Bring up the subject of 3-D visuals – you often conjure up visions of 1950s monster flicks, and teenage fans slumped down in their seats, wearing cheap, plastic glasses designed to enhance the three- dimensional images on the screen.
It’s a humorous conversation starter, but 3-D has never really been a serious communications technology. How many times can you watch a giant lizard smash hapless Japanese salarymen on their way to work?
The same rules seemed to apply the Internet. 3-D technology was introduced with great fanfare, at a trade show in Silicon Valley three years ago. But nothing much ever came of the proposed standard, and people started snickering at the idea of 3-D online, as they did in the movies.
But, finally, three years later, an array of software developers, advertising agencies, and vacation and tour operators are starting to bring 3-D to the Internet as a marketing tool.
As the use of online 3-D technology grows, rules for deployment are evolving as well.
Black Diamond, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based developer of 3-D development tools, is working with real estate sales organizations to present “photo realistic images” of properties to clients who are searching for the homes. “It is better than the listing picture that looks great, until you realize that they took it from atop a tree across the corner from the only angle that is flattering,” says Andrew Lickly, director of marketing at the consultancy. “But when you offer a 360 degree view of the inside, and outside, of a property, you can’t do things like that.”
Travel and tourism sites, like Pleasant Hawaii and Microsoft Corp.’s Travel Web site, Expedia (www.expedia.com), are also employing 3-D. What better way to insure that the hotel room you are booking has an ocean view, rather than an ash can view, than to visually walk customers through the room to clinch the sale?
Lickley’s remarks constitute the first rule of 3-D usage online. Use 3-D to show your product in a better light – not to show off.
Ad agencies are also enthused about 3-D technologies. Giant Step (www.giantstep.com), the interactive advertising division of Leo Burnett, Chicago, is incorporating 3-D images into its online marketing sites for Oldsmobile (www.oldsmobile.com), as well as Oldsmobile brands, says Tim Irvine, lead designer at Giant Step.
Irvine says that the interiors of vehicles – areas like the dashboard, steering wheel, seats – as well as the exteriors of cars are shot by the agency with film and with digital video. The images are then compressed, and outfitted with special “hot” buttons, which enable Web surfer to click on parts of the pictures, and zoom-in to see close ups of the car part, says Irvine.
And that brings up rule number two for online use of 3-D: Use the technology to give Web visitors something they couldn’t get anywhere else.
Rule number three is more common sense. Pick your 3-D technology based on your budget and the perceived expectations of your views. Don’t try to “wow” the audience just because it can be done. For example, there is software written in Virtual Reality Modeling Language, which is “good for places that are remote or exist in the computer,” notes Terry Baker, president at Template Graphics Software Inc. (http://www.sd.tgs.com/)
A 3-D software called 3-D MasterSuite, is suitable for high-end visualization, and creating online graphics. But consumer-oriented software like QuickTime and Microsoft Chrome are tools that Web site developers can tap easily, especially if they have a low-budget project. “Different markets require different implementations of 3-D,” says Baker.
3-D Usage Rules For the Web
Do:
- Use 3-D to show your product is a better light.
- Use the technology to give Web visitors something they couldn’t get anywhere else.
- Employ technology which fits your purposes.
Do Not:
- Show off.
- Give browsers the same thing your competitors are offering online.
- Blow your budget and your clients’ time with overly outlandish graphics.
