3D in Flash - what's the best approach?

[pinkshiro]

Hi Guys (and gals),

I am planning out a site in my head, and i've got a great idea, which involves some simple 3D

okay, here's the idea in a nutshell. The website is for a cafe. The loading bar is going to be one of those coffee cards (y'know, get 9 stamps on your card, and your 10th coffee is free type cards), and once the site has loaded, I want the coffee card to flip over and on the other side will be the company logo. The flipping the card over is the 3D part. I don't need it to be overly complex since it's a short animation - but i'd like it to look as professional as possible.

I've had no experience in 3d, but i'm intermediate level in flash & actionscript. What's the best approach for the effect I want? Should I create the animation outside of flash - i.e. swift3d? Or should I be attempting this inside of flash??

Any recommendations/thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!

[pinkshiro]

http://pixelfumes.blogspot.com/2006/07/business-card-flip-effect-class-with.html

This is close to what I want - so I may not even have to use 3D.

However, I really want to do a good job of this, so I may still go down the 3D road...so any help would be appreciated.

Edit:

http://www.flashden.net/item/paper-turn-animation/3332

Is really what i'm looking for - so i'm considering getting that file. Pretty dissapointing to have to download someone elses work - so i'm still open to suggestions regarding how this effect would be achieved.

[Dark_Raven]

I'm not too familiar with any of the online apps that pump .swf files out for you, but Flashkit.com usually has great tutorials on how to do things... you may want to check them out for some good 3d suggestions.

If you plan on using 3d in your flash movies regularly, I would definitely recommend Swift3d. It has a pretty short learning curve (I was a novice 3d modeler when I began using it), and for something like a card flipping, you could probably figure out how to accomplish the effect within an hour. It's not as complex as other 3d software (a plus and minus), but the Flash integration makes it a nice tool. However, if this card is the only 3d you plan on using, the purchase may not be justifiable.

Alternatively, have you considered using a shape or motion tween? It wouldn't work for more complicated 3d work, but you could definitely fake the card flip effect with a few keyframes, depending how comfortable you are with hand-animation.

Hope this helps!

- Dark Raven

[Scuba_Steve]

don't worry about downloading other people's work. it's not a bad thing - it's how you learn.

it's a frame-by-frame animation, so it's likely an import from something like Swift3D.

[CyanBlue]

I somehow thought that the example from the FlashDen is scripted one that you can add some other stuff in front... Maybe I was seeing it totally wrong... ;)

[Scuba_Steve]

that was the first link pinkshiro posted. it fakes the flipping though via scale & blur which isn't what i think pinkshiro is looking for.

[CyanBlue]

Oh, gotcha... :)