NUCOR Corporation Case Analysis Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NUCOR Corporation Analysis - Case Study Example Nucor’s mission to take care of their customer has been realized through quality products manufactured within the broader parameter of sustainable business practices. Hence, ethically considered decision making and promoting environment conservation at all levels of operations have been its hallmark that has helped it to meet the challenges of time. Analysis of Nucor’s business practice therefore would not only give insight into its success but also help identify factors and issues which would help it maintain the competitive advantage within the industry. Nucor’s business strategy for competitive advantage The major factors of current competitive advantage have been its ability to exploit its internal competencies like strong team work and innovative approach of managerial leadership towards production and research. There is strong trust and mutual respect between the management and workforce that is based on uniform code of benefits spread across the hierarchy of management and employees. The shared goals and collective decisions encourage empowered decisions resulting in optimal performance. The entrepreneurial leadership of its managers has significantly influenced its operational efficiency. Byrnes (2003) believes that product flow can increase earnings while raising customer service levels. Hence, Nucor’s use of mini steel factory is its key element of competitive advantage because it not only reduces pollution but also significantly cuts the operating costs by using scrap material, giving nearly 25% return on equity. It also uses considerably less energy than traditional steel factories. Its use of recycles goods has greatly contributed towards environment conservation and highlight is sustainable business practices that have enabled it to produce goods at competitive costs. Its acquisition of David J Joseph Co., a metal scrap supplier, has been a highly beneficial. It not only provides it with raw material but has also come w ith 2000+ railcars which can significantly boost its transportation logistics. This could facilitate competitive advantage in the recessive environment. Its ability to be innovative is another key element of its competitive advantage. The ongoing experiment of liquid steel could be a major breakthrough for the industry and could become its major strength in staying ahead of its global competitors Area of threats and weakness The major threat comes from the import of low cost steel from emerging economies like China where the lack of regulations help the indigenous firms to export steel at low cost to developed countries. The company has also not made any initiative to expand across the globe and this could adversely impact its business prospects, especially as the globalization and technology has made businesses more competitive. Nucor is quite rigid in its principles and does not give discounts to bulk buyers. This could threatened its market scope in the contemporary environment o f cut throat business Recommendations Many scholars have affirmed that major imperatives of the corporate world have fundamentally relied on improvement initiatives of business processes (Laraia et al., 1999). Thus, Nucor must make efforts to exploit the global financial downtrend and take advantage of weak

Business ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Business ethics - Essay Example These issues not only affect an individual but also affect the organization and the society at large. Various issues related business ethics have been witnessed throughout the semester but job discrimination stands out as the most serious issues according to the journal entry considerations. Job discrimination leads to many problems that go beyond affecting an organization is various ways to causing a serious psychological effect to the discriminated employee. Job or employee discrimination involves unequal treatment of two individual having the same qualifications for a particular job or task. It could involve preferring one employee for an available post to others because of distinct characteristics. These distinctive traits may be skin colour, origin, religion, gender, race, nationality, or any other distinctive traits among individuals. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission witnessed a number of cases concerning employee discrimination at the workplace. This b usiness issue led a number of employers to face charges against such ethical issues in their businesses and organizations. Workplace discrimination is seen as morally wrong and is moreover expensive for businesses and employers. Some of the consequences that businesses face due to employee discrimination are low working morale, high turnover, and legal action among other effects. This happens irrespective of the form of discrimination exercised in the workplace of any organization (Becker 1971). Discrimination in occupation and employment may take various forms. The discrimination can also take place in various work settings but the impacts of such discrimination actions are seemingly similar. Discrimination entails different treatment of individuals due to certain characteristic, which mainly include colour, sex, and race. This discrimination results business issues such as impairment of opportunity and treatment equality (Anonymous Employee 2013). Discrimination therefore reinforc es employment inequalities in the workplace. Employment discrimination is an ethical issue, which brings restrictions on the freedom of people in developing their various capabilities, choosing, as well as pursuing their professional aspirations (Floten 2004). There is hardly any regard for employee abilities when deciding who to choose for a particular job specification, or when promoting individuals based on various requirements by an organization. In such a case, it would be difficult for a business to initiate a good working environment where skills and competencies can be developed adequately (Schulz 2005). The same ethical issue would create an environment whereby rewards to work are completely denied but instead, workers go through many cases of humiliations, job frustrations, as well as a feeling of powerlessness towards achievement of certain goals. This aspect comes from the fact that some employees feel that they are discriminated or some of the workers are favoured more than others are (Murphy & Enderle 1995). The problem of job discrimination still persists in many countries despite the various programs that have been initiated to curb the ethical issue and the effects of the problem. The problem becomes even worse as people of different origins, skin colour, and race interact in the work environment of all world economies. Discrimination in employment is mainly seen in cases whereby people of common attributes

