“After years of providing geeky thrills that were a hassle to view, 3D Web imagery must now prove it can actually sell stuff. …MetaCreations, a $267 million company, is betting its entire future that the future for three-dimensional viewing of products online is finally here. It is shunting its other efforts to concentrate on its ecommerce subsidiary, MetaStream. ‘The use of 3D to date has been gratuitous,’ says MetaStream’s chief marketing officer Paul Kadin. ‘The reality of 3D has not lived up to its promise.’”

“Content, Community and Commerce for 3D Graphics Professionals.” Features news and opinions, tools, techniques, freeware, gallery sections and more.

“To create 3D graphic effects you need not go out and buy expensive 3D rendering software when some great effects can be created with ordinary illustration software such as Freehand, Illustrator or CorelDraw.”

Links, articles, reviews and discussions on all things 3D. Includes sections on VRML, MPEG4, panoramic imaging, standards, and virtual reality.

“Genesis3D is a real-time 3D rendering environment for all of your real-time 3D needs. With a large online community, free online forums, and many links to Genesis3D developers…you will find all the support and tools that you need to begin developing world-class, real-time 3D applications today. If you are new to developing with Genesis3D, the current version of the Software Developer’s Kit is 1.1. Use the tutorials found on our linked pages, and ask questions on our forum. The engine is free to download and play with. Also make sure to download GDemo1, an impressive example of Genesis3D in action.”

PDF: A very cool four-page article (350k) by Ben Delaney discussing the 3DTF, complete with pictures. (UPDATE 19 Jan 2007: The original link at http://computer.org/cga/cg1999/pdf/g6012.pdf no longer works and the PDF must now be purchased.)

“The Web3D Consortium was formed to provide a forum for the creation of open standards for Web3D specifications, and to accelerate the worldwide demand for products based on these standards through the sponsorship of market and user education programs.”

“We asked five graphic designers to tell us about the best books in their field.” Includes Jessica Helfand, Lawrence Mirsky, Leif Allmendinger, Robin Kinross and Steven Heller. And here’s Lingua Franca’s archive of Breakthrough books.

“The visual and tactile aspects of the written word are explored in this exhibition. Although the subject is words, we have avoided textual content in favor of physical context. In presenting written texts that differ from the familiar, we intend to show that, far from being a uniform box of rows and columns, the written word has been recorded historically in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials. Books were embellished, handsomely illustrated, jealously guarded, and moralistically expurgated.”

“For every game that sets the high-water mark in design and/or game play, there are dozens of titles that don’t. Why is that? I’ve discovered a number of possible reasons. Many games are made by people who shoot from the hip instead of taking a good and proper aim at success, many designers are relatively new to their jobs and aren’t certain what’s expected of them, and few development companies have established a formal design processes for creating and implementing a game.”

“The visual and tactile aspects of the written word are explored in this exhibition. Although the subject is words, we have avoided textual content in favor of physical context. In presenting written texts that differ from the familiar, we intend to show that, far from being a uniform box of rows and columns, the written word has been recorded historically in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials. Books were embellished, handsomely illustrated, jealously guarded, and moralistically expurgated.”

“‘We’re filling the world with amazing devices,’ says design guru John Thackara. ‘But we cannot answer the most important question: What is the stuff really for?’ …John Thackara — designer, critic, business provocateur — is most comfortable with his work when it makes other people uncomfortable with theirs. Discomforting others was part of his role at the influential Netherlands Design Institute, a government-funded ‘think-and-do tank,’ which Thackara ran from 1993 until late last year.”

“For every game that sets the high-water mark in design and/or game play, there are dozens of titles that don’t. Why is that? I’ve discovered a number of possible reasons. Many games are made by people who shoot from the hip instead of taking a good and proper aim at success, many designers are relatively new to their jobs and aren’t certain what’s expected of them, and few development companies have established a formal design processes for creating and implementing a game.”