Gimpel3D Files

History of Gimpel3D - The Little Drawing Program That Could:


* - Thinking outside the box; How studying art opened this programmer's mind.

I began working on G3D in 2008 while studying traditional art (perspective drawing in particular)...I had always wanted to learn to draw but had no talent (this was one of the reasons I was attracted to 3d programming in the first place)..

I had been laid off from my last "normal" job in 2006, and by 2008 I was overflowing with spare time...I started watching the 10-Minute Drawing series by Mark Chong, and I was hooked. I figured I would never be a great artist, but at the very least I could have functional skills, and maybe have some fun with it.

I approached learning to draw like most things; I ordered a ton of books on the subject and started breaking it down. I was surprised at the depth of information and technical possibilities with perspective drawing; this was way beyond the simple 1/2/3 point perspective I learned about as a kid.

In constructing my own perspective drawings (mostly Quake-style fun stuff), I learned all the tricks to maneuver around the space, and find relative sizes, project shadows, reflections, etc., all cool things that I never knew were possible on a flat page. Obviously this stuff has been established since the 1400s but it was all new to me. Programmers and artists don't mix.

In retrospect, being laid off and underemployed for those few years was a major blessing, because otherwise I would not have had the free time or initiative to study something as "useless" as art, which helped to open my eyes in more ways than one.

* - Seeing Things Differently:

As I spent more time mentally projecting my perspective drawings into 3d space, it dawned on me that once a single surface was established in space (like a floor or wall), the rest of the scene could be assembled around that starting piece, and even free-floating objects could be located in space. It's like building a 3d model on paper.

Studying the mechanics of traditional illustration had opened my mind to new possibilities I would never have considered from just a programmer's point of view. This was now officially becoming cool. Instead of modeling Quake-style environments like a normal person (in a 3d app), I could draw a scene on paper, project out the pieces using perspective, and build an actual 3d model (or at least a starting reference).

As it turns out, this reverse-perspective construction method is terrible for building actual models :), but good for front-facing stereo conversions. It seemed like such an obvious solution to 2d/3d conversion I was a bit surprised when people thought it was anything out of the ordinary.

* - Doing Things Differently:

There was misc. interest in licensing or buying my app in the early years (2008-2010), I heard many proposals, some of them funnier than others, but none I could comfortably accept. In 2011 I started work on a different "fun go-to" project and decided to set G3D aside. With nothing better to do with it, I released it into the wild :) and people seem to be getting some use out of it.

I still get emails from misc. people asking about future plans, updates, code licensing, etc., and I try to be responsive, but G3D has been off of my radar for so long I don't see myself getting back into it anytime soon (though I would like to see the right team of people take it and run with it)..

Given that the "right team" is most likely going to be other guys like me, I've decided to opensource the G3D codebase and just let the community have a go at it. I'd like to join in the fun (and I will), but there are simply too many cool things that can be done with it that I'm probably not going to get around to myself :)

NOTE: This project was a big chunk out of my life for a few years (and great fun), I look forward to seeing what it becomes in the future.

Thanks
René Gimpel

gimpelcodeshack@gmail.com
www.gimpel3d.com


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The full codebase can be found at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimpel3d

OR

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5171737/G3D/G3DCodeBaseFULL_11_17_2013.zip

A folder named "CurrentG3DCode" has been setup in the sourceforge project for all current and future changes; If there are no files in that folder, then nothing has changed since the original code from the zip file.