Post 16: Outdoor Experiments

      We went down to visit family in Beatrice, South Alabama, and I took my 3D gear to try a few straight shots of old buildings, both in color and Infrared. I also thew some props in the trunk of the Z just in case... I first ran across the wonderful white little Franklin Church and old village with its huge enclosure of white picket fence, and great perspectives to play with. The first shot came out with great depth, but the picket fence comes out of the corner of the frame. Click here for a full screen version.

   I should at this point get a little ahead of myself to talk about the 3D software. At first, I was just trusting my eyes, and with the composite images, you pretty much have to do that, as the software only aligns single images with no layers. I was recommended StereoPhotoMaker by a 3D mate on Flickr, and since it is Windows software, I had to update my Parallel Desktop so it would run with Snow Leopard on my Mac in order to use it. It is reallypretty good and does a good job of aligning images both automatically and manually, but it is typically clunky Windows interface and the save function especially leaves a lot to be desired. I had preferred cross eyed images at first, but discovered that Anaglyphs actually had advantages over cross eyed images, AS LONG ARE THERE ARE NO REDS OR CYANS IN THE IMAGE, and were great with Black and White, and the typical desaturated images I tend to like. I also happened to do some Google research in French to see if anybody over there was doing something with 3D, and it turns out that these two French guys Etienne Monneret & Didier Leboutte have come up with a great program called Anabuilder, which works with both Windows and Mac, and comes in English. As its name indicates, it is mostly designed for Anaglyphs, but will accept and work also with side by side and cross eyed images. I found the auto align function is actually better than the one in StereoPhotoMaker. The image above was aligned with SPM. The version below was re aligned in Anabuilder. Click here for a full screen version.

    AnaBuilder also has an automatic "align all behind the screen" setting. All the manual adjustments are possible too, and it even has a Phantogram Builder function, Phantograms being my newest discovery and main interest now from an Artistic standpoint. The version below was pushed back behind the screen, but has a strong ghosting effect on the large post up front. Click here for a full screen version.

Post 15: The Final Image: "Stereoscopic Apparition of the Holy Spirit Hovering over Mary Magdalene in Contemplation of a Vision of an Otherworldly Hypercubus Crucifixion Induced by the Absorption of Laudanum"

I cut out Joseph, removed the floor inside the frame, added a dark sky with red clouds I lifted off a picture on Flickr by , added another globe as a "Saturn" way back and a monstrance near the foot of the cross, moved Adam's Chimp skull forward. Finally, I went to South Alabama to visit family, and shot my first outdoor 3D pictures. A red Barn cut out from its background was dropped in the distance. All the pieces were strengthened and sharpened wit Topaz.
 Perfect, I think I will leave it alone now and call it finished. How about a very special Dalinian title: "Stereoscopic Apparition of the Holy Spirit Hovering Over Mary Magdalene in  Contemplation of a Vision of an Otherworldly Hypercubus Crucifixion Induced by the Absorption of Laudanum". Click here for the full screen version.

Post 14: Playing with the image

Since MM would not go behind the frame, I decided to leave her in front, enlarge the black canvas, and move the frame back. I added a new floor, the lighted globe in the night sky, the mummified Holy Spirit dove hovering, Adam's monkey skull at the foot of the Cross, and the poppy pod on an old mini cushion/scapular embroidered with IHS. Then I made the canvas even wider, and added Old Joseph in a polio brace and crutches to keep MM company... It became too much, and the Hypercubus Cross was getting lost. Click here for a full screen version.

Post 13:Building the 3D image

I thought the image would look good in an ornate frame, so I shot one up close with a 28mm and added it in front. The problem was that Mary Magdalene stuck out in front of it, no matter what I tried: "WINDOW VIOLATION", that's a BAD word in 3D world. Well, what would you expect of MM the sinner... I reshot the frame even closer in sections and stitched them together, getting the effect of about a 20mm lens. Still, as you can see in the accompanying picture, MM keeps acting up! Click here for the full screen image.

Post 12:Using the Hypercubus Cross

I added the four little cubes to the Cross, changed the lighting in AfterEffects to make it glow, added a checkerboard floor made 3D with AfterEffects, and photographed Jesus and Mary Magdalene in 3D on a black stage. Mary was shot up close with a 28 mm, Jesus from a distance with a longer zoom. I assembled the pair on a black background, did a rough placement, and then adjusted them moving the left and right images in space forward and backward by sliding them sideways. There is actually a good deal of latitude. That's a pretty good start, and the depth is good. Click here to  look at a full screen image. Now I need to add to it.

Post 11: Hypercubus Cross Test

    I quickly realized that Photoshop CS5 3D capabilities were very limited, and went back to After Effects which I had used to build a virtual room when I was experimenting with Animation a couple of years ago. I had unfortunately forgotten most everything, and had to spent the whole day figuring out how to make a 3D Hypercubus Cross, obviously inspired by Dali's famous painting. I found some fantastic free textures on Flickr Creative Commons created by J.L.Jones under the pseudonym SkeletalMess . Thanks Jerry for sharing your wonderful work, also available with much much more on the Shadowhouse Creations Blog.
   I manipulated the textures, trimmed, rotated, lightened, darkened and recut them all to 1000x1000 pixels squares to make the sides of all the cubes. Well, the cubes actually have only the 4 visible sides.  I took two shots with the virtual camera moving it sideways some, and came up with this stereo pair. Click here for a full screen version.
 

Post 8: "Doctor Egas Moniz, Nobel Price for Medecine 1949, Preparing Jesus for Lobotomy by Administrating Electroshocks, Photographer Unknown""

This is a far more complex attempt at virtual composite 3D. Each part of the image is actually shot separately, and assembled in Photoshop. I started with the frame, and added stuff both inside and outside the frame, behind and in front of the frame. Click here for a full screen version, and view it full screen.