technology behind the site: My Virtual Model

Hi There,

I was just wondering if anyone is familiar with the site My Virtual Model. Some friends of mine are thinking of starting a similar site. They are not tech guys so they came to me for advice. I have some experience in website design, but don't know much about 3D modeling. I am hoping maybe someone here can help me. Okay, here are my quesitions:

. There are quite a few tools to create 3D models, such as 3D Max and Maya. Which is the right one for the site? Maybe there are some other better choices?

. The other thing that bothers me is the performance. We would like the site to be loaded as fast as possible and as browser-independent as possible. I am not sure if using flash is a good choice, which requires visitors to download a plugin. Or use an applet or just a javascript popup or something else?

. Another thing is about the database behind the site. Parameters of the 3D Models are saved in the database. What would be a better choice for the site? ASP/SQL, PHP/MYSQL or JSP?

. The parameters can be created real time by the users and the parameters are saved at the same time. It can also be pre-stored in the database, the user just load the right parameters from the database when they creat their own models. Which is a good choice?

Hopefully this is the right board for the questions.

Thanks a lot for the help,

shenbo

[edited by: lorax at 5:40 pm (utc) on Nov. 21, 2005]
[edit reason] No URLs please - see TOS and Charter [/edit]