Shapeways Shops - 3D to Reality Marketplace

3Dwalkthroughs.com came across a press release about the much anticipated launch of Shapeways Shops. The Shops offer artists, designers and hobbyists alike, a unique online platform to show and sell their designs to a world-wide audience. This new marketplace enables anyone to make money with their 3D modeling skills, bridging the gap between the digital 3D models and real tangible products.

In the spirit of the very successful photo sharing industry, Shapeways Shops allows modelers to make money with their 3D models by uploading them and sellling them online.

Although the site is just getting rolling, you can definitely see its potential. 3D models can be viewed in 2D or 3D formats and you can get information about the designer and the model itself.

About Shapeways

Shapeways is a 3D printing and production service that harnesses the power of a global networkof 3D production service partners to ensure cost-efficient, reliable manufacturing and order fulfillment of 3D designs starting with custom 3D printing. Shapeways, passionate about creating.

Source: Shapeways Press Release

Happy Halloween from 3Dwalkthroughs.com

3Dwalkthroughs.com would like to wish all of our friends, family and clients a very safe and Happy Halloween. The picture above was taken at a dog park near our house.

The turnout for this years canine costume competition was a little thin compared to last year. With that said, it was still pretty funny. Some of the costumes are so ridiculous that I could swear that some of the dogs were blushing. I think Halloween is the one time of year that a even a dogs unconditional love might waiver.

House Plans For Sale - Using 3D Animations To Help Close The Deal

3Dwalkthroughs.com just came across a press release from a company that is using 3D animations to help sell their pre-drawn home plans. The company, TheHouseDesigners.com, recently launched a re-design of their website which includes 3D animations of many of their best selling plans.

In addition to the interior and exterior photos, exterior renderings and live chat housedesigners.com have previously offered on their site, users cannow view a 3D animation of the complete exterior of the house.

Coming soon to this 3D collection is an interactive feature that will allow consumers to change exterior surfaces, windows and doors, roofing, lighting and much more to customize and envision their dream home before it's built. Consumers can sign up for the Dream Design newsletter to be notified when this new interactive feature becomes available.

Source: thehousedesigners.com website

It is our belief that companies such as thehousedesigners.com, who are willing to innovate in this tough real estate climate, will come out on the other side in a much better position. Companies that sit on the sidelines are going to be left behind.

3D Modeling and Active Gaming

As 3Dwalkthroughs.com has mentioned in previous posts, one of the biggest underlying themes of the Club Industry show in Chicago was the focus on the youth fitness movement. Many of the exhibitors we visited at the show were either launching brand new products geared towards this population or displaying upgrades to their existing lines.

During the show we had the opportunity to speak with the lead 3D modeler of the Xrkade company, Scarlett Burns. Xrkade is one of the leading names in the Active Gaming market and drew some of the biggest crowds at the show.

Scarlett was kind enough to give us a demonstration of a few of their new product prototypes. The first demo was a boxing game that utilized a motion sensing camera to tranlsate punches and kicks thrown by the user to the heavy bag on the screen. I was impressed by how sensitive the camera was in relation to my actual movement, and could totally see how 30 minutes of this activity could result in quite a workout. (As a side note, advances in motion sensor technology are happening very quickly and this will only improve the interactive experience exponentially)

The second demo was of a football game that utilized the same camera to translate a users movements to the actions of a quarterback. The demo of the football game also showed a lot of potential, although it was obvious that some of the kinks still need to be worked out.

The 3D modelling driving these new Xrkade games is quite impressive. Scarlett and her team have been able to achieve a very impressive level of realism considering the processing speeds that are required to make these games interactive.

Aside from a very cool use of 3D technology, we are extremely impressed with Xrkade because of the admirable nature of their cause. Youth obesity is rising at epidemic levels and companies like Xrkade who are attacking this issue head on should be praised for their efforts.

3D Social Media Application To Be Used to Promote Corporate Wellness Program

3Dwalkthroughs.com came across a story on marketwatch.com about a 3D social media application being developed to help promote a corporate wellness program/product offered by Muve, Inc.

According to the story, our friends at Wyndstorm have been selected to create a 3D social media application to support Muve's goal of tackling rising health care costs in the workplace.

"Muve has a goal to reverse the obesity epidemic in the United States and globally," said Wyndstorm CEO Marian Sabety. "To successfully achieve this mission, outreach must be effective, lifestyle education must be easy, and reinforcement must be fun. Wyndstorm is pleased to contribute to this important undertaking. Applying our experience in social media technologies and online promotions will enable us to design innovative online engagement that incorporates interactive entertainment for creative programming so Muve users are encouraged and supported."

