39
4
Concepts in 3D Design for
Virtual Environments
Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, story-
telling, propaganda, and philosophy.
—Erik Adigard des Gautries
4.1 INTRODUCTION TO 3D DESIGN
4.1.1 a uniVersal language ThaT you experienCe ConsTanTly
For a few minutes, imagine your favorite childhood space. Perhaps it was the dinosaur exhibit of your local
museum, the art room of your elementary school, or your own backyard. In your mind’s eye, take a walk
through that place, remembering the size and shape of each area and the objects, furniture, and architectural
elements it contained. Everything in that environment has been stored in your memory in a “canonical” form
[1]. Whether you call it a tree, arbre, or árbol, in your native speaking language, it represents a 3D form in
your mind, and that form is part of the universal language of forms we create in a virtual 3D environment.
This collection of forms, stored in our memory, also lets us “time travel” to places that may no longer exist.
As a designer, you need to allow yourself to be inspired by your encoded memory containing this database of
forms. By utilizing your “Visuospatial Sketchpad” (or inner eye), which stores and recalls these forms for you
when inspiration strikes, you are accessing a powerful tool for design, as shown in Figure4.1[2]. Rediscover
this great repository you have been adding to since you were a child and utilize it as often as possible when
you are designing, teaching, or just showing your children how to imagine new places.
4.2 DESIGN ELEMENTS IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS
Every language in the world shares common concepts about identity and classication, and that is true for
the language of 3D design. There are six fundamental elements found in 3D no matter where it is created:
line, space, shape, form, color, and texture. Many 3D designs utilize all six elements in their composition
(orarrangement of objects); some simply use two or three of these. Let’s focus in on these elements and
examine how various artists in Second Life have used them to create 3D designs. Figure4.2 has examples of
the six fundamental elements of 3D design.
4.2.1 line
A line creates a linear, spatial connection between two points. A line can also create a temporal connection
between two events, such as a timeline does, and a line can dene the direction of a moving object, as trajectory
does. Every drawing starts with a line, but lines do not need to be trapped on the 2D plane. Think of how a smoke
40 Virtual World Design
Visuospatial Sketchpad
Memory
Visuospatial
Sketchpad
As we observe our surroundings,
our eye sends visual and spatial
information to our memory
Visuospatial Sketchpad (inner eye):
Stores and processes information in a
visual or spatial form.
Measuring relative scale
and deciding on distance
Comparing color and
size of all objects
Compare
Compare
related objects
in memory
FIGURE 4.1 (See color insert) Schematic chart of the Visuospatial Sketchpad as it processes your observations on
shape, size, color, texture and relative location of a 3D form into your memory. These observations are stored in the
Visuospatial Sketchpad (inner eye) as a recoverable database of forms for your use in designing.
41Concepts in 3D Design for Virtual Environments
trail follows a jet plane or how a long ribbon creates lines in space when the rhythmic gymnast moves through a
routine. These are common examples of lines in 3Dspace. Picture 1 in Figure4.2 is Werner Kurosawa’s design
for the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) Media Arts Center SE. Werner used lines to create an interesting
gallery space. As your eye moves down the shiny chrome beams toward the light wood colored oor, notice the
shadows. With the movement of the virtual sun, another dynamic linear composition is created as the 3D linear
elements are converted into a 2D composition of shadow lines that move along the oor and walls. Werner cre-
ated yet another line pattern on the wall elements, with the black lined glass, which is reminiscent of the hori-
zontal black-and-white marble detail on the walls of the Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena) in central Italy. Line
is always with you in 3D design, even if you are working with massive forms. There will always be the edge of
the object and the line created when it occludes another object. There will be lines created by the shadow edges
on an object or from the change in your point of view on an object. The camera through which you look at the
3D world you are creating has a linear axis pointing directly at the object, and the build editor in your viewer
displays innite lines in the x and y directions when an object is selected. The more you look, the more lines
you will see in 3D.
4.2.2 spaCe
Every 3D design denes itself in space. Space can surround the design, the design can surround a space,
or the space can ow through and around the design simultaneously. A 3D design can make the space feel
claustrophobic or expansive; it can hide and reveal space in multiple ways. In listen ... (Figure4.2, picture 2),
a sound-based exhibit by Alpha Auer for the HUMlab exhibit “Tropophonia,” Auer works with lots of open
space. As you enter this exhibit, you nd that you are standing on a translucent plane of glass under a black,
starry sky lled with fast-moving clouds. The plane is decorated with black squares, from which light beams
emanate, and the surface is covered with concentric rings of glowing dots. These graphic features serve to
dene the center and an internal grid simultaneously. Whirling around you like planets circumscribing their
orbits are animated avatars wearing armatures reminiscent of planetary orreries. Asyou walk across the
plane, you discover a trio of avatars performing synchronized movements, and further exploration will trig-
ger delivery of wearable art, so your avatar may become part of the environment. As you can see, with every
element she has created, Auer has sought to dene the spatial quality of the environment. With its ephemeral
lighting and orbiting avatars, it has become a dynamic, ever-changing space that at once has innite scale
and human scale. The use of a dark surreal sky for this exhibit contributes to the sensation of innite space.
