all the 3d piccys stuff
Created | Updated Oct 8, 2010
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<P>Anybody who has been to the cinema from the late noughties onwards would have seen the increasing amount of 3D films. Thanks to computer animation, it is relativity simple to produce a 3D version of a cartoon, and with Avatar being nominated for the 2010 Oscars, 3D films are barely recognisable from the laughable likes of Jaws 3D.</P>
<P>While adding a third dimension to a flat medium may seen to be some hugely complicated processes needing hours of work and supercomputers, it is possible to produce your own, static, 3D photos with nothing more than a digital camera, a computer and some free software. These images are called stereograms. </P>
<HEADER>So, How Does it Work?</HEADER>
<P>The illusion of making something look 3D relies on us having two eyes and one brain. Cover your left eye and then do the same with your right. Each view is slightly different. Objects are seen from slightly different angles and are at slightly different positions. Your brain makes these images and makes one 3D view out of them, using differences to determine if they are small or far away. This is our depth perception.</P>
<P>Books, computer monitors and cinema screens are 2D surfaces, so how do we make them show us 3D images? What we do is exactly the same as the way we see the normal world, we give the left eye and the right eye different images to look at. Most of the common methods of doing this use glasses.</P>
<SUBHEADER>Coloured Glasses</SUBHEADER>
<P>Coloured glasses are one of the traditional ways that stereograms are viewed. These glasses consist of lenses of two chromatically opposite colours. Images produced using this method are called anaglyphs. While red /green, red / blue and blue / yellow are fairly common, and suitable for monochrome, red / cyan is probably most popular now, and gives the results for colour anaglyphs.</P>
<P>The image is formed from two combined images. One of these is only viewable through the left eye, and one is only seen though the right. The brain takes the two eye views and converts it into a 3D image. </P>
<P>The advantages of the colour glasses method is that it is cheap and can be used anywhere. This method can be used for static images either in print or on a screen and can be a low cost solution for viewing moving images, especially at home.</P>
<P>The main disadvantage is that, even in red-cyan, much of the colour from the image is lost or distorted.</P>
<P>We will be using coloured glasses for our anaglyphs. While paper red-cyan glasses can occasionally picked up from children's magazines, it is recommended to buy a pair of plastic framed glasses which not only are more comfortable and durable, but can provide a sharper picture.</P>
<SUBHEADER>Polarised Glasses</SUBHEADER>
<P>These are sometimes used for cinema screenings. Two images are projected onto a screen, each polarised<FOOTNOTE>Light waves vibrate can vibrate in any direction. Polarising filters block all vibrations expect those in a certain plane.</FOOTNOTE> 90 degrees from the other. The pair of glasses has two lenses, where each eye has a polarising filter at 90 degrees to the other. Only light of same polarity can pass though the each lens, so one image is seen though the right eye and one is seen though the left.</P>
<P>This elegant method is used in some cinemas where they can afford to install 2 projectors. No colour is lost, so the images are of much better quality. The glasses are also fairly cheap, so can be mass produced for large audiences<FOOTNOTE>Providing a massive pile of earnings for cinemas who insist that you have to buy a new set of glasses for each 3D film you see.</FOOTNOTE>.</P>
<P>This method can't be used in print, and since it needs two polarised projectors, is pretty expensive for anywhere but commercial cinemas.</P>
<SUBHEADER>LCD glasses</SUBHEADER>
<P>When you pass a current though liquid crystal, it turns opaque. This can be turned on and off very quickly. LCD glasses have lenses where each can be made opaque independently. The glasses controller is then synchronised with the display. Frames for the left and right eye are shown one after the other at high speed. When a left eye image is being shown, the right lens turns opaque and vice versa. Done at high speed, the brain does not notice the flickering.</P>
<P>This can be done for cinemas and like the polarised method, they don't lose colour. Because they don't need an extra projector, they can potentially be used at home, where they would just require the glasses and the television or computer to be synchronised.</P>
<P>On the downside, the glasses are much more expensive and bulky than the other methods. This also cannot be used for print applications.</P>
<HEADER>Taking the Photos</HEADER>
<P>Let's assume that you haven't invested in a 3D camera<FOOTNOTE>In which case, your knowledge may well be beyond this introductory entry.</FOOTNOTE>. You have two choices, the two camera method or the cha-cha-cha.</P>
