Tips Mempercepat Loading Blog

Bagi Anda yang memilik blog, mungkin melakukan berbagai cara agar blog Anda lebih menarik dan dikunjungi oleh banyak pembaca. Dari mulai pemasangan gambar-gambar yang enak dipandang mata, sampai penggunaan script yang ternyata mampu membuat load Blog Anda semakin berat dan lama. Performansi yang buruk seperti itu justru bukan menambah jumlah pengunjung yang akan membaca blog Anda, tapi satu demi satu mungkin akan meninggalkan Blog yang telah dengan susah payah Anda buat. Lalu, apa yang harus dilakukan? Cobalah untuk melakukan beberapa hal berikut :
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1. Mengurangi jumlah penggunaan gambar. Penggunaan gambar akan sangat mempengaruhi kecepatan akses dari suatu blog, hal ini dikarenakan kapasitas untuk satu file saja bisa mencapai beberapa kilobyte(Kb) dan bisa perhitungkan berapa lama waktu yang dibutuhkan untuk mendownload 1 file gambar saja.

2. Mengelompokkan dan memisahkan bagian-bagian isi menjadi perhalaman. Hal ini sangat penting karena tips yang kedua ini bermaksud agar halaman utama atau yang biasa disebut dengan halaman index tidak langsung menampilkan keseluruhan isi dari blog.

3. Kurangi banner-banner yang bergerak. Mungkin ini memang kebiasaan kita untuk bertukar banner, tapi alangkah baiknya kita pisahkan di bagian tertentu dan ukurannya kita perkecil lagi.

4. Dan yang terakhir dan kiranya perlu untuk diperhatikan adalah bagian dari pernak-pernik atau item-item pendukung seperti LinkList, Profile, ShoutBox, dll sebaiknya disembunyikan dalam list menu. Ini berarti item-item tersebut menjadi submenu dari menu diatasnya.

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4 Langkah Login ke Banyak Akun Google Talk

Anda yang gemar chatting di internet pasti kenal dengan Google Talk, sebuah layanan pesan instan untuk berkomunikasi milik Google.
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Google Talk memungkinkan pengguna yang memiliki akun e-mail di Google berkomunikasi satu sama lain melalui internet. Di Google Talk, Anda bisa login ke lebih dari satu akun Google Talk secara bersamaan. Caranya sangat mudah, ikuti langkah berikut ini:

1. Buat shortcut Google Talk di desktop Anda. Untuk membuat shortcut, caranya klik kanan pada aplikasi messenger Google Talk, lalu pilih Send To --> Desktop (create shortcut).
2. Klik kanan pada icon Google Talk, lalu pilih Properties.
3. Ubah teks lokasi pada kolom Target, yang awalnya "C:Program FilesGoogleGoogle Talkgoogletalk.exe" /startmenu" menjadi "C:Program FilesGoogleGoogle Talkgoogletalk.exe" /nomutex.
4. Klik Ok.

Kini Anda bisa mengaktifkan beberapa layanan messenger Google Talk secara bersamaan. Selamat mencoba!

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Menambah Bandwidth Internet pada Windows

Pada dasarnya OS windows sudah membatasi bandwidth untuk koneksi internet sebanyak 20% dari total bandwidth yang seharusnya bisa maksimal.
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Jika anda ingin menambah bandwidth internet supaya koneksinya terasa lebih cepat dan kencang bisa dengan cara mengurangi atau mengosongkan batasan bandwidth tersebut supaya pada Windows kita bisa maksimal dalam menggunakan bandwidth yang sudah ada.

Ikuti petunjuknya seperti dibawah ini :

1. Klik Start
2. Klik Run
3. Ketik gpedit.msc
4. kemudian klik Ok
5. Setelah masuk klik Administrative Templates
6. kemudian Klik Network
7. setelah terbuka klik QoS Packet scheduler
8. kemudian klik Limit Reservable Bandwidth
9. Dan setelah terbuka ubah setting menjadi Enable
10. Kemudian ubah Bandwidth Limitnya menjadi 0
11. Klik Apply,ok
12. Kemudian keluar dan Restart komputer

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Seeing Sound: VJs Create Music Videos in 3D

You've heard of DJs, now meet the VJ, or video jockey, the newest creative force in music videos, metropolitan night clubs and pop music festivals. In the '70s, VJs ran film clips and projector slides, but today's VJ is a live performer who triggers video files in laptop computers using newly-created software to spontaneously create imagery that appears to be in three dimensions.
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There are cosmic blue 3D stars that explode, neon-bright planets that implode, and pulsating patterns that can hypnotize you, and that's just in the first minute of the new VJ Sound Brew video for "Squealorama," a track from my SONIC TONIC album.

