eX-cinder, a two-person company that make Mac OS X software and utilities, has released Sphaera TP (Technology Preview), an early look at a Mac OS X application for creating 3D content.
Sphaera lets you model, animate and render 3D scenes as images and movies. It’s written from the ground up with Apple’s Cocoa development environment and uses a lot of Mac OS X core technologies to achieve its goals, according to Raphael Sebbe, in charge of technology and software developments at eX-cinder.
Using Sphaera, you can model objects using usual 3D techniques, such as the built-in primitives, revolving a curve around an axis or moving the control points of a NURBs surface. Next, you can add textures, either image-based or procedural. Then you can animate it by moving and deforming your objects over time and eventually render your scene to a QuickTime movie.
“Sphaera development is lead by passion, and has been made possible thanks to the advanced technologies offered by Mac OS X and, in particular, Cocoa,” Sebbe said. “Sphaera is provided as part of a testing and feedback program. We are committed to making Sphaera suit the needs of our users, and that is the reason why we make it available at such an early stage of development, when all kinds of improvement can still be done.”
eX-cinder has already released HexEditor, an application that allows viewing/manipulating raw data inside files, and Voice Commander, an application that permits controlling apps using speech recognition. The other member of the company is Antonin Misonne, who is responsible for the sales and marketing, as well as customer relations.