See our miniatures in 3D!!

By Neil

Not sexy.  Magic!

I've always been really passionate about 3D.  As a kid, whenever there was a box of cereals with a 3D image on the back and a pair of anaglyph glasses (you know, those sexy red/turquoise cardboard-framed jobs) inside, I'd bug my Mum to get it for me with the weekly shop.  I was very good and generally ate all the cereals that were inside too!  There was also a series of Look-In magazines around 1982 that were in 3D - I don't know how many days of my young life I spent flicking through them, trying to work out how these dull, flat, black and white photos leapt out of the page once the crappy cardboard glasses were balanced on the end of my nose!  It was MAGIC!

Poor...but in 3D!

Not scary...

At about the same time there seemed to be a revival of things in 3D.  There was a whole season of 3D films on British TV (including the classic "The Creature From The Black Lagoon") and "Jaws 3D" was released at the cinema.  In those days it cost £1.20 and the glasses were free...

These all fuelled by fascination with things 3D and then suddenly....... nothing.  3D just seemed to disappear.

Apart from "Shrek 3D", "Spy Kids 3D" (which only succeeded in giving both of us enormous headaches) and "Honey I Shrunk the Audience!" at Disneyland Paris, until recently I saw very few new things using 3D.

But now, some 30 years later, it's all the rage again!  And I'm very happy about it :)

Tomorrow you will be mine :)

Hollywood seems to be producing ever greater numbers of movies in 3D (although the 3D effect is often added after which is rubbish!), 3D TVs are starting to make their way into homes (but you still need to wear stupid glasses - and they're electric!) and tomorrow (Friday) sees the launch in Europe of Nintendo's new games console the 3DS (two days before the US - yay!).  3D gaming without the ugly glasses!  No surprises for guessing who will be getting one in the post tomorrow morning.  Me.  Obviously.

Anyway, bravo, if you're still reading this.  It is going somewhere, I promise!  I started thinking that it would be nice to show some of our miniatures in 3D.  So after a few words in French, you can see some of my attempts at doing some 3D stuff myself...before the 3DS makes it easy! (Please read the instructions after the photos to find out how to make them 3D)

J'en connais un qui a du mal à dormir, tant l'excitation de la sortie de la nouvelle console 3DS de Nintendo grimpe, ces derniers jours... devinez qui c'est ?!

Un indice: c'est pas moi!, même si je suis impatiente de voir ça (et la console, et la tête émerveillée de mon grand gosse de boyfriend...!)

Je me souviens de la diffusion du "monstre du lagon noir" à la télé dans les années 80, la France entière avec ses lunettes en carton, verres en plastoc rouge et bleu, et même pas peur!

Mais depuis, à part "Chérie j'ai rétréci le public" à Disneyland Paris (on s'en lasse pas!) et "Spy kids" qui nous avait flingué les yeux, nous sommes un peu passés au travers de l'engouement général suscité par les films en 3D....

.....néanmoins, après avoir vu "Toy story 3"en 3D, Neil n'a eu qu'une obsession: Faire pareil!!!

Ouias, enfin, bricoler ses photos pour les transformer en 3D maison..avant que la DS le fasse toute seule...et ça marche !

Eiffel Tower Cake - in 3D!!

Red Fruit St Honoré - in 3D!!!

Some of Emma's Hello Kitty models on a Ladurée box - in 3D!!!!

Viewing instructions

To view these may take a little patience.... the principal is to slightly cross your eyes while trying to focus on an area somewhere behind your computer screen.  You want to try to make each pair of images overlap to produce a third image in between them.  This 'middle' image will be in 3D!

If it's not working for you, try getting nearer to, or further from your screen.  Remember to keep your head vertical - leaning will kill the effect.  If you wear glasses, try without them.

And if it still doesn't work for you, don't worry.  Not everybody sees 3D in the same way.  It could be that it simply just won't work for you.  Whatever you do, stop if you feel any headaches, eye-strain etc.

Please let me know in the comments how you got on.  Did it work for you?  If enough people enjoyed this, I'll work on doing some more.

In the meantime I'm going to wait patiently for the postman to bring me my new toy!

Alors, attention, ça ne marche pas sur tout le monde, n'allez pas vous niquer les yeux sur notre blog, hein, les gens!!!

Essayez de fixer un point virtuel "derrière" l'écran, en louchant un peu si nécessaire.....il faut que les images se superposent pour donner l' illusion de 3D :)

Amusez vous bien, et dites nous si ça marche, et pas la peine d'essayer d'attraper mes Hello Kitty, ha ha ha!!! ;-)


Allez Neil, courage, plus que quelques heures avant Noël de Mars!!