"Welcome to the world's newest art form," says John Brewington, who performs as VJ Sound Brew. "We have live integration of computer created designs and the audio from a song. It means spontaneous creativity," he continued. "One of the newest examples is in the music video for 'Squealorama'."

Performed live, the video for 'Squealorama' is a high-tech blend of 3D laser and computer imagery that takes viewers on a visual journey to outer and inner space.

Using a software program, Zuma, from a company called 3DMaxMedia, Brewington creates 3D objects live as the song is played. "Today's VJ can express himself like a painter and a sculptor, with the added excitement of real-time interaction. And when I perform this in a club, I can take in the crowd reaction and make an entirely new video to 'Squealorama' or any other song." This flexibility means every performance by VJ Sound Brew is unique.

Other artists are turning to VJs to augment their live or recorded performances, including pop group *NSYNC, progressive rockers Yes, and trance artist John Laraio, known as Mobius 8.

The real-time graphics capability of Zuma enables Mobius 8 to render audio as visual motion, utilizing 3D imagery, video and lasers.

Up to now, VJs have stayed with very mainstream choices of music. "The 'Squealorama' song is controversial," states Brian Forest, Vice President of G-Man Music & Radical Radio, "because of its 15 pauses during the last two minutes, during which dancers freeze in position up against their partners. Now, the song is finding an even bigger audience on the Internet because of the eye-popping visuals in the VJ Sound Brew music video," Forest added.

"Music is actually made visual by VJ Sound Brew," Forest says, "with magical shimmering patterns, hip hypnotic formations, stalactites and stalagmites that shoot out at you, quasars, comets, black holes, and a constantly moving matrix of incandescent anti-matter."

The creation of a music video used to require days or weeks for preparation and a production schedule that utilized a crew of people, including producer, director, cinematographer, and a host of technical professionals. Now, one person can plan it in a matter of hours and make 3 or 4 real-time performances of the video, with a quick edit to use the best parts of each one.

"Visuals are stimulated and changed immediately and constantly by the audio mix," Brewington points out, "because the software draws the scenes from audio and midi messages in real-time."

The imagery produces a strikingly realistic appearance of three dimensions as the viewer seems to be moving over, under, around, and even through glowing, spinning objects. "The result is a harmonious visual confirmation for the mind's eye, connecting what you see on the screen with the sounds you are hearing," states Jimmy Hotz of 3dMaxMedia.

Gone are the days of the 12-person "light show" crew from the late sixties or early seventies. More than three decades have passed since the light show was taken to great heights by such legendary artists as Single Wing Turquoise Bird, Glenn McKay's Head Lights, and Bill Ham's Light Sound Dimension.

These creators, as well as New Glory Lights, Brotherhood of Light, Joshua Lights, and Diogenes Lantern Works, once formed the visual backdrop (or surround vision, in the case of Ronald Nameth's work for John Cage's HPSCHD) for major concerts. But instead of the big crews required for these events, the one-person VJ is now taking over. The speed of creativity is higher than ever, the costs are more reasonable, and the complexity of the animation is spectacular in the extreme.

The 'Squealorama' video can be viewed on the Web site of Delvian Records, distributor of The G-Man's albums. Here is the link:
http://www.delvianrecords.com/html/videos.html

Links for this story:
http://www.gmanmusic.com
http://www.soundbrew.net
http://www.3dmaxmedia.com
http://www.delvianrecords.com

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How to Create Backing Tracks If You Don't Play All the Instruments... or Any

Congratulations! Your singing has become amazing, and it's time the world knew. You've also written some songs that are just kick you-know-what. They need to be recorded, MP3ed and put on the net ASAP. But you've got two problems. First, you can't afford a studio, let alone a band for all this stuff. Second, you don't play all, or any, of the instruments.
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Well there is good news. With a deft combination of the internet and today's software, you can do wonders. While it's never going to be the same as a true band in a real studio, which you had better hire for that big record company showcase, you can still create great backing tracks.

First, repeat after me. "I love MIDI." Thank you.

MIDI, to refresh your memory, is like sheet music for a pianist. The paper itself makes no noises, but the pianist gets all the information he needs from it to let us hear Beethoven (especially if the music is also Beethoven!). In your computer set up, the MIDI file is the sheet music, the MIDI sequencer or playback program is the pianist, and your computer's sound card and synthesizer are the piano. That's all you need!

