Autodesk Maya 2011

Autodesk Maya is a 3D animation and 3D modeling software application that is used for simulation, visual effects, rendering, and compositing. It is used in the TV industry for shows like Heroes and American Idol, major motion films like Avatar, District 9, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, and in the gaming industry for games like The Beatles: Rock Band and Assassin’s Creed II.

Maya is an integrated node-based software application that provides a comprehensive suite of applications for 3D content creation. Using Maya, you can create and edit 3D models in a variety of modeling formats and animate your models using a whole host of animation tools. Maya also provides the ability to allow you to render your animated 3D scenes to achieve photo realistic imagery and animated visual effects. Complete system requirements are located at the Autodesk site.

So what is new with Maya 2011?

• New interface – sports a look and feel that has been reworked to provide a more consistent user experience on all supported platforms. It offers a fresher, albeit a darker look, making for better visibility and a nice gradient background. Both make it much easier on the eyes and easier to work in. Other changes include a bigger and better file open menu, dockable UI elements, and a new color chooser.

• Faster Skinning workflow – will let you create more accurately skinned characters having more realistic deformations all in faster rendering speeds. With the new skinning tools and workflows you will have a dual quaternion option for smooth skinning, interactive volume binding, multiple enhancements to the Paint Skin Weights tool, deformer weight mirroring, and a surface falloff mode for the Wrap deformer.

• Non-destructive live retargeting – gives you the ability to more quickly and easily reuse, correct, and enhance motion-capture and certain other animation data. This new non-destructive retargeting workflow uses the Autodesk HumanIK (HIK) libraries. You can transfer animation from one character to another and adjust retargeting parameters live to see and edit results without the need to re-bake.

wOrld's youngest yoga teacher

World's youngest yoga teacher, six, hailed as a miracle at Indian ashram

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 12:50 PM on 27th December 2010

At just six, Shruti Pandey is the youngest yoga trainer in the world.

The bendy youngster has been teaching adults at an ashram, in northern India, for the last two years.

Her trainer, Hari Chetan, 67, set up the ashram 35 years ago and as soon as little Shruti became one of his students, as a tiny four-year old, he spotted her talents.

Her trainer, Hari Chetan, began teaching her when she was four, and calls her a miracle and a perfectionist

Now she starts her classes at 5.30am every morning, at Brahmanand Saraswati Dham, in the Jhunsi town, dressed in white leggings and a red t-shirt surrounded by 30 eager pupils ranging from businessmen, teachers, housewives to pensioners.

Shruti said: 'It feels good when people follow my instructions, I feel like a real teacher. 

'I got interested in yoga after seeing my brother do it. I tried picking it up myself but it was too hard. So I asked my parents to send me to yoga classes.' 

Shruti has mastered some of yoga's most challenging positions. She can easily hold her entire body on the strength of her little arms and hang her legs backwards over her head

Her brother, Harsh Kumar, now 11-years-old, made the Limca Book of Records at the tender age of five by learning all 84 yoga positions - but he's never been interested in being a teacher like his sister.

Hari, who Shruti also calls her grandfather, think she's a miracle. 

'She's a fast learner and a perfectionist. She grasps techniques quickly unlike kids her own age, who get bored with something as patience consuming as yoga.

'Within just six months of her training, she surprised everyone by doing the toughest positions with ease and perfection. She's a natural.'

One Shruti's 90-year-old students hailed her patience as a teacher, while a 48-year-old student said her classes have helped him control his anger

Flexible: Shruti first got interested in yoga after seeing her brother do it

Shruti can manage some of yoga's most challenging positions. She can easily hold her entire body on the strength of her little arms and hang her legs right over her head backwards.

One of Shruti's fans, 90-year-old Swami Bhanu, a retired teacher, said: 'The best thing about Shruti is she tries to provide an alternative position for the complicated ones that are difficult for an older person like me to do. She's very patient.' 

Businessman Lokendra Pal Singh, 48, has been attending Shruti's classes for three months and said, 'I have noticed a positive change in my life. I used to be short-tempered, but now I'm able to control my anger to quite an extent and it's all thanks to a little six-year old.'

Shruti teaches yoga to classes of up to 30 adults, starting at 5:30am, at the Swami Brahmachand Saraswati Kaivalya Dham Ashram in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh in India.