Why is 3D becoming more popular?

The 3D Industry is quickly becoming one of the most popular mediums of media and storytelling in the world due to its incredibly stylistic nature and opens many opportunities in terms of the content that can be produced, to anything from children’s animated movies, to incredibly precise and photorealistic architectural renders. So why is 3D becoming more popularly used in day to day life?

3D usage in advertising

Firstly, there has been a huge shift in advertising platforms and techniques, favouring many more 3D product visualisations, and quirky stylish animations, away from the typically video recorded advertisements, this is likely due to the level of creativity the 3D medium provides compared to traditional filming. Back in 2017, studies showed that there was a larger than 40% increase in the amount of animation used in advertisements, including 3D Animation particularly.

What are the 3D industry’s uses in entertainment?

Furthermore, the use of 3D in entertainment media has increased with rise of animation studios for TV shows and movies, from all genres of entertainment and for all audiences. The medium of 3D elements or entirely 3D animation can add a unique style and flair to the content that otherwise couldn’t be reproduced in a live-action medium.

This also extends to the gaming industry, as ever since the 90s, 3D based video games have exploded in popularity and the use of 3D in video games is now immensely popular, with the overwhelming majority of triple-a video games being in a 3D style, therefore requiring talented 3D artists to create and build their engaging worlds.

Medical uses of 3D

The medical industry utilises the 3D medium to demonstrate and explain meticulous medical operations and procedures to help in medical learning and training, as well as recently being used in 3D printing with medical implants and prosthetics, even artificial organs are being experimented with thanks to the great advancements that have been made with the 3D industry. This is becoming more popular as the capacity of 3D productions increases!

The wider access to technology

In the past few years, technology has become a lot more popular and will continue to do so, in more limited areas of the world, which are only now discovering the power of computers and the internet. Countries such as India and the middle-eastern countries have especially started ramping up the amount of 3D based content produced, and are working with other countries across the globe to bring 3D based digital content to every and any industry worldwide.

Children are learning to use technology more and more each generation, this leads to more careers in computer-based jobs in the future as the younger generation grow older, and this is evident by the increase in students studying 3D art and design, as well as the amount of young freelance workers that continues to rise each year.

Technological Improvements

Studies from 2020 showed that computer graphics card’s performance has doubled since only 2016, that’s only four years! This extreme amount of technological advancement (even though it is slowly reducing each year) has given birth to a substantial amount of opportunities with 3D and what can be achieved, from thousands of people in a studio to a person freelancing from their bedroom.

Render times have been, and continue to be, reduced significantly with each new line of the popular graphics cards being released, as well as CPU cores leading to more calculations per second, allowing more advanced projects to be undertaken in the same time frame that would have taken days to render only a few years ago.

This allows aspects of 3D such as photorealism and high-poly models to be expanded and refined and perfected within a shorter timeframe, with interactive rendering becoming a crucial element of many 3D artists’ workflow, allowing them to see the draft of the final render without having to wait for the final render each time they want to see what they can alter in the scene.

While hardware has improved significantly, so has a considerable amount of the 3D software packages available, with new and faster-rendering engines that can better utilise the hardware of your computer. Each year new tools for modelling and rendering are being developed and added to the majority of the popular modelling software packages, allowing more possibilities for both simple and complex scenes.

Aesthetics

The visualisation of products and ideas in a 3D environment is hard to beat, especially when showcasing a new upcoming item such as a phone or accessory. The ability to showcase products with water moving in stunning patterns, or in a location that’s almost impossible to film, such as space, falling through the sky, etc.

Particle simulations and other visual effects are becoming a huge part of the advertising industry particularly, with satisfying particle effects, water, fire, smoke, and much more being used to create a truly stunning presentation. But VFX is not just used for the advertising industry, it is used throughout the entertainment industry such as in films, series, and TV shows, and although this has been the case for a while now, the graphical quality continues to get better every year, getting ever close to the point of full photorealism.

3D animations and renders are easy to digest by the average person, conveying a message, showcasing a product or events, or explaining a message is made easier with a 3D illustration! Children, in particular, can benefit from 3D content due to its easily digestible content, not just in entertainment but with educational content also. 

Augmented reality (AR) is another example of how 3D content can be easily digestible, as it allows the viewer to see a product or visualisation without having it physically in front of them, and is becoming increasingly popular. Take Apple’s AR app, which allows the viewer to see one of their products as if it were in the room with them, despite not actually being there. This can allow the potential customer to see if this product looks great or not, and get an actual scale representation of the product.

Future of 3D

There is still so much more potential for 3D in the coming years, with the advance of hardware and software packages, it will lead to even faster rendering times, larger industries adopting it to cover the full spectrum of prototyping, design, manufacturing with materials such as metal 3D printing, you name it! As the 3D industry continues to gain popularity and push into the mainstream, and improve the life of every one of us, it will only continue to grow and help aid all of our lives in every industry!

In short, 3D is becoming so popular because it is becoming essential in many industries, and helping the productivity of the global economy!

Hopefully, you learnt a lot about why 3D is becoming more popular in this article! Here at Painting Pixels, we can produce a huge variety of 3D productions, from 3D Character modelling and animation, 3D automotive Design, and interior design & animation. If you have a project of your own that requires the 3D medium then be sure to check out our 3D animation service, to see exactly what we can do for you!

Sources:

1. Rector, E. (2019). What is 3D Modeling and Design? A Beginners Guide to 3D. [online] MarketScale. Available at: https://marketscale.com/industries/building-management/what-is-3d-modeling-and-design-a-beginners-guide-to-3d/.