Giant Difference Search Results

How To: Refinish exterior lights

Are your exterior lamps looking totally out of place? Bring them back into the fold with a simple spray paint face lift. As every fashion-conscious gal knows, accessories make all the difference. The same is true for your house: the decorative touches, accent pieces, and color schemes can make the difference between a house that looks all together or altogether tacky. Exterior lights are a perfect example: do your lamps match your home like the perfect pair of earrings match your outfit? If n...

How To: Create a motion blur effect in Houdini 10

This clip covers how to enable motion blur in Houdini, the difference between standard and deformation blur, motion blurring dynamics simulations, motion blur quality settings. Whether you're new to Side Effects Software's popular 3D production program or a seasoned graphic artist just interested in better acquainting yourself with the application, you're sure to be well served by this free video tutorial. For more information, including detailed instructions, take a look. Create a motion blu...

How To: Sell items with eBay Blackthorne

New to eBay? Don't worry, setting up an account and buying and selling doesn't take that much effort at all. Everyone who has an Internet connection has at one point come across eBay, to find the perfect gift for their loved ones, to find the cheapest deals on plasma televisions and computers, or to get rid of their dusty, old record album collection in their web store.

News: The Hideous "Buy" Button

Buy, buy, buy. Buy this, buy that. Many wizards are buying crowns and earning or buying gold points to buy an in-game item. I, myself am saving up for the Great Fortress, a giant 50,000 coin Dragonsyre house. But right now, I still have to face the hideous greyed-out Buy button:

How To: Clone objects in 3ds Max

Want to create a replica of your 3D object? This basic tutorial covers the duplicating of objects into copies and instances in 3ds Max. You will learn the difference between making a reference, a copy and an instance. For detailed information, including step-by-step instructions, and to get started duplicating objects in your own 3ds Max projects, take a look. Clone objects in 3ds Max.

Size Matters: World's Largest Touchscreen Hacked Together with Ordinary Hardware

It's gigantic! It can handle over 100 simultaneous touch points! It has a curvature of 135 degrees! And best of all, it is not the newest, insanely expensive gadget to hit the market. Instead, this touchscreen was hacked together with a bunch of PCs, video cameras, projectors and cheap infrared illuminators at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands. It works like this: "The cameras, illuminators and projectors are all placed behind a large, cylindrical screen (formally used as a 3D t...

News: Mitakuye Oyasin

This expression, mitakuye oyasin, comes from the language of the Lakota Sioux, a tribe among the Native Americans. It means "We are all related." It's uttered upon crossing the threshold into the Sweat Lodge, the small, low structure used by the Sioux for their sacred purification ritual, the Sweat. In Seido Karate we have a saying we utter upon entering the dojo and upon greeting others: Osu! Osu is an abbreviation of the expression Oshi shinobu osu, which means "maintain patience."

How To: Plant garden roses in containers

Planting roses can make your home beautiful, but there is more to planting roses than just picking one from your local nursery. Selecting a rose that will stay in scale with the container without much heavy pruning can make all the difference in having healthy, long-lasting, producing rose bushes.

How To: Use travel mattes in Final Cut Pro

Walter Biscardi demonstrates the basics of travel mattes in this Apple Final Cut Pro Video Tutorial. Learn what travel mattes are and the difference between alpha mattes and luma mattes. In part two we'll learn some simple animation and drop shadows. In part three Walter will show a real world application for using travel mattes - one of his favorite uses to enhance an interview. Use travel mattes in Final Cut Pro - Part 1 of 3.

How To: Hit straighter irons

Target golf... Nick Bradley explains why excellent alignment at set-up is crucial if you want to hit pin-seeking iron shots.Just a few millimetres out in your alignment at address can equate to yards out when your golf ball lands on the green. And that can make the difference between a birdie and a bogey.Use Nick's aligment drill and you've got no excuse for not hitting irons spot-on, every time. Hit straighter irons.

How To: Grip the ball to bowl offspin

Buddy Mason demonstrates how to grip the ball to bowl offspin for the game cricket. The seam turns from horizontal to vertical in the grip and the middle joints of the index, middle, and third fingers should be spread across the seam. You rotate the ball from your forefinger to your third finger. A good spinner can be the difference maker in your team, and offspin is the most popular spin type. Grip the ball to bowl offspin.

News: Newton's Cradle (Silver Balls)

Picture that swinging silver balls game that people sometimes have in their office (see picture). Only in this giant version, each of the guys is put into one of those giant human hamster wheels and then a crane pulls one end up and drops it and the dudes get jolted around.

How To: Make These Sonic Distance Sensors for the Bad Driver in Your Life

Today's fancy cars come with all sorts of options, from power mirrors to working seat belts. Some of us condemned to live in the reality of capitalist recession have no car, or perhaps a very modest one. But your modest car can still have some cutting edge technology wedged into the trunk and dashboard if you know what you want and where to look for parts. Today, we make a parking sensor using a sonic range finder, just like in the vehicles our owners drive!

News: Cocktail Blueprints

Below, two different sets of schematics for mixing cocktails: the first is the "Engineer's Guide to Drinks" designed some time in the '80s; the second is a set of sleek infographics for mixing the perfect drink, from Brazilian illustrator Fabio Rex.

News: What's your angle???

The angle in which you shoot your subject can change everything. Sometimes when you take a picture at eye level looking straight at the object, things can appear flat and not as interesting. But instead of just snapping a picture, try getting down to the subjects level. For example, if you're taking a picture of a flower, get down close to the flower, and maybe angle your lense up, looking up at the flower, instead of looking down. Or angle your lense as if you're looking at the flower sidewa...

News: Roger Ebert Hates 3D

I'm particularly interested in his point about 3D being darker. I saw Avatar in 3D with 2 different projection systems: RealD 3D and 3D at the Arclight Dome. Both times, throughout the film, I snuck a peak over my glasses and saw the colors and exposure at the saturation and brightness I thought the DP (haha) intended. It looked beautiful. The colors were more saturated and I could see important story information in the shadows. When you're losing over a stop of light transmission through tho...

News: Jabulani, the new toy.

I'm somewhat of a skeptic when it comes to the "advantages" (the quotation marks should indicate the tone I'm taking) of a new ball. What's wrong with having a man made ball with slight imperfections and differences? So much of the game depends on the moment (of truth or shame) and everything leading up to it anyways, that to bring technology into different areas of the sport seems like tiny steps into that ever looming 5th referee and instant replays that will take the human factor out of th...