Source: marketwatch.com

Muve, Inc. actually has a very interesting product offering called the Gruve. The Gruve provides users with a personalized, quantifiable measure of their activities and the calories they burn throughout their day.

The Gruve uses an omnidirectional accelerometer to measure activity intensity and duration. Synchronizing the Gruve device with the Gruve web site gives users the ability to view their own daily calorie burn and track their weight loss progress.

We are very interested to see the end product that will be delivered by Wyndstorm. With the financial crisis worsening by the day, corporate wellness programs aimed at decreasing health care costs are ripe to see tremendous growth.

Image and Content Source: muveinc.com website

Developing a cost effective interactive media platform definitely offers companies the potential to improve the adoption and retention of wellness programs by their employees.

ESPN - Video Game Technology Allows Analysts To Interact with 3D Virtual Players

EA Sports and ESPN have joined forces to offer a really cool technology that allows analysts to interact with 3D virtual players. The technology called Sports Virtual Playbook allows the commentator to stand in the middle of a virtual football field and talk through plays as they develop.

Sports Virtual Playbook launched on September 7th and will be used throughout the season on Monday NFL Countdown and NFL Live.

EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook is created using feeds from in-studio real-world cameras as well as an in-game camera that captures EA SPORTS in-game graphics depicting real game scenarios. The real-world studio and game images of virtual characters are combined to create the effect of “augmented reality” -- virtual players appearing in the studio alongside real life hosts and analysts. Both real and virtual people are able to move realistically around the studio set to demonstrate plays and scenarios. The system accommodates, and in fact is controlled by, the multiple real-world cameras that are typical in today’s sports analysis television programs.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

As big football fans, and big fans of anything that utilizes innovative 3D technology, 3Dwalkthroughs.com is pumped about this 3D technology. It really does make watching some of the analysts more interesting and also might make things a little clearer for people that do not really understand football that well.

3D Floor Plans for Trade Show Exhibitors

3Dwalkthroughs.com has just been hired to create a detailed 3D floor plan of a trade show conference facility. The 3D plan will demonstrate all the available booths as well as the restroom and food court locations.

The plans will be posted to the conference facilities website leading up to the show, and will also be blown up and placed throughout the show on the days of the event.

We will deliver the plan to our client in a format that can be updated as space gets filled. As frequent trade show attendees, and soon to be trade show exhibitors, we definitely see the value in being able to get a good sense of the available and actual space before the show.

With every square inch of space and every fiber of carpet costing money for an exhibitor, the 3D floor plan will also help to better plan their exhibits in a cost effective manner.

Unbelievable Showroom with 3D Assets Playing on a HUGE Plasma TV

Last night members of 3Dwalkthroughs.com went to a cocktail party to launch the opening of an unbelievable sales center for a new property. We are not at liberty to discuss the brand but lets just say the showroom was a full blown replica of the unit, elevator and all.

The whole front part of the show room was the actual sales center with a model of the development. On one of the walls was the biggest plasma TV I have ever seen. The TV was looping 3D Walkthroughs and 3D Renderings of the property. The company that created these did an amazing job and really got the attention of all in attendance.

Apparently each unit will have its own elevator, so to demonstrate this they actually had a real elevator built which had both sides open. As you exited on the other side of the elevator you were able to experience exactly what it would be like when you entered a unit.

I cannot imagine how much it cost to put this showroom together but it certainly did the trick in terms of making an impression. We heard they actually signed 2 contracts right after the event. Talk about effective marketing.

My Virtual Model - 3D Virtual Commerce Hit's it's Stride

3Dwalkthroughs.com came across an interesting technology that will be integrated into the Sears.com website, making them the first retailer to apply both a visual search and 3D virtual model to an entire catalogue online.

The technology behind the Sears.com website upgrade is powered by the combined efforts of My Virtual Model and IBM.

We did a little research on My Virtual Model and their website/solutions they offer are very impressive. My Virtual Model is one of the few companies that have really nailed it with regards to creating an application with real business value.

The website list 4 solutions utilizing their technology.
BrandME- Allows users to create a 3-D virtual model of themselves, and use this model to try on clothing from participating apparel companies.

Dressing Room- Lets customers use their own 3D model to "try on" outfits and see how they look before they buy.

