3D is used in many different industries such as the education, engineering and architecture industries. But it is primarily used within the vast industry of video games. In gaming it is used to create 3D models of things that would be seen or even played with in the game. That means things from characters all the way down to a random object in the background that you may not even interact with at all. 3D "dumb" solids are created in a way similar to manipulations of real world objects (not often used today). Basic three-dimensional geometric forms (prisms, cylinders, spheres, and so on) have solid volumes added or subtracted from them, as if assembling or cutting real-world objects. Two-dimensional projected views can easily be generated from the models. These models are used in the gaming industry because when placed in a 3D game, the player will be able to go around the object and see the entire object, compared to a 2D version of something where the player will only be able to see the front or back.

The education sector is an industry which can link with many other industries by teaching people how to model in 3D and give them the skills which could be transferred to the industry in which the person learning goes into. This is commonly used in the video games industry or the architect industry due to these 2 industries using 3D the most and relying on people to model things in 3D for them. Many universities and colleges offer a course(s)

which is primarily based on 3D modelling.

Scientists, hospital staff and patients benefit from the use of systems that present information in understandable formats by using a unique combination of 3D technology, science, and software engineering. 3D CT imaging in human medicine is mainstream and used in numerous applications such as vascular studies, cardiac imaging, virtual endoscopy, and presurgical planning. 3D imaging in veterinary medicine is far less common. This is likely because of the fact that newer CT machines are necessary to generate

diagnostic images and the applications for 3D CT are different.

As well as the medicine industry using 3D models the science sector uses them as highly detailed models of chemical compounds. In recent decades the earth science community has started to construct 3D geological models as a standard practice. This has helped the development of science due to professionals now being able to look around compounds and learn much more about them, compared to the limited amount of things they could see when using 2D or just simple images of the compound. They now have the freedom to look completely around it and explore, much more than they could do before the introduction of 3D models in science and medicine.

The engineering community uses 3D as designs of new devices, vehicles and structures as well as a host of other uses. 3D modelling has come a long way in the last few years, bringing new uses for 3D vehicle modelling and speeding up developments. The entry of more professional experts and new and improved 3D modelling software

programs has made 3D vehicle and engineering modelling more accessible and affordable for entrepreneurs and businesses from small to large, further fuelling and enabling the development of new vehicles, parts, manufacturing processes, safety measures and business ideas. In fact without fast and effective 3D engineering modelling we would not being enjoying many of the great vehicles and features that we now use every day. This not only applies to family cars but racing vehicles, recreational vehicles, commercial and private aircraft, marine craft and the safety of military vehicles. 3D modelling can be and is used to create things from a simple mock up of the vehicles design all the way to engineering vital pieces such as the gearbox and engine to go inside the vehicle. Every single part of engineering on anything can now be modelled in 3D and then transferred straight to the vehicle.

Professional 3D modelling for product design has come on huge leaps and bounds in recent years. New technology and more professional experts have made 3D product design modelling more affordable and accessible to most companies out there, of all sizes, therefore opening up this industry vastly. In fact without the current usage of 3D modelling we not be enjoying many of the great products we now use on a daily basis. This is anything from household items to tech gadgets

and new cars but many economies of the world would not be enjoying the high quality of life that we currently enjoy. This is addition to the lack of jobs that there would be without 3D modelling. Around you right now, almost everything you see was probably developed from 3D product design modelling at some point. In short, without 3D modelling we would not have the amount of jobs and the variety of industries we see today. Overall, 3D modelling is used in mostly all parts of the product design industry and can be used to design anything from the newest piece of technology, like a new apple product, to something as vintage as an antique teapot made to sell for the Queen’s anniversary.

The architecture industry uses 3D modelling to demonstrate proposed buildings and landscapes through Architectural Models. Digital architecture uses computer modelling, programming, simulation and imaging to create both virtual forms and physical structures. 3D modelling is vital in most architectural designs due to the fact that without them

3D computer graphics software is used to make computer-generated imagery for movies, etc. Recent availability of CGI software and increased computer speeds has allowed

companies to create huge feature length films which have made millions of pounds. All made from 3D models and CGI animation. An example of a film that uses just 3D models and CGI

is Disney’s Toy Story films.

There are many different steps to creating a 3D model. Wire frame, texture mapping and displaying the 3D. A wire frame model is a visual presentation of a 3D or physical object used in 3D modeling. It is created by having 3 or more points which are joined on the 3

axis (x, y, and z) in a 3D space. The object is projected onto the computer screen by drawing lines at the location of each edge. The term wireframe comes from designers using metal wire to represent the 3 dimensional shape of solid objects.3D wireframe allows to construct and manipulate solid surfaces.

