3D graphics will explode in 2007
January 23, 2007
Home users and soccer moms can create 3D graphics. And the use and creation of 3D is going to grow exponentially in 2007 all because of Google and the Blender Foundation. People are intimidated by 3D. I know because I’m intimidated by it and I’ve been doing it for quite some time. I won’t admit to any level of mastery here because I’ll get myself in trouble for sure. Let me tell you why and how things are changing.
Nearly a year ago, Google bought Last Software and acquired SketchUp. But Google is a search engine. Why do they care? Google wants to index and provide the world’s information. That includes geography and mapping. Mapping is a big deal, because people who want to learn equally want to know how to get from point A to point B. Google Maps and satellite imagery led to Google Earth (more later) which led to the desire to map cities in 3D. That being the huge undertaking that it is, Google needs help. They need help from everybody if they want to map and create a virtual earth including all of it’s man made structures.
Sketchup is an award winning architectural modeling application. Whatever awards they have, they deserve because this program is slick. It’s a seriously fun way to model buildings, objects or anything else. Once Google bought Sketchup, they did the second best thing I could think of; release a free version for everyone to start creating models and importing them into Google Earth.
Version 6 of Sketchup was just released earlier this month. Until this month any buildings you could create were basically boring white boxes representing cities. Now you can embed the textures and add them to Google Earth. You can add them and they become apart of the entire system as everyone else sees it.
Take a look at downtown St. Lous. The plain boxes aren’t too impressive, but are somewhat helpful to understanding the scope of the downtown area. Notice that we have the beginning of higher quality models creeping into the system. See the well-textured model of the new Busch Stadium? Guess who created that? Google did. And surely they did that to give us all an example of what can be accomplished here with the new version of SketchUp and Google Earth. Anyone who wants to add to this city or any other is welcome to do so. Eventually, you will be able virtually explore the city in exactly the way it’s laid out. People are beginning to jump on this project. They like the idea of contributing and the ease at which they can make their own world.
Now let’s look at the program to create these cities. SketchUp is smart. Drag the mouse using the rectangle tool and it knows you want to draw a rectangle on the ground plane. Grab the patented push/pull tool and extend your rectangle into a cube. More rectangles, more extrusions. This model would take you about 3 minutes to build starting from zero training.
Newly added to Google SketchUp 6 is the ability to create text objects for things like signs on structures. If you look at the large toolset on the left of the screenshot, you might see a few strange or intimidating icons. No worries though because SketchUp comes with great tutorial walkthrus built in to the program where you practice creating and fixing models. And video tutorials on the Google SketchUp site will pump you right up to start trying more challenging things. Who wouldn’t want to model their dream home or even just model the house or apartment they live in now. You can think smaller and model the lamp you saw at the home store, or do like my good friend Tracey, who modeled a tradeshow booth for his company to see how everything would be laid out. Being able to create 3D examples of your product ideas, your brainstorms on landscaping is not only inviting, but you start seeing it as necessary. I look back and think, what if I had this in high school?
Every high school, and even elementary schools can be teaching 3D without worries of cost. Teachers, want to demo the next project for shop class or geometry? I have the perfect tool for you.
Moving on to Blender
Blender is another free 3D graphics package. I have been using Blender for a couple years now, doing various professional projects. Nothing too fancy, but not too shabby either. I’ve grown quite a bit with the program now that I understand better settings for lighting and modeling shortcuts. I would say Blender is a lot more flexible than SketchUp, but I won’t say one is better than the other. Certainly Blender could be considered harder to learn. The fact is I like having both programs around to solve problems and create visualizations.
Now it might be crazy to think that a program with a high level of difficulty is going to cause an explosion in 3D graphics development among the mainstream. But I’m seeing the explosion right now. Last year the Blender Foundation created the Orange Project in which they compiled a small team of Blender animators around the world and put them together in a studio for some months to create a completely open source animated movie. The short was created with free open source software (FOSS) and the files used to make the movie, e.g. models footage and instructional materials were given away and anyone can remake the movie, reuse the models in any way they choose.
Imagine the same happening in Hollywood. After Spiderman 3 is released, wouldn’t it be great if on the DVD, they gave you all the source materials, all the 3D buildings, the special effect raw footage, the full outtakes and said, “Hey, go forth and create a learn from this.” That won’t happen with Spiderman, but it DID happen with the Orange Project and their movie Elephants Dream. Anyone can use the movies models, redistribute the content, share, recreate, mix and mash.
Blender also has a game engine in which you can create 3D games of your own. The game engine is free like the rest of the program. This appeals to a lot of people too. If they are willing to put in the time, they can create the worlds, the effects, the entertainment.
Blender is small in size and multi-platform compatible which means that anyone inspired to do 3D for games, movies, or images has access to some real power. Plus the communities instructional materials have grown steadily over the past few years too. The online Blender wiki manual is constantly being refined. When I started learning 3D, Youtube didn’t exist. Now Youtube has hundreds of screencasts of people modeling or animating with blender, teaching effects and best practices. You can follow along and pick up how it’s done. Learning 3D is constantly becoming more accessible as more people do it, they teach others. It’s growing just like that.
Going places you can’t actually go
Just yesterday, I stumbed across a link I found absolutely amazing. Someone has taken the open parts of the Game Engine for Half Life and created an architectural walk-thru of the Kauffman House, created by Frank Lloyd Wright. This is the kind of inspiration and possibilities that will make 3D completely blow up. Forget about just the fun of 3D, and think of how it is enabling people to travel and visit places that they can’t actually go. Virtual campus tours on college websites are anything but exciting. They are basically boring photos of campus. What if a group of engineering or art students at a campus created for their thesis project, a game walk-thru of the outside of campus. Something that could be downloaded in 30MB and played on a computer. I could visit the campus in a very real way.
People are finding that 3D enhances the communication of ideas. It fills a gap that a hand drawing or a piece of clip art simply won’t. I encourage you to give these programs a look. Be the first kid on your block to model your block on Google Earth. Watch the Youtube videos of people generating particle effects with Blender. Use SketchUp to model that bookshelf you have been wanting to build. Create some killer example photos for yours or your kid’s next science project. I promise you are going to get hooked on the 3rd dimension.
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