Blog | WebRotate 360

Discount Code for Thursday, July 26 - One-day 20% off

by WebRotate 360 July 25, 2012 12:33

Select Buy Now and Enter DSK20PRO to get $60 off on
WebRotate 360 Viewer PRO on Thursday, July 26th your local time.
Why get PRO now?

Get Latest WebRotate 360 Product Viewer PRO On July 26th And Save $60

by WebRotate 360 July 15, 2012 21:27

We will be running a one-day promotion event on WebRotate 360 Product Viewer v3 PRO this Thursday, July 26th, offering a whopping 20% DISCOUNT! It is our first global one-day promotion and likely the last one in the next 12 months. This will be the last chance to jump on our full-featured PRO license with the hefty discount and before we make changes to our pricing.

Why full-featured PRO now?

Version 3 was a milestone release for us as we finally got to the point where we could support a solid zoom option and full hot-spot support without Flash. This opens up a lot of opportunities as to where we can move this technology further. And as we move it further, we want to make it available to more folks out there and our fixed PRO pricing didn't work well for everybody.

Starting with the next release (3.1), we will be adding a new license level - PRO level I, which will costs noticeably less than our current $299 and will still include all functionality we have so far in v3. But it will miss some of the latest features that we are working on right now that we believe not everybody needs. This features include extended API, allowing your web developer to control the viewer externally, the ability to have multiple viewers on the same page and also the "full-screen" or rather full-browser window mode that will allow expanding the view to fit a browser window. PRO level II, which will be an equivalent of our current PRO license, will include all new enhancements but will be offered at a higher price than what it's today. So in short, by buying our full-featured PRO license now or rather on July 26th with the cool 20% discount, you're getting a free upgrade to PRO level II license and all cool features it will offer with the upcoming 3.1 release and going forward for at least one year.

So don't hesitate! "Like" us on Facebook or subscribe to our Newsletter (on the right) or Twitter to receive the discount code that we will distribute to our followers and subscribers shortly.

UPDATE: Select Buy Now and Enter DSK20PRO to get $60 off on WebRotate 360 Viewer PRO on Thursday, July 26th your local time.

If you already have our PRO or Enterprise license, this v3 upgrade and the upcoming full featured v3.1 upgrade is free.

Nouvelle Renault Clio in 360 degrees powered by WebRotate 360

by WebRotate 360 July 08, 2012 22:33

We have just learned that our new product viewer v3 now powers multinational launch of Nouvelle Renault Clio on various localized Renault websites worldwide. The quality of Clio's 360 presentation is awesome - very clean and customized with great style. What makes it even more interesting is the cool animation that starts upon page load and which is entertaining on its own, practically eliminating any noticeable wait for the 360 images. Click on the image to see it in action or check it out here.

It's really exciting to see companies such as Renault using our technology in their major product launches. Just a few weeks ago we reported another major car maker this time in India, Mahindra, launching 360 views of their new sleek XUV500, which is also a great demonstration of how a good designer can manipulate with our raw product and make it look really neat and in the same time achieve their marketing needs.

Another thought that comes to mind, while looking at these 3D rendering is that our technology has a lot to offer to all things 3D. From 3D printing to booming 3D CAD models for various applications, our product viewer makes it possible to quickly create solid interactive annotated 3D presentations that can be shared over the net in a snap. And unlike 360 photography, where we're really limited in the ways we can approach a photo-shot, 3D product modeling / rendering gives virtually unlimited camera flexibility that can create really impressive presentations. For example, here's an interesting 3D view of a fibre optic gyro by CDL Inertial Engineering - link. Notice how we can now see the product rotating almost spherically while this is still one row of images inside our 360 product viewer - this feels really fluid comparing to some of the 3D product views where it takes some practice to navigate a product spherically in full 3D with a mouse.

WebRotate 360 Product Viewer v3 Released

by WebRotate 360 June 28, 2012 13:57

We are proud to announce that we have now officially released WebRotate 360 Product Viewer v3. This was a long journey and we are really thankful to our users who contributed their ideas, thoughts, issue reports, most of which have been incorporated into this major release.

With this release, the viewer is fully operational in JavaScript / HTML 5 mode including hot-spots, zooming, panning and much more, and it all works nicely either on your iPad or iPhone or a desktop browser without Flash. We don't require HTML 5 either as the core functionality is pure JavaScript and will work pretty much in any major browser.

