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Man is inherently an artistic creature, but a historical overview of art would reveal a cycle in that artistic expression. Often this artistic
expression cycles and changes to reflect the culture of the day. Today, for example, Grundge art seems to be in vogue. We see it on our television commercials, we get bombarded with it in magazines and it yells at us
from billboards. It is more likely that tomorrow Grundge will be seen as just another passing fad. Just as some forms of art come and go, there are on the other hand, styles which seem to transcend time. One such form
seems to be Realism. Of course the popularity of realism depends very much on content, but many would acknowledge that an artist who can reflect reality in his work ought to be looked upon approvingly and is meritorious
of praise. The ability to recreate real elements in the artwork can also be used to express the unreal, or the surreal. That is, a combination of the realistic elements can be used to form an impossible, bizarre or
imaginary scene. In any event Realism, in one form or another, is here to stay.Realism is alive and well today, so much so that art and technology have merged to enable people to make very realistic artwork. We are
not speaking about photo enhancements and manipulation, rather, the rage of the day is three dimensional modeling and rendering. The ability to model scenes and render an image of the scene using computers is not
entirely new. But what has happened in the very recent past is that the hardware technology advances have given the common man access to tools which were only available on high end machines and for high end prices.
Today we have equipment in our homes and businesses which allow us to run tools which are of a similar caliber and quality as the toys of the "big boys". As a result, the growth in interest in 3D tools today
is growing exponentially. The use of computer 3D modeling is as varied as what can be modeled; from modeling engineering components and architectural buildings, to creating surreal worlds used in computer games or
creating web site graphics. There are a number of affordable 3D modeling tools available on the market today, but there is one tool which seems to be in a category all of its own. This tool is TrueSpace2 from Caligari  Corporation. The current version of TrueSpace is version 2.0, with the soon-to-be released version
3.0 looming on the horizon. TrueSpace2 is a unique 3D modeling package. It includes a set of traditional 3D modeling tools, but it also contains tools that are not often found in modeling packages of
comparable cost. Moreover, TrueSpace 2 has an interface unlike the traditional modeling tools. It takes some time and practice to get accustomed to this new way of
interacting with a scene, but your job of modeling takes less time, is easier, and as a result is a lot more fun. Some people struggle with this
interface, but I believe the struggle is worth it. It allows for the direct manipulation of objects and uses some new technology to render objects in real-time. TrueSpace is not only a modeling tool, but it is also
an advanced animation tool. Each object can be separately animated, deformed, moved, rotated and scaled and then choreographed to act with other objects, thus creating complex animations with a few simple
clicks of the mouse. Sculpting
TrueSpace's ability to manipulate, deform and sculpt three dimensional objects directly and in real time is unique. With the Deformation and Sculpt tools you can create objects which have an 'organic' quality that
cannot be easily duplicated in many other 3D applications.  The creation of objects in many 3D packages is limited to
polygons which are extruded or swept into the third dimension (which TrueSpace also allows). Rarely is it possible to manipulate the individual vertices, segments and planes
of an object directly with the click and drag of a mouse while at the same time seeing the results rendered before your eyes. In TrueSpace there is no need to modify an object 'mathematically' by entering values in
a dialog box (though it does permit you to do this). What TrueSpace does well is to provide tools which allow the user to interact with an object such that its shape is modified
by pushing, pulling, scaling, bending and rotating. This technique is very effective; you can transform a cone, six cylinders and two spheres into a very realistic looking horse in a relatively short period of time.
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