Latest demo videos

Sep 2021 - Beta 3 and Google Slides import.

Aug 2021 - Beta 2 and the Forest style.

May 2021 - 3D charts.

April 2021 - A spherical 3D menu.

March 2021 - Lighting Styles.

Slogans of the week :-)

Bjorn's 3D-decks - a new class of slide decks combining 2D, 3D and animations...

2D is so yesterday - 3D decks is the future...

Make you slide deck come alive - make it a 3D one...

Scoot over PPT, Slides - here comes 3D decks...

#scootoverppt

Bjorn's 3D-decks - making slide decks fun since 2021...

Bjorn's 3D-decks - making slide decks come alive since 2021...

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a 3D deck might be worth a million more...

How boring wouldn’t text be without typefaces, font weights and images? Now 3D can make slide decks truly amazing

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Online presentations re-imagined

Create one-of-a-kind eye-catching (static) presentations - on websites, advertisements, conferences, trade shows (online, at booths, etc) and other similar scenarios and of course regular business-to-business in-person or online presentations.

"Animated 3D makes better presentations"

Finally you don't have to be a pro to create amazing interactive animated 3D presentations.

Use Bjorn's 3D-decks for...

• advertisements
• conferences
• trade shows
• websites
• kiosks & booths
• business-to-business presentations
• product hierarchies
• family trees

Mix and match

Why animated 3D in slide decks?

One of the benefits of 3D is that users can interact with decks in new ways, zoom in and out of details, rotate to see things from other angles. You can also cram more information onto a slide since you have one more dimension.

You have a message you need to get through to people, right? You need to Wow, Captivate and Retain the audience!

Latest development news

Tree structure (child slides, aka sub-slides)

Legacy presentation software is often based on a linear list of slides. Bjorn's 3D-decks is using a tree structure to allow for more interesting effects. Each slide can have any number of child slides, aka sub-slides and when presenting, a "TOC-slide" is automatically added showing a preview of these child slides.

Note that the tree structure is "invisible" in presentation mode, slides are shown in the depth-first sequence.

Scenes

A slide can generate three different scenes in the final presentation. (you can of course turn off any of these scenes)

The default is to first display the (optionally animated) 3D scene, when you navigate forward, the 2D fullscreen version is shown and when you move forward one more time, the TOC scene is presented.

• The 3D scene
• The toc scene
• The 2D version of the slide

Core UI

The deck wysiwyg tool UI consists of five tabs

• 2D slide editor
• 3D scene editor
• 3D TOC scene editor
• Tree editor
• Preview tab

Here is a short video on the steps to create a small slide deck.

TOC scenes

Here is the current (more types are in the pipeline) list of 3D scene types for the TOCs:

• Pizza box wall
• Pizza box room
• Slide yard
• Satellites menu
• Carousel
• Rolodex
• Flower
• Train
• Conveyor
• Cube
• Hockey puck
• Checkerbox
• Shuffleboard
• Acquarium
• Sequence
• Magic Box
• Tree

Below is a short video on how to change the TOC scene for a slide with sub-slides.

Terminology

• Deck - the set of slides, layouts, overlays and styles
• Slide - a 2D drawing (based on standard SVG)
• Scene - represents the final slide in presentation mode. Each slide can generate up to 3 scenes in presentation mode.
• Chamber - each 3D scene can use a chamber shape
• Theme - a set of layouts, 3D styles, action styles and overlays
• Layout - a special kind of slide defining text and image placeholders. The layout also defines the default background and 3D properties.
• 3D style - a collection of 3D effects and animations you can apply to the 2D slide.
• Action style - a collection of 3D animation effects you can apply when a sub-slide is clicked in a TOC scene. For example, the "Drop to ground" action style will drop all other sub-slides to the ground and focus the camera on the selected slide, and then load the slide in question.
• Lighting style - a collection of 3D lighting effects you can quickly apply on a scene.
• Overlay - a special kind of slide with whatever shapes you want to overlay a slide. Can for example be used for adding the word "DEMO" ontop of every slide.
• Placeholder - a shape on a layout to be populated on "real" slides. There are three kinds of placeholders - Text; Image; TOC and Slide Number.

