A New Spin on 3-D

摘要

The next big breakthrough in 3-D entertainment may come from the Victorian era. At least that's the thinking at Gentle Giant Studios, the f/x house behind many of the 3-D effects in the new Beowulf movie starring Angelina Jolie (for more on the film, see page 160). The company partnered with Mova, a pioneer in motion-capture tech, to update the zoetrope-a children's toy invented in 1834 that creates the illusion of motion with a series of images on a revolving carousel (a kind of early flip book). The new twist: Replace 2-D pics with casts modeled on live actors. Mount the casts on a wheel, blast them with a precisely timed strobe, and you get a 3-D head that moves. Steve Perlman, president and founder of Mova, points out that just as the 2-D zoetrope was a precursor to motion pictures, the new system could lead to an entirely new medium. Uh-huh-and you're making a full-body version of Angelina, right?