For an increasing number of 3D users, one frame is enough, so long as its 5,000 pixels wide and nicely anti-aliased. A new generation of illustrators is making an impact on the print market, creating artwork with 3D programs for magazine covers, information graphics and conceptual illustrations. Unlike traditional users, they have little use for keyframes and animation tools, but they are every bit as passionate about their craft.

My introduction to 3D came two years ago, when I was Graphics Director at Time magazine. Previously I had been an art director who used Photoshop and digital photography to enliven my work, relying on a handful of plug-ins to simulate dimension. Time’s three artists were all using 3D tools already–Strata StudioPro and Infini-D–but were struggling with each program’s limitations for creating organic models. They routinely pulled all-nighters to meet weekly deadlines, and burnout seemed inevitable.

At that time we decided to switch to Lightwave, for several reasons:

• Its modeler enabled us to push and pull points to quickly create shapes that would have been impossible in other programs.
• We had seen several remarkable images on Newtek’s website that were incredibly realistic, with photographic lighting and soft, feathery shadows.
• It was available on the Mac and accepted Adobe Illustrator shapes, fitting squarely into our existing workflow.

We hired a consultant to train our staff. For six consecutive Mondays we filled a small training room and received a crash course in Lightwave’s modeling, surfacing and rendering tools. Time’s 3D graphics became more inviting and dramatic, and the artists used their new tools to create charts and diagrams that won numerous national and international awards. Other magazines noticed, and began calling Time for 3D graphics, enough so that I left the magazine to open my own design firm. Today I spend most of my working hours–and what used to be my sleeping hours–using Lightwave.

Many art directors today prefer digital artwork for its flexibility, as it affords them more control over the final product. 3D takes that flexibility one step further, allowing the artist to rotate a model for a better angle. Oftentimes the same model can yield a cover and an opening illustration, simply by moving the lights and adding a second camera for a different perspective. Unlike traditional illustration, digital artwork can be posted to a website for immediate feedback, and delivered electronically without wasting time and money. I’ve even uploaded simple Quicktime animations for art directors, allowing them to page through the frames and choose the angle that suits them.

On the downside, many art directors don’t fully recognize how much time and effort is required to model a complicated object and render at high-resolution. Pricing is determined by the amount of space taken on the page, not how many hours are invested in the job, and budgets are constricted industry wide by a major advertising slowdown. Therefore, a two-column illustration requiring a complicated model and hours of rendering generally pays the same $800 as a pencil sketch or cut-paper collage. A successful artist learns to work efficiently, choosing whether to model small details or add them with Photoshop; to cast accurate shadows with render-intensive area lights or settle for shadow-mapped spotlights; to build a complicated model from scratch or purchase one from a stock house.

Like any other form of illustration, 3D artwork is only as good as the idea behind it. What threatens this new industry is an overreliance on shadows and highlights to compensate for bad concepts and inconclusive material. When used as a crutch in this way, 3D is at its worst. When used transparently to call attention to brilliant ideas and simplified explanations–rather then its own execution–3D shines.

For all of its benefits, 3D has some drawbacks for illustrators. The print world is Mac-oriented, yet most 3D programs and plug-ins are skewed toward the Windows user. This year I bought my first PC, desperate for some way to improve my video performance. Memory requirements are sky-high on both platforms when it comes to huge renderings with high anti-aliasing. Each of my computers has more than a gigabyte of the fastest RAM available. And while animators can distribute renders over several machines to save time, that generally works only when rendering more than one frame at a time, offering little help for someone trying to squeeze out a single frame. The upside of course, is the quality of the work being done in the industry. Time is a sentimental favorite for information graphics, where Ed Gabel and Lon Tweeten create stunning charts and diagrams with a painterly feel, while Joe Lertola capitalizes on Lightwave’s organic modellling tools to produce some of the best medical illustrations in the business. Popular Science also does a great job, with several freelance 3D illustrators–Jason Lee, Don Foley–who work in a clean, understated style without resorting to gimmicks. Newspapers are also embracing 3D: The New York Times’ “How It Works” feature in Tuesday’s Science Times is very well done with FrankO’Connell’s enlightening illustrations created in Form Z.

I’ve been contacted by several newspapers and magazines interested in learning 3D. Many are intimidated by the learning curve, lack of training facilities, the cost of software and the rendering times required of print graphics. It will be interested to see whether 3D developers begin to recognize this emerging market. The program I use doesn’t recognize CMYK color values or pica measurements, the lingua franca of the print world. Even a simple calculator to help determine the print size of a render would be of some benefit. The first company to trot out a stripped-down version of their software that automates bevels and extrusions–which is what drives most print artists to 3D in the first place–without requiring such an immersive learning experience–which is what drives most print artists away from 3D–will build a bridge to a generation of new customers.

As new users become more familiar with their software, I predict that 3D illustrations will become even more dynamic. I recently took a character animation course and it has proven surprisingly helpfulwith my print projects. Using particle effects I’ve created a fountain of dollar bills that I’ve been able to use in several illustrations. Keyframing camera positions enables me to render out different perspectives before deciding on which one to use for a high-resolution image. And adding bones and targets to a model can make it easier to bend models without disturbing the original geometry.

Eventually this knowledge may enable me to expand my business beyond print as well, adding commercials and web animations to my repetoire. Until then, I’m perfectly happy confining my efforts to the pursuit of a single pristine frame.

After all, what’s the rush?

All illustrations by Joe Zeff.