This is a detailed explanation I gave as to why things like propellers, when rotated appear to move backwards. Over a decade ago while I was producing animation for NASA General Aviation, I discovered the reason for this phenomena. At one point I think I posted this to a couple of mailing lists, but this reply comes from the Max list. It had been reposted by another list member at the link http://www.nordwest.net/Adger/tips/tip085.html for over a decade until Adger's site went silent in the past year.

A long time ago when I was using 3D Studio Max frequently, I wrote this as a series of responses to a Max mailing list thread. The premise of the original post had to do with the value of Max in a world where SGI and SGI applications still reigned supreme. This is a compilation of the responses I provided to that conversation. Adger, a max mailing list contributor was thoughtful enough to extract them, compile them as a single article, and for a long time posted this on his website at the link http://www.nwn.de/Adger/tips/tip077.html. Adger's site has since disappeared, with much thanks to him for posting it all these years, I hope he is doing well. So I am reposting my reply, as posted from his site, here.

In the early days of Maya, Bryan Ewert used to put the best MEL stuff he could find on his website. His work with MEL eventually earned him an Alias Masters award. Don't know where Bryan is these days but hope he is doing well. Bryan credited me here for a discovery I made in MEL when using polyListComponentConversion. Many thanks Bryan for posting this credit!.

Softimage didn't have a Separate command like the one found in Maya. So I made one! Thanks for hosting this Autodesk.

On Feb 8, 2010 I gave this presentation to the DC Siggraph Chapter by invitation. Many thanks to the great people at DC Siggraph and New America Foundation for this opportunity.

So on this site there is not much to see, but if you scroll to the listing 5th from the bottom, alas it is me. Was so very cool to get to hang out with so many talented people for an afternoon. Many thanks to NASA and Siggraph for this opportunity.

While this really doesn't have much to do with CGI, it is relevant to graphics in general so I felt it is appropriate here. Several years ago there was a conversation on NASAWATCH about the NASA logos(Meatball and Worm) that I contributed too. The 19th comment to that article was mine. As a teenager one of my dreams was to design a new logo for NASA. I designed several concepts before I got to college. The NASAWATCH article has since lost its comment history but the comment is still available at this link on NASASPACEFLIGHT.COM. My comment to the original article was an effort to give a critical analysis of the two logos and their value as graphics elements, and why both had relevance at NASA during a time when possession of a Worm logo at NASA was considered a good reason to have someone arrive at your cubicle and blot the poor little logo out with a black permament magic marker. I know you're curious at this point, you're saying to yourself "I see that logo in Hollywood movies all the time", but there isn't the time to explain. Its one of those things you just had to be there to experience. If you don't believe me, just try finding a worm logo on any NASA center, I dare ya.