Figured this was the most appropriate forum for this... I'm looking for software to present 3D presentations, or 3D animations - best interactive (pan & zoom) to put on the site. A VR 360 type of deal. It should go on my website. Not too big a file. I want functionality similar to this: http://www.demicron.com/gallery/index.html But for instance looking at the watch they have there, I don't need it 'running'. It can be a 'still' yet 3D whilst the visitor can pan/zoom etc. I don't need the real interactive stuff like opening and closing bits or moving parts. I remember trying pixaround when I got my first webcam and that allowed you to do similar stuff. I'm looking for it to be a plug-in-less applet so most people can view it. Java is fine since most people seem to allow that in their browser. And my site won't depend on this to work; it will show a normal jpg product image instead if the browser prohibits this or user opts out. It should stitch images together almost full automatic. And it shouldn't be £259 as Demicron's software is. A bit less. Does any of you have experience with these software packages? If so, which one can you recommend?
We studio360 create 3d and photographic 360 flash movies and 360 QuickTime movies, 3d object movies and first of all you need to pick a direction. 3d or photographic. Our site uses viewpoint which I wouldn’t recommend as we are phasing this out in favor of flash. Demicron is 3d rendered which requires much more production experience vs. the photographic approach for similar quality. There are several free software apps for flash objects google something like: 360 flash rotation 360 object rotations, how to create a 360 flash movie Or a couple of commercial apps like: http://www.360dof.com/3d-object-movie-viewer.html http://www.channel360.com You might consider a flash based 360 products vs. java since the install base and several other factors make flash a bit more user friendly. Best of luck,
There are several other options.. 1. 3D studio max - if you want that CGI effect. (complex) 2. Swift 3D - if you want animated 3D (simpler) 3. There is a hack in Flash, where you take 8 photos (from each corner) and play them in a row - this gives you a 3 effect, but only either horizontal or vertical. Controls can be added to it too. www.flashkit.com usually has a selection of 3D Models/ engines etc that you can use. Not exactly what you are looking for, but may help
Yeah sorry I mean a simple 3D effect. I don't have real 3D drawings of my products. This is what I need: 1) I take a bunch of picture from all angles. 2) Stitch em together in the software. 3) Save as a web applet to include on my product pages so the customer can pan and zoom and rotate to have a good look at it. Not true 3D rendering, simply an 'object view' panorama type of idea. I don't like flash so hadn't looked at that. I don't want it too labour intensive. I know it can be done as described in my 3 points above, I've done it before years ago but was just looking to find up to date, good software for it. I'll have a look at those suggested, thanks!
Take a look at this for open source, you might find an easy option in there http://www.flashkit.com/movies/3D/
Since you don't need true 3D, why not just take the pictures from different angles and put them in an animated .GIF file? Simple and requires absolutely no plugins. However you won't be able to pan or zoom. Also if you planning on using regular pictures, when zoomed they will get pixalted, unlike the 3d models on that site.
I do want the user interaction; that's the most important part IMO. It's to recreate them being physically there, in a shop touching the product and looking at it from the angles and as close up as they want. About the pixelation, using jpegs from 3 or 4 megapixel pictures should give crisp clear - yet small enough results to zoom in just nicely. I realize now how that 3d watch from demicron is vector so stays crisp infinitaley but high res jpgs should be nice enough. Will try some of the solutions mentioned.
Thought I'd pick up this old thread - Wondered if you ever implemented a solution and if so, do you still have a link?
If you are still interested, consider our 360 product viewer that does extactly what you were looking for with pan and zoom and interactive hot-spots. Beta v3 has all of this and without needing Flash which is slowly dying out anyways, so it works on iPhone or iPad for example. And there's a pretty much a full featured free version - http://www.webrotate360.com/360-product-viewer.html Also you can have two sets of images for efficient zooming - first are the small images that load quickly on page load and then the high-resolution ones that are only loaded on demand when user zooms in, but I wouldn't recommend using images for high-res zooming beyond a couple of hundred KB for a snappier user experience.