Impact of Changes on Target Companys Structure Assignment

Impact of Changes on Target Companys Structure - Assignment Example Jones postulates that the organizational structures are two in kind, namely: mechanistic structure and organic structure (209). Wei, Liu and Harden postulate that the degree to this subdivision of jobs is the work specialization in the organization (19). Securing and Goldbach refers to the term centralized as â€Å"the concentration of authority and responsibility for decision making in the hands of managers at the top of an organization’s hierarchy† (214). In other words, Kumar and Bhat describe the term centralization in an organization as â€Å"the degree to which decision making is concentrated in a single point† (346). The degree of decision making concentrated in numerous points shows decentralization in an organization (Applebaum & et.al., 2008). The Target Company has a mechanistic organizational structure. It has a high level of specialization which allows it to divide the jobs into significant groups. The work specialization requires that each person should be placed according to his/her qualifications and experience to ensure a maximum level of specialization in their work. Each department has been allotted different work that is not given to the other department in the organization (Ouchi, 1977). The answer to this question is that all stores of the company are centrally controlled through a centrally located center for every region. Target Company has a mechanistic structure that allows it to have a centrally located center that has the highest degree of decision-making power to control all the stores located within its jurisdiction. The answer to this question is that the change in the company structure through the incorporation of a grocer sector in Target Company will positively impact its vertical and horizontal aspects. Previously, the Target Company had a focused company strategy to have 5 self-managed teams (an i.e. horizontal aspect of the company structure). Furthermore, the horizontal aspect of the company structure  included decision making through consensus and voting. Dries and Swinnen argued that vertical and horizontal spillover effects produce improved quality of product and significant growth of small and medium suppliers (1525).  

Poverty in Canada Essay Example for Free

Poverty in Canada Essay Poverty in Canada has been a long debate on the political and social fronts of the community. According to 2005 reports, an estimated over ten percent of the Canada population are living in poverty. Of much concern is the ever increasing rate of homelessness experienced in the nation over the past two decades (Lee, 2000). However, numerous reports have indicated that the measure of poverty in Canada is negated by the government’s failure to have a definite method of measuring poverty levels. True to the letter, Canadians are current faced with the debate on whether absolute or relative measure of poverty is the best in determining poverty levels in the nation. Nevertheless, numerous measures have been put in place to promote poverty reduction strategies in many provinces of Canada. In addition, non-governmental organizations are increasingly engaging in community based poverty reduction projects. This paper is written as a discussion on poverty in Canada. The author will in particular look at the statistics of poverty in the nation, how poverty is measured in Canada, and the current poverty reduction measures being implemented. Poverty in Canada Poverty in Canada has been an historical issue for many centuries. According to available statistical information, poverty in the nation remains a swing between economic growth and recession as well as numerous evolving initiatives by the government to assist low income members of the community (Raphael, 2002). This information still indicates the emergence of organized assistance to the poor in the twentieth century. True to available literature, most of the poor assistance programs are generally funded by the church. This is evident from the catholic encyclopedia, which funds approximated over eighty seven hospitals in the Canadian nation catering for the poor members of the community (Surhone, 2009). On the other hand, the government has been on the forefront in addressing poverty issues among its citizens. Such can be historically evident from the establishment of the Canada’s welfare state after the great depression as was initiated by Bennett and Mackenzie King. Nevertheless, the problem of poverty in Canada is still a major threat to the sustainable social and economic development of the Canadians. From a 2003 statistical reports, an estimated poverty rate of over 10% has been reported (Raphael, 2002). This percentage has been confirmed by the central intelligence agency as an official value although the absolute rate is undoubtedly expected to be higher. However, the Canadian federal government seems not to agree with this value and have published a current poverty rate to have gone down for the past sixty years to a value less than five percent (Raphael, 2002). This value was determined on the basis of the basic needs poverty measure and deviates very much from what is perceived to be real. Many organizations top on the list being the Fraser institute have not appreciated this value and depict the Canadian federal government as extremely exaggerative. The above contradiction between the government and these conservative organizations has been compounded by the fact that the Canadian federal government has failed to endorse any metric measure of poverty including but not limited to the low income cut off. Altogether, the Canadian federal government seems to have realized the impact of poverty to the society and have employed several measures to reduce it. This is evidenced by the continued decline of poverty in the recent time 1996 when recession which was marked with low income rates. For