# Starting up with PaperVision 3D

Published: 2008-11-25
Tags: actionscript, flex, papervision

<p>Lately I've been given a few interesting challenges, I had to learn <a href="http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/">ActionScript 3</a>, <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/flex">Flex</a>, <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/air/">Air</a>, learned to hate a little bit <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/flash">Flash</a> (hate it or misunderstand it ... whatever comes first) . Anyway, learning is always interesting but Learning while on a deadline is not what I call the Perfect Mental State, but we managed, and when a breather was necessary to put ideas down, we had to start all over again, still in the ActionScript world but this time <a href="http://www.papervision3d.org/">PaperVision</a> is being called to handle some graphical requirements.</p>
<p>Now, I had some general knowledge of Papervision, enough to put it on top of the list as soon as the requirements came up, so I jumped at it . I went with version <a href="http://papervision3d.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/as3/trunk">2.0</a>, no need to start with "old" code :) , and became quickly overwhelmed by it :) , Cameras? Viewports? Scenes? And that's just to get a cold, grey screen going :) . Luckily, we live in <a href="http://www.google.com">G-World</a>, and information is but a keystroke away, so I found a couple (hundred :) ) of nice Tutorials that offered a Model / Framework / Template approach to it all .</p>
<p>First is the <a href="http://papervision2.com/">Papervision 2</a> <a href="http://papervision2.com/tutorial-list/">tutorials</a> , it covers all basic aspects that you need to get started and gives you a <a href="http://papervision2.com/3-creating-a-papervision-base-template/">Base Template</a> that covers all your setup needs . I then found another <a href="http://www.brighthub.com/internet/web-development/articles/12902.aspx">series of tutorials</a> that also ofered some template classes, but this one was a bit more modular and I'm now working over this .. plus, the very first thing they did was draw up a <a href="http://images.brighthub.com/EA/7/EA79B9D4D75C170F77FA875B176B24B79F06F76B_small.jpg">cool space ship</a>, so it was a winner :)</p>
<p>Now, this got me going but I still have a long way to go, either way it's good exercise to share these initial steps (feel free to point me to other interesting starting points ;) ) , meanwhile, the <a href="http://blog.papervision3d.org/">Papervision Blog</a> brings us an excelent Showcase of what people are doing with it and <a href="http://blog.davr.org/pv3d-examples/">this blog entry</a> throws a huge list of examples too, so plenty to look at if you want to take a look at Papervision :)</p>
<p>I leave you with a good example of a combination of tools, including Papervision that has brought Flash, at least to me, to a different level than it used to be :), more information <a href="http://interactive.digitalpictures.com.au/?p=392">here</a></p>
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/2283082">Papervision - Augmented Reality (extended)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user946580">dpinteractive</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