This release is truly ground breaking for us here in our own 360 photography studio. We are now able to offer the most advanced out-of-the-box web solution for interactive product presentations with a pretty unique mobile support and our product photography service - all in one package. We encourage all commercial photography studios and digital agencies to try this out and start incorporating 360 product photography and interactive product photography in their suite of photography services also.

Below is the list of major changes in v3:

[+] JavaScript / HTML5 mode (JS) is completely reworked (90% rewritten) and is now used as a default.
[+] SpotEditor is completely reworked (80% rewritten). Now supports viewer theming, zooming, and more.
[+] Added full hot-spot support in JS mode.
[+] Added full zooming support in JS mode.
[+] Added new hot-spot type via custom HTML content (JS only).
[+] Added new "deep zoom" feature using second image set loaded for zooming only (JS and Flash).
[+] Added support for custom hot-spot indicator images (JS only).
[+] Added new "thin" toolbar theme and new hot-spot indicators, including animated ones (JS only).
[+] Added new fixed hot-spot positioning mechanism via screen sections and margins (JS only).
[+] Reworked iPhone and iPad implementation for smooth hot-spot presentation and zooming (JS only).
[+] Added new features to enable rotation direction control, including forced single rotation direction (JS only).
[+] Added new progress indicator animation with optional progress numbers (JS only).
[+] Updated all samples to highlight latest 360 viewer capabilities (JS only).
[!] Fixed numerous issues reported from beta testing and production testing of our previous releases.

It's interesting that many of our clients have been quite happy with the beta v3 for almost 6 months now (the beta program was started early in the development this time). Just as we have reported a week ago, one of our v3 beta clients just finalized their 360 viewer deployment of 4000 designer sunglasses and eyeglasses on all of their websites - now available in 30 countries.This is including their dedicated mobile websites and a centralized storage of their 360 images. This tells us that focusing on sun-setting Flash capability and pushing forward with more interactive capabilities was the right decision. And we look forward to more success stories like this and will make sure that an adequate support is available from WebRotate 360 - such deployment always requires it!

What's next? We have a long burning list of priorities that is largely influenced by our users. Just in about few weeks there should be a follow up 3.1 beta release that will show some of the latest improvements requested by our clients in v3, the ones that didn't make it into this release. Some of the biggest concerns in the field with v3 right now is the lack of the full-screen support and some complexity involved with having multiple viewers on the same page. There will also be some cool enhancements in the hot-spot interactivity and more resources will be shifted to the Mac compatibility in the SpotEditor software. But we have much bigger plans and announcements in store that are still in the early stages of development.

In about two or three weeks, we are planing to run our first global (and likely the last in the next 12 months) one-day promotion event on the PRO viewer v3, offering a whopping 20% discount. This will be the last chance to jump on our full-featured PRO license before we make changes to our pricing. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to our Newsletter on the right to learn more. Please note that if you already have our PRO or Enterprise license, this upgrade is free!

Other resources:

- Take our latest 360 product photography tour that now runs on v3
- Visit our dedicated website with our latest v3 samples
- Download our quick v3 user guide
- Download WebRotate 360 Product Viewer v3
- Visit our 360 photography equipment store (our website launch promotion is 50% off on the WebRotate 360 Product Viewer v3 with certain equipment purchase).

Teaser of our new 360 viewing mode (v3.0) with hot-spots, deep zoom and more

by WebRotate 360 October 26, 2011 11:03

Finally can share with you a teaser of our new 360 viewing mode (no Flash). Super fast, works on your phone / tablet, with full hot-spot support, "deep zoom" using a second set of high-resolution images (standard zoom is also supported), and a new hot-spot content that can be edited / presented as a standard HTML/CSS markup!

Demo / Download (updated on March 2d, 2012)

Please give it a try! If you don't heavily rely on the full-screen capability that we have in our Flash viewer, this new release should allow to completely abandon Flash ("full-screen" will be coming in HTML too) as it's now even more feature rich than the Flash mode. Also, since the images for the control buttons and hot-spot circles now sit in a separate folder as PNGs, you can change their look and feel to match you vision exactly!

