ABSTRACT
Although much of virtual design emerged from using Computer-Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) as a tool for creating other designs, it didn’t take long before artists realized the potential for using this technology to create virtual designs as art in itself. Some of the more popular uses of virtual design include uses as a visualization tool for entertainment and architectural designs, work in commercial advertising, creating mattes and special effects for film and video production, and creating simulations for education and gaming purposes. While virtual design had its beginnings in basic CADD or drafting applications, many modeling and rendering programs have evolved into the mainstay programs of the virtual design industry. Some software packages that remain primarily CADD programs like AutoCAD or Vectorworks (Figure 10.1) have developed into progressive visualization tools that include modules for three-dimensional modeling, material assignments, lighting, and rendering. Other animation and visualization programs are more suited to computer animation than drafting applications. In these cases, tools that aid in creating motion and effects are major elements of the programs as well as providing the functions for modeling and lighting a subject or scene. One of the most significant differences between the two sets of programs for many years was that while proportion was important in animation programs, exact scale was hard to control. Meanwhile, the precision required in the drafting programs often couldn’t be provided in the animation programs. Now, scale is a much more specific feature in animation programs and many of them can even directly import CADD files to serve as the basis of their three-dimensional models. Several popular animation/modeling programs include 3d Studio Max (animation), 3d Studio Viz (architectural visualization—frequently called Viz), the newer 3ds Max Design, Lightwave, Softimage, Maya, Revit, Sketchup, and RenderMan. All of these programs are used extensively in commercial animation projects that range from creating simulations of historic events to advertising; film and video production; and games for personal computers or stand-alone systems like Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Wii, and Sony PlayStation. Some programs, especially those connected with architectural lighting (i.e., Lumen Micro and AGi32) make use of actual photometric data to produce very accurate depictions of the rendered light in a designed environment. Figure 10.2 is of a visulization project that has been created and rendered with AGi32. In entertainment design, several of the more popular programs that approach this accuracy are WYSIWYG, Capture, and LD Assistant (though this product is soon set to be discontinued).