Weight Loss- My Virtual Model™ is currently used by thousands of Internet users for weight loss tracking and visualization. This custom application provides two model images side-by-side so your audience can easily compare their own model showing different weights. (could be a good fit for fitspott)

Home Decor- Allows customers to visualize hard or soft goods in customizable sets. For kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, dining room, patio, etc. (We get asked if we can build this type of product all the time. At least now we have somewhere to direct these inquiries)

Image and Content Source: My Virtual Model Website

We recommend checking out their site as they seem to have something to offer many industries.

e-HoloCam - 3D Underwater Camera

Next week will mark the unveiling of the eHoloCam 3D Underwater camera. The only camera of its kind in the world, the eHoloCam is a 3D holographic camera used to capture images of underwater organisms and living particles to provide scientists with a greater understanding of marine life.

Image Source: CDL Website

One of the benefits of this technology is that is allows for the research and recording of underwater environments in a non intrusive way. This in turn allows for certain data to be gathered that was previously thought of as being impossible or very difficult to measure.

The eHoloCam was developed by the research team at the University, in collaboration with CDL in Aberdeen who specialise in offshore instrumentation and Elforlight of Daventry, developers of novel solid state lasers.

Content Source: Divemaster.com

The technology will be officially unveiled at the Innovate conference which begins on September 18th. 3DWalkthroughs.com will not be at Innovate but will do our research after the show to comment on the reaction of people that were in attendance.

Iron Man 2 To Be Shot In a 3D Format?

In a follow up to Jon Favreau's homerun directorial success with Iron Man, there has been talk that the sequel, Iron Man 2, will be filmed in a 3D format. The first Iron Man was a big hit at the box office grossing more than $317 million in the United States.

Iron Man 2 is scheduled to be in theaters in the summer of 2010. As 3Dwalkthroughs.com has mentioned in previous posts, many new movies that are scheduled for production will be shot in a 3D format.

Many of the big movie houses have announced their plans to devote a large portion of their efforts towards creating movies in 3D. In addition to the explosion of 3D movies that will start hitting the theaters, many TV manufacturers are also working on developing the technology that will allow 3D movies to be viewed in the home...should be an exciting next few years for 3D in the movies.

3D Walkthroughs Must Amaze - You Cannot Just Show a Bunch of Rooms Anymore!

3Dwalkthroughs.com is very proud about a new project we are working on which integrates actual video, post production effects, coordinated music and 3D animation into a Disney like presentation.

The intensified competition in the animation industry coupled with an improvement in available technologies are resulting in much more advanced 3D walkthroughs than when we first started in the industry.

As more development companies include 3D assets in their marketing materials, they will be forced to find innovative animation companies to help make their properties stand out from the pack. Simply showing 3D models of rooms is not going to be enough anymore. Truly impactful 3D walkthroughs of the future will need to incorporate all forms of available media into a well thought out storyboard.

For a sample of our newest 3D Walkthrough send us an email at info@dwalkthroughs.com. We are confident you have not seen anything like this before.

Looking to Buy a 3D Model?

3Dwalkthroughs.com understands that not every company or individual has the same budget to spend on a 3D project. As a company we try to be a creative as possible when thinking up ways to work within someones budget.

Recently we came across an interesting concept that will let buyers/sellers of 3D models come together in sort of an istockphoto concept for 3D assets. The concept is called Presto3D.com and the models can be used for animation, architecture, gaming, etc.

The process is fully automatic; an artist submits a model for sale in a format produced by one of the major 3D authoring tools (3dsMax, Autodesk Maya, etc.) at a price they believe is fair. Presto3D creates a 3D preview of the model, also making the original model available in COLLADA, a universal file format. Once the preview gets final approval from the artist, it can then be viewed in the browser by all prospective buyers.

Content Source: devmaster.net
Image Source: Presto3d.com

Obviously the success of the site will depend on the amount of users that contribute high quality usable 3D models. If Presto3d.com can generate a large database of models they could really be on to something.

Real Estate Marketers Looking For Innovation

3Dwalkthroughs.com has noticed an increase in the amount of new inquiries which we believe is directly related to the competitive real estate climate. In addition to asking about our 3D Floor Plans, 3D Renderings and 3D Walkthroughs, real estate marketing directors have been contacting us to find out if we have any new innovative products in the pipeline.

It is our belief that the current climate is going to be responsbile for some very dramatic advances in real estate marketing technologies. Anything that can help make one property stand out from another is going to be key.

To have real estate marketing teams actually asking what we are developing behind the scenes is interesting but also somewhat scary. We have heard some very bleak predictions from industry insiders regarding the real estate industry over the next few years...hopefully these predictions are off base.

3D Games and Movies without 3D Glasses

3Dwalkthroughs.com came across a story about a cafe in Australia that is testing a new technology which allows 3D games and movies to be viewed without using 3D glasses.

Customers of Beyond Internet Gaming can play a variety of video games in full 3D with images appearing to pop out of the computer screen.

