appreciation for different things they might have found hard to understand if they just read about it.

There are some games I think about that would be seriously engaging, and have tremendous educational value.  There are great success stories already beginning to appear that games can be used for the greater good. For example, there is the Foldit project…. Check it out here… http://fold.it/portal/This brilliant game allows people to play and contribute to the advancement of scientific research. There were some claims it was helping tremendously in finding a cure for HIV. I recommend you check this out!

I wanted to also talk for a minute about video games and girls. I feel like every day there are more and more women who do seem to enjoy video games, but women in majority have historically been late adopters with gaming. According to Ali Carr-Chellman, parents need to start to rethink how boys feel about video games. I think they need to begin to understand there is a passionate relationship which can be turned into something useful and positive.

However many adult women have a bad attitude towards video games, and they look down on it, or have complete disinterest. They see it as a childish thing, and fail to recognize its only in its infancy, yet has amazing potential. It is kind of understandable, because violence and doing naughty things you wouldn’t want to do in real life, can often be very entertaining in games.

Games can be used to teach you though that naughty things are not good and there are repercussions. In GTA IV, if you are driving through the streets and run someone over, you might have the cops start to come after you. There is a repercussion. Yet GTA IV was designed to also be an action game for adults.

Lets though, rockstar made their game engine for GTA available to the public, someone could make a different game that was similar. It could be called, AutoSmart for example. In this game, we remove the guns and all the murderous quests for the player, and treat the game as a driving simulator for drivers ed students.

With a bit more detail payed to the way the police enforce the law in the game ( it is unrealistic in GTA IV since they let you run a red light and get away with lots of illegal stuff before going after you) you could have a very interesting and educational game that millions of kids would like to play. You could simulate a number of situations that are important for getting a firm understanding of the rules of the road. No one has created a really high quality driving simulator though, and nothing that looks as good as GTA IV.

Here is a very intriguing video from Brenda Laurel who is discussing the issues with women and their lack of involvement in the growth of the video game industry, which is a pretty serious issue to consider.  Why is it so few adult women have an appreciation for games? Why are there so few quality games for girls?  Women aren’t involved enough in the game industry and the industry has become dominated with male oriented material, which repulses women even further from forming a relationship with games.

This lack of female involvement is changing with younger generations, who are more inclined to be a fan of some games. For example, who knows how many young women have grown an better understanding of a video games value as entertainment from playing The Sims?  This game has sold very well and is widely praised.  I thought The Sims was a unique masterpiece the first time I saw it and played around. The ultimate virtual doll house, and it is cool to see how it has evolved since.

Are you still not convinced that games and video have a lot of educational power potential? Have a look at these two awesome videos from Jane McGonigal and Tom Chatfield and maybe you can see why games can be used for good.

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