Papervision 3D
As a trainer, one of the questions I get a lot from beginners is “How do I do 3D in Flash?” And historically, I’ve always had to break it to them gently that there really is no inherently easy way of creating 3D illustrations and animations for Flash without shelling out a few bucks on products like Swift 3D (which I still highly recommend, by the way).
However, over the past couple of years, there’s been a new answer to that question, and if you’ve heard of Papervision 3D, then you know what that answer is. Papervision is basically an open source (that means FREE) 3D engine for ActionScript. It’s a set of classes that allow you to create and animate objects in 3D space.
The bad news is that I haven’t been able to find the time to experiment with it just yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll be sure to include you guys.
Until then, check out the Papervision home page and the Papervision Wiki, and take a look at the amazing examples of the things people are creating with it!
Also, take a look at Lee Brimelow’s new video tutorial on using Papervision.
Tags: 3D Flash, ActionScript, Papervision 3D
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March 28th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Too often, creative sites like this go over the top with animation and user interfaces - to the point where many users probably leave because it’s difficult to navigate. On top of that, some of these sites get bogged down on slower computers - which totally ruins the effect.
I’ve seen a handful of really cool Papervision3D (and other 3D engines - http://lab.mathieu-badimon.com/) sites, and I think this is one of the best yet. It’s intuitive and simple to navigate, and the animation is not only smooth- it also helps communicate/reinforce the site’s navigation.. Pretty awesome!