3D – Movies, TV’s and Video games

With the advent of the new stereoscopic 3D technology, the world has experienced a re-resurgence of the “This movie’s in 3D!” phenomenon that struck the world somewhere around the 1950’s.  Back then the 3D glasses were made of two color plastic, red and blue, and the split in vision was accomplished by blocking specific colors from reaching your eyes through the differing colored lenses.  Today however, the tech has evolved to use polarized light.  Each lens is made of polarized plastic, blocking out specific wave lengths from your vision.  The projector sends out two sets of images, each set to a specific wave length.  It makes for a very realistic image without the old red blue restriction.  Full color 3D is an amazing revolution in the tech.

Most people, when asked about 3D, immediately think of James Cameron’s Avatar.  This movie was the most revolutionary and beautiful use of the new technology that has ever been seen in my opinion.  Every single pixel was distance mapped for maximum 3D effect.  The color’s were amazing, everything was amazing in fact. 

On the other side however, we have examples like The Last Airbender.  This movie was post processed into 3D after the movie was shot, and it shows.  Many of the movie assets remain 2D, creating a bizarre effect where the humans look like 2D paper cutouts and the background looks like a video game.  This process has been done enough times now that people have been burned on 3D.  Why are we paying an extra $3.00 for a movie when the 3D effects are so terribly done?  3D has almost, in such a short time, become a gimmick.  Jokes about romantic comedies being in 3D are spreading like wildfire.

But this technology must not be cast aside just yet.  Sony has developed 3D televisions now, allowing the integration of 3D visuals into video games.  Here is, in my opinion, the greatest use of 3D visuals that will ever be found.  By integrating 3D into video games you’re allowing the player to be taken even farther into the world.  Interactivity allows for a dynamic 3D effect, where you’re actions suddenly seem “of the world” to a greater extent then they ever have.  Throw a grenade in 3D, and your going to fall in love with this tech more than any movie could.

There’s plenty of legs left for movies in 3D, plenty of animated movies coming out that will look fantastic in 3D and plenty of story telling devices that have yet to be explored in the realm of 3D.  Once the gimmick smell has disappeared from the technology and the consumers are no longer being offered sub par, shoe horned attempts at 3D, this tech will take off in the theaters in a new way.  In the future however, it will most assuredly be gamers who push this technology forward, in the home on HD televisions at 60 frames per second in real time.  Yeah.  Stereoscopic 3D is going places, just not the places we expected.