<P>The vital thing to do is make sure that images are as alike as possible, aside from the left/right movement. Try as much as possible to make sure that both pictures are level and that the same zoom and focus are used.</P>
<SUBHEADER>The Cha-Cha-Cha</SUBHEADER>
<P>This is easiest, and cheapest, way of doing things, but it can lead to mistakes and anaglyphs that don't work properly. All you do is take one picture and then cha-cha-cha<FOOTNOTE>Shuffle.</FOOTNOTE> to the right<FOOTNOTE>Or the left, but decide on one way and stick to it, it makes things a lot easier later.</FOOTNOTE> about ten to twenty centimetres and take another picture. There is a load of complicated maths about what is the precise distance apart to take the two shots, but as a rule of thumb, eye separation is good enough for most applications, but a larger separation may work well for landscapes.</P>
<P>It is vital you don't lean one way or the other, as these images do not often make good anaglyphs. Using the top of barriers or walls can help you make sure everything is level. If you have an autofocus camera, make sure that it is still focused on the same point for the second shot.</P>
<P>This is the ideal way to start producing anaglyphs, you can use your current camera or camera-phone and experiment. It allows you to zoom in on things and use all the features that your camera has to offer. If you are out and about with a camera and you thing something that you want to anaglyph, then it is pretty simple to cha-cha-cha a pair of photos out in the course of your normal photography.</P>
<P>On the downside, it is a near impossibility to do anything with motion in it with the cha-cha-cha. If objects move into, out of, or across the frame, they look odd then the 3D picture is made. The rate of shooting of a compact camera means that you often can't take scenes containing people as they will often move between shots. It is just possible with a quick camera to take two pictures of an object in motion while staying still and the different angles will give an anaglyph, but it is very tricky to pull off.</P>
<SUBHEADER>The Two Camera Method</SUBHEADER>
<P>Readers who are on the ball may be able to guess what is needed here is another camera. In fact, you will probably need two new cameras. The two cameras have to be identical, but, for the cost conscious amongst you, the best cameras to use are the simplest. Zoom and autofocus are straight out. Since both pictures need to be as similar to each other as possible, the best cameras are small simple, fixed focus cheap things. Watch out though, because even identical cameras can have slight differences. This researcher has seen two identical cameras where each resets to having different default picture sizes when the batteries are changed.</P>
<P>Then you need to mount the cameras. The lenses need to be level and the cameras need to be both in the same plane, and about an eye separation apart. The next trick is to try and get them to fire at the same time. This can be tricky, and is not vital. Normally, the cheap cameras like the type that are ideal for this, don't work with cable or remote releases. It is possible to take the cameras apart, then fiddle with the shutter buttons so that you can use a remote control to fire both at once, but be warned this needs some level of technical skill and will void any warranty. With synchronised firing, the combined flash guns may be too strong. If you can't get them to fire exactly at the same time, you will just have to press both shutter releases at the same time.</P>
<P>As long as both cameras fire, pretty much nothing can go wrong. While you may not be able to experiment as much as with the cha-cha-cha, the two camera method opens up the opportunity to photograph sports, crowds, children and animals. It also makes working with a model a lot more natural as they don't have to hold exact poses while you cha-cha-cha.</P>
<HEADER>Yipee! I Have Photos, Now What?</HEADER>
<P>Congratulations. Are you ready to make some anaglyphs to impress your friends?</P>
<P>We have a choice of ways of going about it. If you happen to own a copy of Photoshop then you can use that to align the photographs, and use the layers commands to colour each one. Or if you think that that is all too complex and expensive you can just download a free anaglyph maker like <LINK HREF="http://www.stereoeye.jp/software/index_e.html">Anamaker</LINK>.</P>
<P>For the purpose of this entry, we will assume you are using Anamaker, although the theory can be transferred to other products.</P>
<P>The first thing you need to decide on is what the midground of your anaglyph is. Everything in front of that, in the foreground, will seem to be coming out of the screen; everything behind it will seem to recede. </P>
