Tuesday, March 31, 2009

3D Scenes

Use your photos and videos to create your personalized 3D Scenes from fun photo-realistic templates like Surf’s Up, Fashionista and more!

How does it work? We've enabled users of 3D Scenes to upload their own photo and video content to high quality 3D scenes without ever having to use the SceneCaster editor. Now you can create your personalized 3D scene in seconds and display it on your profile page for all of your guests to see. Plus, we've added a photo viewer, so that when you click on image links, you'll be able to see the image full size.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Great Moments in SC History

It was exactly one year ago yesterday that SceneCaster quietly opened its doors to the world and hoped that someone would walk in.

I have to go to the U.S. occasionally for work and I always get uptight when the customs officers ask me what I do for a living: "Well, I work for this software company and we have an application that lets you create 3D scenes where you can add objects and then there's this Google component to it and you can add video links and..." At this point the officer's eyes usually start to glaze over and I begin to wonder if I should have just said "Boxes; I make boxes."

I can't wait for the day when I can say "SceneCaster; I work for SceneCaster. No need to hug me."

We're not quite there yet. We're getting close, though. Here's a look back at some highlights of the past year.

Sept 25, 2007 - The First Scene
As far as I can tell, this is the first one published (not half bad, either):


Jan 4, 2008 - The Joker
Ellen Solem's television breaks down, prompting her to create her own fun and some of the most visually compelling scenes ever (with the worst titles). Who can forget the sheer suspense and dramatic tension of "26" (see what I mean?), in which a giant beer can with a grudge stalks an unsuspecting hiker out for a stroll?


March 26, 2008 - The Favorite
Lesley Bergen begrudginly accepts a friend's invite to join SC...as far as I know, her family have not had clean clothes or a hot meal since. She develops such a devoted fan base that her scene "Invisible" scores an astonishing 542 page views ...and there's nothing in it! NOTHING!






April 15, 2008 - The Addict
Joy Brewer joins SC; author of 163 scenes and counting - that's a new scene just about every day. She says SceneCasting "is the most relaxing thing I have ever done." Must be a nice break from her day job on the bomb squad.






April 15, 2008 - The Innovator
We add the 'link' feature that lets you create your own links to other scenes and other Websites. Some smarty pants named Diroshi Raja uses this to create SC's first interactive graphic novel:


July 18, 2008 - The Ambassador
SC's rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population prompts Isabel Christina Restrepo to guest blog for Designer's Den because frankly, my Spanish is muy malo!







Sept. 25, 2008 - The Crew
Our sincere thanks to all of our great contributors for their imagination, their skill, their humour and most of all for sharing their scenes with us.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Favorite Google Things - Library Sofa

We're really proud to be the only online design software that can import models from the Google 3D Warehouse. It's like having access to a great big online store where all the merchandise is totally free! It's a shopper's dream!

The downside is that their content is sometimes hard to find, poorly named or (worst of all) has that little annoying little 2D man attached when you download it. Being in the fortunate position of browsing through all of your scenes every day I often find items I did not know existed until they pop up in someone's design.

My new fave is this little beauty:

Curvy, tufty, cushy: she's got it all. If I were a single man I'd take it for a drink. It even accepts textures from our library if you drop them on the right spot. Zoom in and try to hit it right about here:


My sincere thanks to Eliana Lombardo Teran for finding it and using it so well. And if you're looking to download it yourself, the magic search word is "chester".

Monday, September 22, 2008

One Percent Inspiration

Inspiration for a great scene can come from anywhere. I've been known to drop everything because I spotted a new Google object and decided that I had to build a 'home' for it in SC immediately. Just lately I seem to be on a bender for re-creating images I find of beautiful residential architecture and interior design. I like the idea of being able to spend a few hours in these spaces I will likely never get the chance to visit in real life (unless the company finally caves in to my suggestion that I take a world tour with unlimited license to barge into people's homes uninvited). It's sort of like trying on a suit you know you can't afford and isn't necessarily your style, but you just want to see how wearing it will change you, if only for a moment.

