Flash 3D

Draft

Definition

Flash 3D referes to various attempts to create 3D objects or even scenes with Flash, e.g. with special toolkits or via ActionScript programming.

Products / Software

... that help to create 3D Flash in various ways.

Firstly you may draw things with a "normal" 3D modeling software. You then can find various ways to importe these into Flash.

Modeling tools / and engine

• FreeSpin 3D. Enables the importing of 3D Models directly into Adobe Flash as a Flash Movie Clip object. With timeline support and an Action Script interface.

• Swift 3D is a popular commercial tool ($250 on Aug. 2008) to create 3D objects and animations for Flash (and other 2D formats).
  • Swift 3D (Wikipedia entry).

• 3D Flash Animator (3dfa) is a cheap ($50) 3D Flash tool. (not tested).

ActionScript engines

• Away3D is a realtime 3D engine, i.e. and ActionScript library for Flash. Freeware (you can give donations). The website includes tutorials, a wiki, downloads and examples. It works together with Flashdevelop, a code editor for ActionScript 2/3 and other languages.
  • The FlashMagazine Flash 3D Basics article is using this library.

• PaperVision3D (PV3D) is another popular library. The website (blog) has links to tutorials on other sites.

• Sandy 3D Engine. Sandy is an intuitive and user-friendly 3D open-source library developed in Actionscript 2.0 and Actionscript 3.0 for Adobe Flash.

• WireEngine3D is a lightweight, free (GPL) and fast 3D Engine for Flash 8/9.

• Alternative Platform. An SWC library for 3D-scenes in Flash. Authoring tools and a client-server solution will be available later (aug 2008)

ActionScript editors

Since all the free ActionScript engines imply that you have to code ActionScript, you may consider using a good editor/IDE.

See Flash_ActionScript 3 overview for some suggestions.

Links

Overviews

• 3D Flash (only a stub in aug 2008).

Tutorials

(none tested or endorsed for far ...)

General

• Flash 3D Tutorials Index from Steve's Tutes site.

• Macromedia Flash 3D Tutorials

Away3D related

• Flash 3D basics(Flashmagazine.com).

PaperVision 3D

• Papervision 3D Tutorials and Papervision3D Tutorials in Flex3

Some free 3d objects

• Flash3D.org. See "Games and Free stuff".

Examples

• Flash3D Category in "Best Flash V2.2".