Before we get started, I'll mention the ultimate cover song shortcut - the Internet! There are tons of great MIDI files of almost every piece of popular music out there. All you have to do is find them. If you can't, or you've got your own material, read on. Be legal, though!

If You Play Keyboard or Guitar Well

First, thank your parents for the lessons. Then, get your hands on a sequencer program and record your tracks. Using MIDI, you can choose the instrument sound for everything - all you need to do is input the notes. For drums, you can either record them from your keyboard or use a plug-in drum machine. If you choose to record them, a quick way to do it is to record a couple of measures and then copy/paste to fill out the song. But don't forget to put in some drum fills!

If Your Playing Is Limited to Little or Not at All

For you there are wonderful programs, like Band in a Box and Jammer, to create backing tracks. They are very stylish, meaning, they function in styles. You must, at the very least, know the chords for your song. You simply enter the chords, choose the appropriate musical style, and click a button called "compose" (or some reasonable facsimile). Before you can say "Holy guacamole, Batman," your music is playing. The drawback here is that your band will sound canned. And well it should, for it is! But, have no fear, there are ways to mitigate that quite well.

Making it Human

Best thing? Play what you can, at least the melody. That, in and of itself, will help tremendously, as it's no longer just a band style playing chord progressions.

Next up, record a counterpoint. Counterpoints make ordinary songs exciting. They are secondary melodies that complement the main melody. They usually have a slightly different rhythm, and fill in where the melody has breaks. A great example is in the song "The Winner Takes It All," by Abba. Listen to the theme that is always playing underneath the melody - it really drives the song.

Another thing you can do to put life into your tracks is to customize the style. Depending on how good you are with your software and its capabilities, you can create your own riffs and mix them into the song. Also, vary similar styles throughout the song to break the monotony. And, again, don't underestimate drum fills!

Creative use of layering is a very effective technique. When all the tracks play all the time, it can be very boring. Wait to bring in some instruments till later in the song. That creates a "building" feel. Then, at some point towards the end, take them out again briefly to create a "break" or "bridge". When you bring them back, it is very powerful.

Finally, don't allow any perfection. Yes, you read that correctly. If your music is perfectly aligned rhythmically, it will sound artificial. Live musicians are never precisely on the beat. Almost all programs have a "humanize" function which corrects this automatically. Otherwise, take the time and slide some notes in the piano roll editor window. If you need quantize (rhythm correction) on the recorded tracks, set it to less than 100%.

When you've got your MIDI file, there are two ways to convert it to audio (wav, mp3) for CD burning. The quicker way is with a dedicated program that renders wave files from MIDI files directly. Most software synthesizer programs that have a stand-alone playback feature can do this. Otherwise, open an audio recording program, play the MIDI file, and simultaneously record the output. Make sure your audio recorder is set to receive from the correct input.

If You Play Nothing, and Don't Know Chords or Theory or Anything

Guess what? You are the one who should hire a musician. Yes, I know that some programs will offer both a chord progression composer and even a melody composer. All you would need to do is choose the style. If you are considering going this route, I have one request for you.

PLEASE DON'T!

Sorry to yell, but think about this. The melody is composed by a computer, the chords are composed by a computer, the band is composed by a computer. It is music that is completely composed by a computer. Oh my gosh! How revolting is that?

No, my friend, hire a qualified musician. You sing the song to them, they create the magic. Do not sell yourself short. Your song is important -- it's part of you! Show it the greatest respect and make it as beautiful as you can.
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Adding Professional Photo Filter Effects in Photoshop cs

Professional photographers use filters — thin lenses that fit over a camera or enlarger lens — to correct lighting conditions, enhance specific colors, and create special effects such as fog, vignettes, and cross stars. (Have you ever wondered how cameramen created those wonderful soft vignette shots of actresses in old black and white movies from the 1940s? The photographer smeared Vaseline around the outside edge of the lens to diffuse the light on the edges of the image but keep the center sharp, creating a portrait with a "halo" effect. Stretching a sheer black stocking over the camera lens sometimes created soft focus effects.)
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You can apply photographic-style filters in Photoshop using the Photo Filter command. The Photoshop photo filters recolor photographs by enhancing warm or cool colors, or by completely retinting the photograph to a specific hue such as yellow, magenta, brown, or blue.