Skyboxes

A few short videos recorded of a presentation using the skybox effect can be seen below.

First slide is using the skybox feature and a number of animations. Second slide shows a standard rotating pizza box. Third slide shows a carousel and the final slide shows the 3D text effect.

Here is another example using skybox and elastic scale animations.

"Circle the ground" slide animation

A short 4 slide demo highlighting the "circle the ground" effect and the "pizza boxes" shape with wobble effects.

The "self ground" effect

A two slide demo highlighting the "self ground" effect - using the 2D slide itself as the ground image.

3D lists

Lists are often used in presentations and to support them in the 3D realm 3D-decks can automatically convert a list in the 2D slide to a 3D shape in the 3D scene.

The video shows four scenes, first the 3D scene with a list as a "carousel" shape followed by the 2D scene with the "regular" list that was "converted" to the carousel, then follows another list in another 3D scene using the "flower" shape. Finally an alternative shape for the a list, the "list tree" .

3D tables

Tables are popular in presentations. 3D-decks can automatically convert a table in the 2D slide to a 3D shape in the 3D scene. Two types of table shapes are supported:

• Carousel tower
• Flower tower

The video below first shows the 3D scene with a carousel tower followed by the 2D scene with the source table. The second 3D scene shows a two column table displayed as a "flower tower" and with just 2 columns the flower becomes a flat table, the "child explosion" effect is added to make it more eye-catching. At the end you can see the first table shown as a flower tower with a ground shape to enhance the 3D effect.

"Fly inside Self" effect

The "Fly inside Self" effect uses the 2D slide itself as the skybox image and then rotates the skybox and the slide to mimic a flying effect. You can see the result in the short video below.

"TOC placeholder" elements

True, one goal for Bjorn's 3D-decks is to use 3D and animations to achieve unique and intriguing presentations but another goal is support "work smarter, work faster" - introducing the "TOC placeholder"...

A TOC placeholder is an element on the 2D slide that automatically is populated with a list (of user defined depth) of all sub-slides of the slide in question. The placeholder is updated as soon as a child slide is added or removed to/from the slide or any of it's decedents.

You can see this in action in the video below.

1. A slide deck is created with some demo slides.
2. The deck is viewed in the "slide tree" designer.
3. TOC placeholder is added to the root slide.
4. Slides are rearranged in the tree designer.
5. The root slide is automatically updated.

Train and Conveyor effects

The latest 3D scene style added to "Bjorn's 3D-decks" has the intriguing?? name "foggy slide train". You can use it for a single slide (multiplying the slide image) or showing the slide tree beneath the slide. (Makes a perfect first slide showing the whole deck). Combined with the new "scene fog" feature you end up with a slide deck shown in the video below. At the end of the video you can also see the companion style called "conveyor belt".

Jack in the Box

What has a burger to do with slide decks in Bjorn's 3D-decks? Nothing of course ;-) But a new 3D scene effect called "jack-in-the-box" was recently added.

The regular 3D slide is hidden by a box and then the box is slowly removed to reveal the slide, you can see it for yourself in the video below.

You can use the slide itself or custom images for the outer box. When using the slide itself you can control what to keep, one common setup is to remove the body text from the outer box and just show the title and perhaps an image.

The second part of the video shows an outer box using custom images.

You can of course control the animation of both the outer box and the inner slide. The third part of the video shows the inner slide rotating around the Y axis. In the first two examples, the inner slide is using the wobble and "scale up" effects.

Magic Box

Turns out the "Jack-in-the-box" effect works great as a TOC effect, showing each sub-slide one by one, as shown in the video below.

The behavior is encapsulated in the scene style "magic box" which uses a "jack-in-the-box" for the outer shape and the "sequence" shape for the inner slide. The "sequence" shows each sub-slide one by one.

A "magic box" also uses the "rotate alpha" camera animation to perhaps? make things more interesting.

Yard Signs

Say hello to the "Yard Signs" scene style. It shows each slide with high transparency and the loops through each of the slides, making them fully visible while applying a rotation and scale animation.

Dancing Slides

Please meet the "Dancing Slides" scene style.