4.2.3 shape
Shape is the most primal of elements in 3D design. To our eyes, the shape of something serves to identify it
immediately, and the potential for danger or friendship, to our brains. Shapes can be protective when used
with camouage, shown on butteries that sport large “eyespots” on their wings. These eyespot shapes serve
to mislead a predator into thinking the buttery is a much larger, dangerous animal. Shape in a 3D world
appears everywhere, shadows cast on the face of a 3D object, or a very thin 3D object that resembles a shape
from a certain view are two such examples. Shapes also can be created in a virtual world through the use of
particles. These are elements created by code such as Linden Scripting Language (inSecond Life or OpenSim)
or JavaScript (Unity) that is running inside an object in the virtual environment. When the script is running,
it will cause the object to emit planar shapes with a texture image on their surface, which will always turn to
face (or billboard) the camera. The particle script can be written to generate a profusion of these images, spray
them in a certain angle, maintain a certain frequency, and to let them follow the winds or gravitational forces
of the environment where they exist. Collectively, as these images are generated by the particle-producing
42 Virtual World Design
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FIGURE 4.2 (See color insert) Images of artwork that embody the six primary principles of 3D design. From the top,
these principles are (1) “Line,” from a build by Werner Kurosawa (a Belgian architect and artist in real life) for the Linden
Endowment for the Arts (LEA) Media Arts Center SE; (2) “Space,” from listen ... , a sound-based exhibit by Alpha Auer
(Elif Ayiter, an artist in real life) for the HUMlab exhibit “Tropophonia”; (3) “Shape,” from Le Cactus, by Maya Paris
(anartist working in the United Kingdom); (4) “Form” from The Arrival of the Fish, by Rose Borchovski (a Dutch artist
in real life); (5) “Color” from plante*, by Betty Tureaud (a Danish artist in real life); and (6) “Texture,” from an educa-
tional project at the Possibilities Unlimited Museum, by Quinlan Quimby (artist and content creator for virtual worlds).
43Concepts in 3D Design for Virtual Environments
script, they can create effects like rain, smoke, and re, as well as graphic shapes in a 3D design. In Le Cactus
(Figure4.2, picture 3), Maya Paris (an artist working in the United Kingdom) displays the usage of all three
sorts of shapes in her 3D design. There are the textual shapes of words like “what” and “not” hanging in the
air, and consistently throughout the environment she has used circular and semicircular shapes to create old
phonograph records and art deco motifs. The environment becomes lled with additional shapes when avatars
are seated on an inter active carnival ride located within the space. As they rotate, the seats they ride in (shaped
like bananas) give off particles with shapes that look like cherries, bananas, and other fruit. The visual fruit
salad piles up and lls the environment with shapes generated by the ride, complimenting the general ambi-
ance in this lounge, aplayful homage to Josephine Baker’s (1906–1975) cabaretacts.
4.2.4 form
Form is often the most recognizable element in 3D design and probably the one you would think of rst. The
form of an object is at once its identity to us and its impact on our senses. The volume of space that a form
occupies denes its relative importance and implies mass and weight to our perception. The form of a cavity
surrounded by 3D design denes our relationship to the environment, our relative scale, and our sense of
importance in it. In The Arrival of the Fish, Rose Borchovski has many forms, animal and human, arranged
in a surreal assemblage. In one part, she has a series of penguin forms (Figure4.2, picture 4) that displays
multiple versions of the penguin, in a sort of stop-motion effect. This series of forms creates a sequence that
explains to the observer what the form of a penguin is and allows the observer to create a mental “animation”
of the penguin diving off its perch. By inverting the form as the penguin takes a dive, the observer is allowed
to see many sides of the penguin in a single glance, enriching the experience of encountering a penguin form.
4.2.5 Color
The element of color is subjective and emotional. Like shape, it connects with your brain on a primal level.
Colors in the natural environment warn us of poisonous vegetation or animals. Our society attaches meaning
to the color of roses and other owers, and we use color words to describe a state of mind, such as “feeling
blue” or “green with envy.” Many of these color meanings are also tied into cultural structures, such as the
white wedding dress or the orange robes of Buddhist monks. Color can also dene and inuence our per-
ception of space because warm colors such as red and orange seem to move toward us, and cool colors like
blue and purple seem to recede. In her fractal-like sculpture called plante*, Betty Tureaud (a Danish artist in
real life) creates a sense of iridescence with the application of rainbow colors and implied reection on the
surfaces (Figure4.2, picture 5). Because the texture is set to self-illumination, no shadows are rendered, and
the eye is free to bounce among the cluster of structures that make up the sculpture. By utilizing color in this
way, she creates a sense of owing motion across the 3D surface.
4.2.6 TexTure
Texture, the sixth element of 3D design, belongs to two senses, touch and sight. You can speak of “visual
texture,” but the understanding of that concept resides in our tactile experiences. When you reach to touch
the surface of unpolished granite, you know it will feel rough, and you also know that visually it will look
pocked and catch tiny shadows across its face. The visual texture of light and dark across the face of an
object can also be created with color contrasts. In her prototype for an educational project at the Possibilities
Unlimited Museum, Quinlan Quimby used texture to redene the concept of the Blue Willow china pattern
(Figure4.2, picture 6). In shades of blue and white, she has borrowed from the famous blue willow china
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