3D Vision Blog

Today marked an interesting new first (in Europe at least?) in stereo 3D as the Belgian Sport Newspaper called La Derniere Heure / Les Sports, that translates in English to something like Last Hour Sports, has released its first completely 3D issue. Of course they’ve used paper anaglyph glasses that are provided free of charge with the newspaper as this is the cheapest and easiest way to provide stereoscopic 3D images on plain paper. By the newspaper going in 3D I mean that all the pictures inside it were shot in stereo 3D and printed in anaglyph format, thus needing the free anaglyph glasses provided with the paper to be viewed by the reader. The idea took about two months of experimenting to find the best solution and provide the best results to the readers, and the publishers report that their advertisers liked the idea too. It is interesting to note that during the preparation for example the paper that today’s issue has been printed was not the normal paper used for printing and this was needed in order to provide better results for the anaglyph 3D photos. It is still unclear if the newspaper will continue to be published with 3D photos in anaglyph format, it probably depends a lot on the reaction of the readers. You can see some anaglyph stereo 3D photos published on their website and available for free viewing, but have in mind that it is in French language only!

- To visit the website of the newspaper La Derniere Heure / Les Sports (in French)…

Animation Magazine has a twenty-plus year history with animation professionals in gaming, cinema, and TV and by joining the S-3D Gaming Alliance (S3DGA) the magazine is giving very positive signals that it is finally the right time for stereo 3D to go mainstream. And another good news for the S3DGA and MTBS3D members is that they will qualify for a free digital subscription for the Animation magazine for an year. This offer is only available through links on s3dga.com and mtbs3d.com. The submission form is accessed after registering and logging in to mtbs3D.com with all registrations being free and instantaneous.

An Animation Magazine representative will also be speaking at the upcoming 3D Gaming Summit taking place on April 21st and 22nd in Universal City, Los Angeles. The summit is the first conference that is nearly 100% focused on stereoscopic 3D gaming, and features top names like NVIDIA, Real D, Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric, Jon Peddie Research, The S-3D Gaming Alliance, and more. The S-3D Gaming Alliance’s next meeting will be held at the conference as well. In addition to feature speakers, S3DGA will outline its current goals and strategies as they relate to making S-3D gaming successful in the home. While this will be a private member-only meeting, all game developers are welcome to participate too if interested.

- For more information about the upcoming 3D Gaming Summit…

The new Alice in Wonderland movie, featuring Johnny Depp, that officially premiered in 2D and 3D on 5th has managed to generate around $116 million in the North American weekend boxoffice for just 3 days. Just as a reminder James Cameron’s Avatar has opened with a $77 million weekend last December, so Alice in Wonderland clearly topped that, but will it manage to reach Avatar’s $2.6 billion gross worldwide… I seriously doubt that. The movie Alice in Wonderland has managed to take another $94 million internationally in its opening weekend, generating about $210 million in total which is a very good start, but it will most likely remain with a good start only and the interest will quickly diminish…

Avatar is still in the top 5 (number five actually) in the North American weekend boxoffice charts for the last weekend and this was its 12th week already, but still managing to make a little over $8 million. As for Alice in Wonderland I suppose that the interest will be big only in the first 3-4 weeks maximum, but then again the interest here might not be coming from the movie being converted to 3D (it was shot in 2D) and also screened in 3D cinemas as most people suspect. Without a doubt one for the reasons for the big interest is Johnny Depp and him making another great role as the Mad Hatter. But I don’t see a lot of people going to watch the movie more than once in 3D or because of Johnny Depp, unlike what happened with Avatar – people going two, three or even more times to watch it. And Avatar has opened the doors for everything 3D (not only movies) as now everyone is talking about 3D becoming available to the masses, so you can say that Alice in Wonderland had the right timing, but that might simply not be enough. The Monday boxoffice results (day 4) kind of show this negative trend as Alice in Wonderland managed to make just about $9 million in North America compared to over $16 million for Avatar in its day 4 (first Monday). The drop from Sunday’s results is over 3 times for Alice in Wonderland compared to less than 50% for the same time frame with Avatar…

Anyway, enough with the speculations, lets see how things work out for Alice in Wonderland and meanwhile if you’ve watched the movie in 3D please share your thoughts in the comments below. Did you find the 3D effects impressive enough and comfortable to watch or got your eyes quickly tired or maybe got a headache? How would you compare Alice in Wonderland in 3D to Avatar in 3D? And just about any other comment you find interesting to share with other people interested in stereo 3D.

- If you are interested in the 2D to 3D process used for Alice in Wonderland…