3D photography/images

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3D photography/images

Anyone had a go at creating them?

Syzygy

9:45 pm on Oct 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

Although serving as a fine example of history repeating itself, I'm getting the impression that 3D is finally coming of age. We have an increasing number of 3D films, sites like NASA offer the public fascinating 3D images from places like Mars, 3D games abound online, 3D TV is coming out of the lab and into a shop window near you - and it's never been easier to buy anaglyph glasses, and so cheaply too.

With all this in mind, I'm thinking of experimenting and making my own 3D images. In part this is for my own pleasure, but also it's with a view to using them online for promotional purposes - quite literally adding an extra dimension in product shots and site graphics.

From what I've read, the process is not too difficult. Has anyone made their own 3D photographs? Any experiences or tips to relate?

And what about actually using them on your site - anyone tried it? Certainly, at this stage of the 3D race the novelty factor would be high, but is that enough on its own?

Syzygy

thecoalman

10:04 am on Oct 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

I've been using standard 3- models for a lot of stuff. One reason being it's easy to move it to video.

Anybody wants to give it try there's three free programs I know of:

Wax which is pretty basic: [debugmode.com...]

Blender which is open source and very advanced: [blender.org...]

And treuSpace which used to be a pay for application but is now free: [caligari.com...]

tomda

10:25 am on Oct 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

You may also have a look at Povray, it's free. I am sure there is a plugin/extension/free code already developed to turn images into 3D. Google for "povray 3D anaglyph" and visit schrammel's website

Leosghost

10:26 am on Oct 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

nurbs and splines and vertices ..oh my :)

my son works a lot with animation and 3D ..

blender docs and tutorials are a little thin ..but there are a lot of 3D forums out there where you can get help.

truespace were supposed to be taking their tutorials off line as the app is discontinued ..if you get it ..get all the tutorials that you can lay your hands on .
you could also look at getting an old copy of bryce ..you can do a lot more with it than it's inventors thought of ..it animates pretty well into avi. and can be found for a few dollars for the old versions ..

lightwave isnt' too dear either..

maya and 3ds max etc can cost you serious money ..

3D photos aren't too difficult ..there is a new camera on the market ( forgot it's name ) intending to be cheaper than most "bridge" models ..

Syzygy

1:18 pm on Oct 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

Thanks for the input and links. Hadn't even considered going down the video route, just wanted to explore the possibilities and potential of 3D stills/photographs, the anaglyph kind, not the modelling kind - one small step for Syzygy-kind...

After posting here I had a go at making 3D images - that's with a dSLR, not a 3D camera like the Fuji FinePix 3D [fujifilm.com]. Can't believe how simple the process is, or how easy it is to get effective shots. Ten minutes in Photoshop and 'Hey Presto!' 3D photos!

Continuing this 3D wave, I read that Sony [news.bbc.co.uk] have just introduced a high-end single lens 3D movie camera.

Syzygy

thecoalman

5:42 pm on Oct 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

You don't necessarily have to animate it but it opens a lot of doors because know you have a true 3-D plane. Check out some the samples in Blenders gallery. You can;t tell if they are real or fake for some of them. The first step would be to build your model, for starting out with something simple try text. . From there you can adjust the camera angle.

Let's say you have a site about washers and dryers and want to explain how to hook one up. You could build your models complete with walls and pipes in the walls. You could then spin the camera angle to whatever view you want. Suppose you want to show the pipes in the walls you could apply transparency to the wall.