Other applications include on-line games and other supplimental content to make the on-line experience more enjoyable and easier Presentations for tradeshows, conferences, annual meetings and other uses are best done with multimedia. The rich and involving multimedia experience ensures information stands out and is communicated effectively. Multimedia presentations can also be used for promotional applications such as product or company information delivered via interactive CDROM or website.

The web is ideal to facilitate online presentations, meetings and information exchange. Multimedia enhances these applications with rich content and individual media tools, making communication more effective. On-line multimedia products are integrated with existing systems to make use of database applications, providing custom, on demand/dynamic content.

Multimedia products are effective for many reasons. Applications developed using multimedia are adptable for presentation across many different mediums. The information presented is updated or customized to reach specific individuals.

The technology behind multimedia development is advanced and superior to traditional mediums such as video and PowerPoint slideshows. This allows the application to include exclusive features and communicate the content more effectively. Stimulating graphics and animation make multimedia products usually stunning and attention grabbing. Your message will not be lost; it will be exciting, convincing and powerful. Sound and music also complement the presentation, drawing the audience into a stimulating experience.

Because multimedia development is flexible, content is optionally custom-tailored on-the-fly or easily altered to suit specific audiences or other needs. Presenters customize content and deliver different versions depending on their needs. Multimedia is also time-sensitive; making last-minute changes in content simple and quicker than other mediums. Now you can include information you may not have obtained until the day before the presentations.

Courtesy to Deepika Education

The ranking of the Chennai based Pentamedia Graphics as the world's number one animation company ahead of US-based top guns like Lucas Digital Domain is a sure sign of the potential India has in this feild.Yes India is growing in the field of animation.

With animation becoming an essential component of the increasing number of feature films produced in Hollywood, cost cutting has become producer's main concern particularly because animation, computer graphics and computer-generated special effects cost a bomb if undertaken in the US studios and labs.

The 2D animation

A good animator is much more than just someone with the technical skill to manipulate tools. A good animator must also be an actor, a keen observer of life and the laws of physics, and must possess a high degree of left-brain organizational skill as well.

Animation is a laborious, highly skilled process; the smallest details must be taken care of, right down to ensuring there is uniformity in the distance between the two eyeballs in the several drawings that 2D animation requires, and checking that the pencil lines in the various sketches are uniformly thick.

Difference between 2D and 3D

Quality two-dimensional animation communication better than a series of related still drawings. In general, simple 2D is less expensive than 3D.

The line separating the two kinds of animation has already been crossed and recrossed countless times, until that border has been scuffed into meaningless oblivion.

The 2D animator is much like a director of live-action film, who with the lens of his camera forces everyone to view his subject from exactly the same viewpoint at the same time, whereas the 3D animator is more comparable to the director of the stage-play, the actors of which may be viewed at any given moment from the front row, from a balcony, or from far back in the orchestra section. The 2D animator may choose the best angle of the pose; the 3D animator must make a good pose and hope it will be understood from whatever angles it may seen.

Also, the 2D animator can enhance a pose force a perspective, or minimize or exaggerate the foreshortening to enhance his drawing, even though knowing that the pose, if it could be viewed from some other angle, would look false and wrong .Generally, the 3D animator cannot do this unless there is only to be one cameras viewpoint and it is known. This is comparable to the way statuary was sometimes designed for monumental settings such as cathedral niche, for example, fifty feet above the viewing floor.

The 2D animator must construct his character over and over again ,constantly reminding himself that the character has no weight unless the quality of his movement gives him weight.

While computer based 3D animation is gaining popularity, for traditional 2D animators, drawing skills are very important. What works ,however, is a 'happy marriage' of 2D and 3D,such as in Lion King, where the character were 2D,but the background,3D.

MAYA
This is a software originated in the USA and the most advanced and innovative one in the field of animation and special effects. They used it for making advertisement film and to render special effect in feature film. This software was developed and named 'Power Animator' and used to create the fantastic characters in movies like

"Jurassic Park" by Mr.Srephen Spielberge.The Hollywood blockbusters like 'Deep Blue Sea',' Hollow man,'The Mummy', and 'Spiderman' followed. As in the case of all other major software, the participation of Indian experts in the development of this software resulted in naming it as MAYA. This is a internationally acclaimed software and award winner used largely in visual and print media.

