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  Tuesday, April 24, 2007


My new Canon EOS Rebel XTi / 400D

A few months back, Andy convinced me that I should get a Canon EOS camera if I wanted to take my photography to the next level. I almost got the Rebel XT, but then bought the Rebel XTi after remembering some advice from Deepak Gulati.

I got a 70-200mm f/4L USM (telephoto) and will be going for a 100mm f2.8 Macro soon. I also got the standard kit lens (18-55mm F3.5 - F5.6) which I occassionally use for landscapes, but I am definetely in love with the 70-200mm.

Kingfisher 054

Coming from a non-SLR Fujifilm S7000 - which I used for 3 years - this is a BIG BIG improvement for me. I've taken 1000+ photos in the past month.

Perfect 2 point landing

I've been hanging around the lake (Hamirsar) at the center of my town (Bhuj) where a whole ecosystem of insects, birds and reptiles exists.

Snake eats fish

I had this amazing encounter with this snake who was stealing a fish a stork had kept in his nest.

Sunrise 028

I eagerly await the rains when there actually are clouds (these summer sunrises are too clean).

The 200mm is perfect for animal shots. Especially animals that will scratch, bite, or sting you. I've had more than enough of those!

XTi - Chameleon 023

I'm really loving how close I can get to the lizards with this lens!

"Bruce" peeks over the edge

My encounter with "Bruce" - a baby bat - was unique and wonderful thing! You can see all photos of Bruce here.

Mithubha

Untitled

Portraits with the 70-200mm is fantastic!!

My grocer

You can all of my photos on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nukeation

In May/June I will be going to Costa Rica where I will hopefully climb the volcano Arenal and go in a river infested with big crocs! Not to mention run after all those snakes and other reptiles!! I can't wait to see what kind of photo opportunities I'll get there.









  Saturday, April 21, 2007


Custom SSS Skin Shader in Vue 6 Infinite with SkinVue

This image (see link at the end for the full image) is part of the Troll Twins series I have been creating the past few days (and will continue working on for a few more weeks). I have been posting these images to www.Cornucopia3D.com.

These images were created in e-onsoftware's Vue 6 Infinite (www.e-onsoftware.com). Here's the information on the SSS shader I used for the troll - which IMHO gives a much better result than the standard Poser imported material.

Take a look at the above image - especially the marked areas and you can see the difference in the normal and SSS skin shaders.

And in low-light/backlit scenes, SSS can be much more powerful. However you don't get native support for the "Troll" model in SkinVue. So how do you create it? Simple. First you need SkinVue 6 (http://www.skinvue.net) - an excellent skin shader utility by Dave Burdick.

Here's how I did it. I loaded Victoria 4 from Daz into Vue and swapped materials using SkinVue. I saved the Torso material provided by SkinVue to my personal folder.

I deleted the V4 model and loaded the Troll. I replaced the BODY material (default Poser material) with the V4 Torso material. I opened that material in the Material Editor.

I edited the Color Production function in the Function Editor. While the function (see below) is scary at first, it is quite simple to manipulate. I selected the bitmap source node (highlighted in the capture below) and replaced it with the Troll Body texture that comes with the Troll package.

Hit OK, save the material, and you're done. Almost. You will have to repeat this process for the Head and other materials as needed. Most of the time head and body will be more than enough. But you may wish to edit the other shaders for extra realism.

You can see the full sized render here: TrollHuntBig.jpg (445.51 KB)









  Friday, April 20, 2007


revolUXions News

Let's start off with the big one: we moved revolUXions to the dasBlog engine. We've had some complaints and suggestions and we decided that dasBlog would be the perfect engine to satisfy everyone's needs. I'm sure the new site will make everyone happy. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any comments.

You will now have solid feeds (and only one feed to follow), no more postbacks so you get direct links to the files, you can comment right in-page, and have all the features of a regular blog.

We have just recorded episodes 7 ("New Controls in WPF - Part 2") and 8 ("Brushes"), and they will be released this weekend and next weekend respectively. Our next recording will be about, of course, Silverlight. We will be doing quite a few shows on the topic as "some things we are waiting for" become available. :)

Please visit http://www.revoluxions.com and subscribe to the new feed. This revolUXions feed (via nukeation.net) will no longer be updated.