instance, statistics shows that the less fortunate people such as the physically disabled, mentally ill, and single parent mothers are experiencing higher income rates. Students and recent immigrants have at least higher or average low income rate hence they can afford the basic needs. Measures of poverty in Canada The establishment of an official poverty measuring system in America has been marked with many controversies top on the list being the fact that politicians have failed to agree on a precise definition of poverty (Groot-Maggett, 2002). The have therefore ignored the interest of statistics Canada of defining poverty by it unable and unworthy to determine what is necessary to be a basic necessity. The government and some research institutes use different methods to estimate the extent of poverty of poverty in Canada. However, a debate has emerged on the supremacy of absolute and relative methods of measuring the depth of poverty. The author of this paper discuses both the absolute and the relative measures of poverty. One of the absolute measures of poverty is the basic needs poverty measure. According to libertarian Fraser institute’s economist Chris sarlo, the basic needs poverty measure was conceived to be a poverty threshold (Groot-Maggett, 2002). According to this basic needs approach of poverty, basic needs are those things which are required by people for their physical goods over a long time depending on the current living standards of that particular society. This measure was designed based on different information obtained fro various sources which include but not limited to statistics Canada. An extensive assessment of how much a person can spend in the house was established to give this measure the originality and substance it deserves. This was accomplished by examining the cost of various things which where perceived to meet the above definition of basic need. This included food, clothing, shelter, personal care, transport and communication for different types of societies. Based on the above research and by putting inconsideration the family size, the number of families which had insufficient income to cater for those necessities were determined. Earlier on, the amount of income required to cater for the basic necessities was determined on the basis of gross income which was inclusive of old age pensions and employment insurances. Currently however, the net income has been used the financial ability of a family to sustain its basic requirements (Lee, 2000). A worthy noting point is that this net income is based on reports which can be marked with error such as unreported and underground means of earning income. Based on the basic needs poverty measure, have gone down with an appreciatable rate to a value less than 5% which is estimated to represent less than 2million Canadians. Another absolute measure of poverty is termed the market basket measure. This was designed and established in 2003 by the Canadian government through its department of human resources and skills development (Raphael, 2002). The market basket measure of poverty accommodated a wider range of basic needs than the basic need measure. For instance, it put in consideration the community size and location for at least 48 communities in Canadians and then estimated the sufficient amount of income required to meet those needs. This measure is still understudy and is expected to cover more than 400 communities. The main notable relative property measures is the income distribution measure commonly known as income inequality metrics, gives information regarding the variation of income in a given community. Its effectiveness is evidenced by the fact that when a given group of people increases their income rate then there is a high probability of those earning less to feel an increase in their income. Another often quoted as a relative measure of poverty is the low income cut off which has received many critics from the statistics Canada and they have disregarded it as not a measure of poverty by saying that it does not give reliable and accurate fingers. The low income cut off measure was based on the gross income but the statistics Canada have given reports of both the gross and the net income (Marseken, Timpledon, Surhone, 2009). This measure was designed to give the lowest mark which when exceeded; a family will have to spend much to cater for basic needs such as food shelter and clothing. Recent results based on this measure showed that approximate of 9. 4% lives below the low the current threshold of 63% of the total family income. Poverty reduction measures Like any other country in the world which is conscious of the well being of its people, the Canadian government through the provinces has employed several measures to eliminate poverty and a gain to reduce its impact to the people. Top on the list of these important measures is reduction of tax burdens. This is evidenced by the progressive income tax system in Canada which has resulted to a difference of about 5% between the gross and net low income cut off (Pohl, 2002). Government social programs cannot go unmentioned here because of their importance and effectiveness in succumbing poverty. The Canadian government has come up with a broad range of social programs aimed at helping the law income people. These programs include but not limited to old age security and employment insurance which have seen through the reduction of chances of falling to poverty of people who were rendered unemployed. In addition to this, government funds have been channeled to subsidizing education and public health with an aim of improving the living standards of people with low income (Raphael, 2002). Another government measure which cannot escape this discussion is the introduction of the minimum wage laws. The constitution of Canada includes the minimum wage laws, which even though they vary for different provinces, they have confirmed there effectiveness in standardizing wages by making sure that people with law income are not exploited (Raphael, 2002). The minimum set minimum wage is $8. 