iPhone app 3d engine or not

Question

I am developing a simple iPhone app, which:

• retrieves data from the server
• presents the data

In order to present the data better I want to add nice 3d dynamic objects, for example:

• a car with spinning wheels next to car sales bar chart.
• power plant with smoke coming out of the chimney next to CO2 emission numbers

The questions are:

• How do I work with the designer on this, what output should he provide for me (format)?
• How do I put it in my application, should I involve some 3d engine/framework?

Answer 1

You can use cocos2d for the iPhone and fake 3d with the art. So, you have a car that is drawn to look 3d but you're only using 2d to display it. The effects that you want to do don't require to use full 3d models.