3-D Animation on the Web--Right Now

By Robert Polevoi (rob@lambspring.com)

Contents

• Questions & Answers
• Creative Goals
• The Web Developer's Perspective
• Creating 3-D Animations
• Animating the Company Image
• The Final Word

Questions & Answers

You have questions? We have answers.

Question:

What is a 3-D animated loop?

Answer:

An animated sequence of bitmaps, seemlessly cycling, created with 3-D modeling and rendering software.

Question:

Why are three-D animated loops so important to web site development?

Answer:

Because they provide a compelling focus of persistent viewer attention.

Question:

How do they provide a compelling focus of persistent viewer attention?

Answer:

By magic. Seriously. The ideal 3-D web animation has a magical quality and fascinates the viewer.

Question (a BIG question):

What is the commercial value of creating a compelling focus of persistent viewer attention?

Two Answers:

If used as a logo, it establishes a memorable and pleasurable visual association with the company.

It attract viewers to important links--especially commercial advertising links, which folds into the value of the logo (as with the Microsoft Internet Explorer animated logo).

People who are seriously interested in the commercial possibilities of the Internet will take a moment to think these ideas through, because the rest of this article is more technical. We will be considering what can be done, right now, to put compelling, commercially important 3-D animated loops on web sites--with affordable tools, loading quickly enough to be practical, and functional on the widest possible range of platforms (both browser and hardware).

The subject can be approached from two sides. The web site developer approaches the subject from a certain, very sophisticated, technological perspective that takes a good deal of effort and intelligence to attain. But the 3-D animator approaches his or her craft with an equally challenging, but entirely different technological and design perspective. The perspectives of the web site developer and the 3-D animator must merge to create strong, viable 3-D animations for the Internet. At the risk of underestimating the many renaissance spirits out there, we will assume the reader is a sophisticated web developer who knows little or nothing about 3-D modeling, rendering and animation.