Soft and Music

This is the third part of a multi-part review covering MAXTON's new CINEMA 4D Release 11's offerings. Because this product has so many features available for the user that a single review could not do it justice, I will break it down in separate parts. This one will cover the remainder of the modules that are available to enhance product functionality. As I said in my first installment, CINEMA 4D R11 is the latest release of the commercial, cross platform, high-end 3D graphics application from MAXON. Because of its modularity, the core product gives you everything that you need to create high-end 3D images and animations. But when you need additional features, you can get those as well. In my second article, I covered four of the modules available, so I will now take a look at the final four modules. Thinking Particles Thinking Particles will let you create amazing special effects that have that Hollywood look. This module uses CINEMA 4D's XPresso interface to provide complete control over individual particles and particle streams. That means that they can interact with one another and within their environment. They can trigger collision events and spawn new streams. With Thinking Particles, you can choreograph your particles with a great degree of control. They can spin or take on the motion of any object in your scene. You can even freeze particles for a "Matrix" effect. You can emit particles from any plane, surface, or volume. You can even emit them in the form of, say, a company logo and then have the wind come along and blow them away. Within Thinking Particles there is also collision detection where you have full control over the bounce, friction, and variation of particles based on a collision. You can even use Thinking Particles to create interesting shattering and explosion effects. Dynamics Dynamics are what allow you to simulate real-world dynamic forces such as friction, gravity, wind, springs, and more. They are applied to an existing object, or the points of an object as a modifier. You have Rigid Body dynamics to simulate solid object interaction. You add properties such as mass or friction to define how Dynamics should affect an object, and when animated, Dynamics will automatically calculate the correct behavior. You also have Soft Body Dynamics that are used to simulate soft objects such as jelly, cloth, or goo. These soft bodies can be deformed by forces available in Dynamics. Forces from one part of the mesh are distributed over the surface via the net of springs. Splines and forces like wind can also interact with soft bodies. You also have other forces available that can be used to attract or repel objects. NET Render NET Render is the module that will let you speed up rendering times. NET Render is primarily geared for today's professional media production industry. With the complexity of projects increasing, and completion time frames shortening, the need for faster renders is necessary. How to accomplish this? Through the use of multiprocessor systems and networks. Using NET Render, you can take advantage of multiple systems across a network to reduce the rendering time and this module handles it all.

Like a crying baby awaiting a bottle or with a wet diaper drooping full and needing change, the right is whining again. They have it down to a science. Still smarting from November 4th’s thumping — word is they are retooling, trolling and trotting out actual ideas to be on par with lefty blogging fools. Imagine that, trying to beat the liberal masters at their own game? I don’t think so. But Heloise doesn’t care how many blogs the right blows up, one can’t catch fire after being burned — bring it!  For starters they can snoop. And sort out the damage done to the United Shambles of America. While anyone asking “what more wrong can the right do?” is verboten and testing the fates — it must be done. I want to know what Bush and pen are up to — don’t you? The cabinet leaks from the Obama team are filling up the news pail. But Bush is giving Americans the business. Beside the many new “rules” Bush has penned before limping out of office January 19th, there are other things that need addressing and we don’t mean pardons. We mean the monkey business of making the beautiful ugly or the pristine prostituted to the cheers of the “dig, baby, dig” crowd now thanking Sarah Palin for being Sarah, while the left is thanking her for well, losing.  The left suggests that rather than creating an arsenal of “Right” blogs they create rationales for WTF went wrong with conservatism under Bush. Who hijacked the party plane? And what’s up with belief in a young god — called creationism for starters? The steady diet of pro-life, pro-guns, pro-drilling and pro-war has produced potluck. They dine alone. Alone, because progressives know that stuffed moose does not go down well with the wine of anti-intellectualism served by flat earthers in Ford trucks. Voters are getting out of the way. They’ve seen this movie before and quickly erase it rather than listen to the overture that sounds a lot like “Bad Moon Rising.” In the old West the call was “take it outside” and inquires as to the weapon of choice. That’s old school. In 2008 the weapon of choice is clearly Weblogs over guns. The right is arming itself to the teeth these days with both. Is it really a question of who has bigger balls on the Web? “It is our fractious, independent debate that makes us strong because it is the power of ideas that wins the day in political movements.” The “power of ideas” Mike writes…what ideas I ask? Ideas like the governor from Alaska, maybe Mitt from Massachusetts or the idea that they have NO ideas? The GOP, guilty as charged, with having few thoughts back then and even fewer now. The election debacle leaving the GOP scratching its head has been chalked up to karma by some observers. Others believe that the Rubicon was crossed in a slow sloop. Regardless the metaphor the consensus rendered the same — an ill wind has blown through the right’s camp. It’s natural to dub it karma but karma is too easy.  It doesn’t fit. Sad fits, sad or pitiful and that’s worse than karma. What’s happened is more like the evil wind that a Jonestown survivor narrated in a documentary that he describes blew in just before the members of the Jonestown cult were forced to drink cyanide-laced Kool-aid. That survivor headed for the hills and lived to tell about it. In this election survival story the survivors are the American people who will live another day and vote in another election and play activist to battles worth waging. If the right wants Web war then the left should oblige.