00 per hour although it can go a bit down for unskilled workers. Conclusion In conclusion therefore, poverty is not well defined in Canada because of the failure of politicians to agree on the necessities which should be basic. However, the above discussion shows that a considerable number of people in Canada are poor and lacks the basic needs a defined by the basic needs measure of poverty. In addition to this, the government’s effort to eliminate poverty as well as reducing its impacts cannot fail to be appreciated. This is it has invested sufficiently in social programs and in the enforcement of the minimum law wages which have seen through the reduction of poverty and its effect to the people. It also safeguard the less fortunate people and ensured that the poor people are not exploited or robed there right of living a good life. References Groot-Maggetti, G. (2002). A measure if Poverty in Canada. A Guide to the Debate about Poverty. Retrieved August 1, 2010, from http://action. web. ca/home/cpj/attach/A_measure_of_poverty. pdf Lee, K. (2000). Urban Poverty in Canada: Statistical Profile. Retrieved August 2, 2010, from http://www.ccsd. ca/pubs/2000/up/ Marseken, S. , Timpledon, M. , Surhone, L. (2009). Poverty in Canada: Poverty, Minimum Wage, Measuring Poverty, Income Taxes in Canada, Economic History of Canada, Great Depression in Canada, Basic Needs, Economic Inequality. Toronto: Betascript Publishers. Pohl, R. (2002). Poverty in Canada. Retrieved August 1, 2010, from http://www. streetlevelconsulting. ca/homepage/homelessness2InCanada_Part2. htm Raphael, D. (2002). Poverty, Income Inequality, and Health in Canada. Retrieved August 2, 2010, from http://www. povertyandhumanrights. org/docs/incomeHealth. pdf

Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix Essay Example for Free

Plato, Descartes, and The Matrix Essay Consider this, Is what we believe to be real and true real and true? In the movie The Matrix, Neo is a computer programer by day and hacker by night. He senses that something is wrong with the world but insists what he know he feels. When he dreams, he isn’t sure if it was real or just a dream just as Descartes believes he cannot trust his senses to tell him whether or not he is still dreaming. Neo meets with Morpheus and Morpheus gives Neo the option of knowing the truth. According to Morpheus the world isn’t real, it is an illusion and offers Neo a life altering choice. To take a pill that will give him the truth. The truth Morpheus refers to is that the world Neo believes in is just an illusion. What Neo perceives as real by his senses is nothing more than a computer generating ideas in his head without any real experiences. Morpheus gives Neo the option of continuing to live his life in the shadows and the way he perceives it or to see the light and the truth. This closely resembles the allegory of the cave by Pluto. Plato invites us to imagine humans being held prisoners, with no freedom to move or see except what is directly in front of them in the form of shadows. This is the prisoners reality. This is what they come to believe is real. When in-fact there is another world just beyond their reality. It is only after one prisoner escapes the shackles and chains and finds that the actual world is not just shadows but a world with the light of the sun. The prisoner has difficulty adjusting his eyes to the brightness, but eventually does. This experience parallels to what Neo experiences. Descartes poses the questions in his work Meditations of First Philosophy, 1961, of how we cannot for certain that the world he experiences isn’t not the product of an illusion forced upon him by an evil demon. He questions what he believes is real because of what he sees and feels while dreaming and therefore can’t trust his senses to tell him if 2he is still dreaming. When Neo accepts the â€Å"red pill† and his perception of his life slips away when he realizes that the human race is held in containers, unconscious, with a computer generating their thoughts and experiences. Humans invented Artificial Intelligence and in turn the AI took over mankind and enslaved them using them for the energy they required to stay ‘alive’. Neo realizes what Descartes proposed, that Neo’s life was just controlled by an evil demon, the Matrix. But Descartes went on to argue the existence of God, saying a Good God would not let an evil demon control us. Neo struggles with this new truth because he didn’t believe in fate because he didn’t like the idea he wasn’t in control of life. Neo life as he knew it is gone, and he is faced with the new reality and he struggles with the different emotions first of shock, fear and disbelief and then acceptance. He joins the group of dissidents to help others see the truth and reality of life. Knowing the truth doesn’t necessarily ‘set you free’ as we find out. A fellow dissident Cypher discovers the truth is hard and decides that ‘ignorance is bliss’. He negotiates a deal to deliver Morpheus in turn for his previous ‘life’. For Cypher, the truth was too much to handle, he liked the illusion of his previous life. Once Neo gains knowledge of he Matrix, he is able to discern between the truth and illusion and ascends to a higher level of understanding. He realizes that he can no longer blindly accept information received through his senses, but must requires answers to his questions. He like Descartes comes to the conclusion â€Å"I think, therefore I am†. The difference between the Matrix and Plato and Descartes is the movie gives Neo a way back to the physical real world whereas Plato and Descartes only suggest there is another reality and we are dreaming but doesn’t give us a way back. None of the notables address God within the realm of truth. God states he is the way of the light and the truth. We are challenged in our daily lives to live a real life.

Use Of Maya Dynamics In Animation Cultural Studies Essay

