Dinosaur Model using Zspheres

Female Leg Homework

Female Leg using Zspheres

Male Torso Homework

Male Torso using Zspheres

Male Legs Homework

Male Legs using Zspheres

3D Modeling: World Space VS Local Space

When I first heard of these two ways to designate how you are looking at an object or group of objects when modeling they seemed pretty self-explanatory and easy to explain. However when I was asked the difference I could only think of arbitrary answers. I realized that I really had no clue which was which and how to distinguish the two apart.

So I decided to search the all-powerful and omnipotent Internet to find out just what this difference is. I wanted to prove that I truly did know what someone was saying when they asked about world space and local space in relation to the virtual 3D world, the following is what I found.

World Space: In relation to the 3D world this is the absolute XYZ coordinates of everything within the viewport and all objects

Local Space: This is the relative coordinates of an object, or reference object

While searching for these two explanations of 3D spaces I also came across Screen Space which deals mainly with a 2D space, but found it interesting nonetheless. This is used to place objects at certain pixel positions on the screen.

I hope this has helped you with determining the difference between world and local space.