1. A virtual coatings application system comprising: a display screen on which a virtual surface is displayed; an instrumented spray gun controller outputting one or more signals representing virtual spray gun data; a motion tracking system that tracks the position and orientation of the spray gun controller with respect to the virtual surface on the display screen; and a computer programmed with software which generates virtual spray pattern data in response to at least the virtual spray gun data and the position and the orientation data received from the tracking system; and wherein a virtual spray pattern image is displayed in real time on the display screen in accordance with the mathematical accumulation of virtual spray pattern data per unit time at each location on the virtual surface; and wherein the software comprises a mathematical paint model that outputs virtual spray pattern data to characterize the resulting pattern of the virtual spray as a function of time in response to at least standoff distance and angular orientation of the spray gun controller relative to the virtual surface as well as virtual spray characteristic data representing settings for various spray gun settings; and further wherein the mathematical paint model is based at least on actual data collected from spray patterns generated for various spray gun settings, said paint model outputting virtual spray pattern data to characterize the resulting pattern of the virtual spray in terms of spatter size and density on the virtual surface as a function of time and simulates coverage and build thickness in the following manner: inner elliptical radii for width (r iw ) and height (r ih ) define an area of constant rate finish coverage; outer elliptical radii for width (r ow ) and height (r ih ) define the outer extent to which the rate of finish coverage becomes negligible, the rate of finish coverage falling off linearly between inner and outer elliptical radii so that coverage at the outer radii is equal to zero; spatter droplet size is linearly distributed throughout from a minimum spatter droplet size to a maximum spatter droplet size; and wherein overall pattern dimensions are modified linearly with standoff distance and coverage rates for uniform spray and spatter vary inversely with standoff distance, while spatter size remains constant with respect to standoff distance.