Use Of Maya Dynamics In Animation Cultural Studies Essay This dissertation focuses on Maya Dynamics Technology. How far this technology be used in animation.How does the production house carry out complex dynamic simulations.The author will breifly describe how the simulations was acheived in his project.How other beginers can acheive a better output.Basic production skills to simulate dynamic simulations.At the end the author breifly describe about the upcoming cg softwares based on his research works.This dissertation is primarly based on my: My personal experience. My study on Maya Dynamics. Researches carried out. This dissertation will breifly describe all about maya dynamics technology and an indepth description of technologies used in this project. Maya fluids. Blast code Natfx Introduction This dissertaion asks and begins to answer the following questions. The use of Maya Dynamics in animation.How to carry out complex dynamic simulations.  · To define Maya dynamics  · To explain various methodolagies and techniques in maya dynamics.  · How to reduce render time in Maya dynamics simulation.  · The best possible way to render Maya dynamics.  · An overview of how maya dynamics are simulated in the studios.  · Analyze the best CG simulations achieved in movies.  · Recomendations based on my study. Research Methodology  · Analyzing the real time simulations.  · Describtion of how it was carried out in movies.  · Describtion about the best possible way to achieve it. Gathering other peoples experiences. SUMMARY Chapter 4  · What is Maya dynamics?  · An in depth view on Maya dynamics.  · Techniques used in my project. Chapter 5 Study of explosions. Methods to create an explosion for a short film. Chapter 6  · How does the studios carry out simulations.  · The best possible way a freelancer or a student can achieve thier desired simulation in the best possible time Chapter 7 In depth knoweldge about project Superfortress. Chapter 8  · Future developments. Chapter 9  · Reports and conclusions. Chapter 10  · Bibilography Review of Literature Chapter 4 Introduction This chapter shortly describes about Dynamics. A study of techniques in dynamics, and breif describtion about the techniques used in the project. Introduction so what is Maya Dynamics? Dynamics is an Autodesk Maya software that depends on laws and theories of physics to let us simulate natural forces in the animation. such as rain, smoke, fire, explosions,colliding objects etc. The animation is achevied by creating required elements in a scene and connecting them to inbuild forces in Maya to achieve required simulations. such as creating expressions,fields,collisions,goals etc.. Maya dynamics can also be defined as the animation of soft bodies,particles and rigid bodies. Study of Maya Dynamics technology Rigid bodies Rigid body are defined as those surfaces that doesnt deform its shape when it collide with another object.A few examples in real world would be billard balls and carroms . Rigid body technique in maya provides the simulation of geometric elements in a dynamically controlled enviornment using collision based system in Maya. There are two types of rigid bodies Active and Passive rigid bodies. Active rigid body are created for colliding with another surface and for simulating in a realistic manner.They have the ability to move, spin, rotate and collide with passive objects. Difference between active rigid body and passive rigid body. Active Passive can be keyframed Yes No respond to collisions No Yes affectd by fields No Yes Particles Maya particles are those objects that have no volume or size.They are basically reference points simulated, animated, and renderd seperatly.Like any other nodes in maya , particles also contain nodes that contain attributes which can be used for controlling individual particles.Nodes contain array, ramps , scripts and expressions. How does Maya particles differ from Maya geometry? Particles are points in space which require special care while rendering. Particles can only be renderd out using software or hardware rendering methods Fields Fields are the natural forces in nature that are manupilated in Autodesk maya.Such as gravity,wind,turbulance,air etc..that increases particle simulation and visual of the scene in a better way. Particle expressions One of the most powerful and infinite method of controlling particle parameters.Particles expressions depends on Mel syntax.Few examples of Particle expressions are: The first expressions determines the life time and the second expression determines the color of simulated particles in a maya scene. particleShape1.lifespanPP=time*1; particleShape1.rgbPP=rand(0,1); Goals Goals are a very strong method of animating the particles.Goals work more like a huge magnet that attract particles towards it or goals are considerd as the destination point for the particles.Goals have thier own attributes specifically designed for goal based simulation. Particle instancing Particle instancing control the motion and simulation of the instanced object created in Maya.Particle instancing are uesd for creating multiple objects that folllow their parents simulation.One example is : Thousands of arrows shot up in the sky. How to render out particles in Maya? Now here is a frequent question asked by freshers.What good is it to simulate the particles in maya and doesnt have the knowledge to render it out . Maya provides two option to render particle simulation. Software rendering Hardware rendering software rendering This technique allows for scene integration of particles and other renderd objects.Software renderd particles have glows, shadows, and lighting effects. Hardware rendering Hardware rendering is one of the quickest method of image creation in maya.But these images are taken to compositing softwares for compositing with the rest of the scene. In depth study of Maya Dynamics techniques used in the project Techniques used in the project Fluids Particle Instancing Maya Fluids Maya fluids are widely used for creating fluid simulations.Maya fluid box contains emiiter and container which supports the creation and simulations of smoke,fire,clouds,explosions etc.. this chapter brefily describes about the use of containers , how to create a reaction and how to render it out. Fluid containers Fluid containers visually represents a small scene inside a maya scene.They are best used for creation of fire ,clouds and explosions.Fluids are generated inside the container by an emitter or by painting the fluid inside the container.The simulation happens only inside the container.Dynamic forces are then connected to the container for better simulations. There are two types of container in maya 2d container 3d container 3d conatiner 2d container Both work in the same way but the only difference between them is 2d containers are flat and they simulate much faster where as 3d containers are cubical volumes and will take time for them to simulate. 