<P>Load up the two images you want to anaglyph. Remember to make sure that the left image is one from the left camera or the one before you cha-cha-cha'd. Select the type of 3D image we want to do, don't use the colour Red/Cyan mode yet, use the grey version to line things up as it is a lot clearer, and click 3D make image. Now you need to spot a feature in the midground that is obvious in both pictures. Using the buttons, you can move the images over each other until they both line up over your chosen point.</P>
<P>Now you can don your glasses and see if, as a full screen image, the anaglyph works. Beware if you are not used to anaglyphs, then it can take a few moments for your eyes to get used to the glasses.</P>
<P>Sometimes anaglyphs work better in colour, some in 'gray'. The biggest problem is that if a foreground object is too far away from the midground, it is hard for your brain to make it into a proper image and can very quickly give you a headache. Try finding a point closer to the foreground to use as your midground.</P>
<HEADER>Not Just for Those Hollywood Types</HEADER>
<P>Animated movies and comic books are not the only place you will find 3D pictures. Stereoscopic images were used in some aerial reconnaissance planes in World War II. NASA and astronomers are big users of anaglyphs. Searching online can reveal a lot of 3D astronomical images, some of the most interesting are those from the Mars Pathfinder rover, it had two cameras, which allowed it to make clear all the ridges in the Martian landscape.</P>
<P>For the 2010 Soccer World Cup, home television systems with 3D were being advertised in the UK, allowing you to watch the matches in 3D. The only problem was that no UK broadcaster was broadcasting matches in 3D!</P>
<HEADER>In the Film Days</HEADER>
<P>In the days when all cameras used film, there were 3D cameras. These had multiple lenses, taking simultaneous shots on normal film. These could be processed onto special paper that gave a 3D effect.</P>
<HEADER>Having Problems Seeing Anaglyphs</HEADER>
<P>Not everybody, even if they have two working eyes, are able to anaglyphs. There can be a number of underlying reasons for this and a trip to the doctor can normally indentify the problem.</P>
<P>Many people think that 3D in movies is distracting, especially when the 3D images are retrofitted to the finished movie. A simple solution to watching a 3D film at a cinema in 2D is getting two sets of polarised glasses. If you then replace the right hand lens in one with the left hand lens in the other, you have two sets of glasses that convert polarised 3D films back into 2D!</P>
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<P>Anybody who has been to the cinema from the late noughties onwards would have seen the increasing amount of 3D films. Thanks to computer animation, it is relativity simple to produce a 3D version of a cartoon, and with Avatar being nominated for the 2010 Oscars, 3D films are barely recognisable from the laughable likes of Jaws 3D.</P>
<P>While adding a third dimension to a flat medium may seen to be some hugely complicated processes needing hours of work and supercomputers, it is possible to produce your own, static, 3D photos with nothing more than a digital camera, a computer and some free software. These images are called stereograms. </P>
<HEADER>So, How Does it Work?</HEADER>
<P>The illusion of making something look 3D relies on us having two eyes and one brain. Cover your left eye and then do the same with your right. Each view is slightly different. Objects are seen from slightly different angles and are at slightly different positions. Your brain makes these images and makes one 3D view out of them, using differences to determine if they are small or far away. This is our depth perception.</P>
<P>Books, computer monitors and cinema screens are 2D surfaces, so how do we make them show us 3D images? What we do is exactly the same as the way we see the normal world, we give the left eye and the right eye different images to look at. Most of the common methods of doing this use glasses.</P>
<SUBHEADER>Coloured Glasses</SUBHEADER>
<P>Coloured glasses are one of the traditional ways that stereograms are viewed. These glasses consist of lenses of two chromatically opposite colours. Images produced using this method are called anaglyphs. While red /green, red / blue and blue / yellow are fairly common, and suitable for monochrome, red / cyan is probably most popular now, and gives the results for colour anaglyphs.</P>
<P>The image is formed from two combined images. One of these is only viewable through the left eye, and one is only seen though the right. The brain takes the two eye views and converts it into a 3D image. </P>
<P>The advantages of the colour glasses method is that it is cheap and can be used anywhere. This method can be used for static images either in print or on a screen and can be a low cost solution for viewing moving images, especially at home.</P>
<P>The main disadvantage is that, even in red-cyan, much of the colour from the image is lost or distorted.</P>
