I plan on writing design tools that people can use within a web page to design rings. Now that real time 3D can be done in Flash, I am interested in starting with Flash with just images. I want to get my foot in before real time 3D flash takes off.

I think simple rings are a great starter product. These rings have no holes and a minimum thickness. This makes them very easy to manufacture; as easy as printing.

This type of design is called 2 1/2D because you can only change the flat profile of the design. The design is wrapped around a ring, but not designed in 3D. The design is represented by an image with the grayscale color being the height. So you will hear me say ways to manipulate an image, but really it’s changing the 2 1/2D information.

This is a rough list:
Centering of text on a ring.
Arraying artwork around the ring.
1D & 2D Arraying.
1D scale of the layout – stretch to array.
2D scale.
3D scale, the ring size, or thickness must change.
Pattern builder for the ring.
Booleans for the art work.
Art database.
Ring database.
Ring LxW look up calculator. Like a size 6 4mm layout fits on a size 8 4.5?mm layout.
Softening/blurring tools. Putting a chamfer on hard edges.
A cropping tool.
Import pictures tool.
Rail selection tool.
Height raise/lower tools, or darken and lighten the image.
Negative image tool.
Ring size calculator.
Font builder and font spacing tool (kerning maybe).
Vector curves – like adding a grove.
Basic setting tools for bezels and prongs.

I am thinking about these tools for simple rings, but they can be used for:
Bracelets, Links, solid or hinged.
Napkin rings
Huggie earrings.
Rondelles
Coin/medalian bezels
Flat metal strips for decoration.

Really these tools can be used for any 2 1/2D design work.