Introduction
There are many ways to create 3D in Flash. You can either do it directly in Flash or through use of 3rd party software. Doing it directly in Flash can be very meticulous and frustrating. 3rd party tools are much easier in comparison, but they are also very pricy. Fortunately, there is an answer for those who only need simple 3D, like a logo or rotating cube, etc.
Mircosoft Word is a ubiquitous and powerful 3D generator for simple shapes and text. It doesn't export in SWF, but the graphics it creates can be traced into Flash very quickly.
For the purposes of this tutorial, I used Word 2000. Earlier versions of Word and Microsoft Powerpoint and Excel will work fine.
Word Interface
Open Word and Flash. In Word got to View>Toolbars and select Drawing. The Drawing toolbar should come up. You will see something like this:
Drawing in Word
The Oval and Square tool will work for 3d. So will Autoshapes and WordArt. For this example, I used the basic square tool. Pick whatever you like. Now drag your cursor across the Word work area. Your shape will pop up. Use the arrows to resize it anyway you like. When you're done, make sure your shape is selected and click the 3D button. Select one of the 3D styles from the pop up list. I chose style 2. Double click on your shape to change the face color. To change the depth color click the 3D Color button. If you want to change the depth, click the depth button. I picked 72 points. You can also change direction and lighting. The surface of your shape can be changed from Matte, Plastic, Metal or Wireframe.
Ok, now for the animation. Insert a new symbol in your Flash movie. Make the behavior Movie Clip. Insert 17 blank keyframes. Now back to Word. Click the Tilt Right button in the 3-D Setting toolbar as many times as it will allow. Now copy your shape and paste it into the first keyframe. Trace the image. Now go back into Word. Hit the Tilt Left button twice. Copy your shape and paste it into the second keyframe in your movie clip. Trace it. Repeat these steps until all the keyframes are used up. Don't worry if you can still tilt left two more times. It wil just repeat the image from the first keyframe.
The Result
And you're done. It should look something like this (hold mouse over cube to activate):
There are some drawbacks of course. Some of the animations are not very fluid. And complex animations tend to give large file sizes. Experiment all you want. You might try using Word to embed a picture in your shape:
Have Fun!
Download the files used in this tutorial. Download (59 kb)