3d containers 3d containers have depth ,height and width.Which obviously increases the render time.The best possible way to start working in a 3d conatiner is by setting its resolution at 20,20,20 intially and grdually increasing accordigly.One important thing in 3d container is that the size and resolution are proportional to each other. If the container size is 10,20,10 then resolution should be set to 20,40,20, or 5,10,5.Other wise the fluids will get strecthed and simulation appears strecthed.But ofcourse there are some instances when they can be alterd. (Above) size and resolution Chapter 5 This chapter decribes the study of explosions i have conducted for my project. Object of Research The series of research reported in this document is the study of physical phenomenon, the visual of an explosion and the after effect of the situvation that happens when an explosion occours.This includes study of the destructions of different shaped explosions , and the turbulence that occours during the time of ignition, as well as a study of damage occured and its after effects such as fire and smoke. What is an explosion? An explosion can be defined as a sudden bursting or blowing apart caused by energy released from a very fast escape of gases under pressure, or from a very fast chemical reaction or a nuclear reaction. Which in result produces a shock wave, loud noise, heat and light. What are the different types of Explosions? Explosions are classified into three categories. Mechanical Explosions Chemical Explosions Nuclear Explosions Mechanical Explosions The gradual build up of gases and pressure inside a pressure cooker. When the safety pressure valve is destroyed, blocked or eliminated intense amount of heat is generated. Mechanical explosion results from spontaneous combustion created by dust in a grain storage bin. Chemical Explosions Chemical explosions are caused by extremely rapid conversion of solid or liquid explosive compound into gases which has highly increased volume compared to the original compound. All manufactured explosives are chemical explosions. The explosion rate is too fast that it takes only a micro second to create intense heat and pressure. Nuclear Explosions May only be induced by either fission (splitting of nuclei of atom) or fusion (joining nuclei of atoms under great force). When the action occurs tremendous energy, heat, gas and shock takes place creating a blast equivalent to 40 million pounds of high explosive. A nuclear explosion occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from an intentionally high speed nuclear reaction. The explosion of an atomic bomb. Visual of an Explosion The effects are Heat, Light and Gases. Changes that occour results in combustion or burning. The initial color of an explosion is bright yellow, bright orange which gradually develops into bright thick red and die into a grayish and black color. Velocity of an Explosion Black powder detonates 3000-5000 feet per second. High explosives detonate from a range of 3300-29,000 fps. Primary effects from an Explosion Blast pressure effect.(positive and negative effect) Fragmentation effect. Incendiary or thermal effect. Ionization radiation. Residual radiation. Blast pressure Blast pressure are clasified into two categories Positive blast Negative blast Positive blast effect The explosion creates a blast of pressure going outward in a 360 degree from the centre of blast. At a rate of 4000-27,000 fps. Negative blast effect The explosion creates a vacuum of negative pressure that is diminished in strength in comparison of positive blast effect but still destructive enough to create an injury or death. The negative blast rushes gases and debris back towards the centre of blast. Fragmentation effect The act or the process of scattering of fragments of an exploding bomb. The fragmentation can be defined as the process of dividing. As an explosion occurs the gas pressure released pick up all the debris and any obstacles that may be picked up, bent, fractured otherwise destroyed by the pressure from the blast. Incendiary or Thermal effect Thermal radiation can be defined as an electromagnetic radiation emitted from the surface of a material due to the particular temperature of the material. The intense amount of heat and light produced by a nuclear explosion. Example of Thermal effect would be heat so intense that the sand in the area is near the blast centre is turned into glass. Example of Incendiary effect would be the ignition of wooden framework of a building causing the entire structure to burn to the ground in addition to blast damage. Ionization radiation Ionizing radiation can be defined as the radiation that is capable of producing ions either directly or indirectly. Radiation of sufficient energy to displace electrons from the atoms of cells and produce ions. Forms of ionization radiation Heat waves Radio waves X rays Ultra violet light Infra red light Residual radiation Residual radiation can be defined as the radio active materials emitted by a Nuclear explosion when an atomic blast occours. Which includes, Fission products, unfissioned nuclear material Research on the technical part of the Explosions What is the possible way to create an explosion for a short film? The best possible way to create an explosion for a short films are: Miniature + real explosion Miniature + cg Complete Cg Miniature + real explosion I build a miniature and fill it up with explosives. Rent a camera for the shoot and blow up the miniature in front of a black backround.Capture the video and then take it to compositing software. Miniature + Cg I build a miniature and blow it up without any pyrotechnique.Rent a camera and capture the footage. Create a Cg explosion. Use a compositing software and composite the two videos. Complete Cg I build a Cg miniature and create a Cg explosion. Then composite the two clips. Chapter 6 Breif introduction about studios. How does the studios carry out dynamic simulations? Study of dynamic simulations achieved in movie 2012. Movie : 2012 Director : Roland Emmerich Production studio : Scanline vfx(1990) Digital domain(1993) Double negative(1998) Sony pictures image works(1993) Pixomondo(2001) Hydrulx(2002) Crazy horse effects(2001) Evil eye pictures(1997) Gradient eye effects Uncharted territory(1999) Uncharted territory About Uncharted territory(llc) is one of the succesfull independent film production company established in 1999 by Visual Effects Supervisor Volker Engel and Visual Effects Producer and Supervisor Marc Weigert. The studio focus on developing , producing and co-producing feature films, TV movies and mini-series in the action/adventure and sci-fi genres.The studio hires 30-40 artist for each project and dissolve them when the project is completed. Production focus 2012 The studio was