  Thursday, April 12, 2007


revolUXions #6 - New Controls in WPF (Part 1 of 2)

Episode 6 | 4/11/2007
New Controls in WPF - Part 1

Join us as we take a look at the new controls and containers in WPF in this first part of a two part mini-series.

Running time: 14:12

 

 

 

Download
45MB Windows Media









  Tuesday, April 10, 2007


.NET Rocks #227 - Dax Pandhi talks WPF and Expression
Show #227 | 4/9/2007
Dax Pandhi talks WPF and Expression

Graphics guru and WPF wonk Dax Pandhi shares his thoughts on WPF, WPF/e, Expression suite in general, and Blend in particular. You'll hear the story of how Dax came to be the "Pwop graphics guy" as well as his contributions to the WPF community.

Dax PandhiDax Pandhi is the CEO of Nukeation Studios, an award winning UX studio, he is also a very recent MVP, and one of the first people to say that WPF will rock the world! He and his company have been helping clients prepare for and adopt Windows Presentation Foundation for their applications since 2005. Dax is committed to bridging the gap between developers and designers in the new world of User Experience. He spends his time helping UX-impaired developers adopt WPF, writing about WPF, and trying to get a life.

http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=227 









  Thursday, March 29, 2007


revolUXions Q&A Show - get your answers!

Alongside our regular shows, we're planning on doing one (or more) Q&A shows about WPF.

Here is how it will work:

Send us your WPF, Blend and other related questions to revoluxions [at] nukeation [dot] com before April 7, 2007. We'll pick the most interesting and/or common questions and try to answer them on our special Q&A show.

What are you waiting for? Send your questions now!






My first .NET Rocks!

Last week I had the honor of recording my first .NET Rocks! (as a guest) with Carl and Richard. Goes without saying that it was a lot of fun! I've seen many shows being recorded "behind the scenes" for the past couple of years but its funny how the perspective changes when you are answering questions.

We talked about WPF and UX. (I mean, c'mon, what else would I talk about, right?) We also talked about meeting Steve Ballmer, IndiMIX'06, how Carl and I met back in 2004, how Andy and I met because of DNR, and more.

The show is being published on April 10, 2007 according to the official calendar on www.dotnetrocks.com - don't forget to download it. :)









  Tuesday, March 20, 2007


revolUXions #5 - Designer + Developer Integration

Episode 5 | 3/20/2007
Designer + Developer Integration



Download
45MB Windows Media

We geek things up as show you how the designer and developer can work together by sharing Style and Template code via ResourceDictionary files. The designer works in Blend while the Developer works with Visual Studio 2005 and ORCAS tools.

Running time: 12:04









  Monday, March 19, 2007


Hang on, folks...

Episode #5 "Designer + Developer Workflow Integration" has been delayed to a Tuesday (March 20) release.

In this episode we'll show you how "ORCAS" tools for Visual Studio 2005 ("CIDER" in particular) and Expression Blend work together for excellent Developer and Designer workflow integration.









  Tuesday, March 06, 2007


revolUXions picks up heat

We were pleasantly surprised to see that revolUXions averages 1.5 downloads per hour since show #2. We'll try to put up more detailed statistics online when we revise the site.

And that's not all ... look at what Ryan Stewart over at ZDNet blogs wrote:

But the guys over at the excellent revolUXions show dropped a bit of a hint about what might be coming for Blend and WPF/E...

Another pleasant surprise was people of serious stature (for example, Miguel Castro) have also been following the show. And we haven't even done any publicity. So I must thank you all who read my blog and Andy's blog for spreading the word.









  Monday, March 05, 2007


revolUXions #4 - Animations in WPF

Episode 4 | 3/5/2007
Animations in WPF

34MB Windows Media

This time we take a look at one of the most innovative features of WPF - animations. We create a custom button and apply mouse hover animation to it.

Running time: 09:42

 









  Friday, March 02, 2007


"Solace" makes it as Picture of the Day

I am an avid user of e-on software's Vue 6 Infinite. This image entitled "Solace" made it as Picture of the Day on Vue's official site.

