[Pro] 360 Degree Rotating Image

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1

Anyone had any experience using spinning images on the web something like this . . .

http://www.spinimagedv.com/gallery1/carb/index.php

I have a job that needs something similar. I would like to use still images of reasonable quality to create similar 360 degree rotatable images of some products. Nothing too expensive!

Trev

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2

Anyone had any experience using spinning images on the web

Heh. Yep. I used to do these as QuickTime VR object movies, but these
days Flash object movies are the way forward. You can do it (bodge
it) with a ‘lazy susan’ turntable but to do this really well takes a
proper object turntable plus studio lighting and backdrops. If you’re
in or near London I’d be happy to talk offlist about doing this.

k

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3

Thanks for your reply Keith. Sorry i’m in Northern Ireland.
I need to be able to produce this myself and found this on the web

http://www.yofla.com/flash/3d-rotate/

this is a free download and looks like what I want.
It has a cofig utility (PC only) that will create all the required files in a .zip file.
This is the easy part - what I can’t get it to do is play it within my freeway page. The instructions as to how to embed into the web page are not too clear.
Would anyone be kind enough to help me through the process of making this work on a 5 Pro Page?

Thanks

Trev

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4

Is the result a single Flash movie, or a “controller” movie and a
folder full of still images elsewhere?

Walter

On Apr 7, 2009, at 12:03 PM, t50ufo wrote:

Thanks for your reply Keith. Sorry i’m in Northern Ireland.
I need to be able to produce this myself and found this on the web

http://www.yofla.com/flash/3d-rotate/

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5

Hi Walter

The config utility produces a zip file when I expand there is a file “config.xml” and a folder “images” containing the test jpeg files I have used. Here is an extract from the Manual:

  1. Get the Images.
    You need the images of the object you want to present. For a smooth animation at least 72
    images are required (one image for every 5 degrees of a full 360 degree turn). If you are not sure
    how to do it, check the “Getting the Images” chapter. Put the images in a single folder.
    Note: Currently only JPG, PNG and GIF images are supported.
  2. Run the free config utility.
    Note: Currently only Windows version is available If you don’t use Windows or do not want to use the config utility,
    move to step 2.b
    Note: The config utilty is designed for 3D Rotate Pro, so it contains the UI customisation settings which can not be
    used with 3D Rotate Flexi. Just ignore that options.
    » Press “Choose Directory” button and select the directory with the images you have prepared in
    step 1. The images will load and appear in the right panel of the tool.
    » To keep this walk-through simple, leave the “Output” option set to Single File (zip). For more
    information on this option see the chapter “ZIP vs. XML+Images”.
    » You don’t need to modify any of the parameters now. They are set to defaults and will provide a
    working setup. If you feel you want them edit now, you take a look on the chapter "
    XML file explained" where all the options are described.
    » Pres the “Save” button and choose location to save the datafile. Give a datafile a custom name
    if you like, e.g. product007.zip.
  3. Embed in html page
    Now you have your zip file ready and all you need is embed the swf into your webpage and set the
    flashvar paramater “dataFile” to the path to your created datafile.
    If you have stored your datafile in e.g. www.example.com/products/product007.zip, set the
    flashVar as follows: dataFile=/products/product007.zip.

Also from a file: embedding into a web page, this:

HTML Code
I have used this code to display the above example. To change the size of the player, just change the 400,300 values (in JS code and in inline CSS sytles).

Detecting Flash

If this is of any help.

Trev

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6

Upload your site to your server. Use an FTP application like Transmit
to put the entire images folder and the xml file into your Resources
folder (assuming you only have one). Back in Freeway, draw an HTML box
to hold your Flash element, and drag it in. With the HTML box still
selected, Shift-Command-D to scale the box to fit its contents. Then
Apple-Option-X to open the Extended dialog. Click on the Embed
segment, and then New. Enter dataFile in the Name field, and
whatever.xml in the Value field. (change that value to match what you
called yours). Upload again, and it should work.

Walter

On Apr 7, 2009, at 12:53 PM, t50ufo wrote:

The config utility produces a zip file when I expand there is a file
“config.xml” and a folder “images” containing the test jpeg files I
have used. Here is an extract from the Manual:

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7

Hi Walter

Sorry, you say “draw an HTML box to hold your Flash element, and drag it in”
What am I dragging into this box please?

T

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8

all you need is embed the swf

It is the swf file that goes in the HTML box - the blurb suggests that there is one

D

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9

The Flash movie, from the Finder, into Freeway. If you like, you can
also use File / Import from the main menu to do the same thing.
Navigate to the Flash file generated by your widget, and place it on
the page just like any other (noisy) picture.

Once you have the Flash movie on the page, move it where you would
like it to appear, and resize the container object (the HTML box) that
you created so that it fits exactly.

Freeway allows you to place nearly any sort of media object on your
page with pixel accuracy. It’s remarkably ambivalent about what sort
of object that might be. For a funny example of this, drag a Photoshop
document into an HTML box (so it’s forced to be a pass-through image)
and preview it or preview it in Safari – it Just Works. (Of course no
other browser on earth can view a PSD inline like this, especially not
IE!)

Walter

On Apr 7, 2009, at 1:48 PM, t50ufo wrote:

Hi Walter

Sorry, you say “draw an HTML box to hold your Flash element, and
drag it in”
What am I dragging into this box please?

T

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10

Sometime around 7/4/09 (at 12:03 -0400) t50ufo said:

Thanks for your reply Keith. Sorry i’m in Northern Ireland.

Never mind, I can still offer advice from afar. :slight_smile:

Have you tried taking the photos yet? Do use a turntable of some
sort, even if just a cheap lazy susan kitchen thing. Mark the edge in
10 degree steps (a 36-shot object movie gives a fairly smooth result)
and try that.

Challenges include lighting the object so that it doesn’t produce
glaring reflections in one of the viewing angles, and doing
everything in a way that makes it reasonably easy to paint out the
turntable and the background from each shot in Photoshop.

Single-row object movies are not actually hard to do, although they
can take time to post-process. Multi-row object movies can be more
challenging as you need to figure out how to either tilt the object
or lift/lower the camera.

It has a cofig utility (PC only) that will create all the required
files in a .zip file.

I strongly recommend looking at
http://gardengnomesoftware.com/object2vr.php - this should do
everything you want and without any silly PC config tool
requirements. Also, the developer is (a) on the ball and (b) a nice
guy.

It makes an object ‘movie’ as a single SWF file, so all you have to
do is drop the file it generates into your Freeway page. Job done:
THAT is actually the easiest part. :slight_smile:

k

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11

First Hi Walter

The cofig thingy has not created any flash file only the config.xml and the flolder of images. Obviously there must be a load of stuff to do still with Flash. Way over my head.

Keith

Looked at that site - that is spot on - well worth the money and a lot easier too.

I will download a trial to get the feel of it first.

Thanks to all for your time.

Trev

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