We are very pleased to announce immediate availability of GD3D, a 3D drawing application for the iPhone (iTunes). Created by Martin Fuchs aka d_effekt and published by CreativeApplications.Net, GD3D (GeoDoodle3d) is an Accelerometer and Compass/GPS 3D drawing application for the iPhone allowing you to create three dimensional drawings in space. Using built in compass, GD3D lets you draw around you, tagging your location with color and sharing your creations with other users or visit places to see what they have drawn.

Martin, for those that may not know, is a Basel/ Switzerland based interactive artist, working together with Philip Whitfield they form the undef collective. Both students until recently at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, I first got to know Martin through a series of fantastic projects we published on CAN in the past (here, here, here). It was not short after both Martin and Phillip contributed to the SKTCH project by designing few drawing presets known as CROSS and KIEBITZ. Few months ago, keeping it very quiet until then, Martin offered to share with me an iPhone app he was working on, though ready for submission. Having had a play with GD3D, I was instantly drawn in, wanting to get involved thus offering Martin an opportunity for CAN to publish the app. Having gone through the ins and outs of what that might mean, we decided I would complete the app (Martin was busy finishing his thesis) as well as create the site for the app. Our original intention was to create a simple site, something that would promote the app but with more time spent on it we realised it was an opportunity to use the site as an extension to the app, something everyone could enjoy regardless of whether they have the iPhone app or not.

As mentioned earlier, GD3D allows you to draw in 3D, tagging your location and simultaneously sharing your drawings with others in proximity. GD3D is not an augmented reality app, we like to think of it as a portal to a new place, one of colour and imagination. GD3D also allows you to see drawings within 1km radius of wherever you are regardless of who has drawn it (using rui physics). You can download these drawings to your device and experience them in 3D by rotating the iPhone around you in the physical world. You can leave messages for others, redraw something you see or simply leave a mark, in a place somewhere in the world. We wanted the site to show only that, tags spread across the world. We didn’t care for location, cities or towns, we wanted your locations to define the map, redraw the world. The only reference is the GPS data, two simple number defining coordinates in relation to one another. It’s about the world we are creating not the one that exists already – “This world is but a canvas to our imagination” Henry David Thoreau.

Because GD3D writes data to MySQL database whenever someone uploads a drawing, all the information was already there for us to use including coordinates, point data, time/date, etc..

What we were missing was a preview, a flat 2D way to preview a drawing. Martin agreed to add another camera to the app which would create an aerial perspective view of what you’ve drawn. A 500x500px image gets created and uploaded to the site every time you upload a new drawing.  We now needed someone to help with the GoogleMaps integration. Andrey Yazev aka mrslndr and the389.com offered to create the map portion of the site. What you see today, is Andrey’s wonderful work, allowing you to browse all the drawings everyone’s created. Of course, you can only see them as 2D images and you have to be within 1km radius to actually experience them. With a lot of tweaking, adding things such as ability to tweet from the website any of the drawings and seeing the location on maps.google.com, the site finally came together.

In addition, the site also works great as an iPhone web app. If you visit the site on your iPhone and “Add to Homescreen”, GD3D.net will appear as a web app without the safari toolbars allowing you quick access to the map.

There is much in store for GD3D. Some things we are thinking are .GML integration, SKTCH presets, Twitter OAuth and much more.. Tell us what you think, what you like, what you’d like to see…

This is just the beginning..a portal to a new place, one of colour and imagination..

GD3D is available on the AppStore for $1.99.

Thanks to Andrey Yazev (GoogleMap integration), Philip Whitfield and Peter Bichsel, Luke Wroblewski (Touch gesture icons), Mårten Nettelbladt (MISO typeface).

For latest, follow GD3D on Twitter or Facebook.

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