Five Questions with Carlos Ulloa

We hear from creator and project founder Carlos Ulloa to listen to his thoughts on what Papervision 3D means to the Flash community as a whole

WD: Where does your passion for delivering 3D in Flash come from and what kind of feedback do you get from the Papervision community for doing what you do?
CU: I come from a videogame background and, though I’ve been working with Flash for the past ten years and loved it the moment I started to play with it, I missed the possibilities 3D offers. That’s how Papervision3D started, as a personal project. After working on it for a year on my own, I released it Open Source to see the engine grow. And the community happily obliged, so today it is quite a robust piece of technology, used professionally by many developers and agencies around the world.

WD: What advice would you have for designers or developers who are discovering Papervision for the first time and want to master it quickly?
CU: The blogs and forum are an excellent source of tutorials and inspiration. You can also subscribe to the mailing list. For those in a real hurry, there are several training courses around the world, offered by Papervision3D team members.

WD: What do you think 3D capabilities bring to web-based content?
CU: Web-based content can benefit from 3D the same as all other kinds of content: from simple things like accurate 3D models that can be examined from all angles, friendlier picture galleries or 3D dynamic transitions and effects, to more complex things like those traditional gamers are used to.

WD: What examples of Papervision-based Flash work do you admire on the web and what constitutes good use of the technology?
CU: Everything that appears on the PV3D main blog (blog.papervision3d.org) is interesting from one point of view or another, and I try to post there all the work I find inspirational. But when it comes to admiring, I tend to lean towards projects that make heavy use of cuttingedge technology, but keep their focus on the user interaction. It’s not easy to achieve the balance between the two.

WD: Can you give us any indication of possible additions or revisions to future Papervision iterations and why should devotees be excited?
CU: The PV3D team is working on a new architecture written from the ground up to leverage the new capabilities of Flash Player 10. We are focusing on making Papervision3D more flexible and extensible, without compromising its simplicity and ease of use.