In Kerala also there are a few training center who teach animation courses using original Maya software.

There are many job opportunities in the field of animation. There is a great deal of opportunity in the field of 2D animation. There is great deal of opportunity waiting to grasped, and that the Indian animation industry, still in the fledgling stage, will mature in the near future. Some of the institutes offering 2D/3D animation courses are given below:

1.Arena Multimedia,4th Floor,
Kalliathu Royale Square,
Palace Road,Thrissur-680020
Ph:0487-2337506,2337717
www.arena-multimedia.com

2. Aries Animations,
MG Road,ManeeshPlaza,
Thrisur.
Ph:0487-2385736

3.Image Multimedia,6th floor
Landmarks enclave,
Near South Over Bridge,
Valanjambalam,Kochi.
Ph:0484-2373136

4.Glimpse International,
M.K.V Buildings,
Shenoys Junction,
Kochi,
Ph:0484-2383290

Courtesy : Deepika Education

It is quite feasible for a person unfamiliar with operating system intervals to understand nearly the entire system with a few months of use and study.

MINIX has been written from scratch, and therefor does not contain any AT&T code-not in the kernel, the compiler, the utilities, or the libraries. For this reason the complete source can be made available.

MINIX has evolved over the years, so several versions exist. Two of these are still current. The rest are obsolete.

The current versions are:

MINIX 2.0 (Intel CPUs from 8088 to Pentium)
MINIX 1.5 (Intel, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari, SPARC)

MINIX Features

Full multiprogramming (multiple programs can run at once)

Runs in protected mode on 286, 386, 486, Pentium

Support for extended memory up to 16M on 286; 4GB on 386,486, and Pentium RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc.

Up to 3 simultaneous users on one machine.

System call compatible with POSIX (well, almost)

Full C Source code (OS, utilities, libraries, etc.) supplied

ANSI C compiler

Shell that is functionally ideal to the Bourne shell

Networking with TCP/IP

Five editors (emacs subset, vi clone, ex, ed, and simple screen editor)

Over 200 utilities (cat, cp, ed, grep, kermit, Is, make, sort, etc.)

Over 300 library procedures (atoi, fork, malloc, read, studio, etc.)

Spelling checker with 40,000 word

Online manual pages.

Hardware Required

To run MINIX 2.0, you need a PC driven by an 8088, 286, 386, 486, or Pentium CPU. The system must be 100% hardware compatible with the PC-AT and its successors (i.e, EISA bus, IDE disk, etc.). To run the 16-bit version, 640K is the minimum. To run the 32-bit version, 2MB is the minimum. To run comfortably, another 512K is needed.

A hard disk is not technically required, but is strongly recommended to take full advantage of the system. To load all the sources and be able to recompile the system, 30MB is the practical minimum but with a 20MB disk partition, you can still run and compile parts of the system. The system must have either a CGA, EGA, VGA, monochrome, or Hercules video card, or another card that emulates one of these.

Both 5.25" and 3.5" diskettes are supported, as are printers using the parallel port and modems and terminals using the serial ports. Mitsumi CD-ROMs are also supported, as are some Ethernet cards.

MINIX has been designed as a teaching system. It is easy to learn and maintain. A book describing operating systems in general and how MINIX works in particular is available. It can be used as a textbook or for independent study.

The bibliographic information is: Title: Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, 2/e Authors: Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Albert S. Woodhull Publisher: Prentice-Hall

Legal Status of MINIX

Although MINIX is supplied with the complete source code, it is copyrighted software. However, the copyright owner has granted everyone the right to redistribute or sell it, with or without source code, in unmodified or modified form. For all practical purposes, MINIX can be treated as if it were in the public domain.

News

Since its introduction in January 1987, there has been a large an active USENET newsgroup about MINIX, comp.os.minix. Tens of thousands of messages have been posted to this group so far.

These messages have contained questions, bug reports, bug fixes, and new software. MINIX users on Bitnet can be put on a mailing list by sending mail to: info-minix-request@udel.edu. Various archives store newsgroup traffic for newcomers to the newsgroup.

Courtesy:Deepika Education