[thelist] 3D images

>Greetings! I have a client who is trying to understand software
technologies
>that enable the trasnformation of pictures
>to "3D" images on web pages. Like if you wanted to feature a new car, being


Well, 3D and QuickTime VR are very different beasts.  Both cool though.  

QuickTime VR is simply a panorama that can be scrolled through by the user.
Set a camera on a tripod.  Take pictures every 18 degrees or so and then the
Apple software stitches them all together.  This technology has been around
for at least 5 or 6 years with them and is very mature.  You only need the
free QuickTime viewer to view them, and they can be embedded into web pages.
You can also add links from one VR file to another to make a more immersive
tour.  The would not be a good solution for a car, but would be great for
scenes like a building interior.

3D on the other hand requires a whole different set of skills.  You cannot
simply take a 2 dimensional photo and "turn it into" a 3D file.  The process
is much more complex and usually too costly for web development.  And as
another user has pointed out, why do we really need to see a car in perfect
3 dimensions?  Excellent examples of real time 3D are the games Unreal
Tournament http://www.unrealtournament.com and Quake 3:Arena
http://quake3.com  They both require 3D acceleration hardware to be
installed in the users computer for anything other than fuzzy rendering.

Your next problem is that there is no good 3D display solution for the web.
The only real choice is Metacreations Metastream, but the quality of these
files really doesn't deliver any more value than a few flat images would (do
you need to see the bottom of that cereal box?).  And most users simply will
not tolerate the excessive download times required.  As this Metastream
technology evolves and high bandwidth can be assumed for all users, you may
have a new option.  But that wont be this year!

3D programs can be used to create elements for web design, but they are then
rendered out as still images (or movies) and dealt with on web pages in the
traditional way.  A solution might be, if you needed a dragon on your web
page, and didn't have one handy to photograph, you could build one in a 3D
program and then render out the images from the angles you need.

There is a product called Canoma that lets you use a picture or two and
create a somewhat 3D file out of it, but it is not mature enough to do
complex curves like a car.  My personal experience is that I can create much
easier by hand what Canoma does.  You can think of Canoma as sort of the
"WYSIWYG" of the 3D world.

If you want to explore 3D in greater detail, you might want to look at some
of these programs:

Lightwave - http://www.newtek.com
Electric Image - http://www.electricimage.com
3D Studio - http://www.ktx.com/3dsmaxr2/
Strata Studio Pro - http://www.strata.com
Poser/Bryce/Conoma/Metastream - http://www.metacreations.com


IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!! - I do now work for or endorse any of the products or
technologies I have mentioned in this email.  All opinions expressed are my
own and do not necessarily reflect those of the organization I work for.


> --
> 
> Christopher Orth - Webmaster
> The Casey Family Program
> -
> Desk: 206-282-7300 X 8556
> Mobile: 206-510-4465
> Text messages to: 2065104465@page.nextel.com







---------------------------------------
For unsubscribe and other options, including
the Tip Harvester and archive of TheList go to:
http://lists.evolt.org Workers of the Web, evolt !