My company has become interested in displaying their product models on the web, & I am unsure as to how or what I need to do to achieve this for them.  Below is a link to one of the models that they like, & I would welcome any constructive input or thoughts as to how this was accomplished.

http://www.acura.com/FutureVehiclesFlash.aspx#/FutureVehiclesZDX
After linking to the site, skip the intro & goto the “Exteriors” section so that the model can be rotated via the left mouse button.

Basically I think this might have been done in something like QTVR, but I have no idea on how or where to start.  It seems like I remember there being a lot of problems between QTVR & a x64 OS; either way, I’m using 3ds Max Design 2010, & I have both XP64 & Vista64.  The scene setup is not really the problem for me because I have an understanding of that, but I really have no idea(s) on how or what to incorporate with Max to achieve this.  If someone can get me started in the right direction I would be very grateful.

Chris Robinson
http://www.supercoonstudios.com (Under Development)
3ds Max 2011
Dell Precision 690, Intel Xeon Dual Quads @ 2.66 GHz, Dual NVIDIA Quadro FX4500s, 12 GB RAM, Windonws 7 x64

One way of doing this would be to render your frames in Max (just 36 in the example I think) then import these into Flash. Add a small amount of actionscript to allow the mouse to scrub backwards & forwards through the frames and you’re done.

Max 2008, 2009, 2010
XP Pro 32 SP2
Xeon quad E5345 2.33Ghz
4Gb ram
Quadro FX 4600

That site does exactly what James says - it’s a series of still renders, with Flash scrubbing through them as you drag your mouse. Nothing to do with Max or plugins - you just export your renders and put one on each frame of the Flash timeline, then add an Actionscript to do 1-frame GotoAndStop() functions in response to the change in mouse position between timer events.

It’s a gimmick that the marketing people like, but the reason not to use the 3D model (aside from Flash 10 not being able to… you’ll have to wait for full 3D in Flash..) is to avoid anyone being able to steal the 3D data. Auto companies are paranoid about their design rights, and never publish CAD data online even if it’s embedded in something.

If you want to set up the renders quickly, use a target camera in your Max scene, keyframe-animate the camera’s orbit over your 30-odd frames (make sure it’s a linear curve) and let it render them out to an image sequence - remember not to do a full rotation so you don’t get a duplicate frame at the end.

:: UVSAR :: Dave Merchant :: Adobe Community Professional ::

First off let me say thanks to both of you for your replies & assistance in this matter; although, I’m still a little confused on one aspect of the example web site I gave.  Basically I can see the rendered animation working in Flash just as both of you described, but the part that confuses me & led me to believe it was something other than Flash is this:

if or when one clicks the left mouse button to rotate the car (play the animation backwards or forward) it does not stop, it will just keep spinning in whatever direction he or she is dragging the mouse.

Assuredly I’m no Flash expert, or novice for that matter, but basically I just provide the 3D models, designs, renders, & animations here at my company; basically, I am dependent upon others to do the Flash work.  However I guess I can see where it may be possible to somehow get Flash to allow the animation to be put into a loop in either direction, but again, I must ask you guys because this is not my area knowledge.

Chris Robinson
http://www.supercoonstudios.com (Under Development)
3ds Max 2011
Dell Precision 690, Intel Xeon Dual Quads @ 2.66 GHz, Dual NVIDIA Quadro FX4500s, 12 GB RAM, Windonws 7 x64

Not sure if I understand your question. It works like a zoetrope, when the mouse action scrubs through to the last frame it then returns to the first frame and so creates the loop.

Max 2008, 2009, 2010
XP Pro 32 SP2
Xeon quad E5345 2.33Ghz
4Gb ram
Quadro FX 4600

I guess what I’m asking is this, is it possible to have Flash keep playing (via mouse scrub) the animation in “forward” or “reverse” without stopping at an endpoint & having to go back the other direction?

Chris Robinson
http://www.supercoonstudios.com (Under Development)
3ds Max 2011
Dell Precision 690, Intel Xeon Dual Quads @ 2.66 GHz, Dual NVIDIA Quadro FX4500s, 12 GB RAM, Windonws 7 x64

Yes it is - the normal way to achieve it is to create a variable for the speed of rotation, which is controlled by the mouse drag to be a +ve or -ve number. A timer event fires in the Actionscript, that adds the speed to the current frame number to decide if it’s moving forward or not, and how quickly. You can either let it carry on forver, or gradually reduce the speed variable over time so the spinning slows down gradually.

DMAXMAN 19 November 2009 05:44 PM

I guess what I’m asking is this, is it possible to
have Flash keep playing (via mouse scrub) the animation in “forward” or “reverse” without stopping at an endpoint & having to go back the other direction?

:: UVSAR :: Dave Merchant :: Adobe Community Professional ::

Cool, I guess I only have one last question:  Being that no one here at my company posses the required Flash skills, where do I need to go to learn how to achieve this?  Basically, where should I start digging within Flash?

Chris Robinson
http://www.supercoonstudios.com (Under Development)
3ds Max 2011
Dell Precision 690, Intel Xeon Dual Quads @ 2.66 GHz, Dual NVIDIA Quadro FX4500s, 12 GB RAM, Windonws 7 x64