Celebrating twenty years of MAYA with a holiday edition of the whiteboard
Congratulations, you’ve stumbled upon one of our top secret experiments into the future of holiday-based computing!
QuickStart Guide
- Start the snow machine, if it’s working you’ll see yourself on-screen.
- Hold the number “2” card a few feet from the camera, and make sure the ENTIRE black border is visible on-screen. If your fingers cover any part of the black border, it won’t work!
- Tilt the card back and forth and side to side until you see snow flowing out of the card, it works best if the card is flat and not bent, curved, or creased in any way. Try to reduce the glare on the card so that you see a solid black border on-screen.
- Play for a while, try to cover the whole screen with snow!
If the screen gets covered in snow, blow the snow away (really, just lean towards the screen and blow)… be sure to puff hard!
- While snow is flowing, hold the “0” card up to the screen (remember the black border has to be completely on-screen!)
- A snowball should show up, and the snow will start flowing towards it.
- The snow will freeze in space when it hits the snowball – so you can draw something. If you want to see your creation in 3-D, click the “spin me” button!
- Rotating the card will make the snowball get bigger or smaller.
Looking Forward
We don’t know what the future might bring, but even if twenty years from now real snow has gone the way of the Dodo, we’re excited to have a solution in the works today.
This system harnesses the power of augmented reality (AR) and specially formulated digital snow so that you’ll still be able to write, sketch and even do three-dimensional shaping of your next big idea (you know, in the event that those climate scientists are right).
In-Depth Tutorial
In our first experiment you can control your own digital snow machine.
Step 1. Start up the digital snow machine and make sure it’s working properly. When it’s running you should see yourself on-screen. Wave to yourself to make sure things are working right.
NOTE: If all you see is a black screen or if nothing happens at all when you click on the snow machine, scroll down to the “Tips” section below for suggestions. If someone else waves back at you on the screen, um, well you have much deeper issues and maybe shouldn’t be playing with computers right now.
Step 2. Hold the holiday marker card that has the number “2” on it up to the screen. You should see digital snow start to flow out of the card. If you point the card upwards the snow should fly up into the sky. If you point the card right at the camera you may end up splattering the screen with a blast of snow. You may even hear the digital snow hitting your computer screen. Turn your computer’s volume down so it’s not too loud.
Step 3. Fill your entire screen with snow! By rotating the card left or right you can control the amount of snow coming out of the snow machine. With the number “2” facing upwards the snow is really just a flurry. If you rotate the number “2” card until it’s upside down, you should have a blizzard! Try to fill the screen until it’s completely white. It may take a few tries.
NOTE: If too much snow gets on your screen, just blow it off (puff real hard; sometimes people haven’t cleaned their screens in a while and they’re kinda sticky.)
In our next experiment you can create art with your very own snow-powered whiteboard!
Step 1. Once you know how to make snow, you can use the holiday marker card with the “0” on it to freeze the snow particles in space with a specially engineered snowball maker. Be sure your screen is clear (blow really hard to clear the snow). Now use the “2” card to start making snow.
Step 2. While the snow is spraying into the air, bring the “0” card into the camera view until you see a snowball (you may have to tilt it back and forth a bit until it materializes).
Step 3. Hold the ball in one place until some snow accumulates, then move it to another area of the screen and hold it there for a while. Practice a bit until you’re able to draw a simple shape like a circle or a square.
Step 4. If you move the snow machine (the “2” card) around a bit, you can force the snow to accumulate on different parts of the snowball (the “0” card).
NOTE: If you want to make the snowball that you’re painting with bigger or smaller, just rotate the “0” card.
Step 5. Use all three dimensions! Now that you’ve created a sketch, use your mouse to click on the text that is on the right side of the video screen labeled “spin me.” Your entire creation should spin around in 3-D. You can use this trick to explore drawing real three-dimensional snow-powered concepts. Try making a three-dimensional snowman.
Step 6. Send your drawing to a friend. At any time during your experimentation you can send your artwork to a friend by filling in the “From:” and “To:” fields with valid email addresses and clicking on the “Send” button (situated just below the snow-powered whiteboard.) Try this out by sending a picture to yourself. For fun try drawing on your face!
NOTE: You won’t see any feedback after sending the artwork (that means you can actually send additional emails as you spin the artwork around if you are so inclined).
Step 7. Find a friend and try collaborating on an idea. Give the snow machine (the number “2” card) to a friend and see what kind of creations you can make together.