Wobbling Domes

Another, more experimental, addition to Bjorn's 3D-decks, the "Wobbling Dome" scene style. The style uses the slide itself (optionally grayscaled) as a repeated texture for a wobbling sphere in which the slide floats.

Aquarium style

Bjorn's 3D-decks + physics engine = true !

Check out the scene style (called "Aquarium") using the newly added support for the CANNON physics engine. Physics based scene styles can be configured in many many ways, this one is using the regular "pizza box" shape, "self as ground" and semi-transparent bounding box. More new styles to be revealed in the coming days.

Meet the "Shuffleboard" style

This new physics based scene style is using the new "hockey puck" shape, limiting "y" movements and the "self as ground" feature. As most physics based scene styles, the style shows the slide itself and all sub-slides (to user defined depth). You can set a minimum count forcing the scene to show multiple copies of each slide.

The "ice rink" style

Welcome the "ice rink" scene style. It uses the physics engine, high gravity, a bounding box and the "self as ground" feature.

The "slide rain" style

Say aloha to the "slide rain", a new scene style. It uses the physics engine, high gravity, a bounding box, start position at top of bounding box, downwards initial force , and the "self as ground" feature. As with most scene styles you can configure it to show just the slide itself or all sub-slides to a desired depth. And of course you can pick the shape of the dropping slides.

The "Dominoes" effect

The name should tell the story. It uses the physics engine. Only the first (or the last) slide is give a little push. You can use guard rails or let the slides fall of the cliff. You can play with the initial force, the gravity, the distance between dominoes, the curve amplitude and frequency.

Pic-in-pic and multi-views

3D-decks supports slides (scenes) with multiple cameras, aka multi-views. You can split the screen in four views, two vertical or two horizontal views or alternatively use 1 to 4 picture-in-picture views. Each camera can of course be independently animated, eg. rotate around a target etc.

Auto-focus on sub-slides

The autofocus effect is available for all scene styles. Each camera can set to autofocus on a shape in the scene. Here are some of the possible settings.

• next object, move focus around in the scene in a preset order. Focus changes at user specified interval, defaults to 3 seconds.
• random object, moves focus around in an random order.
• pinball, focuses (moves on the pinball, if one exists in the scene.
• last collided object, works well with the domino effect.

You can also specify the length of the "move focus" animation, default is 2 seconds.

The scene style, "Focus on me", is using the "pizza box wall" shape, the "self as ground" feature, "wobble" animations on the sub-slides and the autofocus set to random order.

Click actions and action styles

TOC slides can act as 3D menus, tapping or clicking a sub-slide will either navigate to the slide or an external URL (or simply display a message)

Action styles define the look and feel for what should happen a sub-slide is clicked.

You can play with four animations - camera focus, hover, hide and click. The hover animations apply to the non-clicked slides, can for example be used to fade them out or drop them to the ground. The click animations affect the clicked slide, e.g. scale up the slide 3 times or rotate it around all axes. The hover animation affects the slide beneath the pointer, the wobble effect works well in this scenario. The focus animation affects the 3D scene camera and tells how the camera should move the focus to the clicked slide.

A deck comes with a bunch of predefined action styles like "drop to ground", "fade out", "auto-focus", "wobble and scale". Video below shows how to use the sidebar to quickly apply an action style to a scene.

"Sea of slides" - a scene style

The "Sea of slides" style is using the special ground shape - the checkerboard.

"Checkerboard" - a scene style

A great candidate for your TOC scenes.

Highly configurable:

• Number of sub-slides to show
• Random or preset scaling of each sub-slide
• Static or animating scaling of each sub-slide
• Random scale between a min and a max
• Alternate depth or or off (making every 2nd slide thicker)
• Speed of the scaling
• and more...

"Mirror floor" - a scene style

The Mirror floor style is:

• enables and applies the mirror effect on the ground shape
• sets the mirror color to "eerie black"
• enables the backside feature of the 3D slide. The backside i great for either rotation animations or for example in question/answer scenarios - viewer has to rotate the slide to see the answer.

