While 3d computer graphics have been around since at least the 1970s, the rise of the World Wide Web in the 1990s, and especially the rise of Internet video in recent years created a whole new “prosumer” interest in them. But for me, 3d models, virtual sets, and other digital effects are more interesting when they’re used to tell a story. And every once in a while, it’s nice to go on location — if only virtually!
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A couple of scenes in the previous edition of my Silicon Graffiti videoblog made extensive use of 3d Models from Digimation’s Model Bank program; I explain how the program works, and link to a tutorial on importing its images into both Photoshop and After Effects, over at Pajamas’ high-tech Edgelings blog.
You mention that 3d computer graphics date back to the 1970s. A lot of the early work on 3d computer animation was done by Charles Csuri at Ohio State. His empire was next to the laboratory where I did my graduate work from 1979 on. I’d often catch glimpses of what they were doing as I walked down the hall, and see the final results on TV a few months later.
Csuri was an interesting guy. He was an All-American linebacker for Woody Hayes, then came back to Ohio State as an art professor. But the Art Department refused to support his work with computers since, to them, that wasn’t Art. He switched to the Computer Science Department, and eventually became one of the biggest funding magnets on campus.
Csuri was once contacted about working on a movie called “Star Wars” but turned them down. Couldn’t spare the time. But he gave them the name of a student who was about to graduate and needed a job, and they hired the guy. Worked out real good for him.