Triangles always inhabit a single plane. The flat nature of triangles makes it simple to determine their surface normal, a three-dimensional vector perpendicular to the triangle's surface.

Surface normals are useful for determining light transport in ray tracing. Some rendering systems use vertex normal’s instead of face normal’s to create a better-looking lighting system at the cost of more processing. In many systems only one of the normals is considered valid – the other side of the polygon is referred to as a back face, and can be made visible or invisible depending on the programmer’s desires.

A texture map is applied (mapped) to the surface of a shape or polygon. This process is akin to applying patterned paper to a plain white box. Every vertex in a polygon is assigned a texture coordinate either via explicit assignment or by procedural definition. Image sampling locations are then put across the face of a polygon to produce a visual result that seems to have more richness than could otherwise be achieved with a limited number of polygons. Multitexturing is the use of more than one texture at a time on a polygon. For instance, a light map texture may be used to light a surface as an alternative to recalculating that lighting every time the surface is rendered. This is then followed by displaying the

3D image by usually rendering the 3D model so that it can be displayed in its full glory with all the shading, texture mapping etc. This will then show you all the things you have done to it in its entirety that you may not have seen before.

There are so many different pieces of software for 3D modelling out there, so much that many people may get confused as to which to purchase or use for the 3d model they want to create. Although that there are so many different pieces of software for this out there, many of them are very similar in what they do, how they present your model and also the price of the software itself. Here are some examples of different pieces of software for 3D modelling.

3d Tin

An online 3D modeling program with an intuitive interface. All models saved in the cloud, and can be exported to standard file formats such as STL, DAE and OBJ. This is a free piece of software.

3ds Max

Autodesk 3ds Max Design is a 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing software product for architects, designers, civil engineers, and visualization specialists. This could cost up to $3500 but is defiantly professional quality, whereas some others are not up to £Ds Max’s standards.

AC3D

3D software for games, virtual reality and flight simulation, scientific, medical and general data visualization, rapid prototypes of 3D designs, high resolution 3D renderings, Google Earth, Second Life and more. AC3D is around $99 in price to buy but isn’t as high quality as the more expensive pieces of software.

AutoCAD

Autodesk AutoCAD is an industry leader in 3D CAD design, drafting, modeling, architectural drawing, and engineering software and a best-in-class customizable and extendable CAD application. AutoCAD is very expensive due to it high quality and professional looks within its presentation. It can be as high as $1500 to purchase.

Cheetah3D

Cheetah3D is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation software for Mac OS X. It offers native support for importing and exporting STL files (ASCII and Binary). This is recommended for lesser experienced 3D modelers as its price is only around $50 but isn’t the high quality some may expect.

Inventor 3D

Autodesk Inventor 3D is a mechanical design and 3D CAD software product that has tools for product simulation, tooling creation, and design communication.

Maya

Autodesk® Maya® 3D animation software delivers an end-to-end creative workflow with comprehensive tools for animation, modeling, simulation, visual effects, rendering, match moving, and compositing on a highly extensible production platform. This is another top end piece of software as it is over $3000 in price and is usually use by industry professionals due to its highest quality of all the 3D software.

Rhino

Rhinoceros (Rhino) is a NURBS-based 3-D modeling tool used for industrial design, architecture, marine design, jewelry design, automotive design, CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping, reverse engineering as well as the multimedia and graphic design industries.

Solidworks

Dassault Systèmes’ SolidWorks a leading 3D CAD product design engineering software with more than 1,400,000 users at over 136,800 locations around the world

Zbrush

ZBrush is a digital sculpting and painting program that has revolutionized the 3D industry with its powerful features and intuitive workflows

You may see that some of the 3D software are clearly only for beginners and people who are not experienced in modeling, whereas some of them are used for industry professionals as they are in the thousands in cost and are very high quality when creating and presenting your 3D models.

Restrictions with using 3D

There are quite a few restrictions when using 3D modelling. One of the biggest restrictions in 3d modelling is the polygon count. Some people find a problem with the amount of polygons when modelling something big such as a character or an object for a game or film/movie. This is because when building a model a modeller may find that they have created too many polygons and this can cause a massive amount of lag on the computer due the amount that the computer has to do but also when the person wants to render out the model, so that they can use it in other places than just the software that they used, they will find that it could take a very long time to render due to its huge amount of polygons that it needs to render.

Another restriction with using 3d is the problem with using 3d is that the file size can become extremely large due to the amount of objects the file may have. Some people may not have a computer with the capacity to hold the amount of models they want to build so therefore some may have to use an external hard drive to save the work on, which can lead to other problems such as loosing the hard drive and it failing. Therefore, concluding that they may loose their work.