Scene chambers and "Slide vanity" - a scene style

Each scene can use a chamber, a cube shape, with independently configurable sides. Each side can show:

• the slide itself
• a mirror
• the child slides
• checkerboard of sub-slides

The style "Slide vanity", shown in the video, is using mirrors all around.

"Walls of Kids" - a scene style

Another style based on the chamber feature - sub-slides are shown in grayscale on the chamber walls with the main slide centered in the middle

"Fortress of Slides" - a scene style

The Fortress of Slides scene style is based on the chamber feature - with all sides set to use an animated "checkerboard" of sub-slides.

"Backboard" - a scene style

The "Backboard" scene style is using the chamber feature but only enabling the back-side and the floor. It sets the visible sides to show a grayscale version of the slide in question.

"Chamber of Self" - a scene style

The "Chamber of Self" is a scene style using the chamber feature - each scene can use a chamber (a cube shape) with independently configurable sides. Each side can show the slide itself; a mirror; a child slide; or a checkerboard of sub-slides. The style "Chamber of Self", shown in the video, is using the slide in grayscale all around.

Animating light sources and "In the spotlight" - a scene style

Meet the new scene style "In the spotlight" which uses some new animation features. Each scene has a set of different lights, one of them is the Spotlight. The new scene style sets the spotlight to auto-focus and to move around the slides shown in the scene and dims all the other lights.

The style is quite configurable:

• move in set or random order
• length of animation (defaults to 1 second)
• time between moves (defaults to 3 seconds)
• intensity/dimming of other light sources
• intensity of the spotlight itself

"Light me up" - a scene style

"Light me up", the next scene style based on light source animation, dims the scene and rotates the spotlight around the slide. The style also uses the "self as ground" feature and wobbles the camera and the slide.

A spherical 3D menu

The "Satellites menu" scene style displays all sub-slides (to user defined depth) symmetrically as satellites to the slide in question. Great way to visualize the whole slide deck. Perfect as a 3D menu, just tap on a sub-slide to navigate to slide or URL. Video shows how the viewer can rotate the scene using the mouse. The style is using the "drop and focus" action style when navigating to the selected slide.

"Spinning Satellites" and random animation speed

"Spinning Satellites", a sibling style to the more static "Satellites Menu", enables the Y rotation for each satellite and sets the random speed between 20% and 120% or the scene frame rate.

"Lost in Space" and two spotlights

The style "Lost in Space", a variant of the regular "Satellites Menu" is using two spotlighs - one is circling the cloud of satellites and the other is circling the ground shape.

Light up your presentations - Lighting Styles

Different light sources can really make your slide deck come alive. To make it easier to experiment and try different light settings, 3D-decks supports "lighting styles" and comes with a decent set of pre-defined styles. The video shows how to use the "lighting style picker" to apply different lighting styles on the current slide.

A lighting style controls the set of light sources to turn on, their intensity, position, direction and color, as well as any animations (e.g. sweep the ground shape).

3D chart support

If you select the "Chart" slide type, a 2D chart on the slide will be converted to a 3D chart shape and that shape is then the 3D scene for the slide.

There are a few predefined chart based scene styles:

• Chart (default)
• Chart (rotating) - slowly rotates the camera around the 3D chart
• Chart (self ground) - enables the "self as ground" feature

"In-scene" navigation and the "Slide forest"

Beta 2 adds one major enhancement, "in-scene navigation" and a new scene style - "Slide forest".

A 3D-deck is a tree of scenes, you navigate from one scene to another, each scene represents one slide. Previously a scene could display a number of slides within it but you could not navigate between them, this changes in Beta 2.

The new "Slide forest" 3D scene type displays all the slides in the deck laid out as a tree, you can use back/forward/mouse-clicks to navigate to each of the slides. When a slide is navigated to, the slide is brought forward by animating the camera, moving it forward to face the slide. The viewer can quickly move the camera back to overview mode using a button in the options bar.

When a slide is at the front (the focused one), a mouse click "opens" its regular 3D scene, leaving the forest scene. The video below shows the viewer (eventually) navigating to a slide with a 3D chart, then opening the chart slide to reveal the 3D version of the chart.

Google Slides import

Beta 3 adds import of Google Slides presentations.