3D Graphics: Pioneers of History

Well, of course the main and most noteworthy 3D graphic pioneer would be commonly mentioned, and that's Ed Catmull. 

He's a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, and invented texture mapping - which is monumental for the 3D industry. 

Texture mapping is defined as "a graphic design process in which a two-dimensional (2-D) surface, called a texture map, is "wrapped around" a three-dimensional (3-D)object."(Rouse, 2010)

(Lorentzen, 2014)

"Texture maps are developed to directly correspond to the UV coordinates of an unwrapped 3D model, and are either devised from real-life photos, or hand painted in a graphics application like Photoshop or Corel Painter."(Slick, n.d.)

Other pioneers I'd like to mention are Krishnarthy and Levoy who created Normal Mapping, as well as Ofer Alon and Jack Rimokh, who created ZBrush. 

Normal Mapping is the process of making highly detailed mesh fit to low resolution polys is revolutionary for modern gaming graphics.

On the same note of gaming, the invention of ZBrush would have been amazingly helpful to all animators, to be able to easily sculpt 3D models like clay, until perfect. 

Democratisation of the 3D Graphics Industry: 

To democratise something means to make it accessible to everyone. In terms of the 3D Graphics Industry, this means to make the programs and technology available to top-of-the-line animators, graphic artists, etc., easily available to everyday artists of the same type.

The implications could be referring to the fact that with this easy accessibility of excellent software, the potential for even greater products is possible, as well as the ability to share knowledge of these programs across all fields.

Lately, NVIDIA-GRID technology is a key example of 3D graphic democratisation. The GRID includes everything needed to provide high-end graphics horsepower to almost any device, as well as the software required - and is easily transferable between industry groups. 

This is not to say it's better than having a powerful personal workstation to do your graphic art, but it opens up all new possibilities to artists everywhere with the Cloud system. 

All in all, this is a good thing I think, a great thing, to help artists tap into their full potential, regardless of their own software/device limitations. 

Emerging Technology:

"Ptex is a texture mapping system developed by Walt Disney Animation Studios for production-quality rendering:"(Ptex.us, 2014)

Ptex allows its users to complete eliminate UV Mapping, essentially removing an entire step in the 3D Asset Production Pipeline. By taking out the time needed for UV Mapping, 3D artists are able to spend more time on their textures, which Ptex has also made incredibly effortless, with the ability to make individual resolutions incredibly large and detailed. 

(Ptex.us, 2014)

It's been made easily usable, by supporting many other data types, and allowing arbitrary storage to a multitude of data. 

Ptex has been released as free open source, allowing anyone to use it and explore the software, how it works, and how useful it is in making your job easier. 

Asset creation as we know it will start becoming a lot more detailed, it will be easier for the artists, but also much more rewarding, to be able to get the desired image so easily and effectively. I believe that Ptex will be used by most, if not all animation studios soon enough, simply because it's the most logical and easy-to-use software in the industry to date. 

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References

graphics, T. (2013). The democratisation of computer graphics | Audiovisual | Creative Bloq.Creativebloq.com. Retrieved 30 June 2014, from http://www.creativebloq.com/audiovisual/democratisation-computer-graphics-10135033

Lorentzen, A. (2014). Lorentzen.se - Online portfolio of Anders Lorentzen. Lorentzen.se. Retrieved 30 June 2014, from http://lorentzen.se/anders/web/portfolio/p1202.html

Ptex.us,. (2014). Ptex. Retrieved 30 June 2014, from http://ptex.us/

Ptex.us,. (2014). Ptex Overview. Retrieved 30 June 2014, from http://ptex.us/overview.html

Rouse, M. (2010). What is texture mapping? - Definition from WhatIs.com. Whatis.techtarget.com. Retrieved 30 June 2014, from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/texture-mapping

Slick, J. (n.d.). 10 Pioneers in 3D Computer Graphics - The Men Behind the Breakthroughs. About.com 3D. Retrieved 30 June 2014, from http://3d.about.com/od/3d-101-The-Basics/tp/10-Pioneers-In-3d-Computer-Graphics.htm

Slick, J. (n.d.). Surfacing 101: How Texture Maps Are Made. About.com 3D. Retrieved 30 June 2014, from http://3d.about.com/od/3d-101-The-Basics/a/Surfacing-101-Texture-Mapping.htm