THE HISTORY OF 3D RENDERING: The Pre-Digital Age. Part 1.

Cave Painting And First Drawings

In a broad sense visualization really started as early as this! It has been developing for thousands of years, since ancient times. The remains of cave paintings, Egyptian, Greek and Roman art and architecture demonstrate the first hand or handmade images, manual architectural drawings, skillful usage of light, texture, space and perspective. (Cave paintings, bas-reliefs in pyramids, Egyptian drawings, Greece vases, Roman Mosaic, Fayum portraits) 

The First Graphic Drawings And Perspective

A Musical Instrument and A Flying Machine

The Renaissance in Italy is the next step. During this period significant advances in the theory of perspective and dimensional renderings were made. Leonardo da Vinci, the trailblazer of visualization, made drawings of his inventions manually, using the perspective, and these drawings enabled constructors to recreate some of them later in reality. Among the inventions are a flying machine, a grinding machine, musical instruments, an aerial screw, a fighting vehicle and others. 

A Name

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519), a genius of the High Renaissance. Being the greatest painter, sculptor, scientist, engineer, draughtsman and architect, he pioneered technical design and drawings, using “exploded view” technique, perfected by him.  

Leonardo da Vinci’s technical sketches, drawings and machines, reproduced from them, are exhibited in Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy.

The First Engineering Drawings

Watt Steam Engine 

In the pre-computer age all 3D renderings were drawn manually. It was really difficult and required a lot of special knowledge, experience and time. These manual drawings had a great impact on progress, engineering drawings being the basis of the machinery and the inventions of the First Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. Watt steam engine, created by James Watt, as well as his other inventions, were first visualized in drawings. All these inventions were fundamental to the changes in the world brought by the First Industrial Revolution.

A Name

James Watt (30 January 1736 – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish engineer, inventor and chemist, the creator of Watt steam engine, which boosted the 1st industrial revolution.