Create Stunning 3D Slideshows with CU3ER

The simplest way to grab a visitor’s attention, impress a client, or draw eyeballs for an online promotion, is to go with slideshows created in Flash. Flash slideshows look snazzy, are light weight and are visible on almost any web browser. But how long can we scrape through with the good old two dimensional slide and flip transitions?

This where CU3ER steps in to our rescue. CU3ER comes with a great set of features, enabling you to create 3D slideshows with a wide range of customization options to make your slideshow as impressive as possible. Let us go check it out.

Overview

Simply put, CU3ER is an easy to set up and extremely customizable 3D image slider creation tool. With its tailor made 3D designs, all your images can be given a three dimensional twist.  CU3ER a can be used to create a content slider, image gallery or online advertisement that are sure to attract a bunch of eyeballs. Sign up is pretty standard and requires email activation.

Pricing

CU3ER has to two paid plans priced at $49 and $199 respectively. The former supports one domain and the latter supports upto five and you get to remove the CU3ER brand name from the sliders.

A free plan is available too but the primary feature missing from the free plan is the awesome CU3ER manager, the immensely simple to use 3D slide creator and the star attraction of the web app.

cManager

As far as CU3ER is concerned cManager is everything. It is the dashboard, it is the GUI, it is the editor and the list goes on. While free users don’t have access to this awesome tool, they can take it for a spin by clicking on the demo link in the homepage.

At first glance, cManager looks great with a minimalistic look and you will just see four icons in the left pane to control bulk of the functionality. There are four tabs to help you track the transitions and effects in the Tween. For those new to animation or Flash, tweening is the process of generating intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that the first image evolves smoothly into the second image.

Adding Images

Using the Image Library icon on the left pane, you can upload images from the desktop to the library. Once the images are in the library you can add them to the slides you are creating.

You can a custom backdrop in the slide using an image from the library. From Settings you can control the alignment of images, their dimensions, transparency and image transform inputs.

Adding Visual Addons

Navigation and visual elements like arrows, auto play options, description of the slide etc. can be added from the Visual Addons section. While the arrows help move the slide (depending on the transition you are planning) along in either direction, auto play options help you decide if the slide has to start rolling without requiring the user to click anything.

Using the Preloader feature, you can add a status or progress bar indicating the viewer how far the slide has come and how much more to go. You can either use the default preloaders that come with CU3ER or create a custom one.

Shadows are part and parcel of the 3D experience as they add depth to the visuals. CU3ER allows you to create both static and dynamic (changes with the transition) shadows. Using distortion controllers, you can just start matching shadow perspective with slides.

Setting the Camera

Camera that is referred to here is a functionality that basically mimics how you will want the slide to be displayed at various angles, just like the way you do with a normal real world camera. Click on Camera button in Settings menu to start assigning X, Y and Z co-ordinates to change the perspective.

Managing Slides

Coming to  the crux of the entire process – the content (images). CU3ER offers you complete control over the configuration of the entire slide and that of the individual slides as well. Right from which slide to begin with to the duration of the slide and the number of times the slide has to be repeated (loop effect) everything is editable.

If you want the images to scale horizontally or vertically, use the Transform settings to suit your needs. You can also add a caption to the slides and link them to URLs.

Adding Transitions

Time to spice up the slides by adding transitions. You can create 3D transitions using the Flip motion at various degrees. 2D transitions like fade and glide are also available if you like to mix and match.

Using the Grid, you can choose exactly where the images should slice through during the transition. In the same manner you can also set the direction in which the slices should rotate – left, right, up, down or any combination of this four.

Timeline

Timeline helps you put the slides in order and in a sequence that makes perfect sense. In a nutshell, Timeline is a thumbnail display of all the slides and transitions. Slides are represented by respective images and the transitions by grids.

You can either fine tune the timeline by working on the individual slide/transition or using a slide and transition pair. Just click on the + symbol to insert a new slide or transition to the timeline and drag & drop them from their current positions to change an existing timeline. It’s that simple with CU3ER!

Conclusion

If all things are up to your satisfaction and the preview looks perfect, hit the Export option to get  the CU3ER package with all the relevant files included in it. Upload the files to your server and impress your audience with some mind boggling 3D effects.

With so many options to customize the slide and transitions, the possibilities of creating fresh and unique 3D slides are endless. Considering the cost of hiring a Flash developer, at this price point CU3ER is a steal, saving lot of time in the process. Just go for it!