My two favorite online destinations of late are both blogs, and I put them out to you only because there's a lot of budding designers amongst the SC population who may find them inspiring as well. The first is Design Milk, which is a showcase of what's new & inventive in art, architecture & industrial design. There are some very out-there ideas here, but you'd be surprised how much of this stuff gets filtered down eventually to your local IKEA. DM was the source of this scene:


which was inspired by this home in Costa Rica:

The second is Apartment Therapy. They're all about livin' large when space is at a premium. They've got specific sites for many of the major metropolitan centers across the US (I feel only slightly snubbed that Toronto is a no-show). The nosy neighbour in me is addicted to one of their regular features called 'house tours' which was the source of this scene:


which was inspired by this home in San Francisco.

So, while I may never live in a modernist glass home in the Costa Rican jungle, or a mid-century bungalow in San Fran, I can still spend a few hours 'living' if not actually living there. In dissecting and re-assembling these spaces I garner two major benefits. One: I get to rip-off great ideas for use in the ever-evolving, never-ending, please-make-it-stop renovation of my own home, and two: it's a good design exercise to imagine what was on the other side of the photographer and 'fill in the blanks' as it were.

No wait, there's three: by taking things apart you get a good handle for what makes them work, and this gives you the tools to build things better in the future.

Monday, September 8, 2008

New Catalog Content

Hey SceneCaster-ites!
You've been doing such a great job of creating scenes that our poor servers are smoking. We're doing a bit of clean up over the next few days to distribute the load a bit better and during that time you may notice some inconsistent performance. Patience please - it's all for the greater good.

Now the good news - new content release!

Art.com
The internet's biggest supplier of art & decor is now on SceneCaster! We've chosen 50 of their best-selling pieces to add to our content library, both framed and un-framed. Plus, we plan to continue to add to this collection over the coming months. Their website offers over 500,000 prints, so we're going to be pretty busy for some time. But that's not all: Art.com's sister site has also joined us....

Allposters.com
The world's largest poster store is available, too! We've got classic movie posters, rock & roll favorites and even some more tongue-in-cheek pieces:



which inspired my 'back from vacation' scene here. Look for Art.com and Allposters.com in our 'Featured' content category.

Back To School
Speaking of things getting back to things (how coherent do you expect me to be after that many coffees?), the wee ones have gone back to drink from the fountain of knowledge. Look at their little shiny faces and empty heads just waiting to be filled up! It does the heart good:



Remind me sometime to sing you the song I wrote to memorize the periodic table. Sounds nerdy, but you can kiss my 'A'...in chemistry! Take a look in 'Themes > Back to School'

Recess!
Lest you forget that thing you use to carry your brain around in needs a bit of exercise too: we expanded the 'Outdoor > Playground Equipment' category with a whole bunch of swinging, climbing, teetering & tottering fun.



Alright - it's SceneCaster September: everybody back to work!

Friday, August 29, 2008

Una Nota de Isabel Christina

Hola a todos los usuarios de SceneCaster de habla hispana!

Mi nombre es Isabel Cristina y quiero compartir con todos ustedes la experiencia de usar esta increíble aplicación.

Hace un tiempo por fortuna, alguno de mis amigos de facebook me invitó a usar SceneCaster y aunque ignoro muchas invitaciones decidí aceptar ésta. La primera vez que entré a la página debo confesar que no entendí mucho de cómo usarla, baje el programa y cuando ví la cantidad de opciones que tenía para seleccionar objetos no sabía muy bien que hacer con ellos! Decidí explorar un poco y empecé a ubicarlas en la superficie que aparece cuando vas a crear una escena. No tenía idea que podía modificar las dimensiones de los espacios, y debo confesarles que solo después de haber ensayado con unas cuantos escenas bastante simples empecé a usar la opción de vista en 2D.

Ahora cuando veo mis primeras escenas (todas se llamaban Isa 1, Isa 2, Isa 3… muy original por cierto!) debo admitir que eran bastante ‘minimalistas y tímidas’ por el poco uso de elementos, pero no porque fuera mi estilo (alguno de ustedes conoce muchos hispanos tímidos?), sino porque no sabía de la cantidad ilimitada de catálogos que existían a través de la opción de objetos 3D en Google!!!







