Complex shapes are hard to build with primitive shapes (for example: terrain, animals, plants, machinery). Instead, build shapes out of atomic components: points, lines, and polygon faces. Shape building is like a 3D connect-the-dots game: place dots at 3D locations, and connect-the-dots to form shapes A coordinate specifies a 3D dot location, measured relative to a coordinate system origin. A geometry node then specifies how to connect the dots: for example, PointSet, IndexedLineSet, or IndexedFaceSet. Animation is accomplished using a CoordinateInterpolator node.

These X3D scenes are adapted directly from the original VRML 2.0 Sourcebook chapter examples. Also available: Introduction to VRML97 SIGGRAPH98 course notes.