what type of this illustration/diagram?

[burgerqing]

Hi all, could you please help me to identify the type of this diagram? it looks like a 3d dementions type, but i am not sure what catagory it is called. 

i have been assigned to make this type of illustrations recently,  and i have to do some reseach to study it first, so please help.

Thank you in advance.

[Bobby Henderson]

The example looks like a hand illustrated cross section of coastal geology. The isometric 3D design appears to be simulated and not built in a 3D modeling program. It's possible some of the individual elements (such as trees) could be pieces of stock art, but they may have been created from scratch.

Various methods can be used to create such an illustration. I would probably start out sketching the basics of it by hand, either on paper to be scanned by a flatbed scanner or drawing it in the computer using a graphics tablet. The sketch can be locked down on a layer in Illustrator (or Photoshop) and used as a guide for clean artwork to be created on layers above.

[Monika Gause]

I don't think that example is hand-illustrated. The gradient in the water looks very vector.

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm sure the finished, full color product was something completed in one or more computer graphics applications. But it looks to me like the basics of it were drawn by hand, be it by hand using analog on-paper tools or by hand using computer graphics application tools. The illustration does not look like something created in a 3D modeling/rendering program.