Hugh's 3DViews

 

When I think of 3D, I remember the old stereoscope my grandmother used to have. It was this marvelous metal and wooden viewer that used cardboard cards with two pictures side by side. When looking through the eyepieces you were given a three dimensional view. Although we had our Viewmaster with circular reels and tiny color pictures, that old device seemed a more basic and somehow more satisfying way to experience this visual phenomenon.

I grew up in the 1950's where the modern 3D craze started, with movies, comic books and magazines produced in glorious multidimensional realism, but today there is a renewal of interest in all things 3D.

Pursuing the World Wide Web I've come across a number of sites that allow your computer screen to open up into the multi-layer depth using either those blue and red lensed cardboard glasses or your own eyes focused in unusual ways to bring out the effect.

Vision 3D

http://www.vision3d.com/

This site has some excellent examples of the various types of 3D effects. It is sponsored by eye care professionals who claim that viewing the types of images featured here is actually good exercise for your eyes. One, two...one, two...one, two, three dee...

The Illusionworks

http://www.illusionworks.com/

This award winning site features illusions and 3D images. It even uses multimedia over the Internet to display some of its visual tricks.

The Exploratorium

http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/index.html

This is one of the most polished and entertaining of the sites for seeing illusions using a web browser. The Exploratorium in San Francisco is a marvelous place to go, and this site reflects the care and intelligence used to illustrate the how's and why's of visual mind games.

The Magic Eye

http://www.magiceye.com/

The Magic Eye is the company that capitalized on the stereogram craze of several years ago. These are the images that were sold from multiple kiosks at shopping malls throughout the world. The images consist of hidden 3D pictures that are revealed once you're able to look beyond the surface, tricking your eyes to focus in a totally unnatural way. Once you see the images you realize that this is not just some elaborate hoax to make non-viewers feel stupid. The images are really quite dazzling once you make the breakthrough.

The World of Escher

http://www.WorldOfEscher.com/gallery/

Although his illusions weren't always of the 3D variety, M.C. Escher was an artist who has been the inspiration to countless others looking for ways to dazzle, and sometimes totally confuse, viewers. The collection here is first rate with thumbnails that expand into full screen images.

Sandlot Science

http://www.SandlotScience.com/

Here is one more terrific site that has some excellent illusions and well written explanations. This is another place where learning about what makes these visual treats work is fun.

Mark Newbold's Animated Necker Cube  

http://www.sover.net/~manx/necker.html

This site uses an Java applet to demonstrate several ways to view the same cube. If your head doesn't hurt before this one, it will after.

Stereoscopy and Illusions

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/3d/3dpage.htm

Several other places to try for 3D and illusions are linked to this page.

Larry's Pages

http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/

Larry" Home Page offers some super examples of 3D art and has a good set of links to other sites that feature graphics and explanations of various type of 3D art.

The History of 3D

http://www.3dwonderama.com/Pages/HistoryOf3D.html

This page offers an amusing brief history of 3D media complete with colorful illustrations.

This is a copy of my favorite stereogram. As a boy I spent my first twelve years in this house. It's exciting to view a multidimensional image of a building that was captured a century before my family inhabited it. It's almost like stepping into a visual time machine. This is one of the true powers of 3D.

Hugh Peebles

September 1999 

Hugh's Other Views

Hugh's "Original" Web Site