How to make a photo rotate in 3D
Blend is an amazing tool... To demonstrate the power of the tool, just try and make a photo rotate in 3D without using blend!
I created a blank WPF project using blend and added a photo to the project. Insert this photo into the window. Also change the size of the image to 200x300, forced the fill to be uniform and placed the image in the middle of the window (set margings to 0).
Please note that this image can also easily be bound to a data source, I just used a static image to demonstrate the 3D rotate
Next, select the image control, and then use the Tools option of making the image 3D
This tools option converts the image to a 3D viewport and then adds the image to a plane. To get an idea of how the 3D viewport works, select the ModelContainer -> Content -> Model in the Objects and Timelines pane and drag the grab handles that appear on the image to manipulate it in 3D. If you need to place an image at a slight angle or need to create any 3D effect, this is a good place to start and play...
Now we need to create a new timeline and make the image rotate. The timeline I created is Window.Loaded but any event can be used to trigger this timeline (A popular event to use is the ListBox.SelectionChanged).
Create a key frame at 0 seconds and then apply a rotate transform on either the X or Y axis of 180 degrees. This will basically show the back of the photo.
Next move the timeline to 2 seconds and record another key frame. Now apply a rotate transform again but this time change it to 360 degrees to turn the photo back to normal.
Now run the program...
That is all that is required to make your image rotate in 3D, amazing but so easy to do!!!
PS. For the more hardcore WPFers, have a look at the XAML that blend creates to get a idea of how it works...