Datasheet

XAML is the Extensible Application Markup Language, an XML-based standard devel-

oped by Microsoft to define media-rich user interfaces for Windows XP or Vista applica-

tions and Web applications. User interfaces designed with XAML can take full advantage of Windows

Vista’s rich media presentation capabilities, while remaining completely separate from the rest of the

application code. This simultaneous separation and integration makes it easy for designers to work on

their own with XAML-generating tools such as Blend to develop highly functional graphical user inter-

faces. Programmers can then quickly integrate these interfaces with Web application code or

Windows application code that they create by using, for example, Visual Studio development tools

(including Visual Basic, Visual C#, and so on).

XML

is the Extensible Markup Language, which is increasingly used for creating common information

formats that can be used to share data between computers on the World Wide Web and elsewhere.

XML is similar to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the standard language used by Web pages, but

unlike HTML it can be easily extended to create new information formats. Like HTML, XML is a stan-

dard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, which is led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor

of the World Wide Web.

You can also import 3D objects from any program that exports an OBJ file, which is a commonly

used 3D file format. For example, in Figure 1.5, the text on the right is wrapped onto a sphere

imported from an OBJ file created in Blender 3D (

www.blender.org). The 3D animation on the

left in Figure 1.5 was created in Zam 3D and imported into Blend.

Blend also lets you position 3D lights, move 3D objects in 3D space, add materials to 3D objects,

and more. It can even animate already existing 3D animations — for example, you can import a

rotating 3D object from Zam 3D and then create a fly-by animation of it in Blend.

For more about using 3D models and animating in Blend, see Chapters 12 and 14.

FIGURE 1.5

A rotating 3D object created in Zam 3D on the left and a 3D sphere with text mapped on it on the right.

CROSS-REF

NOTE

Exploring New User Interface Techniques

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