The World of 3D

3D and the many uses it hasIn our world today.

Architecture3d is used for architecture in our world today, and most projects involve 3d modeling. Ever since contracting companies learned that they could recreate buildings before they have even built them, in a 3d version of the place they will be, with textures lighting shading and even structural physics to ensure that the design is strong enough. The possibilities are limitless with the use of 3D to design buildings, meaning more ambitious projects can happen because they can be rendered in a 3D modeling studio before the project is started, and so it can be reviewed and simulated.

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Architects in this day and age are now becoming very useful members of more than one industry because gaming companies hire them to create gaming worlds using their structural knowledge of buildings, and how to create the best ones possible that could actually stand up in real life and have detailed interiors and exteriors.

because most architects work with complicated 3D modeling studios they more than qualify themselves for a number of jobs, due to the saturation of 3D software used in so many companies.

GamingThe gaming industry ever since the first computer has been striving to use 3d modeling for their games. And since the late 1980s 3D modeling in gaming has been hugely altered, even modern 2D games such as terraria use 3D lighting often, because it improves the feel of the game. Some of the biggest companies such as blizzard entertainment made games such as Warcraft and Starcraft in the 90s which made use of the 3D gaming models to the best quality for that time, they then went on to make games like World of Warcraft which has a huge regional map with terrain and landscapes and cities and over the years, as computer power got better, the capabilities of 3D rendering became better, with higher quality models and better quality scenery. Programs such as Autodesk Maya and unity and helped create better worlds and characters for gaming.

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Ever since 1961 people have been striving to create better video games over the ages and trying to entertain and create fun ideas and worlds, but only until the early 1990s did the companies manage to use 3D technology and imaging to create their games and the results were some of the greatest games we have seen develop over the years…

Since the creation of the first 3D gameThe gaming industry became a race for the greatest amount of polygonsPer object, to give off the best and most realistic appearance possible for the gamers to experience, there were also other essential factors like lighting and shadows but everything became better as computers became better, meaning that the video game race was always one step behind the hardware race.

AdvertisingAdvertising is a fairly simple concept for 3D and though it had a huge impact on the market because of the quality adverts could contain since being able to use it, it hasn’t been world changing. (unless you want to count adverts being all 3D and slick as a world changing event, but I wouldn’t!). Examples of some really good uses of 3D for the purpose of this advertising section, are the recent Kellogg’s adverts with the coco pops characters, and the crunchy nut dinosaurs and the aliens, as shown below.

Film

The film industry has flourished almost as much as the gaming industry with the use of 3D ever since Jurassic park proved how well 3D models could look when composited correctly. The use of 3D has opened so many windows for new film ideas that would have seemed impossible back in the days of western films and silent films. And even if a film couldn’t be made using a hybrid of cameras and 3D models, it could have been completely made as an animation. And more recently the destruction of entire cities and the creation of whole new worlds has been possible with the quality 3D programs that can make objects and animations indistinguishable from real life.

SPACEAstronauts are due to be receiving 3D printers for them to craft their tools for missions while they are out in space, simply by designing a spanner or a drill in a 3D program, they can send it to the printer and the printer will print out a real spanner or drill for them to use. This is a practical idea because the resources that the printer uses to craft, are a lot lighter to carry in the spacecraft, so it saves the weight of carrying real versions of the tools, and then there is no worry about losing a tool into space or breaking a tool during a repair. This idea is still in progress but will definitely happen in the near future.

HospitalsHospitals have already been printing out knee and hip replacements for patients ever since the possibility of 3D printing came to be, and they have been managing it very well. At one hospital surgeons even managed to 3d print the structure of half of a man’s face, an operation that went almost flawlessly, so medically 3D printing has been a successful breakthrough in logistics and capabilities. Even human veins can be 3D printed in some cases.

What you see here is a 3D replica of a child’s heart to help surgeons know exactly what they are doing during their operations.

FactoriesIn factories the workflow of creating products has become almost flawlessly fast and extremely cheap and easy to run. 3D printers are a lot cheaper than man made molding and the materials are also cheaper and more plentiful, so the invention of 3D printing has revolutionized manufacturing worldwide and made factories a lot cheaper to run, and offered them far more profit. 3D printers will either use a fine powder that they mix and compress during the manufacturing process, or they use a long strip of plastic which they heat up and project into a shape using lasers.

InfluenceThe world has been completely reshaped by 3D lives have been saved, games have been made into almost a reality and films have never been better and we are even using 3D printers in space, there are no signs of the advances in 3D technology stopping either, as I write this the next generations of games consoles have ben released and millions of 3D printers across the world are creating new and inventive items that people have designed in ever improving 3D programs, just the next generation of gaming alone has shown a huge increase in the number of polygons in a single object, displaying a much smoother realistic surface.

The printing of bones and veins and organs for medical use is saving lives all over the world and improving peoples lives due to hip replacements etc. and this proves that using the amazing power of 3D modeling and analyzing, we can explore our existing world even more than usual by analyzing things that maybe we didn’t know enough about before hand in 3D studios, and making improvements or understanding them more than before.

The DownsideThe only downside to 3D printing that has been revealed fairly recently is the use of 3D printers to make gun parts and bullets, though it may seem like a foolish prospect, it is actually something that is being done, and not surprisingly in my opinion. In October police seized a gun factory in greater Manchester, that was using 3D printers to make guns.