Can I create a 3D carousel for the web from models in 3ds max? Example included

Is it possible/what is the easiest way to take 3D model from max and create a Flash or Javascript carousel that can work on the web? It should function like a real world CD carousel with say 100 or so models built in.

(http://www.thechiplab.com/stacks/Untitled-2.jpg)

Buttons on each side scroll through the chips. Thanks so much for looking at my question. This is my first one and I didn't see any similar questions asked. Sorry 开发者_开发知识库for not embedding the image...it wouldn't let me because this is my first post.

Chase

For working with 3D graphics in Flash you can use a library like Away3D or Papervision3D (the latter used to be the main one, but the former seems to have more momentum these days.)

Away3D will get hardware acceleration once that is available in the next version of Flash, but for now the complexity of your graphics will be limited by the software renderers. As a result, I don't know if a 100 disc carousel is really feasible.

Another option for doing web 3D is WebGL (already mentioned) but that's not supported in every browser yet (if ever, darn IE.)

Yet another option is using Unity. Their plugin will work in more browsers than WebGL, but is not installed as widely (or rather WebGL doesn't require any plugin.)

The specific file format you would use varies with each platform/engine, but the most common file format for web 3D is Collada. The best Collada exporter for 3ds Max is at http://www.opencollada.org

I'll just add this to @jhocking's (correct) answer:

I've used this asConverter max script to convert 3dsmax models into native Flash AS3 classes on a few different projects. Whats nice is that it exports to / extends native classes (extending the TriangleMesh3D Papervision class, for example). This way, you manage to bypass some of the issues you run into when exporting models out of 3dsmax. I've found it to produced quite reliable results - well formed geometry, and good uvw maps. It has support for PV3d, Away3d, and Sandy.

It looks like a defunct project now, but it was reworked by Mr. Doob at some point.

btw @jhocking: did you know Unity is going to support AS3 / export to SWF in the "near future" (when molehill releases, I assume)? Unity is an amazing application, and export to SWF would be... great.

You can certainly do this with Flash, but it is also doable with WebGL in some HTML5 supported browsers.

If you haven't worked with programming/JavaScript, you could have a look at something like copperlicht. If you are interested in coding, there are plenty of good WebGL frameworks around such as:

• scenejs
• three.js
• glge
• spidergl
• canvas3d

As for the models, you'll need to export them into a format supported by webgl, for example into json objects.

Flash is of course another option, but I'll leave that option for somebody else to go into detail with.