<P>We will be using coloured glasses for our anaglyphs. While paper red-cyan glasses can occasionally picked up from children's magazines, it is recommended to buy a pair of plastic framed glasses which not only are more comfortable and durable, but can provide a sharper picture.</P>
<SUBHEADER>Polarised Glasses</SUBHEADER>
<P>These are sometimes used for cinema screenings. Two images are projected onto a screen, each polarised<FOOTNOTE>Light waves vibrate can vibrate in any direction. Polarising filters block all vibrations expect those in a certain plane.</FOOTNOTE> 90 degrees from the other. The pair of glasses has two lenses, where each eye has a polarising filter at 90 degrees to the other. Only light of same polarity can pass though the each lens, so one image is seen though the right eye and one is seen though the left.</P>
<P>This elegant method is used in some cinemas where they can afford to install 2 projectors. No colour is lost, so the images are of much better quality. The glasses are also fairly cheap, so can be mass produced for large audiences<FOOTNOTE>Providing a massive pile of earnings for cinemas who insist that you have to buy a new set of glasses for each 3D film you see.</FOOTNOTE>.</P>
<P>This method can't be used in print, and since it needs two polarised projectors, is pretty expensive for anywhere but commercial cinemas.</P>
<SUBHEADER>LCD glasses</SUBHEADER>
<P>When you pass a current though liquid crystal, it turns opaque. This can be turned on and off very quickly. LCD glasses have lenses where each can be made opaque independently. The glasses controller is then synchronised with the display. Frames for the left and right eye are shown one after the other at high speed. When a left eye image is being shown, the right lens turns opaque and vice versa. Done at high speed, the brain does not notice the flickering.</P>
<P>This can be done for cinemas and like the polarised method, they don't lose colour. Because they don't need an extra projector, they can potentially be used at home, where they would just require the glasses and the television or computer to be synchronised.</P>
<P>On the downside, the glasses are much more expensive and bulky than the other methods. This also cannot be used for print applications.</P>
<HEADER>Taking the Photos</HEADER>
<P>Let's assume that you haven't invested in a 3D camera<FOOTNOTE>In which case, your knowledge may well be beyond this introductory entry.</FOOTNOTE>. You have two choices, the two camera method or the cha-cha-cha.</P>
<P>The vital thing to do is make sure that images are as alike as possible, aside from the left/right movement. Try as much as possible to make sure that both pictures are level and that the same zoom and focus are used.</P>
<SUBHEADER>The Cha-Cha-Cha</SUBHEADER>
<P>This is easiest, and cheapest, way of doing things, but it can lead to mistakes and anaglyphs that don't work properly. All you do is take one picture and then cha-cha-cha<FOOTNOTE>Shuffle.</FOOTNOTE> to the right<FOOTNOTE>Or the left, but decide on one way and stick to it, it makes things a lot easier later.</FOOTNOTE> about ten to twenty centimetres and take another picture. There is a load of complicated maths about what is the precise distance apart to take the two shots, but as a rule of thumb, eye separation is good enough for most applications, but a larger separation may work well for landscapes.</P>
<P>It is vital you don't lean one way or the other, as these images do not often make good anaglyphs. Using the top of barriers or walls can help you make sure everything is level. If you have an autofocus camera, make sure that it is still focused on the same point for the second shot.</P>
<P>This is the ideal way to start producing anaglyphs, you can use your current camera or camera-phone and experiment. It allows you to zoom in on things and use all the features that your camera has to offer. If you are out and about with a camera and you thing something that you want to anaglyph, then it is pretty simple to cha-cha-cha a pair of photos out in the course of your normal photography.</P>
<P>On the downside, it is a near impossibility to do anything with motion in it with the cha-cha-cha. If objects move into, out of, or across the frame, they look odd then the 3D picture is made. The rate of shooting of a compact camera means that you often can't take scenes containing people as they will often move between shots. It is just possible with a quick camera to take two pictures of an object in motion while staying still and the different angles will give an anaglyph, but it is very tricky to pull off.</P>
<SUBHEADER>The Two Camera Method</SUBHEADER>
<P>Readers who are on the ball may be able to guess what is needed here is another camera. In fact, you will probably need two new cameras. The two cameras have to be identical, but, for the cost conscious amongst you, the best cameras to use are the simplest. Zoom and autofocus are straight out. Since both pictures need to be as similar to each other as possible, the best cameras are small simple, fixed focus cheap things. Watch out though, because even identical cameras can have slight differences. This researcher has seen two identical cameras where each resets to having different default picture sizes when the batteries are changed.</P>
