PixelBox Academy Launches New COLLADA Course

Author: by Beth A.

PixelBox Academy has launched the online course 'COLLADA 101', composed of five levels covering all the aspects of the interchangable file format, as part of its continuing initiatives in video game education. The 8 week online course beginning January 9, 2007 is composed of five levels covering all the aspects of COLLADA, including an overview of the COLLADA API and the XML schema definition, working with animations, authoring shaders using COLLADA FX, integrating rigid bodies, mass properties, joint constraints and physics shapes using COLLADA Physics, and finally, using COLLADA in a production environment. COLLADA FX is the first cross-platform standard shader and effects definition written in XML. It targets high-end systems running OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) and Cg (HLSL coming), as well as resource-constrained systems (OpenGL ES 1.x profile). COLLADA Physics, Nima, allows artists and developers to author and interactively manipulate complex physical assets including rigid bodies and constraints. Nima is available for free, along with documentation and movies. AGEIA's PhysX, previously known as Novodex, is a Physics engine designed for high performance games and applications, as demonstrated by the large number of game studios who adopted it for their next gen titles. Nima utilizies the performance of AGEIA's PhysX engine in Maya. The Nima content can also be exported through NxuStream2 or COLLADA Physics, using the ColladaMaya translator. For more information, interested parties can visit the PixelBox Academy website.