Right now, many American children enjoy their Saturday mornings watching cartoons or perhaps playing video games. The latest statement from the major television companies could transform those two activities.
During the last Electronic Devices Fair, companies such as Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic declared that this year they are going to release 3D televisions that they already have. While these types of televisions probably won’t do much for seniors who watch “Law & Order” in addition to news shows, they can be a game changer for the cartoon industry.
Like 3D movies in theaters today, 3D television could produce 3D printing by using a system known as “stereoscopic imaging.” To produce a 3D stereoscopic image, movie makers must take an image using 2 cameras placed side by side, filming at the same time. As soon as the two images are projected on the display screen, special glasses cause the right eye to only see images taken with the camera on the right and then the left eye only see images taken with the camera on the left. Our brain then mixes these two images together to produce a single 3D image.
The problem with making live action movies like “Avatar” in 3D is the fact that the complex 2-camera setup could be difficult and expensive to achieve properly. Live action 3D cameras must use NASA grade leveling motors to stay side by side, or else the images start to get jumbled and the 3D result is totally disorienting. Also, they need many more hours of post-production to finalize the three-dimensional effect.
However, computer animators have always used “virtual cameras”. To produce 3D cartoons, these people can simply place an additional camera inside the computer animation program they are working with. Although there is certainly a small added expense, as well as computer animation education required, the entire course of action works much better within the virtual arena compared to the real world.
The way the games are designed helps make the operation of generating three-dimensional games even easier. In fact, around 400 PC games produced after 2002 were developed using a “second camera” and already have 3D stuff inside them. To play these types of 3D video games, a person just needs the right graphics card, a computer monitor ideal for presenting 3D, and special 3D glasses.
So while 3D TVs are likely to take a long time to be integrated into our homes, they will initially have the ability to stand out through cartoons and video games. While these TVs are gaining recognition, 3D-educated computer animators will be in greater demand, and video game producers will compete to make their components 3D-compatible. This will lead to spectacular animation that has finally moved from the cinema to the living room along with a fully immersive generation of video games.
All of this, obviously, is great news for Saturday mornings.