What is 3D graphics?

3D graphics or three-dimensional graphics is a sphere of computer graphics, a set of techniques and tools allowing the creation of three-dimensional objects using shapes and colors. It differs from two-dimensional images by the creation of a geometrical projection of a three-dimensional model of the scene (virtual space) in 2D. This is executed with the help of specialized software. The resulting model can be the same as the real-world objects (e.g., a building, a person, a car, an asteroid), or be completely abstract (projection of the four-dimensional fractal).

 

Today, 3D graphics firmly entered many areas of our lives:

• construction (visualization of volumetric images of architectural buildings, objects, interior & exterior);
• production (object modeling);
• TV (simulated images in glossy magazines, video clips, special effects in the movie);
• the game industry (3D-animations and virtual worlds, the development of computer games);
• polygraphy (creating the printed products);
• commercial (electronic presentations and catalogs, billboards, etc.) and so on.
3D graphics is one of the most effective advertising tools, extending the impact on the potential customer and raising the quality of ads presenting both real and virtual worlds.
3D modeling is the process of creating a three-dimensional model of the object. 3D modeling’ goal is to develop a volumetric visual image of the desired object. With the help of three-dimensional graphics, you can create an exact copy of any object and develop new, unreal objects that have not existed until now.

 

Application

Three-dimensional graphics are actively used to create images on a flat screen or sheet of printed materials in science and industry. For example, in the systems of aided design (CAD; to create solid-state elements: buildings, machinery parts, mechanisms), architectural visualization (this includes so-called “virtual archaeology”), in modern systems of medical imaging.

Its widest use is in many modern computer games, as well as an element of the film industry, television, and printed products.

Three-dimensional graphics usually deals with a virtual, imaginary three-dimensional space that is to be displayed on a flat, two-dimensional surface or paper. Nowadays there are known several ways to display three-dimensional information in a volumetric form, although most of them represent three-dimensional characteristics with many conditions because they work with stereo images. Stereo glasses, virtual helmets, and 3D displays are able to demonstrate three-dimensional images – all of them may be mentioned in this area. Several manufacturers have demonstrated the readiness for serial production of three-dimensional displays. However, they still do not allow you to create a solid-state in physics, a tangible copy of a mathematical model that is easily created by three-dimensional graphics. Developing since the 1990s, the technology of rapid prototyping eliminates this gap. This technology uses a mathematical representation of the object model as a solid-state object (so-called “Voxel model”).