The Project

"You can't do this with a photo." Steven demonstrated by rotating the virtual bowl to show it from different angles.

Julia suddenly realized the possibilities. "Oh wow, you could use this to make a model of something you wanted to sell on TradeMe or Ebay. Potential buyers then view it from any angle they wanted," she breathed.

"Exactly. That's where you'd use the embedded flash I was talking about. It could be useful for any online retailer" he said eagerly.

"And people could use it to create virtual objects for games," she added.

Steven turned to face her and Julia suddenly realized how close they were. She had her hand on his shoulder and their faces were so close his hair tickled her cheek. He must have realized at the same moment because he suddenly turned bright pink.

Julia stood up hurriedly and stopped invading his personal space. She kept talking and pretended she hadn't noticed his embarrassment. "I think that's the angle you need to go for, Steven. Use your presentation to show management how useful this would be for online retailers and they'll be beating down your door to fund it."

Steven nodded and the color slowly faded from his cheeks. "Thanks, that's really good advice. Of course, I'll have to redo my presentation from scratch."

"You do that, and let me know when you're ready to go over it again," she smiled at him. "Now, can we try modeling something else?"

"Ok, what did you have in mind?"

"How about this book?" She picked a dictionary up off the shelf.

"I already did it," he replied. He opened a folder with dozens of pictures in it and showed her model of the book. "I've done pretty much every object in my apartment."

"Even Sasha?" she asked with a smile.

Steven shook his head and sighed. "I tried but the little minx won't sit still."

"Hmm. How about people. Could you do me?"

"You?" Steven looked surprised but considered it. "I don't have a person-shaped mesh yet but we could try it anyway."

Julia moved the little table out of the way and stood in front of the blue sheet. She struck a pose and pouted like a model in a magazine. "Ok, I'm ready!"

Steven laughed out loud and captured the ridiculous pose on camera. He checked the image on the camera screen and looked thoughtful. "I don't think your white top is going to work very well. It's very reflective," he observed.