Free Online JavaFX Course Starting August 25
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JavaPassion starts a free course on JavaFX next August 25. This is your opportunity to learn this new technology for free.
JavaPassion hosts lots of free courses on Java-related topics organized by Sang Shin, and other expert teachers.
All courses are online, and have homework to do, tasks to complete, and are very focused to practical programming, no boring abstract topics.
Avatar Contest Hosted By Frenzoo And Koinup
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Koinup has partnered with Frenzoo to make a contest. Just join Frenzoo, customize your avatar, take some pics and then upload them to the Frenzoo Group on Koinup.
Contest is open to all the Koinup members and Frenzoo users. Read the rules here.
Deadline is August 10th, and wins the pics with most votes. No violence or sex is allowed but your avatar can be of any theme.
The winners get one free upgrade to VIP status in Frenzoo for life.
Frenzoo is a web service to have your 3D avatar, specially centered on fashion, where you can meet people, design your avatar and get clothes for it.
DAZ Studio 3 Advanced For $52 Through Day 31
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DAZ Studio is at 50% off through this Friday, July 31. It only costs $52.49 !!!
Also, the plugins are 30%-50% off. This is a great opportunity to get the plugins that you want for DAZ Studio at a ridiculous price.
Carrara 7 is also on a 50% discount, and now only costs $99.93 instead of $ 169.95
Remember that there's also a free version of DAZ Studio:
Evolver Exits Alpha: Avatars For All Uses
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Evolver, has just completed a two month public alpha cycle to launch a fully functioning website where visitors can create and export 3D avatars and clones in a matter of minutes using simple slider and selection functions offering a wide range of creative latitude.
Evolver delivers 3D characters designed for a broad range of uses. The site’s simplicity and user friendly interface makes it easy for anyone to dive in and create a 3D avatar or clone quickly and for free, exportable for use in any destination including virtual worlds, social networks, animations and more.
More advanced 3D artists can save hours of production time by generating original Evolver characters and exporting high resolution models fully rigged for animation, for a small fraction of the cost of creating comparable models from scratch.
With Evolver, a near-infinite assortment of men, women, children and creatures can be created by combining and morphing physical attributes derived from a “virtual gene pool” of pre-built characters.
Features from these pre-built characters can be blended and tweaked in a number of ways to create a totally unique character in Evolver each time. Facial features, including overall face, eyes, ears, mouth, chin, nose and cheeks, and physical attributes including overall body, arms, shoulders, chest, stomach, hips and legs, can be customized along with skin tone, eye color and hair.
Alternately, upload a headshot photo that meets a simple set of specifications into Evolver to create a custom 3D clone of yourself or anyone else. The user can then make subtle or major changes to the “clone” avatar by tweaking the facial and physical attributes. Evolver also includes a complete library of clothing options to give each character an individual style.
Upon launch, Evolver models will be instantly transportable for free to virtual worlds, and exported with animations, as GIF files, or wallpaper to post on over 26 social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace or Blogger. Specifically optimized versions of 3D avatars or clones can also be purchased for use in many popular online games and virtual worlds. Pro users and hobbyists can also custom tweak Evolver model source data to export to off-the-shelf 3D applications such as Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage for further customization. These characters can be transported automatically into a vast range of third party applications due to the proprietary process in which Evolver generates a custom animation “rig” for each Evolver Avatar.
Getting started in Evolver is easy; quickly generate characters and clones, email them to friends, put them into short video clips provided on the site and export them into your favorite social networking site for free. Professional artists and hobbyists can also create custom models very easily for use in 3D animation projects, virtual worlds, online games and more. These models are production-ready and rigged for full body and facial animation. Models for professional use can be exported for an introductory price of USD$39.00 rigged for full body animation; an additional USD$30.00 (introductory pricing) for facial blendshapes is available as an option as well.
WBandD On Facebook
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WBandD now has a Facebook fan group. You can join and show your love for this community and also use it to discuss about it on Facebook.
WBandD on Facebook is an extension of this worldbuilders community into Facebook.
WBandD is a community of people that build virtual worlds and develop using these technologies, from worldbuilders and 3D modelers to programmers that build client-server software platforms.