If there were ever a modern case that could be compared to the Salem witch trials, it would be the effort to prosecute Julie Amero, a Norwich, Connecticut school teacher, for (allegedly) exposing her students to pornography. Julie was convicted on four counts of exposing kids to pornography after she turned on a spyware-infested (school-owned) machine and a flurry of porn pop-ups began appearing on the screen. Julie, who was merely a substitute teacher, didn't know what to do and the teenagers in her class witnessed the event. Even worse, the school district had let their content filtering software expire. Computer experts later discovered the spyware infestation was caused by someone accessing a hairdressing site. Presumably, this site was accessed by a student, who wasn't aware of the spyware and didn't know the school district had let their content filtering expire. On Friday, Alex Eckelberry, CEO of Sunbelt Software, announced that the Amero nightmare is over in his popular Sunbelt Blog. Sadly though, she still had to plead to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. The result was a $100 fine and she has had her teaching credentials revoked in Connecticut. Considering in the initial trial she was facing a conviction on four felony counts — which could have netted her 40 years in the slammer — I suppose this is a win? "She acquiesced to the lesser misdemeanor charge, and while it may have been a bitter pill to swallow, she can at least can move on now without this sick cloud hanging over her head. It was less than two years ago that Julie was facing felony charges with a maximum of 40 years in prison," according to Alex Eckelberry, Alex and a host of people from the computer security industry, along with a pro bono attorney, William Dow, led the effort to expose this injustice and get Julie a new trial. The number of people who got involved in this is amazing and many of them are mentioned in Alex's blog post.

I had only one thought when I stumbled upon Gifts.com: “Sweet Jesus, I’m saved!” Usually I’m a pretty creative gift-giver. Birthdays and anniversaries do not daunt me. Then Christmas finds me clutching a “nice” list that stretches for miles, trying to avoid an angry mall crowd bound to test the heartiest of shoppers. I don’t want my favorite people to have just anything, either. Mine need the perfect gift, the gift that says I know them well enough to choose something they’ll enjoy and looks expensive enough to say I care. By the time I’ve checked off every last name, the huge headache hardly seems worth it. Luckily, I’m not the only one who feels this way. In 2005, Gifts.com launched as a business under InterActiveCorp. Gifts.com does not sell merchandise; they are solely a free service site dedicated to helping you find the “aha!” gift. Better than Amazon.com and others like it, Gifts.com offers a personal level that the “things you may also like” widget can never touch. Visitors shop four different ways: by category, occasion, recipient, or personality. If your best friend is going abroad next semester, you already know you want something to do with travel. Click on ‘Category’ and sort through gifts listed as travel-related until you find what you need. ‘Occasion’ isn’t hard to figure out. Every seasonal holiday known is available for browsing. You may, however, find many new holidays you never dreamed existed. I can only guess who came up with National Bosses Day (October 16th), but who decided October 18th was Sweetest Day? More importantly, what is Sweetest Day? According to the website it is another chance to show your sweetheart you love them – because clearly Valentine’s Day isn’t enough. The point is, if there is a special day, you’ll find something for it here. Even if you know the person well, you may not always have an idea what you should get them. Gifts.com provides a ‘recipient’ filter for such situations. From there you can browse through popular gift items, Top Gift Guru Picks, or refine your search by age and interest. The most ingenious facet of Gifts.com is their interactive ‘Personality Profiler’. First choose a gender and an age group from preschool to senior. Answer four to six multiple-choice questions about what your recipient does with their weekends, what their favorite foods are, and what activities they do most often. The Gift Gurus will then categorize your friend with a cute animated version of their personality based on your responses.

Windows Presentation Foundation, also known as WPF, is a graphical subsystem of the Dot Net Framework 3.0 that will allow you to create richer, more dynamic applications than you ever could before. Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed was written as a definitive guide to getting real world results from WPF and Visual Studio. It is for those who want to learn how to develop user interfaces. The author's goal is to try to show you how to dramatically improve your productivity, build more reliable and easier maintained applications. It is 656 pages in length and divided into 17 chapters and further divided into 5 sections. I will break this down by the five sections Part I, "Background," begins with a history of how we got here by taking a walk down memory lane. We look at where we came from and really how graphical interface development has not changed all that much in the last 20+ years. You will also learn about comparable technologies. We also see how WPF is integrated within the scope of the .NET Framework. Next we look at what XAML (pronounced "Zammal") is and how it is used. You will learn about its elements and attributes, as well how you can work with XAML with procedural code. Finally you will see what some of the important new concepts there are in WPF Part II, "Building a WPF Application" now moves on from theory to application. The goal here is to show you how to assemble and deploy a traditional looking application; albeit with fancier abilities. Here you will start with various controls and see how they work. Next you will learn how to size, position, and transform elements within your application. Moving on from there, you will work with panels and layouts. These panels include StackPanel, WrapPanel, and DockPanel. You will see how to handle content overflow and then finally see how to put all of these elements together by creating a Visual Studio-like Collapsible, Dockable, Resizable Pane. Once you have done all this, it is time to see how to structure and deploy an application. You will get a look at the different types of applications you can build; these include Standard Windows Based, Navigation Based, an application with a Vista Look and Feel, as well as XAML browser applications. Part III, "Features for Professional Developers," delves deeper into more complex topics. Many of the things covered here are not always necessary to use in a WPF application, but can greatly enhance the development. These include binary and logical resources. Binary resources are just that – resources of a binary nature. They include items like bitmaps, image files, video, etc. Logical resources are anything not a binary resource. You will be introduced to data binding via the binding object. You will see how to control rendering, customizing the view of a collection, and working with data providers.