Las imágenes anteriores son ejemplos de mi primeras escenas ‘minimalistas’.

Después de batallar con mis primeras escenas empecé a explorar cada vez más por la aplicación y especialmente me detenía a observar escenas que otros realizaban, de esta manera empecé a familiarizarme con nombres como Diroshi Raja, Lesley Bergen, Jim Burgersten, Wai-Shan Lisa Lo, Michael Sanders, Mark Zohar, Adrijana Mracina o Aoife Sutidaa, ellos han sido sin saberlo mis maestros, sus escenas son siempre alucinantes, plenas de detalles y muy creativas, mirarlas siempre es placentero, no solo por su belleza, sino también porque entrar a cada una de ellas es entrar en contacto con mil y un mundos. A través de las escenas que realizan los usuarios de esta increíble aplicación he estado en villas del medioevo, baños romanos,la inauguración de los Olímpicos, el medio oeste, la casa de los Simpsons, conocí a los alliens de Diroshi, vi una película en el teatro de Michael, me alojé en el Gran Hotel de Lesley, y desayuné en el chalet de Giulia; de igual manera, cada vez que me iba familiarizando más con la aplicación me animaba a recrear escenas para que otros compartieran conmigo imágenes de lugares que solo existen en mi imaginación como una escena que realicé hace unas semanas a la que llamé Purest White,



donde en medio de la nieve más blanca y pura una mujer se encontraba en absoluta contemplación (la ciudad donde vivo en Colombia tiene una temperatura promedio de 28°C todo el año!), pero también me ha dado la posibilidad de compartir con Ustedes escenas como Delirium Salsa,



en la que a través de un link puedes mirar en YouTube a los bailarines de Swing Latino que son de Cali, mi ciudad, y que han ganado en 3 ocasiones el Campeonato Mundial de Salsa!!! Quién se atreve a decir que los latinos no llevamos el ritmo en la sangre o que nos falta talento y creatividad? Entonces, no sería increíble que cada día hubiesen más y más escenas donde viéramos por ejemplo a dominicanos y panameños bailando merengue, una exposición en el Malba en Buenos Aires, un concierto en el Teresa Carreño de Caracas, o a un grupo haciendo canopy en las selvas de Costa Rica, Ecuador o Perú?

Realmente, SceneCaster es la aplicación más sencilla y entretenida que he encontrado; no solo como herramienta para recrear espacios, sino también como herramienta social, ya que desde que la uso he tenido la oportunidad de hacer contacto con personas de partes tan diversas del mundo como Sri Lanka y Canadá o China y la India!

Yo espero sinceramente que se animen a usarla, que exploren todos sus usos, que diseñen sus espacios con ella, que bajen objetos nuevos con Google y que las compartan con todos quienes hacemos parte de esta gran red de usuarios de la mejor aplicación que he podido encontrar: SceneCaster!!!

Michael's note: My most sincere apologies for this ham-handed translation:

My name is Isabel Cristina and I want to share with you the experience of using this incredible application.

Some time ago fortunately, some of my friends invited me to use facebook SceneCaster and although I ignore many invitations I decided to accept it. The first time I went to the home page I must confess that I did not understand much about how to use it. I downloaded the program and when I saw the number of options open to select objects, I did not know very well what to do with them! I decided to explore a bit and started to locate on the surface that appears when you create a scene. I had no idea that you could change the dimensions of space, and I must confess that only after having experimented with a few, quite simple scenes that I began to use the option of creating in 2D View.

Now when I see my first scenes (all were called Isa 1, Isa 2, Isa 3… very original by the way!) I must admit that they were quite 'minimalist and timid', but not because it was my style (do you know many timid Hispanics?), but because I did not know the unlimited number of 3D objects that existed in the Google catalog!

The previous images are examples of my first 'minimalist' scenes.

