Flash Speaks Actionscript

Looking to keep busy this week?  Mad Vertices has just begun it’s first Papervision3D contest.  The goal of this contest is to create a soccer ball using Papervision3D.

As with every contest, there are prizes involved and they are:

1st Place: Swift 3D v5 (Provided by Erain.com)
2nd Place: $75 Amazon.com Gift Card
3rd Place: $25 Amazon.com Gift Card

It is always fun when there are prizes involved but I think getting the exposure would be great for any aspiring Flash/Papervision3D developer.  I’d be interested to know if you or someone you know enters this contest.  Have fun!

For more information on this contest, head over to Mad Vertices blog.

The 3D Tunnel Flash component allows you to display images within an interactive 3D tunnel. End users can zoom in and out of the tunnel and rotate it. Clicking on thumbnails loads corresponding large images with a choice of animation styles and easing. Custom actions can also be triggered when clicking on or rolling over images, for example, titles and descriptions can be displayed for the images or a URL can open on click. Powered by PaperVision3D and available for ActionScript 3.0.

Key features include:

• Adjustable perspective to show more or less depth of field
• Adjustable number of sides and spacing
• Customizable animation settings with choice of easing effects
• Mouse wheel and keyboard zoom
• Customizable animation settings
• Mouse and keyboard interactivity
• Skinnable preloaders
• Built-in ActionScript events

Preview 3D Tunnel

As 3D Flash sites continue to hit mainstream, determining when, how, and where to use it becomes even more of a challenge.  As a Flash/Flex developer or designer it’s pretty easy to get carried away with creating 3D Flash sites for the sake of creating a 3D Flash site.

In this article,  Airtight Interactive will describe some of the technical constraints to be aware of when building 3D Flash sites, then will give examples of recent sites that they are doing 3D right.

What is 3D Spiral?

Flashloaded presents a new innovative Flash component called 3D Spiral.  The 3D Spiral is a Flash gallery component that displays images on an interactive 3D rotating spiral using the Papervision3D engine.

Features to be expected of 3D Spiral are:

• Customizable height, width and spacing
• Control what images are loaded via XML or ActionScript
• Double sided thumbnail view
• Customize how the thumbnails animate on
• Mouse and keyboard interactivity
• Built-in skinnable scrollbar and preloader
• many more…

Examples of 3D Spiral in Action:

Wide Spiral Rotating On Fixed Axis With Scrollbar

Spiral Rotating On Fixed Axis With Scrollbar

Tall Spiral With Free Mouse Movement

What is Pv3DDebug?

Do you frequently use Papervision3D?  Well, if you said yes, then I am sure you are aware of the daunting task of debugging your Papervision3D applications.  Now those tasks can easily tackled using a pretty neat tool created by Jason Bejot called PV3DDebug.  PV3DDebug is a debug console to be used with your Papervision3D applications.

PV3DDebug comes equip with many tools like:

• Displaying all render stats (i.e. Triangles, Render Time, Particles, Filtered Objects, etc.)
• Displaying system stats (i.e. FPS, Average FPS, Current Memory Use, Max Memory Use, Run Time, etc.)
• Displaying camera properties
• Allowing you to switch between multiple cameras
• Allowing you to adjust camera properties
• Ability to turn on/off individual stat windows

Additional Resources:

PARK.seasons is a creative Papervision3D experiment created by Den Ivanov. Check it out!  You can use the mouse, mouse wheel, and keyboard controls to interactive with this neat Papervision3D toy.

Looking for some fresh examples of using PaperVision3D GreatWhite?  Dehash.com has put together a great list of Papervison3D GreatWhite examples. All examples include source code and running swfs.  Below are snapshots of 7 of the 18 examples you’ll find at Dehash.com.

One other thing, the source code is released as open source under the BSD License which is an open license with few restrictions.

Lines3D Example

Simple ParticleField Example

InteractiveScene3DEvent Example

Two Sided Plane Example

Blender Collada DAE Example

Rotating Cylinder Example

AS3DMod Sandbox Example

Coverflow and Papervision3D hook up to create IgalleryX.  IgalleryX is a gallery that displays a stack of multiple photos, swfs, or videos with a reflection and perspective effect.  All photos can be accessed by a skinnable scrollbar, mouse click or flipping by mouse wheel.  Not only is this XML driven menu very robust, but with the integration of Papervison3D  it is also pretty fast.

Features to be expected of IgalleryX:

Extended Content Viewing With Desciption

Skinnable Scollbar

Support for Video, Images, and SWF Files

Additional Features:

• Fullscreen Support
• CSS + XML Driven
• Customize Reflection with 7 Parameters
• Many more…

Additional Resources:

• Preview this file
• More components from creator
• Download Papervision3D

Papervision3D is presenting an opportunity that will allow all Papervision3D users the ability to put their skills to the test.  It is called PaperKing3D.  The only really restriction of this contest is that it needs to involve the Papervision3D engine and the project must be open-source.

If you are able to convince the judges that your work is among the best not only will you impress the developers of Papervision3D and its community, but there will also be prizes for 1st and 2nd place winners.

Winner of 1st place will receive an Adobe Creative Suite Master collection.

The 2nd place winner will receive a copy of FDT Enterprise Edition.

These prizes should definitely drive the competitiveness of this competition through the roof.  The deadline for the PaperKing3D Competition is August 15th, 2008.  To enter a submission, email a zipped file to pv3dcontest_at_gmail_dot_com.

ImageWorld3D is an interactive 3D picture gallery environment, which makes use of the newest breathtaking web technologies around. Based on the most popular ActionScript 3.0 Classes such as Papervision3D, Tweener and many more, the customizable options of this 3D environment are simply amazing. ImageWorld3D is ready to use out of the box. No need for programming skills.

Preview

Features Include:

• Easy to setup with a XML settings file.
• Create unlimited camera perspective effects with your own settings.
• 4 how to camera settings included.
• More than 40 other customizable options.
• Full 3D space handling with mouse on all axis
• Switch between 3D viewmode or 2D flat viewmode instantly
• And many more

Papervision3D has taken the industry by storm and great content is being created from it all.  Other galleries that revolve around this concept are 3D Sphere, 3D Curve, 3D Pic Tail, and 3D Wall.  Enjoy!