Papervision. Wow
Balind on 17 Feb 2008 | Musings
I admit I originally didn’t see the potential of papervision. Coming from a background in 3d and illustration, I just didn’t see the value in being able to rotate around a jagged low-poly object in Flash… and I still don’t, but I now see there’s other, more creative applications for this exciting engine.
By mapping images and swf’s onto spherical or flat 3d planes, you can get some really fantastic results. With AS3 and the latest version of papervision, your imagination should be going wild. I’m going to profile a couple examples below, one using illustration and one using traditional 3d.
I had to stare at this for a little while to figure it out but basically, the 3d characters are flat image sequences containing an alpha channel, mapped onto a 3d plane. The papervision plane only rotates slightly so as not to reveal that it’s simply flat, this gives the impression to the user of being inside of and navigating a 3d world.
This is an incredibly simple yet creative use of papervision, the illustrations are mapped onto the inside of a large cylinder or sphere. Like the above example, a basic low-polygon shape used in a way that doesn’t reveal that it’s 3d. The user is able to focus on the illustration and content while navigating in a manner that gives the impression of being surrounded by the design.
Both of these examples contributed to opening my eyes to the potential creative power of papervision when used with other media’s and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
allen on 19 Feb 2008 at 8:00 pm #
the first one is actually done with away3d… but the effects are similar
http://away3d.com/category/projects-using-away3d
Alfredo on 21 Feb 2008 at 3:48 am #
Papervision 3D is starting to receive more fame lately, but I must disagree, when papervision will start getting a bit boring when we will start viewing it in many sites in the future. For now, I feel people should take advantage.
Seems like we are watching a very old cheap version of a virtual computer game.
YAPP on 22 Feb 2008 at 8:54 am #
Well, Papervision right now is in it’s infancy. Atleast we can now impliment 3D interactivity within flash; I’m sure it will only get better. The simplest use of it such as the Mello4 site I think makes the site 10x better. I’m looking forward to seeing it evolve.
felix on 05 May 2008 at 3:55 pm #
I agree - the Fifa Street 3 site is a fantastic combination of a dynamic 3D environment with pre-rendered animations. Very Slick!
Interactive Hug » temp on 19 May 2008 at 7:44 pm #
[...] man… it’s just lookin’ good. We’ve all been inspired by some of the stellar PaperVision work out there. I see a lot of opportunities to do some really interesting stuff, things that we [...]
Christian Kragh on 20 Jul 2008 at 5:26 am #
I haven’t really been introduced to Away3D - I’ve only seen some uses and development in PV3D - the outcome of apps and sites using Away3D look much better to me than those that use PV3D… Anyone used both? - Is one better than the other? But I guess that may be irrelevant since they are both developing…
Christian