by Kalyani Kurup

Created on: June 27, 2008   Last Updated: July 01, 2008

Computer graphics have invaded the world in a big way. Computer expands on man's fantasy options. You may have a mental picture of a house that you want to build. A computer screen can show you how the house would look better if built to certain specifications, certain sizes, with certain types of tiles, gardens, bath fittings, balconies, porches and what not. It can show you several options and move a room or staircase or window here and there to show you the difference in effect to help you with the best choice.

These are options for things that are yet to be created. Computers can also help you recall and bring alive the past that is believed to have been lost forever. Photo restorers advertise how they can digitize the past so that a 19th century photograph of a great-great-grandmother may look like one that has been taken just the previous day. Once the information of an image is stored in a digitized form, it sort of becomes immortal and can even be modified as necessary. Sophisticated softwares can get a 19th century grandmother wear 21st century clothing and make her look as if she is going to walk the ramp.

When microprocessor technology has invaded and revolutionized every field of human activity and even changed the very concept of memory, it is only natural that visual arts have also come under its influence. Computer graphics can be two-dimensional drawings like a pencil sketch or a building or machine drawing, or three-dimensional solid models, or digital fine arts or a combination of all these.

A 2D drawing generated on the computer may not be much different from one drawn conventionally, though it frees an architect from his large drafting board and scales and tapes and half a dozen pencils and erasers. Further, one drawing can give him a thousand copies also. But the real magic is with the 3D models. There are computer graphics programs that can render a 2D drawing into 3D ones of different width, length and height specifications and texture. These solid models can be rotated in virtual space to be viewed from every vantage point to decide its visual appeal and modified to suit a certain position or location. The scope for the architect, engineer or artist, to experiment with and manipulate these drawings and its effects, is infinitely more than what he has with a conventional perspective drawing.

3D Studio Max, now known as 3ds Max, AC3D etc. are some of the popular programs that has been in use from the nineties, for 3d modeling and animation.

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