In this technique, you find out how to apply Photoshop's photo filters to recolor your photographs. Also, you discover how to make your photographs look like old-time sepia-toned photos. So, find an interesting photograph and experiment with photo filters!
Recoloring with photo filters

You can apply photo filters directly to a layer or as an adjustment layer. If you apply a photo filter directly to a layer, the layer's pixels are permanently altered. But, if you apply the photo filter as an adjustment layer, you can always change the photo filter being used, modify its effect by lowering opacity or changing blending modes, or completely remove the photo filter without changing any image pixels.

Consider using an adjustment layer to apply a photo filter. It's infinitely more flexible. But, in the spirit of completeness, here's how to apply a photo filter either way:

1. Open the image to which you want to apply the photo filter.

2. In the Layers palette, select the layer you want to apply the photo filter effect to.

3. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Photo Filter from the menu.

If you want to apply the photo filter command directly to a layer, choose Image --> Adjustments --> Photo Filter. The Photo Filter dialog box opens.

4. In the Use area, choose a preset photo filter from the Filter drop-down list or click the color square and select a color using the Color Picker.

Preset photo filter effects range from Warming Filter and Cooling Filter to Underwater.

5. Move the Density slider to adjust how much the filter affects the photograph.

The higher the setting, the more the photo filter affects the image.

6. Click OK to apply the photo filter to the photograph.
Creating old-time sepia photos in Photoshop

You can create a sepia-toned photograph in Photoshop in several ways:

* Apply a sepia-toned photo filter.

* Use the Hue/Saturation command to colorize the photo.

* Use an action that ships with Photoshop that automatically creates a sepia-toned look for you.

Which works best? Well, which method you use depends upon the qualities of the photograph you're using and the look you're after. Open a photograph and try these different methods.

If you want to apply a sepia photo filter, follow the directions for applying a photo filter in "Recoloring with Photo Filters," above. There, in Step 4, choose Sepia from the Filter drop-down list. When you apply a sepia-toned photo filter, the results are a brighter brownish-yellow cast, but retain the original colors in the photograph.

The Hue/Saturation command produces a monotone brownish-red sepia look. Here's how:

1. In the Layers palette, select the layer you want to look like a sepia-tone.

2. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Hue/Saturation from the menu.

The Hue/Saturation dialog box opens. If you want to apply the photo filter command directly to a layer, choose Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation.

3. Put a check in the Colorize check box.

4. Set the Hue to 25 and the Saturation to 25.

These settings give you a nice-looking sepia color. If you need to, adjust the sliders until you get the look you want.

5. Click OK to close the Hue/Saturation dialog box and apply the color adjustment to the photograph.

To apply a sepia-tone using an action that ships with Photoshop:

1. In the Layers palette, select the layer you want to look like a sepia-tone.

2. Open the Actions palette by choosing Window --> Actions.

3. In the Actions palette, click the tiny arrow next to the Default Actions set to view the actions in that set.

4. Select Sepia Toning (Layer).

5. Click Play at the bottom of the Actions palette.

The action goes to work and recolors your photograph, producing a good-looking sepia-toned photograph.

You can also use the Photo Corner action found in the Frames Action set to add an interesting photo album border.
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Top 5 DVD Tools You Can Pick Up For Pennies

1. Pocket DVD Wizard - Handheld Owners Rejoice!
www.deprice.com/pocketdvdwizard.htm

The Pocket DVD Wizard allows you to make backup copies of your personal DVDs, Mpeg, Avi and DivX® video and then play them on your Windows Mobile™ Pocket PC or Portable Media Center. Imagine the possibilities! You can now record your favourite TV program with your DVD recorder and transfer it to your Pocket PC, then watch it later in the office, or on the beach!

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2. DVDFab Platinum - 3 Day Sale
www.deprice.com/dvdfabplatinum.htm

DVDFab Platinum is all you need to backup DVDs. It combines the one-click convenience of DVDFab Express with the power of DVDFab Gold. New Feature: DVDFab Platinum now can copy DVD-9 in 1:1 mode, and remove all the protections (CSS, Region Code, RCE, Macrovision, UOPs), then burn to a double layer DVD-DL. This creates a perfect copy without any restriction.

3. dvdSanta - Insanely Cheap
www.deprice.com/dvdsanta2.htm

dvdSanta is an All-in-One software that lets you copy, create, convert and burn your DVD movies. It can copy 9GB double layer DVD movies into a 4.7GB DVD-R disc, can turn your photos into DVD movies with Hollywood style motion effects, can convert other video formats(avi, wmv, vob, asf, DivX, Mpeg,...) into DVD video, can transfer miniDV camcorder tapes directly to DVD video.

