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

    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 360 degree product photos (standard zoom is also supported), and a new hot-spot content that can be edited and presented as a standard HTML/CSS markup!

    Demo and Download (updated on March 2, 2012)

    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 your designs.

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

    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:

    Average loading speed for the test 360 degree product 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 our latest 360 photo software here

  • Announcing the release of WebRotate 360 Product Viewer 2.5.3

    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 degree product viewer using our simple user interface and then preview your 360 degree product 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:

    WebRotate 360 product viewer software new release 2.5.3

    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 360 product views with dynamic or static hot-spots using either Flash or the new html5 360 viewer mode 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 degree 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!

  • Eliminate reflections in your 360 product photography projects

    Here's a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography.

    If we take a cell phone or an iPad or a similar product with a reflective screen and place it on our turntable "as-is", and then try to shoot it straight such that our camera points straight towards the screen, we will notice immediately that our 360 photography turntable can be distinctively seen as a white curvy reflection on the product screen. The table reflection will stay there on the screen on pretty much all 360 product shots where the screen is visible as light from our lighting will bounce of the turntable and will reflect straight to our camera via reflective surfaces on the product.

    This is pretty much impossible to avoid as we still need plenty of light around our product and any kind of a bounce or reflective card we would use to block the light may not let us to eliminate the reflection completely. Not to mention the time required to properly adjust the bounce card for 10-15 images, which is a daunting task on its own.

    The answer to this problem is pretty straightforward - we just need to raise the product above our turntable just enough to hide the reflection for our chosen camera angle. It may require some additional work as mounting a product above the table will often require building a custom base that has to fit and hold the product in a desired configuration. We have been using solid wooden blocks that we would cut into different shapes and that worked great. With wood though you have to be sure to wrap it up in some sort of white tape or white paper to ensure that it doesn't produce a yellowish cast on your product images.

    Recently we started using Styrofoam and it works much better as it's easier to cut and we don't need to worry about the color cast as it's pretty much neutral light Grey. You can get various shapes and sizes of Styrofoam blocks in your local arts and crafts store or order online.

    Of course if you have 360 product photography equipment that allows you to mount and rotate a product from the top, this is not an issue. From our experience though most of electronics with reflective surfaces and similar products have to be shot upright mounted on a turntable one way or another.

    Here's a few images to better illustrate the problem and our solution:

    The curvy glass frame is sitting right on the turntable and we can clearly see its reflection:

    Let's now cut a Styrofoam stand with a narrow platform just enough to hold the thin glass frame:

    Now the table reflection is gone on all 360 degree images:

    Even from these "tough" angles it still look reasonably well:

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