Isn’t 3D Just for the Experts?
02/09/09 03:02:55 PMWe’re living in a world that’s increasingly designed and built around visual storytelling and 3D digital tools. However, until recently, the tools have only been in the hands of highly-trained experts.
You might say that the very early adopters of 3D technology were engineers and architects with computer-aided drafting (CAD) tools. Until the last decade, skyscrapers and bridges tended to be stiff and boxy designs, because people couldn’t perform the calculations necessary to design each component for a custom-fit. Architects such as Frank Gehry with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Disney Concert Hall and Lord Foster London’s “Gherkin” (officially the 30 St. Mary’s Axe building) transformed architecture’s potential with their complex, curving steel and glass. Consider two focal points of the 2008 Beijing Olympics—the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. These complex shapes could only be designed through CAD programs.
Biochemists also used 3D modeling programs to search for new drug combinations and to test potential interactions with the human body. Yet, these back-office tools didn’t become common workplace tools. They were niche tools used by highly-trained people, while the rest of us plodded along with standard office software, a web-browser, and some cool apps like Flickr and YouTube.
However, most truly disruptive technologies years of behind-the-scenes effort before they launch into the limelight. Partly this has been a matter of cost. For many years, you needed supercomputers or ultra-high-end graphic cards to generate 3D images. Within the last decade, this technology has become commonplace desktop and even laptop hardware.
The other barrier has been education. Previously, modeling tools required formal training—scientists, architects, 3D modelers using specialized programs that take years. Cutting-edge 3D tools will always require specialized tools, but very soon you will be able to create 3D images on your own without any formal training. It’ll be nearly as simple as using your digital camera and uploading pictures onto a website like Flickr or a video onto YouTube.