The technology - known technically as autostereoscopy - was provided by 3D Motion's Chinese parent 3D Group, which in turn licensed it from a German company. A detailed explanation of how it works can be found here.

Image and Content Source: TheAge.com.au

With computer processers getting more powerful and the overall cost to create this technology decreasing, we are likely to see many more versions of this type of "goggle free" 3D technology. Phillips and Samsung have already demonstrated their version of this technology but have not set a commercial rollout date.

We will keep our eyes out for new developments.

Waiting for Sony PS3 Home - 3D virtual online community? You will have to wait a bit longer.

If you have been waiting for the release of PS3 Home 3D virtual online community, you will have to wait until later in the year. Sony confirmed that they postponed the launch of the "Home" service, which is aimed at giving users a place to interact with other PS3 users, to early this year from last Winter.

We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer," Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said in a statement.

"But we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today."

Source: halflifesource.com

3Dwalkthroughs.com is anxiously awaiting the release of Sony's 3D virtual online commmunity. We are optimistic that it is going to set a new standard for what can be accomplished in a 3D virtual community. If it is as robust as we expect, it could also have a huge impact on how a 3D virtual platform and a social networking platform can be integrated to create a truly valuable experience...but I guess we will have to wait a while to find out.

Sixense - Advanced 3D Input Device

3Dwalkthroughs.com is excited to test out a device that has gotten rave reviews from the Nvision 08 industry conference. The device by a company called Sixense is being described as a more advanced Wiimote, although the functionality of Sixense is based on precise tracking relative to a base station and has the ability to react to movement in six degrees of freedom.

Apparently at the show, Sixense had demos of a variety of simple but impressive used of their device. The demos included a paintball game, a lightsabre simulator along with simple squash, golf, American football and baseball minigames.

Source: bit-tech.net

Here is a Youtube video which demonstrates the device.

As we have said in previous posts, the more accurate and responsive these tracking devices become, the more engaging will be the video games they are associated with. This Sixense device offers great potential to further the benefits of active gaming products and we are excited to test it out in person.

Airtouch - 3D Holograms You Can Touch

3Dwalkthroughs.com came across a new development by a company that it posted about several months ago. Provision Interactive Technologies, Inc. announced today that its next-generation, patented 3D Holographic display with its proprietary "Air Touch" technology interface will premiere at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

The system allows 14 different Intel-based products to float in the air, in 3D, approximately 36 inches in front of the 40-inch screen. Each product's "air time" is about 30 seconds, allowing an audience to attentively watch the cool 3D hologram as it spins and turns. If the consumer is interested in a particular product, all he or she has to do is literally 'touch' the hologram. The software recognizes the interaction and prints out a marketing brochure or spec sheet on that particular product.

Source: CNNMoney.com

For more information about Provision's products go here>>

This certainly sounds like a 3D technology that marketers will eat up assuming the price is somewhat reasonable. We are excited to see a live demo of this new technology.

Photosynth - 3D Walkthroughs Created from Photos

Microsoft has just has announced that Photosynth, its ground breaking 3D photo display technology, has moved from their demo stage and is now available for photographers to process and upload their own Photosynths. The free service works only on Windows XP and Vista, both for preparing and viewing Photosynths.

Photosynth automatically stitches together digital photographs to create abstract but high-resolution 3D re-creations (dubbed a synth) of photos submitted by users. Previously, the website had some ready made demos but Microsoft just announced they have upgraded the photosynth website to allow everyone to upload up to 20GB of photos.

3Dwalkthroughs.com believes as this technology continues to improve it will have some Legitimate commercial applications. Based on the latest release of Photosynth's new website along with some of the articles I have read on their plans for this technology, it is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

As the user base grows and more and more creative demos are displayed we believe photosynth will catch on like wildfire.

Image Source: Webware.com

3D Virtual World Technology and Social Networks

3Dwalkthroughs.com and Fitspott are facing a unique challenge. We are trying to determine the best way to integrate the 3D virtual world technology we have at our disposal into the phase 2 launch of Fitspott's social networking platform.

We are confident that integrating 3D virtual world technology will wow our members from a visual standpoint, but this is not enough. It is of utmost importance that if we are to integrate 3D virtual world technology into the Fitspott platform, it most improve the overall experience and provide a real value to our members.

The ideas that are on the table are quite interesting and I believe that we are closing in on the answer. We certainly welcome any suggestions and ideas regarding what would be the most beneficial way to integrate 3D virtual technology into Fitspott.

We understand that it will be much easier to offer suggestions once the platform launches in Mid-September and people have a much better understanding of the nuances of the site.