3D Image Changer — Overview

3D Image Changer is a complex Flash component based on advanced technology that allows changing images on screen by means of their 3-dimensional rotation.

3D Image Changer consists of three functional parts:

1. Image composition system.
2. Navigation system.
3. 3D effects creation system.

3D effects creation system is the core of the component and assigned for 3D modeling depending on selected type of change effect. 3-dimentional rotation effects reproduce rotation of specified geometrical figures. 3D Image Changer includes the following five effects:

1. Prismatic quadrangular — represents 3D rotation of a quadrangular right prism around the axis that passes through the centers of its bases. The visible adjacent faces of prism are represented by neighboring images from collection.
2. Prismatic triangular — represents 3D rotation of a triangular right prism around the axis that passes through the centers of its bases. The visible adjacent faces of prism are represented by neighboring images from collection.
3. Cylindrical convex — represents 3D rotation of an external convex cylindrical surface around the axis of cylinder. The visible part of the surface is represented by neighboring images from collection.
4. Cylindrical concave — represents 3D rotation of an internal concave cylindrical surface around the axis of cylinder. The visible part of the surface is represented by neighboring images from collection.
5. Plane rectangular — represents 3D rotation of a rectangle around the axis that passes through the middles of its opposite sides. The area of rectangle is represented by corresponding image from collection.

The following demo depicts the effects described above:

The table below contains the real dimensions of static image in 3D Image Changer (relative to the original image) for a specified effect in the published SWF file. The dimensions in the table are listed for two possible values of the Rotation Plane parameter: "horizontal" (as shown in the illustration above) and "vertical".

Navigation system provides built-in navigation and sequencing capabilities, and lets you easily step through the objects that the "Images collection" contains. The "Images Collection" is the 2-dimensional array where images are stored as BitmapData objects. Images in collection maintain "state" that allows the user to advance to the next or previous image:

• When the next or previous image is shown, it becomes the current image. The current image, at the same time, loses its "current" state and is hidden.

Use ActionScript methods and properties to build advanced navigation through images in collection.

When a 3D Image Changer instance has focus and the Keyboard Control parameter is set to true, you can use the following keys to control it:

Image composition system is developed to carry out all actions on loading (if necessary) and rendering attached graphic objects with further adding to "Images Collection". The "Images Collection" is the 2-dimensional array where images are stored as BitmapData objects.

You can attach images to collection in three different ways of your choice:

• Using the Images Collection authoring parameter in the Property inspector or in the Component inspector.
• Creating configuration XML-file for loading external graphic files (JPEG, GIF, PNG, SWF).
• Using the ActionScript method addImage() to add single images of supported types to collection.

Also, you can choose from a number of ActionScript methods and properties to manage images in collection. For more information, see 3D Image Changer Documentation.

Please, keep in mind the following limitations when using 3D Image Changer:

• All features of 3D Image Changer component are available both in Flash Basic 8 and Flash Professional 8, except one — the "Images Collection" authoring parameter. In Flash Basic 8, you can not open the Values dialog box from "Images Collection" text box within the Parameters tab to manipulate the items in the collection while authoring. This is because of the Collection class (mx.utils.Collection) that is available in Flash Professional only. However, you can work around this limitation by using the addImage() method instead of the "Images Collection" parameter in your Flash Basic 8 applications.
• The images you add to the collection can be both static and animated, but in the published SWF file all of them become static. That means, for example, if you attach a movie clip to the collection and this movie clip contains more than one frame — only the first frame will be shown.
• Although you can add the images of different size to the collection, all of them are scaled larger or smaller, if needed, to fit the "base size" in the published SWF file. For more information, see 3D Image Changer sizing.