Where 3D Is Headed
Once upon a time, all you saw on a computer screen was text. Then came pictures and Flash animations. More recently, video's become ubiquitous. Next up is 3D.
3D's commonplace in movies and on TV, but disseminating it more widely's been problematic. There are dozens of incompatible 3D distribution formats, from VRML to Shockwave, none of which have caught on in a big way.
This could change in short order thanks to Adobe's Acrobat 3D format, which will soon be universally available via the free Acrobat Reader. Over the next year or two, I expect to see everything from assembly instructions for kitchen cabinetry to learning programs on jet engine assembly to incorporate interactive 3D models as a matter of course.
Autodesk will play a key role in this scenario. Their CAD and 3D simulation software has already had an extraordinary impact on the world around us. Almost everything in the Western world, from roads, to lamp posts, to doors, to faucets, to movies, was probably touched by an Autodesk product at some point in its creation.
But this is no time for the company to rest on its laurels. Just as Windows NT running on cheap PC workstations blew SGI out of the water, so too do smaller, hungrier 3D companies represent a potential danger to industry giants like Autodesk and Avid/Softimage.
Unlike Microsoft Word for word processing, or Adobe Photoshop for image editing, there's still no single dominant program in the 3D space. The eventual winner will likely be the program that makes 3D straightforward for new users to learn.
Products like DAZ 3D's Carrara 5, e-frontier's Poser 7 are all very capable and user-friendly 3D programs that include more professional-level features with every new release at a cost to users of hundreds rather than thousands of dollars.
But for the time being, the 64-bit workflow represents the state of the art in desktop 3D. Multicore processors, lightning-fast graphics cards, and cheap memory coupled with the power and affordability of the 64-bit versions of 3D Studio Max 9 and Maya 8 herald a new era in which world-class 3D can be accomplished by The Rest of Us. Both programs are Highly Recommended.
