3D Express (circa 1996)

Sometime in January 1996, I purchased a software called 3D Express by 3rd Dimensions Technologies, Inc. The software allowed the user to create 3D models. It was 500 bucks and the marketing was very slick.

There was the promise that you would be paid lots of money for the creation of 3D models. I don't know who would buy them but I believed that the user was responsible for selling his own work. Fortunately the file format was the standard DXF format. Unfortunately, the software sucked. It was very user unfriendly. I remember the hours it took to make a rocket. I just gave up after making a few simple models. The company had offered 3D wire frame\mesh examples and their costs if one were to sell them. A 12,000 polygon horse would have gone for $500 for example. I had a long way to go to be that good. I don't think my basic rocket had over 100 polygons.

I wasn't satisfied with the product. And although the software met the minimum requirements for my computer, it was still very very painfully slow to edit and render the meshes. I used the software over the 15 day refund policy so I blew $500 fast. In retrospect I should have kept working on making 3D models, no matter how bad they were.

In any event, this was my first experience with creating computer generated 3-D models.

Fast forward to the future: The primary software I use for making 3-D models is anim8or. It is freeware (really - no ads and no other feature limitation) and I learned it by doing. I probably learned the basics in a few days. Later, I was able to make a rough 3D model of any object out of my butt in minutes!