WBandD is mainly focused to VRML, X3D and related technologies, but any other is also welcome, as many techniques and discussions are applicable to any virtual worlds platform.
I am the co-administrator of WBandD, which was founded by the main administrator Bruce Lehmann, an expert into 3D and everything related. Feel free to comment and ask anything here or there. Also read the interview with Bruce Lehmann that was published here.
If you are on Facebook, come and join us into the exciting discussions.
Video: Rocking The Metaverse In Active Worlds Europe
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Sflisijn (also known as Sander in Active Worlds Europe) filmed part of the Rocking the Metaverse Active Worlds Europe show and created this video.
Remember to join the group at Koinup and enjoy more concerts like this.
New Kindle 2: The Ebook Reader That Speaks
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Amazon Kindle is a new ebook reader device. You may have seen many other ebook readers, but they lack of many of the characteristics of Kindle 2.
There are 2 innovative devices that are changing the way we live. One is netbooks. The other is the new generation ebook readers.
Many of us have tons of documents and a number of books in PDF or Word (or similar) file format. Often, we print them to read. This costs money, time, and space.
Reading on the computer screen is bad for your eyes, tiring and you can't carry your computer anywhere you go. With laptops and netbooks, sometimes you just can't read the screen in a sunny place.
This is when an ebook reader is needed. The unique features that make a difference between Kindle and the others are:
Slim & Lightweight : Just over 1/3 inch and 10.2 ounces
Books in under 60 seconds : Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required
Paper-like Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images; even reads well in bright sunlight
Carry Your Library: Holds over 1,500 books
Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots
USB Port: USB 2.0 (micro-B connector) for connection to the Kindle power adapter or optionally to connect to a PC or Macintosh computer.
Audio: 3.5mm stereo audio jack, rear-mounted stereo speakers.
Longer Battery Life : 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging
Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4 hours and supports charging from your computer via the included USB 2.0 cable.
More Storage : Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books
Storage: 2GB internal (approximately 1.4GB available for user content).
Read-to-Me : Text-to-Speech feature means Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud.
No Wireless Bills : No monthly wireless bills, data plans, or commitments. Amazon pays for Kindle’s wireless connectivity so you won’t see a monthly wireless bill.
Large Selection : Over 300,000 books, plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines and blogs available
Low Book Prices : New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise
Included Accessories: Power adapter, USB 2.0 cable, rechargeable battery. Book cover sold separately.
Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.
There's also a bigger (in size and memory) edition of Kindle called Kindle DX. Click the following image to see the product:
Create Your 3D Printed Stylus For Your PDA With Shapeways
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Keen on its pursuit of constantly having fresh and easily customizable products for their community, Shapeways has expanded its creator series and introduced their new Stylus Creator.
With your very own personalized stylus you can say goodbye to the boring grey factory standard stylus that is packaged with your everyday on the go portable electronics devices such as handheld video game machines, tablet PCs and PDAs. Now with the Stylus Creator you can have within the palm of your own hand, a stylus that lives up to its very own name. Unique and 100% personalized, you can own a one of kind item that can make your tasks of navigating through menus both fun and stylish.
There are multitudes of ways to make your Shapeways stylus customizable and have it be what you want it to be. From either entering your initials or by choosing your own desired template which includes a Wii control-shaped design, you can make your stylus something that fits your certain look and aesthetic. And to make it simply one of a kind, Shapeways uses the technique of 3D printing in metal to ensure that your stylus will have optimal quality and will last a lifetime.
The price of a custom metal stylus is $29.50 (including shipping and excl. VAT. However Shapeways is situated in Europe so no VAT is being charged). Shapeways is also offering three white plastic design styluses for $25, since these handy items tend to get lost!
To create your very own personalized Stylus, visit the Shapeways Stylus Creator main site at: www.shapeways.com/creator/stylus
VRML News. Yes, And This Is Not 1997
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We said in a previous post that VRML is not dead. Surprisingly, it still rocks and is having a re-birth that can be seen in news related to this language that appear.
Need more? These are the facts:
And of course, these news that are the proof that it is still rocking:
Read the news here. Remember that you have until this Friday July 17, 2009 to send your proposal and show it on SIGGRAPH (New Orleans).
