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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