You can check out my Vue gallery at Cornucopia3D - Vue's official community.






revolUXions is back on track

A round up of happenings around revolUXions:

Like Andy blogged, we had taken a break. We were both sick. But we're back in action. We just recorded Episode #4 - Animations, scheduled for release on Monday, 5th March 2007.

While we haven't mentioned this in the episode, I'd like to say that it important to understand how these animations work in WPF. The animation model for WPF/E is the same as WPF. And animations you create in Blend can easily be ported into WPF/E projects.

We are postponing our WPF/E episode, as we're waiting for certain tools for WPF/E to be released by Microsoft. However, don't be disappointed. We have some major stuff to cover regarding WPF/E that you will not find anywhere else. Trust me. :)









  Monday, February 19, 2007


revolUXions #3 - DataBinding and DataTemplates

Episode 3 | 2/19/2007
DataBinding and DataTemplates



We revisit the Flickr RSS application and try to enhance it with hyper tooltips.

Running time: 14:25

Downloading the show

We had some emails about issues with downloading the show. If Windows Media Player fires up when you click the download link, you can use either of these solutions:

- Go to FILE > SAVE AS...
- Go to FILE > PROPERTIES, copy the URL from there and use your favorite download manager.









  Wednesday, February 14, 2007


Style inheritance in WPF: Episode 2 Code Explanation

Andy asked me how he could take a button we built and reuse it in other forms or even other apps.

Let me first explain the code that was generated as a result of the exercise in Episode 2.

<Window

       xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

       xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

       xml:lang="en-US"

       x:Class="Window1"   

       x:Name="Window"

       Title="Window1"

       Width="640" Height="480" Background="#FF000000">

<!--This can be Grid.Resources or Application.Resources or anything, depending on what

object’s ResourceDictionary you want this to be stored -->

       <Window.Resources>

<!-- This first resource is the brush that was created -->

              <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="AndysRedBrush" EndPoint="0.512,1.023" StartPoint="0.512,0.205">

                     <GradientStop Color="#A0923030" Offset="0"/>

                     <GradientStop Color="#00FFFFFF" Offset="0.438"/>

                     <GradientStop Color="#33861A1A" Offset="0.433"/>

              </LinearGradientBrush>

<!-- This second resource is the Style generated for the glass button -->

              <Style BasedOn="{x:Null}" TargetType="{x:Type Button}">

                     <Setter Property="Template">

<!-- The template property has the physical design of the control -->

                           <Setter.Value>

                                  <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Button}">

                                         <Grid>

                                                <Rectangle RadiusX="8.5" RadiusY="8.5" x:Name="rectangle">

                                                       <Rectangle.Fill>

                                                              <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.512,1.023" StartPoint="0.512,0.205">

                                                                     <GradientStop Color="#A0FFFFFF" Offset="0"/>

                                                                     <GradientStop Color="#00FFFFFF" Offset="0.438"/>

                                                                     <GradientStop Color="#33FEFEFE" Offset="0.433"/>

                                                              </LinearGradientBrush>

                                                       </Rectangle.Fill>

                                                       <Rectangle.Stroke>

                                                              <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.464,0.98" StartPoint="0.464,0.065">

                                                                     <GradientStop Color="#CCFFFFFF" Offset="0"/>

                                                                     <GradientStop Color="#CCFFFFFF" Offset="1"/>

                                                                     <GradientStop Color="#77FFFFFF" Offset="0.51"/>

                                                              </LinearGradientBrush>

                                                       </Rectangle.Stroke>

                                                </Rectangle>

                                                <ContentPresenter SnapsToDevicePixels="{TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels}" HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}" RecognizesAccessKey="True"/>

                                         </Grid>

<!-- The ControlTemplate.Triggers collection contains the criteria based property triggers that change the visual state of the button -->

                                         <ControlTemplate.Triggers>

                                                <Trigger Property="IsFocused" Value="True">

                                                       <Setter Property="Fill" TargetName="rectangle" Value="{DynamicResource AndysRedBrush}"/>

                                    &n