Recently, ABNet V3 free Multiuser Server was launched. The new Chat client plugin is based on Flash technology.
Although it only works on Internet Explorer, the plans of Rick Kimball is to make it compatible with other browsers and operative systems. And, certainly, Flash is the way to go.
Visit Abnet at: http://vrmlworld.net/
What’s New in v. 3.0:
- VrmlPad 3.0 is Certified for Windows Vista (TM)
- Full UTF8 support: Now VrmlPad allows to view and edit multilanguage characters.
- Preview in separate window: To preview a VRML scene or individual nodes VrmlPad provides wrapper window for VRML-viewer clients.
The upgrade from version of 2.1 (2.0) to v. 3.0 is free, you can just download and install a new version of VrmlPad 3.0 over existing version:
The upgrade from v. 1.3 or earlier versions: 99.95 USD (regular price), 49.95 USD (academic price).
VRMLPad has lots of features for edition of VRML files, and has been the main editor for many people for ages.
Paralell Graphics are the makers of Cortona VRML viewer that works on Firefox and Internet Explorer and office applications (Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, etc).
Free Webinars About 3DXplorer On The AVW
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The Association of Virtual Worlds will host some webinars presented by Altadyn about 3DXplorer.
I assisted to one of these webinars in the past and I can recommend them. These webinars will tell you many of the features of this platform that has everything you need for multiuser worlds and collaboration in enterprise and organizations.
All the AVW members are invited to attend and then enjoy the many features of the AVW Headquarters.
Dates: Monday July 20th (1 pm EST)
Monday July 27th (at 1 pm EST)
Registration is free and open to all AVW members. To register go to this link, or contact John Poznoski at jp@3DXplorer.com
Koinup and Twinity Partner For Machinima Contest
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Koinup and Twinity have partnered to run a machinima contest called "Powered by Real Life".
The submission time is from 15th of July to 20th of August, and the voting time is from 20th of August to 24th of September.
The winner will get his/her video published on Twinity, Koinup, Bitfilm websites and blog, and projected Twinity@Bitropolis Cinema, during a dedicated event. The author will get a free apartment in Virtual Singapore.
You can read more about the contest here, and read the rules and everything. Join the Koinup group and start recording!
Life On Line: Moon Landing And Relay For Life
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The new episode of Life On Line is out.
As you know, Life On Line partnered with us. So if you look in our sidebar, you'll find the Life On Line latest episode. When a new episode is launched, it will be automatically updated and you'll be able to watch it here in your favorite 3D site, Hiperia3D News.
Filter Forge 25% Off Until August 9
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This summer is full of interesting offers. One of our sponsors, Filter Forge, is offering 25% off any Filter Forge edition until August 9.
If you don't know what Filter Forge is, read this article.
Go To SIGGRAPH For Free!
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Renderosity is giving free passes for SIGRRAPH, so you can enter the exhibition without having to pay. You have 'till next Monday 20.
Read more on this here.
Come To ActiveWorlds Europe This Tuesday 14th
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Don't forget to be at ActiveWorlds Europe this 14th of July. Rocking the Metaverse will be celebrated there.
Koinup invites you to join ActiveWorlds Europe and familiarize with it. Anyway, ActiveWorlds is easy to use, so you can install and enter in just some minutes following the tutorial on Koinup.
Tutorial: Reduce Cost Of 3D Printing
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Check this tutorial on how to reduce the cost (for you) in 3D printing your models that have meshes that overlap.
Picture by mackz
Shapeways tells us how to do it. Basically, you turn different overlapping meshes into one using boolean modeling techniques.
VirtualBox Improved 3D Support
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VirtualBox has improved its 3D support. As you may have read, VirtualBox is a free (GPL) project that simulates virtual computers that run in your real PC as programs. Read the article in which I explained it.
You can read a list of the recent changes here.
Rocking Metaverse: Starting Tuesday 7th At SL, ActiveWorlds And Metaplace.
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Rocking the Metaverse continues this Tuesday July 7th, and will route through Second Life, ActiveWorlds, and Metaplace.
