3D art and animation has developed in two significant directions, defined as pre-rendered 3D and real-time 3D.  Pre-rendered 3D is used to create still images and animation frames with a high level of detail that take minutes, hours, or even days to create each image.  Real time 3D involves the creation of interactive 3D scenes that display at high frame rates, allowing the viewer to enter into a scene, or to interact with objects and characters in a scene.  Radical advances in real time 3D software and hardware have made the technology available on most personal computers, and have resulted in the creation of games like ID software's Quake, and Eidos Interactive's Tomb Raider.   As real time 3D technology continues to improve, characters and environments are becoming more and more realistic.  It ids already possible to create worlds in which the look and feel rivals the quality of early pre-rendered art, and slowly but surely, the quality of real time rendering is approaching the detail of  live action film and photography.

      As 3D tools evolved, the Internet was growing as well.  What in 1990 was a computer nerd's tool for research and newsgroup chat, has become a significant and indispensable element of modern business, leisure, and communication.  The Web has evolved like a living thing, with input from millions of people worldwide.  It is nearly impossible to describe the changes that have occurred on the world wide web in the last ten years, but one aspect that has had a significant effect is the advancement of on-line art and animation.   Graphics and animation can now be easily integrated on the Web using HTML, and a variety of commercial software packages.

     Over the last five years another technology has been growing that has taken the computer gaming world by storm, and has captured the imagination of corporations developing on the internet,  known as a massively multi-player, or massively multi-user environment.        Multi-player computer gaming has been popular for many years, but the concept that hundreds or even thousands of users can share an environment simultaneously is relatively new.  The first commercially successful game in the genre is a fantasy role-playing game called The Realm, originally developed by Sierra On-Line in 1996, and still in development today by Codemasters USA. The genre truly entered the public eye with the release two more massively multiplayer fantasy games, Ultima On-Line, released in 1998, and the incredibly popular Everquest, released in 1999.  

      Massively multi-user environments are based on the same concept, but are social rather than gaming environments, emphasizing real world issues like communication, self expression, and social interaction rather than pure entertainment.  Many attempts have been made to create a successful massively multi-user environment, and more are in development. Sierra On-Line's "Sierraland" released in 1995 may have been the first.  Activeworlds was released at about the same time, and while Sierraland is long gone, Activeworlds is still a thriving International community with more than a hundred unique 3D worlds to explore. 

The development of these technologies; real time 3D art and animation, the Internet, and massive multi-player ( and multi-user ) environments has made virtual environments like Activeworlds possible.

     The Williams Gallery West in Activeworlds is managed by artist and gallery owner Jonathan Bock, who began his work in 3D at California Institute of the Arts in 1987.  Bock's earliest work consisted of short 3D animated films created for his graduate thesis in experimental animation.  Bock continued his work in 3D at the computer game company Sierra On-Line as an art director and game designer, culminating in 1996 with the release of the 3D rendered adventure game Lighthouse. 

      In 1998 Bock began exploring Activeworlds.  His first project was the construction of a shrine dedicated to co-workers laid off during the closing of Yosemite Entertainment, the Oakhurst California division of Sierra On-Line, considered by many to be the birthplace of the computer adventure game.  In 1999 Bock continued his work with Sierra as art director of the massively multiplayer game "Middle Earth", based on the classic fantasy works "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, and also participated in two virtual art exhibitions in Activeworlds in collaboration with Valery Milovic, creator of a gallery complex known as Zero Gallery Village in the Activeworlds world of Metropolis.  To learn more about these events, follow the links below .

June 12, 1999

Select Paintings by William Bock, Carmen Washington, and Mark Henson.

December 11, 1999

David Aronson, Xavier Cortes, and Santa Cruz artists Bridget Henry, Elizabeth Williams, and Laura Rice.