I think this article, and the comments here, are a splendid example of how deep (and often confusing) 3D graphics can be. One of the things I appreciated about

I think this article, and the comments here, are a splendid example of how deep (and often confusing) 3D graphics can be. One of the things I appreciated about the Glide3D API for the old VooDoo cards back in the day was how basic it was relative to the work of getting the 3D stuff on the screen. There are several ways in which you can "learn" 3D graphics; You can get it by theory, you can get it by API, and you can get it by modelling. If you're someone who is a theory person you should start at the beginning and learn linear algebra and vector arithmetic. You can learn about projections, and camera "views" and project your 3D scene onto a 2D surface whether it is a computer screen or a plotter page. Once you get there you can then do hidden line, and then hidden surface removal. You can learn about the 'Z' plane and the clipping frustrum which lets you not worry about things that won't appear in your projection. With a relatively simple array of coordinates type data structure you can project triangles or NURBs onto your surface and draw pretty pictures. Then you can start learning about light and all the many ways it interacts with materials. At the end of this journey you can take a 3D model and render it in a photorealistic way, one frame at a time. The second way to learn 3D programming is the API path. Here you don't really learn too much of the math, although having that background will help you understand what the functions are doing. You learn an API like Unity or Vulkan. These APIs have taken a lot the basic 3D programming and done it for you, you need to learn how to write shaders which decorate your surfaces in ways that simulate light or water or fog Etc. Generally you construct a scene with calls to set up the frame, and then call 'render' with the appropriate screen resource referenced. Blam! instant 3D scene. The third way you might come at this is modelling things, building models in Maya or some other modelling tool that are built with skeletons, which is simply a data structure that identifies how different parts of the model can move in relation to other parts. You probably don't have to know anything about 3D math, but you have to have a good eye for construction of the models and the area in which those models are placed. There are so many ways to go at this particular quest, each have their own challenges and rewards.