<P>Then you need to mount the cameras. The lenses need to be level and the cameras need to be both in the same plane, and about an eye separation apart. The next trick is to try and get them to fire at the same time. This can be tricky, and is not vital. Normally, the cheap cameras like the type that are ideal for this, don't work with cable or remote releases. It is possible to take the cameras apart, then fiddle with the shutter buttons so that you can use a remote control to fire both at once, but be warned this needs some level of technical skill and will void any warranty. With synchronised firing, the combined flash guns may be too strong. If you can't get them to fire exactly at the same time, you will just have to press both shutter releases at the same time.</P>
<P>As long as both cameras fire, pretty much nothing can go wrong. While you may not be able to experiment as much as with the cha-cha-cha, the two camera method opens up the opportunity to photograph sports, crowds, children and animals. It also makes working with a model a lot more natural as they don't have to hold exact poses while you cha-cha-cha.</P>
<HEADER>Yipee! I Have Photos, Now What?</HEADER>
<P>Congratulations. Are you ready to make some anaglyphs to impress your friends?</P>
<P>We have a choice of ways of going about it. If you happen to own a copy of Photoshop then you can use that to align the photographs, and use the layers commands to colour each one. Or if you think that that is all too complex and expensive you can just download a free anaglyph maker like <LINK HREF="http://www.stereoeye.jp/software/index_e.html">Anamaker</LINK>.</P>
<P>For the purpose of this entry, we will assume you are using Anamaker, although the theory can be transferred to other products.</P>
<P>The first thing you need to decide on is what the midground of your anaglyph is. Everything in front of that, in the foreground, will seem to be coming out of the screen; everything behind it will seem to recede. </P>
<P>Load up the two images you want to anaglyph. Remember to make sure that the left image is one from the left camera or the one before you cha-cha-cha'd. Select the type of 3D image we want to do, don't use the colour Red/Cyan mode yet, use the grey version to line things up as it is a lot clearer, and click 3D make image. Now you need to spot a feature in the midground that is obvious in both pictures. Using the buttons, you can move the images over each other until they both line up over your chosen point.</P>
<P>Now you can don your glasses and see if, as a full screen image, the anaglyph works. Beware if you are not used to anaglyphs, then it can take a few moments for your eyes to get used to the glasses.</P>
<P>Sometimes anaglyphs work better in colour, some in 'gray'. The biggest problem is that if a foreground object is too far away from the midground, it is hard for your brain to make it into a proper image and can very quickly give you a headache. Try finding a point closer to the foreground to use as your midground.</P>
<HEADER>Not Just for Those Hollywood Types</HEADER>
<P>Animated movies and comic books are not the only place you will find 3D pictures. Stereoscopic images were used in some aerial reconnaissance planes in World War II. NASA and astronomers are big users of anaglyphs. Searching online can reveal a lot of 3D astronomical images, some of the most interesting are those from the Mars Pathfinder rover, it had two cameras, which allowed it to make clear all the ridges in the Martian landscape.</P>
<P>For the 2010 Soccer World Cup, home television systems with 3D were being advertised in the UK, allowing you to watch the matches in 3D. The only problem was that no UK broadcaster was broadcasting matches in 3D!</P>
<HEADER>In the Film Days</HEADER>
<P>In the days when all cameras used film, there were 3D cameras. These had multiple lenses, taking simultaneous shots on normal film. These could be processed onto special paper that gave a 3D effect.</P>
<HEADER>Having Problems Seeing Anaglyphs</HEADER>
<P>Not everybody, even if they have two working eyes, are able to anaglyphs. There can be a number of underlying reasons for this and a trip to the doctor can normally indentify the problem.</P>
<P>Many people think that 3D in movies is distracting, especially when the 3D images are retrofitted to the finished movie. A simple solution to watching a 3D film at a cinema in 2D is getting two sets of polarised glasses. If you then replace the right hand lens in one with the left hand lens in the other, you have two sets of glasses that convert polarised 3D films back into 2D!</P>
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