3D ANIMATION FROM A LOW LEVEL
Surely you have seen this logo when you start a game. Have you ever asked yourself: what is it, what does it mean?
Well, OpenGL is a library of 3D modeling and graphics. It was initially developed by Silicon Graphics, although it soon became a standard, especially when it was adopted by Microsoft for its Windows operating system.
Open Gl is one of the most used 3d modeling libraries, along with another one called Direct 3D. This library is very portable and fast. It works in immediate mode, that is, the objects are drawn as they are created. Initially this library was used to create animations and games from scratch. But over time, it became a library that works below software such as unity, render, blender, maya, among others. Nowadays, people have stopped learning open gl, because they prefer to use a higher-level program and be easier to work with. And this, because what you delay doing a simple landscape in unity for example, with open gl from zero, you would be taking up to triple the time.
Still, it is very useful and interesting to learn to use open gl. Because you will be seeing how everything works from behind. Every vertex, every array, every polygon, every vector, every angle… all this and more, you will have to do it by yourself drawing pixel by pixel using mathematical formulas that you will have to understand to achieve it.
I must say that it is not an easy job, but unquestionably, when you finish, you will feel the best satisfaction in the world.
Finally, wanted to annex a animation that create me same, with open gl in the language C++. This model is a solar system, where I used: illumination, polygons, textures, orthogonal 3d perspective. The final result doesn’t seem very complex but believe me that it was.
![](https://lyaelectronic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/opengl_solar_system-1024x645.jpg)
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Melissa Alvarez – Systems Engineer