4. WinAVI Video Converter - Educated Pick
www.deprice.com/winavivc.htm

WinAVI Video Converter is a nice tool for converting video clips to an assortment of formats. The attractive, modern interface features large, clearly labeled icons, so you won't have to dig through the menus very often. You can convert a variety of file types to WMV, AVI, MPEG, and RM. Other notable pluses include a built-in DVD-burning utility, a batch-conversion tool, and a preview pane.

5. VideoCharge - Price Slide
www.deprice.com/videocharge.htm

VideoCharge is a full-range editor, which allows users to perform practically any operations with incoming files such as: splitting files up into several scenes, merging several files into a single file, cutting scene(s) out of video files, creating video file(s) based on selected scene(s), creating thumbnails for video files in manually or automatically mode, addition Watermark to movie(s) or thumbnail(s), Solving Interlace Video problem.

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Facing DVD Software Dilemma? It's brainlessly simple

With DVD players in every household, a lot of folks would like to be able to copy, backup, author or shrink DVDs. Do you know which software is appropriate for each task? The answers are here.

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1. Pocket DVD Wizard
http://www.deprice.com/pocketdvdwizard.htm

The Pocket DVD Wizard allows you to make backup copies of your personal DVDs, Mpeg, Avi and DivX® video and then play them on your Windows Mobile™ Pocket PC or Portable Media Center. Imagine the possibilities! You can now record your favourite TV program with your DVD recorder and transfer it to your Pocket PC, then watch it later in the office, or on the beach!

2. dvdSanta
http://www.deprice.com/dvdsanta2.htm

dvdSanta is an All-in-One software that lets you copy, create, convert and burn your DVD movies. It can copy 9GB double layer DVD movies into a 4.7GB DVD-R disc, can turn your photos into DVD movies with Hollywood style motion effects, can convert other video formats (avi, wmv, vob, asf, DivX, Mpeg,...) into DVD video, can transfer miniDV camcorder tapes directly to DVD video.

3. DVD Region+CSS Free
http://www.deprice.com/dvdregioncssfree.htm

DVD Region+CSS Free enables you to watch and copy any region-coded/CSS-encrypted DVD movies on any DVD drive! It fully supports region-protected (RPC2) DVD drives, and does not require any firmware modifications. It will even work if you have used up your region counter and can no longer change the DVD drive's region.

4. WinAVI Video Converter
http://www.deprice.com/winavivc.htm

WinAVI Video Converter is a nice tool for converting video clips to an assortment of formats. The attractive, modern interface features large, clearly labeled icons, so you won't have to dig through the menus very often. You can convert a variety of file types to WMV, AVI, MPEG, and RM. Other notable pluses include a built-in DVD-burning utility, a batch-conversion tool, and a preview pane.

5. DVDFab Express
http://www.deprice.com/dvdfabexpress.htm

DVDFab Express is simply the easiest way to copy a DVD movie. Just insert the movie and a blank DVD then press Start. Your entire movie - including menus, trailers and special features - is copied to a single DVD with just one click, and everything happens automatically.
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Adding Album Cover Art or Images in iTunes

Scan or download album cover artwork from CDs that you rip into iTunes in a graphics format that iTunes understands and link those graphics to the songs and albums you play on iTunes.
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Songs that you buy from the iTunes Music Store typically include an image of the album cover art or a photo of the artist. You can see the artwork in the lower-left corner of the iTunes window by clicking the Show/Hide Artwork button. The artwork changes for each song or album that you select.

Unfortunately, you don't get free artwork like this when you rip an audio CD — the discs aren't manufactured with digital cover art stashed somewhere on an empty track. With a scanner, however, you can scan the cover art and save it in a graphics format that iTunes (and its underlying graphics technology, QuickTime) understands — JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, or Photoshop. Or with a Web browser, you can visit Web pages to scout for suitable art; just Ctrl-click (Mac) or right-click an image (PC) to download and save the image on your hard drive. (Most graphics on the Web are in JPEG or GIF format, so you don't have to convert anything.)

To add the artwork to a song, select the song in your iTunes library, and drag the artwork's image file from a folder into the artwork viewing area in the bottom-left corner of the iTunes window.


To add the same image as artwork for an entire album of songs (rather than just individual songs), select the album in Browse view first (or select all the songs in the album in song list view), and then drag the image file into the artwork viewing area.

