What is your background? How did you get your start with Swift 3D?

Bill Whetsel

My background is in web design and development. My career has evolved from a creative communication consultant to educator. I currently teach Visual Communication & Design at Cuyahoga Community College.

A student of mine emailed me the Erain website. I purchased Swift 3D by the end of the week and cracked open the users guide. I was very impressed with the accessible and intuitive interface.

What was your inspiration / how did you come up with this concept?
The site was designed to support class content which gave me an opportunity to explore swift 3D and experiment with a whimsical design. I used the site as an exercise to learn the animation and integration capabilities of Swift 3D. The concept emerged from several different interests and influences. Primary influences include childrens fiction, cartoons of my youth and other Flash sites from around the web.

What elements of the site are made with Swift 3D and what features did you use to create these design elements?
Just about everything that moves was designed and animated in Swift 3D. The background was designed using tools available in Flash.

Any tips or insight to your workflow / methods that you’d like to share?
My goal for this project was to keep things simple. I modeled and animated each element individually and used Flash to composite the content.

What was your biggest design challenge with the site?
The biggest design challenge was to balance the delivery of content with the animation. Content on the site is nearly secondary to the animation. The goal is to push forward with the site and emphasis the animation and explore any potential narrative in the site.

What other software did you use for the site, and how did you
integrate Swift 3D with these other tools?
The site was built with Flash, Swift 3D and a little bit of Photoshop.
All animations were rendered as vector and exported as Swift 3D Flash Importer. The Swift 3D importer helped a great deal with compositing 3D shadows in a 2D environment.

Where would you like to see Swift 3D go in the future?
Swift 3D is an excellent and capable tool. I think anyone who spends time in Flash should consider adding Swift 3D to the tool set. Swift 3D is a great gateway tool into 3D design/animation. I think adding features like Boolean, bones and sweep/extrude along path will help Swift 3D continue to penetrate deep into the design and visualization industry.

Do you have any Swift 3D project in the works?
Yes, I have developed a series of classes that rely on Swift 3D. I have several projects and experiments in the works. Most projects involve product visualization, logo design and animation/simulation.