Hasta La Ideas

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and recently we’ve seen this maxim holds true for creators looking to produce a video of their object rotating in space.

With 3D software, it’s not difficult to create a video like this of a virtual object you’ve modeled. And with Autodesk’s 123D Catch software, you can use a point-and-shoot to photograph real-life objects, giving you the data you need to achieve the same. But Comp Sci professors Jason Lawrence and Abhi Shelat are attempting to Kickstart the Arqball Spin, a sort of hi-tech/low-tech hybrid that combines software with a physical, rotating platform:

I’m not convinced a physical turntable will trump Autodesk’s 123D Catch solution, which requires just the camera; but at press time it seemed Arqball Spin could go either way, with 25 days left and about $14,500 of $40,000 in the bag.

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