Forum Moderators: not2easy
I've been beta testing Adobe "Atmosphere" (known to we zealots as "Atmo") for 3+ years. It goes gold November 19 for about U$400. So i wanted you all to be aware of this new tool.
BTW, I'm just a beta tester, with no connection to Adobe, other than using Photoshop and GoLive. I'm also an online marketer for several of my web design/development clients and i see a lot of potential here for marketing (as well as many other fields).
Basically, Atmo has 2 parts. One is a viewer plugin that automatically installs into MSIE when a visitor to your web site clicks on a 2D image of your embedded Atmo world. The other is the authoring package or "builder". So far, only Windows and MSIE are supported.
For single visitor use, the Atmo files are just uploaded to your web server, like any others. A visitor can interact with the physics and objects of your environment, walk or fly around your (possibly animated) models (of your products, etc.), view movies, hear sounds, see animated textures on objects (fake fire, smoke, moving water, etc.). It's a bit like a web-based photorealistic game, but without so many limitations.
If you also include the URL of Adobe's free (open source) "Collaboration Server" in your world, then visitors to your Atmo world can see each other as Avatars and can chat, interact with each other physically, trade Atmo info files, etc. Thus live or automated sales reps, in-world staff meetings, training sessions and the like can happen.
Atmo is hardly the first 3D immersive world building tool (think VRML, etc.). It's the first one that works inside a popular web browser at usable speeds and with high realism, excellent lighting, full media, etc. And because it has a robust JavaScript API, it can interact with your web page in interesting ways.
Sorry if this sounds like an ad - i'm just pretty stoked on the product.
Resources:
The Adobe product page. You can download the full public beta ("Tryout") or just the MSIE viewer here:
[adobe.com...]
A typical tester enthusiast's web site and directory of early Atmo worlds and web sites you can explore:
[atmowire.com...]
My own web pages of Atmo tutorials - mostly on lighting and sound in Atmo - since i include photography and audio engineering in my interests.
[wellmadewebs.com...]
Feel free to sticky mail me if you want to know more about Adobe Atmosphere.
It's the first one that works inside a popular web browser at usable speeds and with high realism, excellent lighting, full media, etc.
I think Wild Tangent's plugin is actually the first one that fits that description:
www.wildtangent.com/default.asp?pageID=dev
But I'll be interested to try the recent Atmo.
I'm not a game developer, so have not been following the game products. My understanding though is that to get the speed needed for online games, these game products usually sacrifice other features and qualities that Atmosphere does have - which is why Atmo is not targeted at game creation.
Anyone have experience using game creation software for marketing purposes?
"Alpha Facer":
You can use 2, 2D images:
One is the normal jpg image and another is an identical, but black and white version, for an alpha channel. Wherever the second image is white, the first image will be transparent. These are quickly and easily processed into an image in the 3D environment which is programmed to always face the viewer (think of a Hollywood flat painted set).
These "facers" or "billboards" are often used for trees and such - they look a lot like 3D, but are small in file size and don't need 3D any modeling.
"2D to 3D conversion":
I have a graphics program that can take any flat object and mirror the front onto the back, creating a 3D object - based on the lighting, etc. The 3D object can then be modeled normally. This is great for flat objects like window frames, grills, heavily textured screens, ironwork, etc.
In Adobe Atmosphere itself, you make objects by combining (or subtracting) simple primitives. Not much shape detail is needed. Then you texture them by "gluing on" photos to the faces and light them. Again, depending on the product, the results can be pretty realistic, without much work - with 20% of the realism coming from the shape and 80% from the photo.
As you say, the real work comes when you want to import fully rendered models from a 3D solid modeling program. I've never used a 3D scanner. No doubt they save a lot of work, but they still leave modeling, materials, textures, UV mapping, lighting and rendering to do.
2D photos are pretty hard to beat for simplicity and cost-effectiveness.
