WPF Transition Framework or WTF, is a simple (and FREE) set of controls (well, control for now) that help you add slick animated transitions to your WPF apps without having to resort to creating timelines or messing with code.

It's as simple as this:

This is the beta release and only 4 (of 10+) transitions are supported: BlurIn, BlurOut, FadeIn, and FadeOut. Check out our wishlist to see what we hope to add to it (including bitmap based animated effects!).

WTF let's you easily control the quality/performance ratio by using the QUALITY property. If you want to stop animations for a moment, then you just turn on HoldTransitions (bool) and it will deactivate all transitions.

Download WTF and check out the sample application!

WTF works with Microsoft Expression Blend 1.0 or later, and Visual Studio 2008 Beta 1 or later.

.NET | Aesthetics | Code | Downloads | Geek Stuff | Microsoft | reuxables | WPF

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ILM (Star Wars, Indian Jones, etc.) has created some of the best graphics in history of film. On the "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest" ILM chose Vue (v5, I guess) for their natural terrain simulation needs. An amazing piece of software.

Susumo Yukuhiro, the matte artist on the project talks about their experince with Vue on e-on's website. (Vue's creators)

Art | e-on Vue | Star Wars

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If you've been one of the rare long followers of my blog you might occassionally ask yourself what happend to NukeBall, and all those other WPF apps and tools I've been talking about.

Well, we went over a lot of changes as Microsoft put WPF, Blend, and ORCAS into shape. Finally, we're ready to talk more about it.

We're bring all those things under one roof called REUXABLES (that's pronounced "reusables"). Click this link to find out more. We're going to reveal more over the next few weeks what other stuff we have in production under the reuxables line.

.NET | Blend | NukeBall | Windows Vista | WPF | reuxables

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I was recently ranting about WPF and Silverlight. Andy expanded and clarified his thoughts on his blog, where he also mentions:

| My fear, though, is that the industry will try to make XAML yet-another utility language

That brings up a point I will be raising with some people at Microsoft. I think XAML can be made more powerful in a few key aspects. I'm not talking about making Andy's fears real. Far from it. I want XAML to take over as much of visual side of things so that developers have to do even less for the UI and concentrate on their code.

One of these is the Triggers architecture. I think it should be expanded out of the Template zone. Right now only ControlTemplates and Styles use Triggers. If you introduce higher level property and event triggers in XAML objects, a lot of visual programming is possible.

Let's take an example of a simple textbox. Our goal is to make the textbox red when a negative value is entered. You can easily inherit the textbox, add two bits of code and voila. It's done. But that's with procedural code. If you have more powerful triggers, a designer can go in, select a control and add the trigger for this like you would a IsMouseOver = True trigger. It would make things easier. A lot.

This was just a simple and stupid example. But a lot of interactivity can be added with this. And lots of functionality can be added by the designer - mostly functionality relating to the UX that he or she would have to depend upon a developer for.

.NET 4.0 will be great. I can't wait.

WPF

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Okay, so we haven't been able to release a new revolUXions episode in a while (both Andy and I are up to our armpits in XAML, but we'll be back soon), but we haven't forgotten WPF. What's funny is that many people are. Now I'm the last person to criticize Microsoft - that's why if I am critisizing Microsoft you know it has be bad (at least in my eyes). I think Microsoft is playing up Silverlight a bit too much.

Now we can spend eternity sitting here and discussing the market impact of WPF vs Silverlight, or Flash vs. Silverlight, or whatever. But my point is that the marketing is maybe a bit confusing. In fact, I must've heard at least a dozen confused queries in the past two days. I've had clients coming to me for "WPF and .NET 3.0 websites". People are finding it hard to differentiate between WPF and Silverlight. Especially with 1.1 Alpha out now.

Look, I'm really happy with Silverlight. I'll be even more when I get to go deep inside Silverlight. But let's not forget WPF. That's the root technology. A whole lot more (profit and innovation) will come out of WPF than WPF/E (that's what Silverlight used to be called and what potentially confused people - and don't get me started about people confused with 3.0 and 3.5). There's a lot of time, money, knowledge, and infrastructure invested in the Windows platform (software, i.e.) and WPF is the successor to Windows Forms - the biggest UI change since DOS to Windows. You do the math.

Andy and I just had this discussion about Silverlight. His company is really deep into Silverlight and he's just worshipping it like a madman. I'm still iffy about Silverlight. But he and I both agreed on one thing: keep the web and desktop seperate to a point. Now, innovation is not bad - not at all. But it's kinda like those washing machines you can control from the office. Technologically that's awesome, but the actual usability requires a *bit* more thinking.

Nukeation will be doing some Silverlight stuff no doubt, but we're focusing almost 98% on WPF only. In fact, check out our new services at www.nukeation.com - and we'll be creating WPF support tools starting with NukeBall which is being ported to WPF (as well as being compatible with VS2005/WinForms) and Codename Helios.

But back to my original point: I think WPF is being forgotten over Silverlight which is just a fraction of the whole innovation. What do you think?

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I just heard through the grapevine (what can I do, limited connectivity right now) Carl Franklin just got RD of the Year, and Richard Campbell's company Strangeloop Networks got Best of the Show. Congrats, guys.

All the news I got so far. If someone has more info, please call me. I'm lonely without my net connection being all proper and fast... :(

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My new article is featured on front page of the newly relaunched angryCoder.com.

But like developers, designers also have healthy egos measured in tons. Stick a single developer in a team of designers and he or she will be chewed to death in a matter of minutes. Black shirts hide bloodstains easily - why do you think designers wear only black?

Read the entire article at angryCoder.com

Articles | Geek Stuff | Philosophy | WPF

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deviantArt rocks. I'm kicking myself for not using it sooner.

For my fans I present you this ever changing preview of my most popular "deviations"

And for those who'd like to follow my deviations, here's the RSS Feed.

Aesthetics | Art | e-on Vue | Graphics | Photography

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Aesthetic by *nukeation on deviantART

I've finally found a nice corner on the Internet for my artwork (3D, 2D, traditional) and photography (my flickr is still active though). I'll be posting a lot of art and photo related stuff, as well as keeping an art blog of sorts. Prints of my works are available on deviantArt as well.

Aesthetics | Art | e-on Vue | Graphics | Photography

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I hate to say it. But I told you so.

Silverlight and WPF just plain rule. And are simply better than any other "similar" solutions out there. That's not bias, thats just plain simple fact.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/silverlight

http:///www.microsoft.com/silverlight

http://www.visitmix.com

http://www.silverlight.net

http://www.microsoft.com/Expression

Blend is now Blend 2.

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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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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

Portraits with the 70-200mm is fantastic!!

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.

Photography

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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)

Aesthetics | Graphics | e-on Vue

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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.

revolUXions

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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

45MB Windows Media

revolUXions

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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!

revolUXions

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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. :)

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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.

revolUXions

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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:

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.

revolUXions

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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

revolUXions

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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.

Art | Graphics

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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. :)

revolUXions | WPF | WPFE

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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.

revolUXions

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<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}">

                                         <