Having spent the past five months exploring character animation and modeling in 3D Studio MAX, it's high time to shift gears and think about new directions and developments in the world of computer graphics.

There could hardly be a better moment, with the first breath of winter quickening those of us in the northern half of the globe. Nor could there be a better time for me, personally, to look to the future of our common passion and enterprise. Longtime readers of this column know that I have, for the past three years, been a college professor teaching this subject matter at Cogswell College in Sunnyvale, California. The person most serious about learning 3D computer graphics is well advised to teach it. I have learned what I know primarily through teaching talented and motivated students. Indeed, I feel more as though I have graduated from Cogswell College, than having left it.

But I have moved on to a new position as Director of Developer Relations, Education and Support for Eyematic Interfaces, Inc. Eyematic Interfaces is the new corporate face of Shout3D, the Java-based Web 3D technology. I've just finished a book on Shout3D, which will soon be available though Amazon.com and other bookstores. As it turned up, Shout Interactive, the developers of Shout3D, recently merged into Eyematic Interfaces, and Shout3D is now part of a larger portfolio of computer graphics technologies. I was invited to join the new joint enterprise, and am proud to be aboard. Like many other 3D technology firms today, Eyematic is a brain trust of passionate individuals and an exotic stew of ideas. It's going to be fun.

With that out of the way, let me share my current take on the 3D scene.