handed over 433 shots.They hired over 100 artists for the job to get done. Shot: First half of los angeles earthquake. (above)Earthquake preview done at llc Uncharted territory started working with the preview of earthquakes.when the visual feel of the earthquake was satisfied in the preview,they moved on to create in 3d.The unique thing about this shot is that it was 100% realistic digital enviornment and it has to break 100% realisticly.That was a huge challenge as they have to make sure the shading,texturing and lighting is correct and it looks realistic.But again as they have to visually show an eartquake of magnitude of 10+, it makes the job even more difficult. Many of the shots in los angeles airplane escape sequence the background showed huge amount of destructions of office buildings and many other which collapses and falls into the massive crack opened up on the earth surface.All these incidents have to be massive and huge. To make a collapsing building you need to have more than a building if it doesnt it looks unrealistic.fire,smoke,people,traffic,plants and many more to give a realistic look to that particular shot.It dosent end there as these objects crack,collapse and collide with other objects it creates dust and secondary debris. (Above)Los angeles plane escape sequnce.bg was composited later. (above)final compited shot. To visually display all these destructions one thing was quite clear from the rest of all that these destructions have to simulated using computer graphics.No cg software in the market was capabale of achieving it.so they have to build a tottaly new software which supports the rigid body simulations,shattering objects,material properties and capable of running these simulations.They named the newely build softawre as DROP. Drop The software gives the artist an extra advantage to break a building at a particular point and how large or small the destruction should be and to which direction it should fall. Accurate calculation of the magnitude and the precision, accuracy of the collapse. The speed of the destruction and the stability. Ability to run the simulation thousand times faster with multiple geometry,which widley provides time for the artist to test multiple simulations in a day. ar-winning Visual Effects Supervisor Volker Engel and Emmy-award winning Visual Effects Producer and Supervisor Marc Weigert.scar-winning Visual Effects Supervward winning Visual Effects Producer and Supervisor Marc W Double Negative About Double Negative was set up in 1998 with 30 staff.At present the studio has developed upto 700+staff making it one of the largest visual effects providers for films in Europe.They currently opened up a studio in Singapore with 50+ staff which works closely to the the main company in London. Production focus 2012 Double Negatives most challenging part in 2012 was to create lava bombs and pyroclatic ashes at yellowstone.The solution to this issue was to use pre simulated ashes and then importing it to the shot.The individual simulations were build in fluid dynamics.After much testing and running simulations they were able to simulate pyroclatic ashes in different sizes and shapes.The size were varying from a football to the size of a four story building. (Above)pyroclatic ashes varying from different sizes. Later stages they build lightweight rig in maya for the timing and placement of lava bombs.Once things was finalised the scene files exported to houdini were all the softbody,rigidbody simulations of lava bombs was solved.which included the impacting,soil and bedrock layers. (Above)lava bombscollision on the ground In Houdini the artists will analyze the trajectory and direction of each lava bombs and then calculate the point of impact.Later they run a lot of test simulations till they acheive what they wanted.And then as the lava bombs collides with the ground surface the ground breaks apart and throws up a lot of smoke dust and fire etc.When everything was finalised in Houdini they exported it back to maya for rendering. Pixomondo About Pixomondo was established in 2001 by CEO and executive producer Thilo kuther. Pixomondo is an international visual effects studio which has branches all over Europe.They have a global network of studio in :Berlin,Stuggart,Frankfurt,Munich,Shangahi,London and they recently opened up a studio in Los angeles.Pixomondo have positioned themselves on the frontier of the changing visual effects world.They have efficent and collaborative workflow across different time zones which established 247 production cycle.The studio offers supervision and production of : Cg character creation 3d animation and previsualisation of feature film Television and commercial industry. They worked recently on films like 2012 and Ninja assasin. Production focus 2012 The intense amount of destruction filmed in 2012 is the reflection of intense amount of previews the studio has worked.These preview was not just a helping hand in the production and post-production phase it was equally important for the story telling phase.The previews also served the assistant directors for setting up lighting , camera positioning and many other technical issues.It widley helped the director to revision his ideas. Vfx supervisor Rainer Gombus worked closely with director from october 2008 with the previews.This team consist of a group of highly talent lead animation artist,lead visual effects artist ,producer and executive producer Thilo kuther.Work was seperated among the global studios under Pixomondo. They had to provide previews that satisfied sony pictures and which helps the film makers to enhance their production pipeline.Almost all the previews had water,fire,smoke etc..In some cases they were creating detailed number of differnt shots from different angles when storyboards didnt exsist. Digital Domain About Digital Domain was established in 1993 by film industry.The studio has done a lot of contribution to the film industry over the past decade and are still on the process of acheiving it in th future.They have worked on many award winning films like : Titanic Curious case of Benjamin Button 2012 The studio received three Academy awards for visual effects and four other awards for scientific and technical achievement. Production focus 2012 (Above)plane escape shot Digital Domain was paired with Pixomondo to create the previews of plane escape shot from Los Angeles.Working on the camera moves,massive destruction