July 2004
Here, as promised, is the phinal foto in the current series - and the reason that I called it 'amazing' was that I took it on my digital camera with no
tripod, no ruler and no fuss - just experience and good luck! I'm rather pleased with it.
September 2004
Actually, have spent money today on two identical (and cheap) Agfa digital cameras in order to practise using them simultaneously to produce
OliveramA© stereo pairs. Now find that the instructions say, 'Will not work with Windows 98' - which, to be fair, it also mentioned on the packaging but
I couldn't bring myself to believe it - so will have to return them for a pair of refunds.
Have recently managed to acquire 100 pairs of 3D glasses, though, but not cheap: 8/- each. Being 3D, you'd have thought they would have been 3d
Hallo, SPW.
Here's a photo of me at my drawing board - probably during the late 80s because I seem to be working on Vid Kid - during one of my short hair
periods. The photo, which appeared in Buster in full BusterVision 3D, has now been converted into OliveramA©.
~ JOE
December 2004
I've never seen 'White Christmas' despite having a particular interest in it because it was originally presented in VistaVision. Following my keen
interest/obsession with 3D, I also have a long-standing fascination with widescreen and 'simulated' 3D systems, both in films and comics. I actually
saw the original 'House on Haunted Hill' in 'Emergo' ('The thrills fly into the audience!'). A slight disappointment, that one. A cardboard skeleton with
light bulbs on it was pulled on a wire over the audience. If you ever see the film, you can tell when this took place - they've left in the bit where Vincent
price is supposedly operating the skeleton.
I believe that VistaVision - 'Motion Picture High Fidelity' - involved the pictures being printed sideways on the film, thus enabling each frame to be
bigger, wider and clearer. But I digress.
Have just come across and downloaded a Japanese system for converting pairs of pics to 3D. Am v. excited but no time to play.
Happy New Year,
Jack.
February 2005
Put on your 3D GLASSES and experience what it's like to be a WORLD-FAMOUS UNDERPAID CARTOONIST!
IMPORTANT TIP: Remember to put paper on your drawing board!
Dear Sanders,
Now, here's a rare thing!
Whenever I can find a spare moment, I'm still trying to proceed with my conversion of stereo photos taken in the eighties with my Nimslo® and
Loreo® cameras to less clear but more easily-distributable OliveramA© Ultra 3D.
Because most of the pictures were taken by me, there are only a couple in which I actually appear. Here's the other one!
This week's Fresco to follow.
June 2005
I wanted a smallisher camera to carry around so bought a Pentax Optio 330RS. Specifically chose this because it has the option of taking stereo 3D
photos. It's possible that all their Optio series have the same facility but this model came with a 3D viewer, which current models do not. And a setting
on the dial marked '3D', which current models etc. They gave me £20 off because it was the last one they had in stock. I think the discount should
have been greater because I now find that the camera came out in 2002 and they were doubtless delighted to get rid of it!
I probably enclose a sample picture I've taken with it. A novel system:- you take the first shot of a stereo pair (half frame). This is then displayed on
the left of the LCD screen with a grid to enable you to line up your second shot after moving the camera the requisite distance. Only suitable for still
subjects, of course, but works quite well.
Although old, chunky, slow and certainly outdated, it does boast a host of features. It has a built-in selection of electronic 'filters', including one that
makes your pictures short and fat or tall and thin. I couldn't think of what use these could possibly be until, last week, I suddenly remembered the
anamorphic lenses used to produce CinemaScope. The resulting experiment - also using the macro lens - led to the OliverScope© photo I sent you
last week.
Hope this answers your question!
~ JEO.
Forgot to mention: Also have an 8mm b/w version of Popeye: 'Ace in Space', which I believe, coincidentally, was actually made in 3D! My cut-down
version came with the sound track on a separate floppy plastic disc.
...And here is the Official 2005 JEO 3-D Portrait! Still more to follow but may not be this evening as my brother has just phoned to tell me that Fatboy
Slim is about to present 3-D at Glastonbury.
