Anaglyph's Pros and Cons

[P3D Greg Kintz <gkintz@xxxxxxxx>]

> P3D Dan Shelly wrote:

> http://www.dddesign.com/3dbydan/3dimages/default.htm
> And, if you don;t have red/blue anaglyph glasses, go to:
> http://www.dddesign.com/3dbydan/3dimages/free.htm

Great sites for 3D viewing! ...And who can beat FREE 3D glasses?

> and P3D Marvin Jomes wrote:

> I think others have provided adequate answers to the "why". It's
> almost entirely a matter of convenience. I would add that I think
> the whole business of anaglyphs of color pictures is particularly
> silly. There may be earlier examples, but I think the whole thing
> started when anaglyph videos were made for television syndication
> in the early '80s of several of the (originally polarized) 3D
> movies of the 1950s. I thought the results looked ugly then, and
> I still think so. I'll always remember "Hondo" in particular, for
> John Wayne wore and red and blue bandana around his neck and in
> anaglyph it's wiggling and writhing like something alive that's
> trying to strangle him!

I agree. A few other examples were portions of ABC's 3D week, and
the color 3-D finale of "Nightmare on Elm. 5" ...New Line Cinemas
picked the color anaglyph format for the last 10 minutes of "Night-
mare on Elm Street Part 5", due to anaglyph needing no special
lenses or silver screen, just red & blue glasses. I have had the
opportunity to see "Nightmare" in anaglyph 3-D, in both the theater
and on video via laserdisc. Both were messy, with the theatrical
film version being a little cleaner, due to film's wider color
gamut. (The producer's liked the way Freddy's red shirt "shimmered"
when wearing the red and blue glasses ...yuck!)
Black and white anaglyph on film isn't bad as long as the film dyes
are correct and the print hasn't begun to fade or 'shift'. Contrary
to many published reports, a few of the 16mm anaglyph prints of "It
Came From Outer Space" and "Creature From the Black Lagoon" were not
too bad. The 16mm version of "It Came from.." was my 1st 3-D movie,
and I was blown away! The avalanche scene had boulders flying every-
where and I was hooked. "Creature" was OK, but the reds and blues
didn't cancel out quite as well. (But still better than the anaglyph
video versions.) Later I would find superior 3-D formats, like
polorized and field sequential (LCS) 3-D for video. But as it has
been pointed out before, anaglyph still is the easiest form of 3-D
distribution, especially for the print medium. I guess the best way
to describe anaglyph 3-D is: Temperamental.

      -Greg Kintz-


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