New WebRotate 360 Product Viewer Beta (3.0) Is Blazing Fast

by WebRotate 360 August 30, 2011 18:18

Some initial results from our test lab! In Flash mode, WebRotate 360 Product Viewer 3.0 Beta loads 3 times faster than our previous version - 2.5.3. The difference is quite dramatic, especially when you think of wait times when these 360 views are embedded on e-commerce websites, where this is a very sensitive subject. Check it out by clicking the links below:

2.5.3 (OLD) - this link is no longer available

3.0.0 (BETA) - Updated Beta v3 (latest release on March 2d, 2012)

Average loading speed for the test 360 view on our end was ~13.9s with the old 2.5.3 viewer and just ~4.62s with the new beta!

Download this beta module (only Flash swf in this drop for now) using the link below and just replace imagerotator.swf under the imagerotator folder in your 360 packages. Any feedback would be awesome!

In the next few days we will post another beta with a new high resolution mode where high-rez images can be configured separately (same xml file) and are only loaded on demand on zoom. Stay tuned!

Download Beta Module Here

Announcing the release of WebRotate 360 Product Viewer 2.5.3

by WebRotate 360 August 19, 2011 11:29

So far the only place where we mentioned about our new 2.5.3 release was Facebook and Twitter. We love both of the social networks for the interactivity and quick feedback they provide but we shouldn't forget about our neat little blog...

Without further ado, we're announcing here the release of WebRotate 360 Product Viewer 2.5.3! This an important release for us as it provides an extensive ground work for launching cool new features in the upcoming v3.0 (more on this later).

I think the most important update in 2.5.3 is the release of the revamped SpotEditor utility. Now it's finally possible to edit pretty much any configuration setting available in our 360 Product Viewer using our simple user interface and then preview a 360 view in your default browser or even publish it to your hard-drive with everything needed for a quick deployment on your website.

Couple of screenshots of the updated utility:

I hope you will also find it handy that we supplied 5 integration samples with the free viewer package that show how easy it is to create stylized interactive 360 product views with dynamic or static hot-spots using either Flash or HTML5 modes and integrate them in a variety of ways on your web pages.

Not to mention our new website that is dedicated to showcasing the types of samples that can be created with our free 360 product viewer - http://www.360-product-views.com/

Full list of updates in 2.5.3:

[+] Revamped SpotEditor tool; added support for all configuration settings as well as Preview / Publish function
[+] Added five new samples (Basic, Color, JS, Popup, Phone)
[+] Added support for loading image / hotspot assets from locations separate from xml config (for CDN, etc)
[+] Added API for in-place viewer reload using different xml configuration
[+] Added API setting (flybyJsMenuFix) to fix an issue where Flash may overlap dynamic JavaScript menus
[+] Added new type of hotspot indicator that pulsates constantly
[+] Added urlTarget (xml) setting to allow specifying URL open mode on click inside hotspot (_blank, _self)
[+] Added xml setting (bounce) for viewing when full set of 360 images is not available (e.g., 180-degree rotation)
[+] Added two xml settings for configuring color of progress animation
[+] Allowed hotspot popups to close on mouse click
[+] Removed dimming of product images when activating hotspot popups
[+] Enabled hotspot disable (xml) setting to also apply in JavaScript mode
[+] Enabled toolbarBackAlpha (xml) setting to also apply in JavaScript mode
[+] Enabled disableMouseControl (xml) setting to also apply in JavaScript mode
[+] Added support for checking viewer version via Firebug
[!] Fixed static hotspots to prevent browse action when no URL is assigned
[!] Fixed IE security issue specific to Free edition (presented itself as a jQuery access error in IE statusbar)
[!] Fixed issue in Webkit browsers where mouse cursor would sometimes change into selection mode on click
[!] Fixed issue in JavaScript mode where viewer was skipping on a single image during rotation via mouse dragging
[!] Fixed issue where JavaScript mode was not letting more than one static hotspot
[!] Updated End-User License Agreement (License.PDF)
[!] Launched our new website 360-product-views.com with a quick tour of the key product features

Download your free 360 product viewer HERE and join us on Twitter or Facebook for realtime news, updates, and a live dialog!

