EDUCATION WEEK: 3D Glasses

I remember seeing my very first 3D movie. It was Spy Kids 3D: Game Over and I was about 9 years old. Although the movie sucked I was perplexed by the whole 3D thing. I mean how could movie makers make things pop out of the screen at me? It was a great question, and with the help of my friend's physics teacher and some images from Google I've figured it out.

So 3D movies have been around since the early 1950s, they became pretty popular in the 1980s and 1990s with the creation of IMAX film (Not-so-interesting fact #1: the very first IMAX movie was called Tiger Child which was released almost exactly 24 years before I was born)(Not-so-interesting fact #2 The first permanent IMAX theatre was put in the Cinesphere in Ontario Place [a Canadian amusement park in Toronto]), they were ridiculously successful in the 2000s and are more popular today than they ever have been (Not-so-interesting fact #3: There have been over 46 3D movies released or re-released in the last 3 years).

There are two different types of 3D films.

The ones that use the Blue and Red glasses were used to view early anaglyph films. In order to not sound stupid I'm going to quote wikipedia to describe anaglyph images.

In an anaglyph, the two images are superimposed in an additive light setting through two filters, one red and one cyan. In a subtractive light setting, the two images are printed in the same complementary colors on white paper. Glasses with colored filters in each eye separate the appropriate images by canceling the filter color out and rendering the complementary color black.

The other type of 3D films are polarized films, which is how most 3D films are released nowadays. In order to not sound stupid I will quote my friend('s physics teacher)... it's basically the same thing only it's 'better' because there isn't a tint.

The rays in the beam of light split. You have vertical and horizontal light beams coming out of a movie screen. So each lens of the 3D glasses absorbs one or the other. So one absorbs the parallel rays while the other absorbs the perpendicular rays. The vents only allow one specific light to pass which in return is giving you a view that looks as if its 3d.

And that's 3D film in a nutshell.

DFTBA, Chuck

Postscript:

I'M SO EXCITED

Postpostscript: Did anyone else see Billy's video on Friday?

(just incase you didnt)
Ohmann. That's funny.