3D For Normal People

Am I implying with the title of this blog post that experienced users of 3D tools are abnormal? Maybe. What makes them abnormal is they have to regularly deal with professional 3D software, which is extremely complex and difficult to master. "Normal" people don't have to worry about things like, well…normals.

While contemporary 3D applications are challenging to master, they are immeasurably more user-friendly than early 3D programs which were largely intended for use by programmers and "computer folks" who were used to communicating with computers via a command line. There was no pointing or clicking. There was typing. And waiting. 

Thankfully, the current generation of tools have user interfaces that owe more to Photoshop than Pine. But then again, Photoshop is an extremely deep program and most people only use 20% of its capability. By comparison, the average 3D application such as Maya, 3ds Max, Lightwave, Modo or Houdini have many times the number of tools and settings as Photoshop. In fact, the basic translation of a three-dimensional workspace onto a two-dimensional screen is a major consideration in itself. Add to that hundreds of operations across multiple types of 3D tasks (modeling, texture, animation, lighting, rendering, dynamics, etc), and you will start to understand why it takes years of regular use to become proficient with any 3D application.

So the thought of creating 3D software with a simple interface that is usable by "normal people" in a short period of time seems almost laughable. And yet many dedicated developers have been working to meet exactly that challenge. Years of refining and improving professional 3D tools, excellent research into usability and interface design, and the availability of affordable computers with powerful 3D graphics capability (thank you video games), have lead to a group of applications which may finally put 3D tools in the hands of normal people. 

Perhaps the best known of these tools is Google SketchUp whose tag line is "3D modeling for everyone." Originally developed by @Last Software in Boulder, Colorado, far from Silicon Valley, SketchUp originally targeted designers who had occasion to rough out ideas in three dimensions. Architects and film production designers were among the early SketchUp champions. Google acquired @Last in 2006 and made a version of SketchUp featuring the core tool set available for free, along with a paid version with additional import/export tools. While useful for general-purpose 3D modeling, one of Google's primary goals for SketchUp was to enable hordes of regular people model buildings to add to Google Earth and Google Maps. And it's working! Architectural shapes are particularly easy to model and thanks to the architects who were early adopters of the software, SketchUp's tools for building buildings are extremely refined. 

But the ability to make buildings is not what sets SketchUp apart from other software. What makes SketchUp special is its interface and workflow. Users create 3D objects by drawing simple shapes and pulling and pushing them. I have had a chance to use SketchUp quite a bit this summer and I was often at a disadvantage because of my years of using complex 3D software. After searching through SketchUp's menus and on-line documentation, I almost always found that the solution to a problem was some variation of "grab that thing and pull it". 

SketchUp usually does what you expect it to and with very little practice, it's quite easy to make useful models and do useful things with them.

It's also worth noting that in addition to adding their architectural models to Google Earth, SketchUp users are encouraged to share all of the things they build with the world. Using their search engine expertise, Google has built a huge database of user-generated models called Google 3D Warehouse. Do you need an X-Wing model? There are 212 of them there for you. Need a chair? There are almost 15,000 of them to choose from, many of which were uploaded by the manufacturer and are extremely accurate. In just a few years it has grown to a staggering size. Think Google Image Search but for 3D models. 

It appears that Autodesk has taken note of Google's success with SketchUp and has recently begun a public beta of its own easy-to-use 3D application called 123D. While Google sought to populate their virtual Earth with 3D buildings, Autodesk wants to bring 3D models into the real world. One of the stated goals of 123D is to make it easy for users to get their 3D models made into physical prototypes through a variety of partner companies offering these services (more on this in a future blog post). While the end goal is different, it's obvious that Autodesk was looking very closely at SketchUp when designing 123D. I haven't had much time to play with it (it's only available for Windows at the moment), but they are trying very hard to make it easy to use. They even have their own model database database called 123 Models.  

Another class of 3D program, 3D sculpting, also got an easy-to-use entry in the past few weeks. Software like ZBrush and Mudbox allow users to generate 3D models using tools that behave very much like clay, so in theory they are already using a metaphor that is easier for normal people to understand. But both (especially ZBrush) are complex and not particularly easy to master. ZBrush developers, Pixologic have recently released Sculptris, a free, simplified 3D sculpting tool for Mac and Windows. It looks very promising.

I sincerely hope that Google, Autodesk and Pixologic can do for 3D what Apple has done for video editing with iMovie and music creation with GarageBand.

As a CG educator, I am really excited that there are now several ways for normal people to get started with 3D on their way down the road to abnormality.