require help on website design

Question

I want to implement something like a pick-and-change selector, like this one here

My question is, what tools can i use to accomplish something like that? Is flash adequate? Which has the shortest learning curve? I was told by my friend to use 3d max.

Answer 1

Its a complex process.

3ds max is only 1 part of it. The models of the shirts are designed in 3D and then textured. Every element is rendered individually like this:

Base

Cuff

Placket

as a .PNG and then overlayed on top of the base The reason you want to use 3dsmax is because its very easy to change the texture and preserve the distortion.

The rest is just javascript and CSS. Flash could do the same.

Speaking of flash there is probably a way to displace the texture on the fly, straight up in flash, and that would save you a lot of images but it wouldn't look as accurate but it is do-able: Here is a tutorial that you can start with and implement.

Hope that helps :) Good luck!

Answer 2

The shortest learning curve = take a camera and make pictures of all the products instead of rendering them.

Then you need the website, you don't need Flash for that, use some free template and add JavaScript to change the images, you will find plenty of tutorials for that.

What you can't avoid is learning some graphic software to cut the images, try free Gimp or if you have a licence go for Photoshop.