Types Of 3D Art

There are numerous types of 3d art. Some of them are extraordinarily complicated. Others are much simpler. Some common types of 3d art are origami, pop-up art, handmade jewelry, animation, sculpture, ceramics, and dolls or puppets. Each of these types of 3d art are made through specific processes. The three types of 3d art to be discussed in this article are animation, sculpture, and ceramics.

The term ‘3d’ means includes the three parts of space’length, width, and breadth. Today, when we think of ‘3d’ we think of some kind of digital technology being a large part of the creation or presentation of the artwork. Naturally, we think of computers as digital technology, but there are types of 3d art that do not require the use of a computer.

The first type of 3d art is sculpture. Sure, today, computers can be used to make a plan for the sculpture. Sculpture, however, dates back to early history. The early Greeks and Romans made sculptures. How a sculpture is made depends on what the artist is using to create this type of 3d art. If rock or wood are being cut, chipped, or chiseled, then the artist will have a specific set of tools to use. Those tools will not necessarily work if the artist is using found objects or different materials to create the sculpture. To work in this type of 3d art, the artist may need brushes, glues, nails, pliers, and more to make pieces of material stay together and in the shape he or she wants. Sculpture is one of the oldest forms of 3d art that is still continued today.

Ceramics are the next type of 3d art. The first known ceramics were discovered from a Chinese civilization from about 20,000 years ago. This type of 3d art is another of the oldest types of 3d art still in use today. Ceramics are all around us on a daily basis. Types of this 3d art are in everyday things like dishware, sinks, and tiles (for floors and bathrooms) and in very unusual places like car parts (i.e. spark plugs). This type of 3d art can also be found in appliances and in bricks. Although ceramics are often considered fragile, they can be used by NASA on space shuttles and as nose cones of everyday airplanes. The process for making this type of 3d art is that a shape is formed by an artist from materials (usually clay, earth elements, and water’to name a few). After the wanted shape is achieved, the artist puts the ceramics in a kiln to be ‘fired’ at very high temperatures. When the ceramics are taken out and cooled, this type of 3d art is normally decorated with glazes (like paints, but made especially for ceramics). Objects in this type of 3d art can be used on a daily basis or viewed as fine art.

Another type of 3d art is animation. Animation means that a 3d object is put into motion. This can be physically or digitally. The earliest form of this was the ‘flip book‘. This is where an object is drawn on a page. On the following pages, it is moved a little so that when the pages are flipped, it looks as though the object is in motion. This type of 3d art has been used for years in television, movies, and advertisements. When we think of 3d animation today, we think of computers. The first people to try this type of 3d art were a group of gentlemen working at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1960s. These men worked on animating 3d art digitally. Since then, this type of 3d art has become extremely popular. In 1995, ‘Toy Story,’ a full length completely computer animated movie was released. Recently, there have been many totally animated movies that have hit the theaters”Avatar,’ ‘Toy Story 3,’ and ‘Cars 2.’ The most recent movie to use this type of 3d art was ‘Life of Pi’ in 2012. Animation can be used for many things. Today we see this type of 3d art in movies, games, cartoons, and advertising.

There are myriad of types of 3d art. Three of the most commonly used today are sculpture, ceramics, and animation. There is some type of 3d art almost everywhere.