Sample 360 Product View of iPhone 4 with PaySaber Credit Card Scanner

by WebRotate 360 March 21, 2011 15:47

Here's an interesting 360 product view (click on the image below) that we just finished among other imagery for USA ePay here in Los Angeles. Even though it looks pretty simple and straightforward, there were couple of issues that had to be considered:

The phone is very reflective on the front and the back - we don't want to show our studio surroundings reflected on its surfaces.
iPhone would look better on a black background as it has this bright chrome-like enclosure on the sides but since we had to show it with the scanner, the black background wouldn't be a good option.
Our client wanted to show their iPhone app running - this is not something unusual, though this post-production step takes plenty of time.
The view is made of two parts - the phone itself and the black credit card scanner that light up differently on different angles and so exposure and the lights had to be tested carefully to show good details without blowing off the chrome enclosure or the screen while keeping the rest of the 360 view well lit and consistent. This is relatively simple when shooting a still composition... not so much with 360 product photography. A reflector card was used pretty much on every shot to remove glare, etc.
The main subject here is the scanner - so we want to shoot the scene almost from the bottom up to bring viewer's attention to the scanner rather than the phone. This is a bit tricky since the lower camera angles show the reflection of our turntable right on the front panel of the phone, so we had to raise the product up on a very narrow platform to cut out the table reflections.
The end result is slightly dimmer overall than what we would want to see on our final 360 view, but given all of the above it's a pretty solid product presentation nevertheless.

[June 8th, 12 - this sample has been removed as part of our new website deployment. You can find our latest samples here]

PS: this is not the trickiest 360 product photography we have done by any means, though it definitely required some extra care and preparation. We will be releasing our updated website pretty soon and will try to incorporate some of the most interesting samples there as well. In the meantime check out a couple of our not-so-very-recent 360 product views on our new 360 Product Viewer page (still under construction).

Production and Preparation of Images for Your 360 Product Viewer

by WebRotate 360 February 05, 2011 15:52

In our 360 product photography projects we usually produce 20-36 images per product and this is what we recommend to most of our clients. 20 images in particular offer a good balance between smoothness of the animation, download/wait times, and the amount of required photography and post-production efforts.

The next question to consider is viewer dimensions when placed on your web pages and its zoom depth. For example, if your viewer is configured to be 500 x 375px on the product pages and you want to support x 2 zoom, the images should be at least twice the size of the viewer to present in good quality when zoomed in, or about 1000 x 750px (NOTE: for sharpest product presentation we recommend producing 360 images that are just a bit larger than what they would appear when zoomed in full). This will result in JPG images being ~80-100 KB per image for an average product image with no background and with a decent JPG quality, which is a ~2 MB download for 20 images. For the average broadband cable speeds at about 3 Mbit/sec (read more), this is ~4-5 sec wait time for a complete view to load. This wait should work well for the majority of e-commerce applications. Note that WebRotate 360 viewer downloads and shows the first pre-loader image immediately so your web page visitor has something to look at while the rest of the images are downloaded and processed.

Same applies to the full-screen mode where to keep the original sharpness of the images you will need to produce images that are noticeably larger than your original viewing box on the product pages. WebRotate's 360 product viewer has two settings that control image presentation in full screen mode (maxZoomFullScreen and fullScreenStretch).

When saving images, always use the Save for Web option if available so you can optimize images specifically for Web presentation. Don't over-optimize as even high quality JPG compression (~80%) will result in relatively small files that should work for most 360 product presentations.

IMPORTANT: Due to the zooming algorithm used by the Flash player/browser, it's important to keep image width to height ratio same or similar to the ratio of the viewer. This will ensure that you have sharpest presentation of the images inside the viewer. For example, if your viewer is 480 x 320px, the images can have either the same size or smaller (recommended for best quality if no zoom/full-screen is required) or stretched proportionally, i.e. 576 x 384, 720 x 480, 960 x 640, etc.

You can download the FREE edition of our 360 Product Viewer here

Our Magento Extension and 360 Product Viewer is Live on JonWye.com

by WebRotate 360 November 15, 2010 09:18

Very pleased to announce that our customized 360 product viewer and Magento Extension is now live on a new and very trendy e-commerce clothing store at JonWye.com. All the development and integration went without major hiccups, and except for a couple of bugs in our supplementary editing software that we had to fix per feedback from Jon Wye's team, everything else was a good example of a teamwork.

New features and functionality that were introduced in this Magento extension will be soon incorporated and uploaded to our Magento Connect profile so the broader community can benefit from this work. In particular, the previous version of the extension was relying on Magento's product image title tags for enabling/disabling 360 viewers. This was not a practical solution as folks would still want to use these tags for SEO and better navigation. With this new addition, the image titles are not used as we have a much cleaner way managing which products have 360 product views enabled via Magento's custom product attributes. More details will follow..