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Description | Has new content |
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| Ask.fm: about social networks series |
Ask.fm has been cited as an example of the problems anonymous social media can cause through its combination of offline contacts who know each other well, and the availability of online anonymity. Since 2014, the company has been constantly improving its service to prevent bullying, so it can be also considered as an example of how modern cyber safety technologies are implemented to tackle the issue. Source and more detailed info: Wikipedia. Homepage: https://ask.fm/ |
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| ASMALLWORLD: about social networks series |
Members get access to an advertising free and curated community of global citizens around the world. The company organizes over 1'000 events per year, ranging from after work gatherings, art gallery openings to its famous Gstaad Winter Weekend. To join, one must receive an invitation from an existing member, or an invitation from the governing board after filing an application to be considered for membership. Today, ASmallWorld is marketing itself as the leading private international lifestyle club, whose members are internationally minded people committed to opening their lives to each other, sharing extraordinary experiences and insuring that fellow members can live like locals wherever they go. Membership requires an invitation from an existing member or a membership application approved by an international committee of trustees. ASMALLWORLD is active in about 150 cities around the world and offers more than 1,000 events annually. Source and more detailed info: Wikipedia. Homepage: https://www.asmallworld.com/ |
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| Athlinks: about social networks series |
Source and more detailed info: Wikipedia. Homepage: https://www.athlinks.com/ |
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| Augmented Reality in the classroom |
Somewhat off topic for a VRML/X3D forum, but i try to expose my students to a varied range of 3D applications. Today i've started to experiment with Augment, an augmented reality app that allows for superimposing user generated 3D content over real spaces. First tests were made with models created in Vivaty Studio, uploaded whithout textures (too much of an hassle for a simple feasibility test). I did the test in class, while my pupils were working on more mundane tasks using office applications. As soon as they noticed the AR experience... wow factor went through the roof. Read about the experiment and a primary educational project here (in portuguese): http://3dalpha.blogspot.pt/2012/10/realidade-virtual-na-sala-de-aula.html I'm using Augment for android and iOS: http://www.augmentedev.com/home.php So... i wonder if there's an app that can directly translate VRML/X3D content for augmented reality. It would be an obvious step, given this technology advantages in terms of file sizes, bandwith and embedded texturing. Wonder if bitmanagement has something in works? Better, i hope, than it's legendary bad apps for windows mobile and android? |
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| avatar face movements - testing |
Rotating fingers, eye and mouth movements What about having avatars waving a bit better (or grabbing objects more realistically), blinking eyes (or closing them in sleep) and mouth speaking movements? For avatars telling stories, coaching etc., some basic face movements are useful.
Did it aiming for a future upgrade of babelx3d kit for Avatar Studio 2, dream on :) vcard |
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| Avatar Studio and Virtual Humans |
Avatar Studio: teaching young children to create 3D avatars. The arts department teachers from Agrupamento de Escolas Venda do Pinheiro organizes every year a day of workshops for every student. This year, parallel to a painting workshop and an immersive sensorial exploration, pupils visited and experimented with avatar creation in Avatar Studio. Children with ages between 10 to 14 years old had the opportunity of working with the program, learning about avatar animation an the new avatar gestures, and even got a glimpse of the VRML code underlying the visual interfaces.
To read more about this workshop click here (in portuguese): 3D Alpha - Atelier Avatar Studio. |
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| Avatar Studio for 3D Printing |
Yes, you've read that right. Good old Avatar Studio being used for 3D printing. One of the problems with this technology is that requires valid 3D meshes to correctly print an object. It's not as easy as it sounds. Most meshes will have errors, non-manifold edges, holes and other problems that create bad prints- The cool thing about Avatar Studio is that it generates a perfectly printable mesh. Low poly, valid, whithout problems. It's possible to design characters with this oldie but useful app and then print them. How? There are some operations that have to be made to create a 3D print from Avatar Studio. First, design your character and ensure that the default pose is the one you want. If not, the character will be standing in the default avatar position. Then, navigate to the avatars folder in the Avatar Studio installation and copy the VRML file. I'm using a single filament printer, therefore the texture map is not needed. Before opening the WRL file in meshlab, open it in Vivaty Studio to delete the h-anim skeleton. Export the mesh as VRML non-compressed and open it in Meshlab to convert it to STL. Use netfabb to validate the STL file, and print it with your 3D printer software (I'm using beesoft to control a beethefirst printer). You may need to choose the supports option for the printer to be able to correctly print overhangs. In this case I've also created a base in Sketchup. Here the process is slighly different. From Meshlab export the character as Collada and import it into Sketchup. Sketchup will not recognize the object as a solid, so you can't use the outer shell tool to create a single mesh. Place the character on top of the base, export the result as collada. Return to Meshlab to convert to STL. Then, open Meshmixer, import the STL file and use the Make Solid tool to glue all the faces. Beware: Meshmixer generates very high poly meshes, so you may need to open the resulting mesh in Meshlab to do a mesh reduction (the quadric edge decimation works wonders). When you're satisified with the result... print it. These techiniques work very well with basic Avatar Studio meshes (the man or the woman). I've yet to experiment with a mesh that includes long clothes. Here there might be a problem, if the clothes are displayed as a single surface. 3D printing is getting easier but preparing objects for printing still requires some work. This is a cool way to print humanoid characters created using the venerable Avatar Studio. |
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| Avatar Studio video walktrough |
A video showing the avatar creation process using avatar studio. Remade in high resolution. |
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| Avatars used as objects (dynamic) on worlds |
In some worlds wee see human figures represnted in the world and walking or doing some other simple actions (walking, greeting, ...). These human figures look like avatars but they are used there as "objects" of the world. Worlds become a bit more realistic when they include the human figure.
How to do this? You probably tried before but results may not end up as easy as expected. Yet, even without appealing to sophisticated programming techniques, with a little imagination it's possible using simple tricks, easy to implement and with very convincing results. Como se faz isso? Alguns de vós certamente já experimentaram mas os resultados podem não ter sido os esperados. Mas, mesmo sem recorrer a técnicas sofisticadas é possivel fazê-lo usando, com alguma imaginação, truques simples mas muito convincentes e fáceis de implementar. Look at this example by Nelson Sovela: avatars bar It was done using info from the "tutorial 3" of Avatar Studio available here. This tutorial (in Portuguese*) show how easy this is using vivaty studio and tyni modifications to avatar code. Try it and exibit here your scenes populated with animated human extras. Enjoy! vcard [(*) if someone is kind enough to translate the tutorial to English, please send me a copy os post the address here] |
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| Babel forums: how to use an image from google photos |
Hi all, For technical reasons (server space) uploading images or other media is not enabled in babelx3d but the editor allows using images and media stored elsewhere, in other servers like Youtube or Google photos. Google photos is a popular photo server archive and has free unlimited storage for your photos. The interface of the service can be frustrating if a user doesn't know how to get the URL of an image; because he can't find an option for that in google photos menus. Yet, it's a simple process if we use the old "right click mouse button on image" technique:
The URL should look like
Enjoy, vcard |
Athlinks is a free-of-charge social networking website aimed at competitive endurance athletes. It primarily presents race results for running, swimming, cycling, mountain biking, triathlon, and adventure racing. It is also represented as tool for athletes to connect with other competitors and enthusiasts locally.
