Over the years I have seen many attempts to display 3-D, some of them good and some of them not so good. One of the first that I programmed was the Immersadesk using CAVE library software. I have also done a lot of programming using SGI’s OpenGL Performer.
Researchers at Keio University has recently developed a new hardware device for displaying, and interacting with, 3-D images. I am curious to see how it works in real life. Is it simply a mirror that spins around very fast on which images are displayed, or is this some new technology altogether?
Currently, most 3D projection technologies require the viewer to wear special glasses to see the images correctly. The Keio team, led by virtual reality researcher and professor Susumu Tachi, however, devised a projector that uses special reflecting equipment to project an image from 42 different viewpoints simultaneously, creating a floating 3D image in the middle of a case about 50 centimeters square in size. When a person looks at the image through a viewing window on the case, the slight offset between the images going to each eye creates a three-dimensional interpretation of the image in the viewer’s brain.
The AVer3D CaptureHD is a PCI-e card that enables a user to tune high definition broadcasts, display them, and record them. It also has the ability to tune into 3-D high definition broadcasts, display them, and record them. That makes it something worthwhile to examine. Of course, you will need more than just this PCI-e card. You will also need a 3-D capable 120Hz LCD monitor, a 3-D capable graphics card, and a 3-D glasses kit. The guys at APCMag in Australia have taken a look at this card, tell you exactly how to get it up and running, and tell you what the results are.
The results? Surprisingly good, with some idiosyncracies. When I’ve watched 3D on big screens, I’ve found it difficult to look at it for longer than a few minutes because of the eye strain it induces. That’s because only a small part of the image on the big TV screens tends to be absolutely crisp and effortless to watch – shift your eyes off the zone in focus, or off the perpendicular, and suddenly everything aquires an annoying fuzzyness which your eyes start working overtime to try and resolve.
This was not the case with the 3D video being generated by our 3D card on the Samsung 2233RZ monitor. The action happening directly in front of me, on the field – and both left and right ends of the ground, was in focus and extremely clear. It really did feel as if I was there at the ground.
This video, based on a series of observations made by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, clearly shows the slow evolution of the debris coming from asteroid P/2010 A2. When astronomers first spotted the unusual X shape, they assumed that they were observing the immediate aftermath of an impact. However, the slower than anticipated rate of change in the appearance of the debris suggests that the collision in fact took place a year earlier.
Night of the Living Dead is being released in 3-D. Yes, there has already been a Night of the Living Dead 3D, but that is a different film. Instead this is the old 1968 black-and-white zombie film, directed by George A. Romero, that is being released in 3-D. For the 3-D version of Night of the Living Dead, they are taking the Legend Films version which was restored, colorized, and copyrighted. They then convert the film from 2-D into 3-D on a frame-by-frame basis using Passmorelab’s proprietary technology. To convert it into 3-D cost more than the original film’s $114,000 budget.
Since the original film was shown without its copyright notice, it fell into the public domain. You can see the full length original of of the movie on YouTube.
National Amusements, Inc., in partnership with San Diego-based 3D Production Studio PassmoreLab, announced today the first-ever 3D theatrical run of the classic 1968 zombie film “Night of the Living Dead, Now in 3D!”. The film will be presented at participating National Amusements theatres in the U.S. starting today, and in the U.K. through Halloween.
Jan Husak has created a pretty cool demo reel in 3-D and posted it on Youtube. Break out your red/cyan glasses and take a look at it.
i’ve just finished a showreel containing some interesting 3d footage which i’ve filmed in past few months. i hope you find it interesting. i’ve created perfect anaglyph version with dubois optimized algorythm, the result video on youtube plays in fullscreen smoothly and have far less ghosts than the youtube 3d native red/blue mode. under the video, there is also link for downloading 1080p vers
Computer Graphics is an active and exciting field, with technical papers constantly flowing through the likes of ACM and IEEE journals. However, for an artist is can be a bit daunting, and engineers & CS majors have a library of jargon that can be a bit difficult for the unfamiliar to understand. CGChannel has begun a “CG Science For Artists” series that aims to explain some of these concepts in watered down terms for all to understand.
As a CG artist, you’ve already been exposed to a lot of technical jargon and applied many complex-sounding things in production. For example, you’ve probably used ‘Blinn’ or ‘Lambert’ shaders, but do you know what they actually are? And what is a ‘shader’ anyway?
Today’s applications and game engines have been reasonably successful at making the task of creating artwork simple enough that you don’t need to worry about the math or science, you can just be creative. But this stuff is actually good to know about. My hope is that with this information you may find yourself in a better position to solve problems in production.
Tiago’s latest post on InspiredMag is up, this time collecting a nice selection of infographics about Halloweel.
A mix of tradition, paganism and lots of fun, both for youngsters and adults. That’s Halloween, a date which also inspires designers from all over the world. Illustrations, icons, wallpapers, themes and so many other stuff, always spreading out in this time of the year, so, I decided to bring today a rounds-up of some cool infographics about Halloween.
Sadly, there’s very little data or science here. But with ghosts & talking pumpkins, Halloween isn’t a very science-centric holiday anyway :)
How much does it cost to keep a criminal in America? Seems like an easy question, but it’s not, at least according to Credit Loanx. Also impressive, but less surprising, are the numbers surrounding the military expenditures, especially when compared to the rest of the world, as seen in Term Life Insurance infographic. Mint brings the Economics of America’s Favorite Food: Hamburgers. We finish today’s round-up with the “Official” U.S. Whiskey Map from Sloshspot, and BBC‘s historical overview at the Nobel Prize winners.
If you’re in the market for a new laptop, netbook, or desktop, check out this deal at the Microsoft Store. Use the code 70EEBF44AA694760AA6 during checkout for 35% of select PC’s. They’ve got brands from Dell, Toshiba, and Sony all on the list. Just hit the banner above or the link below.
The 3D Flash-based gaming engine Alternativa3D is now free for all to use, requiring only a link to Alternativa Company even in commercial projects. In addition, the new version utilizes new Flash3D API’s.
Second, Alternativa works on Alternativa 3D 8 engine based on new Flash player with the next generation 3D API’s. It’s all what is possible to say about it before Adobe MAX. Till new Flash player is in a work-in-progress stage and barely be ready earlier then in a year we offer to use A3D 7. More than likely it’ll be possible to port projects based on the seventh version to A3D 8.
If you want to check it out, you can hit them up at Adobe MAX where they’ll be presenting in area 515B.
They’re mum on what “next generation 3D API’s” means, but I’m pretty sure you can make an educated guess. Afterall, they’ve been adding GPU-acceleration on video playback over the last year.
Update 2:57pm: At request of Alternativa, corrected some language up above.
Computer Graphics is an active and exciting field, with technical papers constantly flowing through the likes of ACM and IEEE journals. However, for an artist is can be a bit daunting, and engineers & CS majors have a library of jargon that can be a bit difficult for the unfamiliar to understand. CGChannel has begun a “CG Science For Artists” series that aims to explain some of these concepts in watered down terms for all to understand.
Tiago’s latest post on InspiredMag is up, this time collecting a nice selection of infographics about Halloweel.
How much does it cost to keep a criminal in America? Seems like an easy question, but it’s not, at least according to 
The 3D Flash-based gaming engine Alternativa3D is now free for all to use, requiring only a link to Alternativa Company even in commercial projects. In addition, the new version utilizes new Flash3D API’s.
VizWorld.com 
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