So I've been working on a new Website to replace my old one, if any of you would like to check it out your more than welcome. Here is the Address:
www.totalimagematrix.com
I decided to make a website that is really all my own and not pieces of other peoples.
So you'll notice that I have my own little robot guy and I've animated him in Maya and brought the videos into flash.
You'll need to have a decent computer to run it smoothly, otherwise it'll be kinda sluggish, so if you don't know if you have a decent computer this should be a good test. If it slow you don't and if it runs smooth you do. How about that. Anyway,
Happy Computing Everyone.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Sad realization
So I've been working on some animations for an Art professor out of ASU for ASU's new Skysong campus, it's been really fun and I've been working in Maya with windows XP. I've noticed recently that when rendering out of Maya it really takes a lot of Processing power and even more Ram to make sure the render runs smoothly. As you may or may not know, unfortunately windows XP can only really utilize 3 Gigs of RAM which means even if you go out and get 4 Gigs for your awesome machine only 3 Gigs will actually be used. So you make think that that is the sad realization I came to, but believe me it's much worse than that. Many of you may know that I despise Macintosh and always have, but I found out something today that shook the very foundations of my Microsoft loving world. On the MAC side you can setup your computer with as much Memory as you want and the Mac OS will actually use all of it. So If I went to Mac I could actually have 16 or even more gigs of RAM and Maya would use every bit of it for my Rendering. It's a sad thing that windows hasn't caught on to this fact even with Windows Vista you can only use 4 Gigs. Now don't get me wrong I love windows, but it's so disappointing that in the Rendering world the Mac will actually out perform the PC every time.
A Sad Sad Realization.
A Sad Sad Realization.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Hardware Troubles
So I was helping out a friend this weekend work through some hardware issues, and I thought I might take a moment to discuss some of the things you can do when you computer just goes cap putt on you. Here are some of the symptoms, maybe your monitor comes on but you don't see anything on the screen or maybe your computer just restarts for no reason and you can't figure out why it keeps happening.
Lets take the monitor example first, well to begin we should rule out the obvious.....Is the monitor plug into the power outlet, is the monitor cable to the computer plugged in a secure?
Is the computer on? ...These are the no brainers, if you've tried all of those and still can't get anything to come up here are some possible solutions. First thing is that it may be a bad cable that you have connecting from your computer to the monitor, so the solution.....try a different cable. After you have done that and still no Dice then things get a little more technical. If your warranty is up and you feel comfortable opening up the box to your computer then try this solution. It's called checking to see is your Graphics card is seated. Well you ask how to I know which one is my graphics card? Generally speaking you can look down into the machine and see the big fan that is pointing straight up at you that is your computer processor under that fan not look to the south of that big fan you'll see a bunch of slots. This are your slots for you peripheral cards. Usually the one closest to the processor is your graphic card and if you still in doubt the card will usually have the brand name of the maker on the card somewhere. So check to make sure you have the right card. Now when a graphics card is "Seated" it is correctly placed inside the slot that it goes into, sometimes what happens is that the graphics card will get tugged or bumped and it will come out of that slot a little. Just push down on the card and if it goes down further and pops into placed then that was the problem and your card was properly seated. But if it doesn't move at all then it could be something else.
However if you've tried the cable and you know you monitors good and you've just tried Seating the card and it's already seated well, then there are only two possible solutions. Buy a new graphics card or buy a new computer.
Lets move on to the second example for want of time here. Of your computer just restarts for no reason it could be one of four issues. 1. your hard drive is bad. 2. you motherboard is bad. 3. your power supply is bad. and 4. Your Operating System Software needs to be reinstalled. Now all of these are potentially bad, but you probably guessed that. Unfortunately is this case there is only one way to rule out any of these possibilities, you need someone who knows how to check and verify each system, so call of you geek of a friend or put something on my tech forum and maybe you problem can be resolved easily and maybe you just have to buy a new computer.
Many people just go out and buy a new computer when they don't have too, and on the other hand many people don't buy a new computer even though they should. Just try to evaluate whats happening to your computer, some things are fixable and some thing are not, and don't forget you can always Webit and find out what the Internet has to say about your problem, I can guarantee that no matter the problem someone else out there has had it also.
Happy Computing!
Lets take the monitor example first, well to begin we should rule out the obvious.....Is the monitor plug into the power outlet, is the monitor cable to the computer plugged in a secure?
Is the computer on? ...These are the no brainers, if you've tried all of those and still can't get anything to come up here are some possible solutions. First thing is that it may be a bad cable that you have connecting from your computer to the monitor, so the solution.....try a different cable. After you have done that and still no Dice then things get a little more technical. If your warranty is up and you feel comfortable opening up the box to your computer then try this solution. It's called checking to see is your Graphics card is seated. Well you ask how to I know which one is my graphics card? Generally speaking you can look down into the machine and see the big fan that is pointing straight up at you that is your computer processor under that fan not look to the south of that big fan you'll see a bunch of slots. This are your slots for you peripheral cards. Usually the one closest to the processor is your graphic card and if you still in doubt the card will usually have the brand name of the maker on the card somewhere. So check to make sure you have the right card. Now when a graphics card is "Seated" it is correctly placed inside the slot that it goes into, sometimes what happens is that the graphics card will get tugged or bumped and it will come out of that slot a little. Just push down on the card and if it goes down further and pops into placed then that was the problem and your card was properly seated. But if it doesn't move at all then it could be something else.
