Unity 3D Basix – Part 1

Welcome to my Unity 3D Tutorial.  I’m writing this to get folks up and running as quickly as possible with some of the simple things like setting up a project with all of the basic tools to create basic terrain, objects, lights, a skybox and some basic unityscript.  Then we’ll work on some of the more esoteric topics like animated skyboxes (occlucding clouds) with day-night transitions, realistic terrain using height maps from GoogleEarth, and seamless transitions from scene-to-scene.  I’m also going to include how to extract and import assets from … Continue reading

It’s Been Awhile! I apologize for that.

It’s been a very busy year since September when I started my new job at a local high school.  Besides assisting with their college level courses I’ve been in charge of a small computer club, and that has kept me far busier than I anticipated.  But it has been great fun as well and I really enjoy it!  🙂 In light of that, I’ve been quite remiss with my other hobbies; writing, photography, making YouTube videos, etc. I have added quite a few new cartomancy decks to my collection, and … Continue reading

Macro Photography – A Primer

Macro Photography; What is it? First let me define the difference between Macro photography vs. Close-Up photography. Close-up photography is just that, up close to the subject of the photo. Sometimes this makes the subject appear larger than life on the final print or output medium. Macro photography is when the image of the subject is actually captured on the film or sensor at life size or greater than life size, which will always render the image larger than life on any print or final output medium that is larger … Continue reading

Grand Lenormand in Translation – Part 12: Five – Eight of Hearts

Here is my next installment of my translation from the French meanings for these cards. As always, anything in [ brackets ] are ‘aside notes’ where I comment on odd turns of phrase or other translation issues where it’s not clear what the meaning is. In any event, I hope you find the information useful. The next installment (hopefully in the next week or two) will finish off the card meanings. After that, there about 10 pages describing a few methods of divination with the cards, and then the translation … Continue reading

Simple Product Shot – How To

For my simple product shot, I tried to use only things that I think most folks would have readily available, without having to buy anything special: Inexpensive Point-N-Shoot Camera Flash Diffuser Material (coffee filter, paper, tissue, etc) Flash Reflector (aluminum foil, small mirror) Backdrop Material (scarves, shawls, sheets, pillow cases, bath robes, etc) A way to drape your backdrop (I used a small table pushed up next to an overhanging shelf) And the ‘product’ (I just used a teddy bear for my example) My first shot, without any modifications – … Continue reading