CompuServe Thread

>>vertical interval holographic stereograms Boran, Sorry, I've been out of touch -I just got back from the NAB ( National Association of Broadcasters ) convention. You are not likely to have seen much of my 3DStudio generated holographic work. I've done a couple of in-house image pieces for myself and my holographer, a few tradeshow booth pieces for DuPont and a boiler manufacturer ( incorporating a ring of 36 IPAS Flame jets ) , etc. You are more likely to have seen a series of dance images distributed by the holographer that I work with. These are marketed under the name "Holographic Moments". These are mostly 'live' images captured with a patented multiple camera system. I developed various techniques for processing the images as well as compositing with 2D and 3D elements. Lately we've been incorporting more and better 3D stages for the live models. Next week Inside Sports magazine will sport a Michael Jordan hologram we produced literally overnite! This is mostly 2-1/2D animation on 3 planes. The number 23 on his jersey crossfades to 45, he dribbles the ball down and forward of the frame and he floats in front of the Chicago skyline proclaiming the 'Second Coming" <G>. This was all pretty routine except for having to reconstruct the hand that was hidden behind the ball. In talking with my holographer and scanning other messages in the thread, neither one of us is sure what you mean by SIS. What's that? Paul -Rising Star Graphics

John, Between NAB and Easter my correspondance has lapsed terribly, sorry! >>What is a "vertical interval holographic stereogram?" That's the mantra I've learned to say over the last 12 years in the presence of holographers when I'm trying not to be dismissed as an ignorant peon.<G> Sometimes it works. Basicly it discribes the technique of encoding a series of images in vertical stripes on a holographic plate that are then projected onto a 2nd plate to produce a white light visible image. The series of images can represent various stereo views of a scene or animation over time. If you are carefull you can present animation without distroying the stereo effect. These are the reflective mylar embossed images that you often see on packaging, baseball cards, and magazine covers. -Paul

Hey, it sounds like you've done all your homework! Your routine should be great fun and a useful tool. Dispite the "fad" appearance, there is still a lot of interest in stereograms. I make some customized for special occasions – with people's names, etc. My 12-year-old son has made some for gifts at school and even sold a few. A seamless output thru 3DS would make this easier. Here's a deal for you: if it is ready sometime before Siggraph, I'll be glad beta test it for you and still pay for it – how about that? >>z-buffer, limited improvement… My thoughts on z-buffer were based primarily on the potential ease of use, not necessarily image improvement. With the atmosphere/fog method, you have to specifically set the lighting and materials in the before rendering a source image. By using the z-buffer, you could create a SIS without changing anything in the scene. Please correct me if I'm "foggy" on this. <g> >>on-screen previews… I actually had two things in mind here. First, since you are in fact texture based, I would like to see a way to view, adjust, and edit the texture bitmaps. I spent a lot of time in an external program adjusting bitmaps. If you provided a visual means to scale, and select a strip from a bitmap it would make things easier. In SIS utopia, a simple paint option [have you seen MeshPaint?!] would allow quick adjustment of a bitmap. This is not a real problem for me, personally, since I have a second networked machine for my bitmap editing, but would be a useful feature in general. (and a pain to implement!) Second, I was thinking of a way to view the completed result without having to use Render/View/Image. Now that I know your routine is an IXP, this should be automatic. Your routine sounds great! And your sharware target fits my philosophy that many things in life are worth a considerable effort even without a promise of getting rich. <gasp! – heresy!> Best of wishes to you.