SpaceBrains3D: 3D Storytelling Reimagined

What happens when a Philadelphia-based film journalist & critic embarks on a one-person campaign to change the way stereoscopic 3D filmmaking is made, distributed, and viewed? And decides to do so by developing a system for converting old, 2D, public domain sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films to his own impressionistic vision of dimensional storytelling?

Not sure yet, but we’re off to a good start.

Hi, I’m Dan Persons, conceiver, developer, and sole practitioner of SpaceBrains3D, a process for converting public domain films that weren’t presented in 3D, but always should have been. This is not the polished, “realistic” 3D that the mainstream studios are dishing out; it’s a little bit raw, a little bit funky. But I like that – I think this particular sense of 3D-ness complements the films that I’m using the technique on.

It’s taken me three years of experimentation to come up with a combination of AI and manual processes that I feel are worthy of being offered to the public. I’ve set up a shop on Etsy, with my first effort, Gammera 3D: The Goodman Cut, available now, and my next release, Carnival of Souls 3D, available soon. And if you use the promo code SEEING3D, you can save 15%.

Cereal at Midnight recently had me on to blather about 3D and my mission to reimagine the process. You can check it out here.

I’ll be updating this topic in the comments below with further news, thoughts, info, haikus, etc. And if you want to comment and ask questions, the floor is open. Gotta get that fixed one day; watch yer step.

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Hey, everybody: Not sure this is especially artsy-craftsy – it doesn’t involve decoupage or googly eyes – but this is a technique I’ve been experimenting with for a couple of years. Kinda getting a jump on KingaVision here.

Just cross your eyes until a 3D image coalesces in the middle. And let me know what you think!

Design for Dreaming 3D on YouTube

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Sorry… I cannot hold my eyes like that for ~9min. Maybe shorter vignettes…?

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No prob. May post another, shorter clip soon. Thanks for trying!

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It certainly does work!

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Wow that is surprisingly trippy! Agreed I can only do it in very short increments but that’s cool.

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Yes, The Mask, and Kingavision, are still months away. Meanwhile, I’ve upgraded my SpaceBrains 3D process to version 3.0, and unleashed its dimensional might on the classic, and very weird, MST3K short, A Case of Spring Fever.

There are two versions available: One requires use of anaglyph (red/cyan) glasses, the other can be viewed by merely crossing your eyes until a 3D image forms in between. (“No glasses! Heh-heh-heh-heh! <<FWEE-FWOO!>>”)

Either way, your feedback is cordially invited. Enjoy!

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Back in my day, characters had one dimension and we liked it.

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We loved it! We’d cry, “Lookit me, I’m a two-dimensional character and my life is a flat, undifferentiated plane!”

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In both directions!

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here’s hoping i remember this once the kingaglasses come in, i would love to watch this in 3D! i was never really good at magic eye so gonna skip the eye crossing one.

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I can parallel view very well, but I can’t cross my eyes to save my soul.

Can you do a parallel viewing one, pretty please?

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Your command is my wishing well. You can find the parallel version here.

Let me know what you think.

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I just checked out the cross-eye version and this one looks pretty darn good. The pocket-watch close-up at 1:20 was particularly pleasing to the eye, out of the bits I’ve watched so far.

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Really nice! It looks like it was shot in 3D.

Very nice conversion!

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Good thing I have anaglyph glasses hanging around because no way can I cross my eyes for eight minutes straight, ow!

The effect is oddly unsettling to me, actually.

How does “parallel viewing” work? I read a couple of web pages but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing with my positioning or eye muscles.

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Put the video in front of your eyes, then try to ignore it and imagine you’re looking through it at a distant mountain peak. When you focus at infinity (o close enough) your eyes are parallel. With some practice you can drop the mountain part and just relax your eyes at will to let them slide apart.

It feels like being a cartoon character who just took a blow to the head, so imagining that may help, too. Pretend you’re dazed and let your eyes go out of focus and lazy. One of the tricky bits is that videos in webpages are seldom scaled correctly for parallel viewing. Practice with the subject matter scaled way down, and when you get locked in, zoom in as far as you can comfortably.

When you get good at it, it’s much more comfortable than cross-eye. The downside is that resolution is limited by the pixel distance between your eyes, so a high dpi screen makes it more enjoyable.

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I couldn’t do it on the webpage, but putting it on my phone made the two pics close enough to view parallel.

It’s the same technique used to view ‘Magic Eye’ images, if you’ve ever done that. Let your eyes relax and float apart.

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Ah, ok. I thought it sounded like “Magic Eye”. With those I found it easiest if they were under glass, because then I could focus on a reflection, which optically speaking is “behind” the surface of the image and thus aids you to focus beyond it in that way. I think often I wind up unintentionally crossing my eyes and getting an inverted image, though.

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Great job. I chose the stereoscopic version. It’s something that I’m used to. I didn’t know I could cross my eyes that long.:exploding_head:

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