Papervision 3D Tutorials (with Videos)

MAD VERTICES Community Forum : Launch!

Papervision 3D Core Training:
• PV3D "Setting Up" : View Examples & Source / Video
• PV3D Intro - Hello World : View Examples & Source / Video
• PV3D Material Basics : View Examples & Source
• PV3D Primitives : View Examples & Source / Video (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
• PV3D Text : View Examples, Source & Custom Font Implementation (*NEW*)
• Swift 3D & PV3D : View Examples & Source
• PV3D Collada (DAE Files) : View Examples & Source
• PV3D Object Properties & Interactivity : View Examples & Source
• BasicView Overview : View
• PV3D Development in Flex (Part 1) : View Video (*NEW*)
• PV3D Development in Flex (Part 2) : View Video (*NEW*)

Advanced Materials
• Applying Shader Materials : View Examples & Source
• Applying Shaders w/ ShadedMaterial : View Examples & Source
• Shaders w/ ShadedMaterial Explained : View Example, Source & Diagram (*NEW*)

Effects, Filters & Modifiers
• Casting Shadows : View Examples & Source
• Apply filters to objects within your scene : View Examples & Source
• Applying Modifiers : View Examples & Source

Animation
• Animation using Tweener : View Examples & Source
• Animations w/ Bezier Curves: View
• Animated DAE Files (ASCollada): View

Exercises:
• Interactive Objects Video Exercise: View
• Displaying Collada Files Exercise (built with Swift 3D): View

Random Tips & Info:
• ecodazoo-ish Object Controls: View (*NEW*)
• lookAt, point objects at other objects, etc: View
• hitTestObject, simple method for hit detection: View
• distanceTo, calculate distance between objects = very cool uses: View
• Update materials at runtime: View
• Loading External .SWF Files as Materials: View

Swift 3D Support:
• Swift 3D & Papervision Basics / Overview: View / Video
• DAE File Viewer (Pre-coded, just plug in. Has pre-build controls as well): View
• Apply WireframeMaterial(s) to your Model (Easy mod of ERMain.as): View

Flash on Android

http://www.insideria.com/2009/06/flash-on-android.html <-- Hell Yeah!

I've always been a believer in the Android platform. I've done basic training for developing applications on Android. And look forward to building full on applications on the various Android supported phones.

I'm sure there are some of you out there that were crossing their fingers (just like me) and hoping that Flash would eventually be supported on Android. As far as I know, it isn't officially supported on Android but Adobe is making it possible for them to make it a reality. Plus, I wouldn't think that Adobe would build it out if they didn't have plans with Google to do so.

Flex 3 + Vista 64 bit = :-(

So I bought this nice, bad ass new computer. Cool, shiny, powerful, etc... I installed Flex and at first glance everything was looking great. But then I went to the Build Path dialog and the tabs are not showing. Strange... I did some searching around and it seems there are a number of people having this problem, along with a few other related issues.

From what I gather, there is no fix for this problem. Seriously? As you can imagine, I'm really freaked out and disappointed with this problem. Does anyone know of a fix/solution for this?

Swiftdev.com Speed Modeling Contest

I've been assisting in moderating Swiftdev's Speed Modeling Contest (SMC) for quite some time now (3+ years). These contests aren't about winning prizes but are more about community, friendly competition and learning. The SMC is a competition of how fast you can model something under a specific theme using Swift 3D.

I've watched people that were complete novices jump in on every weekly SMC contest for two months straight and saw them transition into an intermediate level of 3D modeling. In my opinion, 3D modeling is very much an art form (more so than knowing how to use an application). As with art, practice makes perfect, the more you jump in and model something new the better you become. And the SMC's are a perfect outlet for this.

So, without further delay and/or preaching from me, our current SMC (contest number 122) is up and running. The subject is 'Video Games', the time limit is 4 hours and the deadline is the 22nd. Winner gets bragging rights and gets to choose the subject for the next contest.

So, if you have the urge to learn 3D, or just want spread your wings and wipe off the dust thats been gather (on your 3D modeling talents) please feel free to jump in. It would be nice to see some new faces.

Here is the link to the current SMC on Swiftdev.com
Here is my entry :-)

ecodazoo-ish Object Controls

View Example (click and drag cylinder around)

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you most likely have seen the site http://www.ecodazoo.com/. I'm sure we're all agree that its one of the most well executed 3D websites on the internet today.

A member on the MAD VERTICES forum wanted to recreate that type of 'control' for a project he was working on (forum member knalle). So, between the two of us we bounced a project file back and forth until we had something closely resembling the ecodazzo site controls. Here is the project thread.

The links below (and above) demonstrate what we came up with.

When/if you jump into this file the vars and elements to note are:

bounds: determines the top/bottom range of movement for the camera

boundsBuffer: The extra distance the camera will move beyone the camera target when the bounds are reached.

cylinder: Replace the cylinder with whatever object you want to rotate around.

radius: this var will determine the distance from the object (adjust as needed).

Example: http://content.madvertices.com/content/eco.swf

Source: http://content.madvertices.com/content/eco.zip

Papervision 3D Development in Flex (Part 2)

Watch the video: click here

In Part 1 of this video series I covered how to implement Papervision within a Flex ActionScript Project. As promised (maybe a week late) this tutorial discusses how to implement Papervision within Flex using an MXML Flex Application. If you haven't watched the first video, please do so as there are various tips that aren't covered in this video.

PV3D Text Primitive

Click Here to view the example

I'd never tried to use 3D Text from within Papervision until recently. Suprisingly it was a little more difficult than I expected. One hurdle was that I wanted to use my own custom font. Little did I know I had to download a seperate swf that builds a 'motif' ActionScript file. On top of that, not all characters are supported within the motif so you have to program in which characters to are allowed (FYI, I skipped that for the most part).

In the example below I added a KeyboardEvent Listener to the stage and passed in the key (that was typed) into the 3D Text object. I set up the font 'Eurostile' to be used as my custom font. When you type, it shows your message in 3D.

To make custom font motif's:
Download the file FIVe3D_make_typograph_v2.0.zip from here: http://code.google.com/p/five3d/downloads/list

Extract the file 'Make a new typography file.swf' out of the zip and copy it to this location on your PC computer (not sure where it goes on a mac):

Settings\{USERNAME}\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS3\en\Configuration\WindowSWF

Once you have it installed, restart or open Flash. Make a new AS3 Fla File and save it somewhere. Then, from the menus select Window > Other Panels > Make new typography file.

Follow the instructions from the window that opens and when you're done hit the "Generate the typography file". It will then place an ActionScript file in the same location as where your .FLA resides.

Open the new ActionScript file and make sure that the class declaration 'extends Font3D'. So it should read:
public class MyCustomFontName extends Font3D

Paste in these additional functions:

override public function get motifs():Object{if(!__initialized)initialize();return __motifs;}override public function get widths():Object{if(!__initialized)initialize();return __widths;}override public function get height():Number{if(!__initialized)initialize();return __heightS;}

To use custom font motif's:
To use them is pretty simple. When you instantiate your Text3D object you'll need to simply create a new instance of your motif ActionScript class and pass it into the second parameter for the Text3D object, for example:

private var text:Text3D = new Text3D("Type Something...", new MyCustomFontMotif, myText3DMaterial);

Hopefully that will help you get through it. If you have troubles jump into the forum, make a post and I'll help ya troubleshoot any problems.

Example: Click Here

Flex Source: Click Here

Flash Source: Click Here //Note: You'll need to test the published .swf file for the code to function correctly (it won't work correctly if you do a 'control+enter' in flash).