However if you've tried the cable and you know you monitors good and you've just tried Seating the card and it's already seated well, then there are only two possible solutions. Buy a new graphics card or buy a new computer.
Lets move on to the second example for want of time here. Of your computer just restarts for no reason it could be one of four issues. 1. your hard drive is bad. 2. you motherboard is bad. 3. your power supply is bad. and 4. Your Operating System Software needs to be reinstalled. Now all of these are potentially bad, but you probably guessed that. Unfortunately is this case there is only one way to rule out any of these possibilities, you need someone who knows how to check and verify each system, so call of you geek of a friend or put something on my tech forum and maybe you problem can be resolved easily and maybe you just have to buy a new computer.
Many people just go out and buy a new computer when they don't have too, and on the other hand many people don't buy a new computer even though they should. Just try to evaluate whats happening to your computer, some things are fixable and some thing are not, and don't forget you can always Webit and find out what the Internet has to say about your problem, I can guarantee that no matter the problem someone else out there has had it also.
Happy Computing!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Keeping those files in line
On this fourth of July I thought it might be fitting to talk about the freedom of file structures and how best to organize your self and your computer files. Many of us just assume that the best place to hold our files are in the folders that Bill Gates gave to us, for example "My Documents" or "My Pictures". Although these are convenient places I would recommend otherwise, the reason being that if by chance you do get a virus, or heaven forbid your computer gets hacked these default places will be the first places that the virus or the hacker will look to get your personal info, so I strongly suggest you not use those folders.
Here is what I do and I keep my files safe and secure nice and snugly all the time. If you have occasion get your self a second hard drive or if you already have one then wonderful. If you don't have a second hard drive and run everything off the C drive these methods can still apply, but I recommend you get a secondary hard drive for your computer.
Number 1: On your second drive organize your self with how you work on your computer. If you deal mostly with office stuff or writing letters then create a folder for "The Office" or "Letters". Examine what you do on a daily basis. For example I do a lot of photo work, so in my folder structure I have "Tim's Photos" and in that folder I have "portfolio", "Backgrounds", "My Family", "Friends", "Camera Photos", etc. and each one of those folders has sub folders that go into more details about what exactly is located there. Windows doesn't have a space requirement for how many folders you create so make as many as you wish, you may find it daunting at first to create and organize yourself in this way, but it will really reward you in the future. Once you have the folders set up with all the things you want to hold then GRAB! all your personal stuff out of those Bill Gates folders and TAKE BACK your computer! They are yours not his and you should be able to keep your files wherever you wish, this is America after all.
Number 2: Organize your folders in a way that makes sense if you look at your photos and see they all say "IMG_0156" don't make a folder that says "IMG_s" that doesn't make sense, instead make a folder called "Photos" or "Digital Camera" and when you finally do get a chance to go through those files it might be really helpful for you to rename all those generic camera photos to what they actually are.
Number3: I know some of you are saying, "But it's just easier to keep all my stuff in the folders Bill Gates gave me". Well OK, ......I give you that, it is easy and convenient, but it's just not practical, if your computer crashes it's gonna take all your files down with it, if you have your personal files on a second hard drive then when the computer crashes you can be sure that your files are safe and secure, you can reinstall the C drive with windows and low and behold all your personal files will be waiting for you just the way you left them on the second drive.
Remember this is your computer,...... you bought it! You need to take control of it! Take back the freedoms that your files so richly deserve and Keep those files in Line! God Bless America!
Here is what I do and I keep my files safe and secure nice and snugly all the time. If you have occasion get your self a second hard drive or if you already have one then wonderful. If you don't have a second hard drive and run everything off the C drive these methods can still apply, but I recommend you get a secondary hard drive for your computer.
Number 1: On your second drive organize your self with how you work on your computer. If you deal mostly with office stuff or writing letters then create a folder for "The Office" or "Letters". Examine what you do on a daily basis. For example I do a lot of photo work, so in my folder structure I have "Tim's Photos" and in that folder I have "portfolio", "Backgrounds", "My Family", "Friends", "Camera Photos", etc. and each one of those folders has sub folders that go into more details about what exactly is located there. Windows doesn't have a space requirement for how many folders you create so make as many as you wish, you may find it daunting at first to create and organize yourself in this way, but it will really reward you in the future. Once you have the folders set up with all the things you want to hold then GRAB! all your personal stuff out of those Bill Gates folders and TAKE BACK your computer! They are yours not his and you should be able to keep your files wherever you wish, this is America after all.
Number 2: Organize your folders in a way that makes sense if you look at your photos and see they all say "IMG_0156" don't make a folder that says "IMG_s" that doesn't make sense, instead make a folder called "Photos" or "Digital Camera" and when you finally do get a chance to go through those files it might be really helpful for you to rename all those generic camera photos to what they actually are.
Number3: I know some of you are saying, "But it's just easier to keep all my stuff in the folders Bill Gates gave me". Well OK, ......I give you that, it is easy and convenient, but it's just not practical, if your computer crashes it's gonna take all your files down with it, if you have your personal files on a second hard drive then when the computer crashes you can be sure that your files are safe and secure, you can reinstall the C drive with windows and low and behold all your personal files will be waiting for you just the way you left them on the second drive.
Remember this is your computer,...... you bought it! You need to take control of it! Take back the freedoms that your files so richly deserve and Keep those files in Line! God Bless America!
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