You can also add the artwork to an album while editing multiple songs at once. Follow these steps:

1. In Browse view, select the album in your iTunes library.

Click the Browse button to switch to Browse view so that an Album column appears on the right side of the iTunes window. Click an album to select it.

2. Choose File, Get Info or press Command-I (Mac) or Ctrl-I (PC).

A warning message displays: Are you sure you want to edit information for multiple items?

3. Click Yes to edit information for multiple items.

The Multiple Song Information dialog appears.

4. Enable the Artwork field by selecting its check box.

When you add a check mark to a field, iTunes assumes you want that field changed in all the selected songs. Make sure that no other check box is selected except Artwork.

5. Drag the graphics file to the Artwork panel.

Drag the graphics file directly over the blank Artwork well in the Multiple Song Information dialog.

6. Click OK to make the change.

A warning message displays: Are you sure you want to change the artwork for multiple items?

7. Click Yes to change the artwork.

iTunes adds the artwork for the entire album.

To remove the artwork from a song, view the artwork in a larger window, or resize the artwork, choose File, Get Info and click the Artwork tab. You can add a different image, add several images, delete the images with the Add or Delete buttons, or resize images with the size slider.

You can remove the artwork for an entire album by opening the Multiple Song Information dialog (choose File, Get Info after selecting the album), enabling the Artwork field, and then clicking OK. Because you haven't added anything to the Artwork field, iTunes replaces the artwork with nothing, effectively deleting the artwork.
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3D Game Animation

In 3D game animation, the character model that is applied to a bone structure is called a skin. The skin should be one combined object with no overlapping parts. You can think of the skin as a glove that is placed over a hand. The glove doesn't move when it is off the hand, but when the fingers are moved underneath, the glove moves and bends along with the fingers. If there are any holes in the glove, they get stretched open as the fingers move. The same works for a skin over a bone structure.
Skinning a character
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Character models typically are created one part at a time, but to make a model into a skin, you need to combine all parts into a single object. If the model consists of any groups, you should dissolve these groups. Objects still can be attached to the skin, but all parts of the skin that move with the bones need to be able to bend and flex.

After a skin is attached to a skeleton, the second part of skinning is to make sure that the skin deforms well when the bones are moved. Each bone has an influence volume that defines the portions of the skin that moves with the bone. If these influence volumes are incorrect, then the skin can deform unrealistically when the bone is moved.

For example, if the influence volume for the upper arm includes part of the side of the character, then rotating the upper arm pulls the character's side out as the arm is raised, causing a funny-looking bump. To control these deformations, you can precisely control the influence volume. Attaching a skin to a skeleton

After a bone structure is created, it can be attached to the character skin that has already been created.

Some software programs make this a separate step, and others simply require that the bones be positioned within the skin.

Follow these steps to attach a skin to a bone structure in Maya:

1. Choose File --> Open Scene, and open the IK enabled.mb file.

This file is the same file that was saved at the end of the preceding example. Be sure to move the bones back into place before attaching the skin.

2. Select the character model, press and hold the Shift key, and select the pelvis bone. Then choose the Skin --> Bind Skin --> Smooth Bind menu command.

The skin is now attached to the bone structure, so moving any of the bones moves the character model with the bone.

3. Select the ankle joint with the IK chain attached, and move the ankle forward in the Front view. Then select and rotate one of the arms about its upper arm joint.

With the skin binding in place, the character model moves along with the bone movements.

4. Select the File --> Save Scene As menu command, and save the file. Close the file when you are finished.
Setting a bone's influence

Surrounding each bone is an influence volume (called an envelope in several animation packages) that you can control. The skin that is within this volume moves along with the underlying bone, and the skin that is included in overlapping influence volumes are the areas of the skin where the bending is most extreme, such as at the elbow.

The influence volume is initially set to surround each bone, and the closer the bone matches the skin for each body part, the more accurate the influence volumes are. If any portion of the skin isn't included within any influence area, then that portion of the skin is left behind when its bones are moved.

Influence volumes can be altered using controls to increase their radius on either end of the bone.

Another way to control which skin parts deform with the underlying bone is to paint the skin vertices using a paint brush. Select a bone and then paint the weight. Different colors depict the skin vertices' influence. It is important to have a gradual change between skin influences so that the skin moves realistically.
Adding deformations to create muscle bulges

Another aspect of working with the skin object is that you can define deformations based on bone positions. This provides a way to make muscles bulge. For example, deforming the bicep muscle to bulge when the angle between upper and lower arm bones is shortened is a realistic deformation that you'd expect from a realistic character.
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