and blocking out the rest. While Pixomondo was working on the previews the vfx supervisor of DD started working on the preproduction , focusing on blue screen shots.The DD office in california started working with rd.They consisted of 150 artists and programers who started working from August 2008 and it lasted till July 2009. Shot describtion The hero comes to resuce his children ,his ex wife and her newly met boyfriend.As the plane try to take off an earthquake occours creating a huge crack in the ground and try to suck the plane into it.But the hero manges to pull up from the pressure and manges to move around the collapsing city and finally escapes through the sea. (Above) ground crack Production One of the shots at which the DD had to work was the plane lift up shot.Majority of the footage was live action excluding the cg buildings and the road.The trees was done later procedurally.The footage was compiled with large number of photographs and merging them together,they had to model each single houses, buildings and other geometry.They hired a helicopter and continuelsy shot the footage,which was later merged in the actual shots. The runway set was made out of plywood framed platform with cylinders toped under it.A tarmic type texture was applied to it ,to give a more realistic look.The construction helped the technichians to squash, stretch and flex the runway. Ground cracking and debris was acheived through 2d tracking which required a lot of detailed paint works. Simulating these sequnces from scratch would be impossible.so they developed a library system and started modelling chunks of ravine   each about 100 yards long, then layers and layers of rocks,debris and small simulated particles and volumentics on top of that.Each section of the collapse scene ran around 400 frames and each of them can be repeated as they wanted.This process allowed enough control for the artist to control where the wall would collapse and the number of frames it will take.When they finalised the shots its time to render it out. All the shots was renderd out in Renderman.Since the sequnce was during day it required straight forward HDRI lighting.Each shot had around 30-40 render passes.All these was composited in Nuke. Chapter 7 Emerging technology Next limit Realflow 5 Realflow 4 is a stand alone 3d simulation software which supports fluid simulation, such as water,rigid body,meshes and gaseous substances.The software is developed by Nextlimit technologies.The creator recieved an award from motion pictures of arts and science for the creation of Realflow in 2007. Realflow is based on particle simulation.It completly depends upon the physical properties to interact with each other and creates realistic aceleration,forces and impulses.These particles can be influenced by point based nodes known as daemons,which is a powerfull tool that can simulate the motion of gravity,twister and tsunami. Running platforms Works both in 32 and 64 bits. Works on various operating systems Compaitable with 3d studio max,Autodesk maya,Cinema 4d,Xsi and lightwave. Whats new in Realflow 5 At Siggraph 2009 Nextlimit played a demo version of Realflow 5.Here are some cool new features that will be available in version 5. Particle based fluid simulation When comparing version 4 with version 5 , the version 5 can simulate much faster when using particle based solver. Hybrid based fluid solver This new feature lets you simulate medium to large scale fluids.The solver has the ability to detect those areas that need more resolution and it will automatically generate particles in those areas. New and updated plugins Nextlimit added up a new plugin for Houdini,Lightwave and Xsi.The plugins for Maya and 3dMax is also updated. Script udated Realflow works on Pyhton scripting.The new C++ sdk script opens up different variations in simulating and helps in pipeline integration. New dynamic engine for softbody and rigidbody This new engine is developed from scratch and it is completly multithreaded.It has a new level of physical accuracy. Licence scheme updated Like the previos versions of real flow version 5 dosent depend on cpu,it will be licensed by machine.

Humorous Wedding Speech by an Old Friend of the Groom :: Wedding Toasts Roasts Speeches

Humorous Wedding Speech by an Old Friend of the Groom Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen Let me first say that the bridesmaids look absolutely smashing today, and only rightly outshone by our bride, Pamela. And, I'm sure you'll agree with me gentlemen, today is a sad day for single men, as another beauty leaves the available list. And ladies, I'm sure you'll agree that today's passing by without much of a ripple. I've known Robert for the best part of twenty years and of course there are plenty of things I could tell you about what we got up to in our younger days. Unfortunately, I did consult my solicitor and he tells me that we could still face prosecution, so maybe I’ll keep things to a minimum†¦ and talk only about Robert’s positive attributes. And from time to time, Robert does exhibit some outstanding qualities of character which have earned the respect of so many of us gathered here today. He is generous to a fault – especially if it’s his own. He is exceptionally modest – although he has plenty to be modest about (or at least he did until Pamela became his girlfriend). And he is a man who always sticks by his convictions - he will remain in the wrong no matter how much he gets ridiculed for it. But perhaps Robert’s most enduring quality is his artful pillory of those about him. When on form, his wisecracks at the expense of others can be as withering to the subject as they are amusing to everyone else. Take the incident earlier today when he asked the vicar (preacher), ‘Do you charge for taking a church service?’ ‘Not a penny’ he replied. ‘From what I saw this morning, you’ve got it spot on!’ I am convinced Robert’s personality and sense of fun resulted from the games his dad played with him as a kid. He used to throw him in the air – and walk away. Needless to say, another good thing about Robert is that he can take a joke as well as. Mind you, so can Pamela, because she's taken Robert. Having been a first-hand observer of Robert for a long time I’ve seen other desirable virtues begin to emerge in him. He’s become quite entrepreneurial, and as a close friend of his I’ve been drawn into many of his wild schemes as an unwilling ally.