2010: 3-D Hits Critical Mass
Andres Del Valle
Chair, Computer Animation
Stereoscopic 3-D. Many computer animation students may not know what this term means, and yet it holds the key to the future of their prospective careers.
3-D films like Beowulf, Coraline, Up, Avatar, and Alice in Wonderland have raked in billions of dollars at the box office in the past five years, and soon this technology will be in millions of homes in the form of 3-D TVs and video games. Whether branded as RealD Cinema, Disney Digital 3-D, or NVIDIA 3D Vision, 3-D technology and content has reached critical mass this year, triggering a true paradigm shift in the visual narrative and ushering in a new age of entertainment.
As always in this industry, if you're not keeping up with these advancements, you'll soon be left behind.
Seeing in Stereo: How It All Began
Invented in 1840 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, stereoscopy forces the viewer's mind to sense depth perception in a 2-D image by filming two perspectives of the same subject, thus the “stereo” in stereoscopy. By the 1890’s, stereoscopic films were being produced. One such film, the Lumière Brothers' The Train Leaving The Station, caused a panic as the crowd fled the theater in horror, believing the train from the film would continue past the screen and crush them.
Ten years later, the stereo camera rig was patented, providing the basis for stereoscopic camera rigs used in Maya and After Effects today. Through all the technological advancements in the first half of the 20th Century, 3-D reached its “golden era” in the 1950's with popular releases like It Came from Outer Space, House of Wax, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Dial M for Murder. The technical limitations and problems that arose from projecting two prints at the same time caught up with 3-D's popularity, however, and by 1954 it met with decline while facing down competing technologies such as anamorphic widescreen and CinemaScope.
The latter half of the 1960's saw the advent of new 3-D projecting technology in the form of Stereovision, which used two printed images squeezed side-by-side before being widened again through an anamorphic lens. This meant no more syncing issues at show time, and by the 1980's, 3-D films hit a revival with The Amityville Horror, Jaws 3-D, and Friday the 13th Part III.
IMAX Jumps into 3-D
IMAX large format technology soon entered the picture with a string of non-fiction films throughout the 90's, culminating in 2003 with James Cameron's Ghosts of the Abyss, in which audiences literally felt as though they were traveling with a group of scientists exploring the wreckage of the Titanic. A year later IMAX released its first full-length, fully animated 3-D feature in The Polar Express, the 3-D version of which earned 14 times as much as the released 2-D version, serving to further heighten interest in 3-D production and prompting theaters to equip themselves with the new Digital 3-D format.
In the few short years since, a slew of stereoscopic 3-D projection technologies have been developed in the form of XpandD 3D, RealD, and Dolby 3D. This investment in the future of 3-D cinema has met with overwhelming success in blockbusters like Coraline, Up, The Final Destination, and Avatar.
Beyond the Cineplex
For 3-D entertainment to survive past its historic “fad” status, it must move beyond the local cineplex and into home theater. With 2010 comes the rise of the 3DTV and, with it, the momentum needed to make stereoscopic 3-D entertainment as common as anamorphic widescreen viewing. Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and LG have all announced their plans to release 3-D-ready TV sets this year, with 3-D Blu-Ray players and DirectTV 3-D broadcasts to follow.
If that wasn't exciting enough, Philips has plans to release, by 2011, 3DTVs that don't even require special glasses. Analysts predict that by 2014, 40 million 3DTVs will be sold due to their nominal prices compared to LCD HDTVs.
Of course, with all these 3DTVs lying around, you'll need plenty of 3-D content to keep them busy. The British Sky Broadcasting company has jumped at the chance to be leaders of this charge, having launched SKY 3D, the world's first 3D channel, bringing events, sports, animation, and performances into the home. IMAX, Sony, and Discovery Channel have followed suit, announcing that they're joining forces to start their own 24-hour 3-D broadcast channel. Even ESPN is joining the boom with plans to showcase at least 85 live sporting events in 3-D, including the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
3-D and the Future of Video Games
Outside of 3-D films and broadcasts for the next generation of televisions, the real excitement has been saved for the future of video game technology. Earlier this year at CES, the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, the ooh's and aah's were clearly audible near NVIDIA's panoramic 3D Vision Surround gaming stations – especially from people who remain unconvinced by 3-D feature films and television broadcasts. Avatar: The Game, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, and Gran Turismo 5 were just a few examples being demoed to the won-over crowd.
What surprises most people is that some 400 PC games are already 3D-ready and have been for years, starting back with DirectX 8; these games have just been waiting for the hardware to catch up with them! Along with all this comes confirmation that Sony's Playstation 3 will receive a firmware update later in the year allowing it to run 3-D games on any 3D-ready TV.
What It Means For You
So what does this mean for you, the computer animator? It means you should remain very aware of the goings-on of the most exciting and significant time in our industry since Pixar premiered Luxo Jr. at the 1986 SIGGRAPH. For us it's a simple dual camera rig created virtually within Maya or After Effects; for the audience it's the wonderment of being fully immersed in breathtaking digital worlds, enhancing their empathic oneness with cinematic characters.
Sure, 3-D has its critics. There are those who will say it's just a gimmick that it has fallen to the wayside before and will again. Stereoscopic 3-D has only truly failed once, in 1954, and that wasn't due to content or lack of audience. It was simply too far ahead of what technology was capable of at the time. It rose again in the 80's and then reset itself in the 90's with the emergence of IMAX technology.
True vision takes courage to use the conventions of the past while looking toward and embracing the future. Change is inevitable. Will you be ready for it?