Photo of the CY Awards by hiperia3d
Read the announcement in Rocking The Metaverse at Koinup. This is the list of events:
7th of july: Orange Island (SecondLife)
14th of july: Active Worlds Europe
21th of july: Metaplace
And the concerts will continue on August, ReactionGrid, Twinity, and others.
The show will also host photo-contests.
Join the Rocking The Metaverse group at Koinup.
Conferences And Events For This Summer
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CG CON 2009 is coming, July 16 to 19. This is the world's largest conference for creative computer graphics professional offering 24 Master Classes and many other activities.
SIGGRAPH 2009 will this year be one of the big events of all the year, with the presence of relevant figures of 3D cinema, 3D artists, augmented reality gadgets, and more. The conference and the exhibition will be on New Orleans between 3 and 7 of August. Check it here.
Photo by wili_hybrid
In September, in the days 23 and 24, in the Californian city of San Jose, USA, you can attend many important events in just one: the Engage! Expo. Engage! is the leading event for companies seeking to leverage the power of user engagement.
Los Angeles Airport (California, oh yes not San Jose sorry!). Photo by monkeytime
This is an expo aimed to professionals, businesses, and companies that work with virtual worlds.
Virtual Goods Conference - For businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies using virtual goods, items and gifts.
3D Training Learning and Collaboration - Event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies using virtual worlds.
Digital Law Conference - Event for legal professionals whose companies or clients are currently or may in the near future be influenced by the adoption and use of digital technologies.
The 3D Studio Reaches 270,000 3D Models
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New ZBrush Plugins For 3D Printing: Optimization, And VRML Export
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ZBrush recently launched new plugins that are good for 3D printing with services like Shapeways: one for optimization of meshes, and the other to export in formats suitable for 3D printing.
Modeled with Zbrush. Photo by jamsven.de
You can get the new plugins here. Decimation Master optimizes the 3D mesh without removing the details, and 3D Print Explorer is to add STL and VRML file format export to ZBrush.
First you optimize your mesh and then export it SLT or VRML (again, VRML is not dead), and upload it to Shapeways to print it in 3D.
To read more about this, read this post on the Shapeways blog.
Koinup Contest: Win Up To L$9000 For Second Life Photos Of Water
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Quoted from the Koinup source:
So it's simple, go to your favorite SL sim, and take up to 5 stunning screenshots of something that has water, and win a fortune in Linden Dollars!!!
Marcaria Network: Unified Trademark And Domain Registration
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The first steps that you should take when starting your business activity is to register your trademark and your online presence so it is not taken by anyone else.
This is a vital step in which you may get lost without guidance. This is where Marcaria.com Network comes to the rescue, providing you of all the services that you need.
With ease and quickly, you can get registered your trademarks Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Oceania, all them are covered by Marcaria.
They have many years of experience with private and public institutions and businesses, and can help you to protect your trademark and register your domain names.
The best of all, you can manage both things, the trademarks and domains, from the dashboard of your account in Marcaria.
When dealing with trademark registration Europe can be very slow and add extra difficulties to the process. Leaving this in the experienced hands of this company, and doing it from your office without having to stand in line for hours, is something that you'll value for sure.
The company has a big number of expert Intellectual Property Attorneys in all the supported countries, that can give you the best advice in the process.
Previous to the registration of your trademark and domains, you can purchase a study in which these Attorneys will analyze your specific case. You can also get certificates of your trademark registry.
The website is extremely easy to use, and prices are not hidden at all. You get lots of info on every aspect of the registration possibilities. You can even check the list of Attorneys that they have and read their resumes in pdf.
They give you protection of your trademark both locally and worldwide. More than 180 countries are supported for all the services that Marcaria offers. No one knows more about European Union Trademarks, and all other countries' trademarks.
Life On Line: Michael Jackson, Fashion and More
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The new episode of Life On Line is out.
As you know, Life On Line partnered with us. So if you look in our sidebar, you'll find the Life On Line latest episode. When a new episode is launched, it will be automatically updated and you'll be able to watch it here in your favorite 3D site, Hiperia3D News.
Hiperia3D News is a Netbeans Community Partner, in recognition for developing the X3DV Module Suite and contributing to the promotion of Netbeans.