Lastly, thank you for the magazine clippings (I deduce they were from you, being postmarked Dulwich, I seem to remember). I was, of course, most
interested to read the latest 3D news and hope it all comes to pass, preferably in my lifetime. The only annoying thing is that one of the articles seems
to have been written by someone who doesn't know what he's talking about. John Thompson says, "The problem with red/green glasses is that the
film appears in monochrome (no it doesn't, although, these days, the glasses are red/cyan, of course ~ JEO), while polarised specs rely on you never
moving your head (this is bollocks. Of course you can move your head. Rumour has it that there's a Russian system that uses a physical grid
between the audience and the screen and only works if your head is in the right position, but this needs no glasses at all. It was the 3D films of the
fifties that began my 52-year obsession. "Charge at Feather River", "Kiss Me Kate" and "Hondo" were shown on consecutive weeks at the ABC Regal
in Bexleyheath as part of their "Summertime Picture Parade" - all viewed with cardboard Polaroid glasses [which cost an extra 6d., though you could
keep them to use again next time] and you could certainly move your head as much as you liked. I think I still have one pair of the glasses, though
unfortunately cut in half, so I could put the lenses together at different angles in order to view that year's eclipse. I think I can pinpoint the precise
moment that awakened my interest. During the "Feather River" film, a Red Indian that we were led to believe was dead suddenly revived enough to
grab a tomahawk and throw it straight at the audience. This made me jump so much that my 3D glasses fell off - and I've loved 3D ever since,
especially when it comes out at you. ~ JEO).
That was probably the longest paragraph I've ever typed on a computer!
Meanwhile, I've bought in the HMV sale the DVD of the second series of 3rd Rock from the Sun, because the final two episodes were proclaimed on the box to be in 3D, though I
knew they hadn't been shown in 3D over here. Indeed, two pairs of glasses were supplied with the DVD. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I finally got the shrink-wrapping
off and found that the glasses were just the grey/clear type. Yes, it was merely in the Pulfricht (I think that's how you spell it and I can't lay my hands on my 3D reference book at
the moment) system. I could have watched the broadcasts in 3D, after all!
It did, however, spur me on to buy the DVD of "I, Monster". I thought it was about time I added it to my 3D collection. After all, it says on the box, "Originally made with 3D in
mind".
The sad part is, at the moment, because of my droopy eyelid, I can't see the 3D effect on these DVDs very clearly. The good news, though, is that the darkening of the vision in
my right eye means that I can see all other television in 3D without any special glasses at all, as long as things are moving in the appropriate directions. The Dalek invasion was
particularly effective.
I'm going to submit this e-mail to The Guinness Book of Records for the greatest number of mentions of the word "3D" in a single message. Is it a word?
Must end now as touch-typing all this has taken me 27 hours.
Although, as I told you yesterday, I can pinpoint the beginning of my obsession with 3D, I was already interested in it. While still at primary school, for the comics I produced back
in those days ('A COMIC OF FUN and Adventure' and 'MIXUP'), I developed a technique that I called '3D'. You have to remember that I was very young and that I had absolutely
no knowledge of true 3D or how it worked. I had seen printed 3D booklets and all I understood was that you needed red & green glasses.
I didn't have any of these, however, so made my own using cellophane that I'd painted green and red with water colors.
The pictures, I drew with wide frames that contained radiating lines, designed to give the effect of depth. Parts of the drawing would protrude into the frame, to make it look as if
they were emerging from the background. As far as I know, none of these comics still exists. As the years passed (as they do), I found out the truth about stereoscopic
perception, which led to further experimentation. I still used the old technique very occasionally - without the glasses - but renamed the system '2½D'.
Have never seen The Groove Room. It's probably a good thing I can't play Region 1 as I notice that scores of 3D DVDs are available in the US. I've just heard from Blah DVD
that they've given up trying to get for me the Imax 'Alien Adventure 3D', which I ordered back in October.
I have got 'Freddie's Dead' in 3D on VHS (had to buy the rental version), 'The Four Dimensions of Greta', and a few on Standard 8mm (including 'The Three Stooges' and 'Mad
Magician'). Also have quite a few Pulfrquirfxt (wish I could find that book) videos - Women Wrestling, The Art of Loving, Spiders and Snakes, etc., - as well as several 'Magic Eye'
ones, that I've never been able to see in 3D, even by putting my nose on the screen.
However, the latest news, apart from the recent 3D issue of 'Front', is that I bought in the branch of Bookcase at Waterloo for £3.99 the hardback book 'The World's First 3D
Guide to Truly Sensational Sex'. And yesterday, as a belated birthday present, I was given 'Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D' (with Harold-Lloyd-style glasses, and a
lenticular 3D cover). Much prefer it to his Hollywood one because it's in Anaglyph.
If ever you come across any new 3D stuff, possibly you could let me know?
I have a computer program that claims to be able to convert 2D video to 3D but you have to create depth maps, presumably for each frame. I hope to try it on still photos, as
soon as I find out how to make a depth map. I had noticed the 'model' panning background on one of the Betty Boops and was very impressed. Much more realistic than the
much-vaunted Disney 'Multiplane' system.
Must end now as touch-typing is making me blind.