3D films

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miamilove

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I remember seeing Jaws 3 - 3D at the cinema years ago and it was great fun, it really worked well. It was tinted glasses we had to wear not those red and green one's so it must have been a different type of technique.

It doesn't seem to work on the telly though, I watched a Tomorrow's World type programme part of which was broadcast in 3D, you needed red and green glasses but the effect was practically zero. :confused:
 
They might not have done it properly, the technique works by taking 2 almost identical shots of the scene and colouring them with the red, blue or red green. I think red cyan works best. I think they are called anaglyphs. Anyway you can do the technique using a single shot and duplicating it however you don't get the same depth as having two nearly identical images.

The 2 images are like how a human percieves images using 2 eyes for perception.
 
No jaws 3D wasn't in anaglaph there are 3 techniques i know of

1. Anaglaph (red blue)
2. same as above but with grey colour instead of red blue(MUCH BETTER then anaglaph)
3. Electric shutter glasses

try finding a copy of Friday the 13th part 3: 3D in 3D its brilliant. or house of wax (original)
 
Jaws 3D, like most 3D movies, was made using the Polaroid process which requires the viewer to wear glasses with tinted but otherwise colourless polarising lenses. The red/green or red/blue, cheaper, glasses are usually used for 16mm reissues of black and white 3D movies, most of which were originally shot using the Polaroid method.
Because this method relies on polarised light it doesn't work on tv.
The Polaroid process doesn't affect the movies' colours but it does mean the image has to be brighter than normal to compensate for the greyish tint of the lenses. :)
 
I remember seeing an IMAX film with what I imagine were electric shutter glasses, not really sure, they were giant and fit over my head. I have the other two types of 3-D glasses here. I remember it sucked during the IMAX because it brought the giant screen down to the size of the field of view of the glasses... 3-D was cool, but it wasn't giant anymore.
 
So 3D films that require the red/green(or blue) glasses and those that require tinted glasses are both made using this polaroid method which doesn't work on tv? Right, thanks.



:eek: Jaws was scary enough!

To watch a 3D film on TV you'd probably need those electric shutter glasses then if the other two methoRAB don't work. I'm not sitting with a pair of those on my head. :D I imagine they cost quite a lot.
 
It doesn't matter what size screen you watch a movie on, eventually your eyes/brain will accommodate to it. It's not the 3D glasses which cause Imax's apparent shrinkage, it's you.
The angle of view of the human eye is so large that the size of screen required to fill it is beyond even Imax and neeRAB Circlevision or Imax projected onto a dome and even then it's a close run thing.

The reasons why 3D tv is usually so poor on normal sets:

the small screen and poor resolution are barely able to cope with the extra info needed for 3D, even on the best sets.

It's illegal to show an image on tv which can't be seen correctly with the naked eye, hence tv's reliance on colour fringing (the equivalent of red/green glasses) or Pulfrich's Effect which is a pseudo 3D needing glasses with one lens darker and differently tinted from the other.

All the classic 50's 3D movies, whether monochrome or colour were shot using the Polaroid system but called it many fanciful names: Spacevision, Natural Vision etc.
Most people's memories of them are from later reissues when red/green galsses were used; very few people will have seen the original Polaroid versions.
My own personal favourites are Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space.
The Bubble and Flesh for Frankenstein are both awful movies but very good examples of colour 3D, made in Spacevision by its inventor, Robert Bernier.
If you ever get the chance to see any of them in a cinema, don't hesitate! :)
 
Remember Sega's Master System? It had games which used shuttered glasses in sync with the tv to make a fairly tragic sort of 3D. Screen size (and crap games) killed it off, plus the glasses were so small that after a few minutes you felt as though your head was in a vice.
I've seen a similar gadget advertised recently using the same technology to create 3D tv from the normal interlaced picture. I hope the glasses are bigger! :)
 
Thanks. Can I just ask, is the polaroid method of shooting a film in 3D done using two cameras at slightly different angles? Are these 3D films then screened at the cinema with two projectors?
 
They are shot using two cameras (but it can be done with one) and they used to be shown AFAIK with two projectors but it was found to be more practical to combine the two images on one strip of film.
Trivia note: Spacevision splits the 35mm frame horizontally to give two images on one frame of film and, in addition, widescreen format without the need for anamorphic lenses.
I really should get out more. :D
 
LOL, you're Steven Spielberg, aren't you?

I'm just pulling your leg. You've given lots of useful and interesting info, thanks. I intend to try to see some of the other 3D films made like the one's you mention.
 
Well, with any luck, we should soon be watching all new 3D movies without the need for any of these strange tricks involving 'funky' glasses! (http://www.sharpsystems.com/news/press_releases/release.asp?press=59) I'm sure that there was another 'natural' system that was used in a kiRAB cartoon show not so long ago - something to do with the background moving creating a 3D-ish effect (yes it worked like ****, but it's annoying that I can't remember the name of it)
 
That's the Pulfrich Effect and it is, as you say, ****. It uses parallax and only seems to work if objects are moving in one direction It still requires glasses.
Every 15-20 years someone trots out the 3D without glasses routine. Don't hold your breath.
This is called autostereoscopy and is usually seen in lenticular still pictures, usually of a religious nature for some bizarre reason.
The 3D Last Supper is a milestone in bad taste.
Movies have been made using it but are very difficult to show and are rarely seen. There is a Russian version of Robinson Crusoe which is said to be truly inpressive but the technical requirements and very restricted viewing angle mean that only a handful of people have ever seen it. Sadly, I'm not one of them.
Glasses-free 3D is still something of a holy grail and no doubt lots of money will be made from it by someone (unless it's perfected in Britain, in which case we'll give it away to someone else).
One myth about 3D is that it causes eyestrain. The strain is actually caused by keeping your head more or less upright for 90 minutes. If you lean over or slouch too much, the depth disappears until you get vertical again.
:)
 
I dunno - it's already in mobile phone displays in Japan, and the LCD screens are actually in production around the world (although in limited numbers at this point) - I've yet to see it working, and I don't expect the technology to explode just yet (more content is required before that can happen), but I don't see why it can't eventually become more widespread...
 
I remember the bbc having a sries of progs shot in 3D that they screened in the late eighties
Eastenders in 3d etc

think it must have been the Pulfrich effect as you had to wear glasses which came with the radio times etc but where not coloured and only worked when the images were moving from left to right.
Hence lots of tracking shots round albert square with railings in the foreground!
 
I remember seeing those and some similar stuff on Children in Need. Fun, but they made you giddy after a while.
In the early eighties ITV showed a western called Fort Ti in red/green 3D but the limitations of the normal tv set meant that it was a bit feeble (and not a very good movie either).
If they'd chosen one of the more famous black and white Jack Arnold monster movies it might have met with more approval.
As things stand at the moment I'd recommend either putting two identical tv sets tuned to the same channel side by side and crossing your eyes, or adopting the Scottish method i.e look at one set and drink heavily until a 3D effect is observed. :)
 
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