Swell 3D prides itself in being one of the only three-dimensional websites in the world. There are a few other websites about 3-D art, but this one was actually built in 3-D anaglyph from the ground up, and that, I think, makes it unique. (UPDATE: almost unique. Two weeks after I posted this, the 3-D Barcinski & Jeanjean site was launched.)
So you can imagine my excitement as I read about "Z3D," a browser plug-in for Firefox by Claudio Benvenuti, who says it will turn any website 3D right before your eyes! Of course I installed it and tried it out.
What it does is replace the background of every page with an anaglyphic tattersall grid, and replaces all text styles with gray anaglyph type. It really does look as though the text is hovering above the background. And when you mouse over a hyperlink, the text hovers even higher. So it works, I guess.
Since Z3D doesn't do anything with images, it will give the best results on pages full of text links. I tried it on Drudge Report and The Huffington Post.
Well, that's what it does. The text is in 3D, but the style is trashed. Columns are broken. Text is sometimes rendered in the wrong place, or seemingly missing from the page entirely. I appreciate the effort, but Z3D reminds me of those online programs that will translate any Web page into Pig Latin or Leet. It's clever, and it's interesting to see the results, but I can't imagine anyone finding it useful, or even enjoyable for long.
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This in an interesting add-on here. I have read about it only now (Despite the fact that this article is over a year old) and it had really interested me a lot. As I have understood - your website is in 3d huh? In order to see those effects I must wear 3 d glasses? If yes, I think I must purchase one because there must be more such a website nowadays. I think that soon this idea will become more popular and we will see more websites like this (after huge success of 3d avatar movie). However it is hard to believe that this add-on will make any website like 3d one. Maybe it will change a background a little bit but overall an effect must be real poor. The only way to make a superb 3d website is to make it with your own hands from the very beginning. I hope that you will develop those ideas in the future too. Thanks one more time for the interesting website.
Sincerely,
Bernard Gillson from web application development