After battling my first scenes I began to increasingly explore the application and I stopped specially to watch others doing scenes, thus became familiar with names like Diroshi Raja, Lesley Bergen, Jim Burgersten, Wai-Shan Lisa Lo, Michael Sanders, Mark Zohar, Adrijana Mracina or Aoife Sutidaa, they have been unknowingly my teachers, their scenes are always amazing, full of detail and very creative, always pleasant to watch, not only for their beauty, but also because entering each one is like being in contact with a thousand worlds. Through the scenes being made by users of this application, I have been in incredible villas in the Middle Ages, Roman baths, the opening of the Olympiad, the Old West, the home of the Simpsons; I met the aliens with Diroshi, I saw a movie in Michael's theatre, I stayed at Lesley's Grand Hotel, and had breakfast at the Villa Giulia. As I became more familiar with the application, it encouraged me to create scenes to share places that only exist in my imagination. A scene I made a few weeks ago I called the 'Purest White', where amid the snow, white and pure, a woman was in absolute contemplation (the city where I live in Colombia has an average temperature of 28 ° C all year!) But SC has also given me the opportunity to share with you scenes such as 'Delirium Salsa', which through a link on YouTube you can watch the dancers Swing Latino in Cali, (my city,) They have won the World Championship in Salsa dance! Who dares to say that Latinos do not carry the pace in the blood or that we lack talent and creativity? It would be unbelievable if every day we have more and more scenes where we saw such things as Panamanian and Dominican merengue dancing, an exhibition at the Malba in Buenos Aires, a concert at the Teresa Carreno Caracas, or group doing canopy in the jungles of Costa Rica, Ecuador or Peru?

Actually, SceneCaster is easy and entertaining, not only as a tool to create spaces, but also as a social tool. Since joining, I have had the opportunity to make contact with people from such diverse parts of the world as Sri Lanka and Canada or China and India!

I sincerely hope that this will encourage users to explore all its features, to design their spaces with it, discover the Google objects and that we share them with everybody in this great network of users with the best application that I could find: SceneCaster!

Monday, August 25, 2008

SceneCaster New Editor Release

Our developers have been heads down for the last three months, getting ready for our latest release of the SceneCaster Editor. It is chock-full of tasty new treats for our scene creators as well as our scene viewers.

Installation
The next time you go to create or remix a scene, you'll be prompted to download the new editor. It's a pretty standard installation, but comes with two things to take note of:
1 - You need to close all of your browser windows while the install takes place (including the SC one). Don't worry, we'll re-open your browser for you when the install completes.
2 - about 2/3 of the way through the install, you'll experience a pause of several seconds. Don't worry! It's not frozen, it's just getting some components it needs from Microsoft.

So What's New?
In a word: PLENTY! Most importantly, when you save a scene now, you have the option of allowing 3D viewing. Anyone viewing your scene will now be able to view your scene using our 3D Viewer. They'll be able to zoom and pan from every camera angle and get the full 3D experience without having to remix the scene. Those of you who prefer our classic 2D editor still have that option as well.

About Linking
Good news as well. Now any links you attach to your objects are attached to the object itself, rather than drawing a big box around the object. This will help alleviate any frustration you've had about viewers not being able to click on your links.

Embedded Video
Now any video clips you link to will play right in the 3D scene with their own playback controls. You don't have to link out to external sites anymore!

List of Added Bonuses
You can finally paint ceilings - no joke!
You won't pick up additional objects when you drag & drop anymore.
We turned off collision to make it easier to put objects in/on other objects.

New Keyboard Commands for Advanced Editors
These are gold! Take notes:
Hold down the Shift key and you can free-rotate objects with your mouse.
Hold down the Ctrl and Shift key to move objects up & down. Added bonus: they'll maintain their elevation wherever you move them.
Hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and you can re-size objects with your mouse.
Select an object and use your arrow keys to nudge objects in 4 directions.
Select an object, hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and use your Up/Down arrows to nudge them vertically.
Hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple objects and use your arrow keys to move them as a group.
Use the W, A, S, D keys to move your current camera.

Looking forward to seeing what all of you will come up with.