Don’t try to enlarge this image, my website can only display a lower resolution video that is best viewed small.Even with the software and resolution limitations, it gives a real feeling of what it would be like to walk through this neighborhood.

I had a lot of fun making this, my first animation. I learned a tremendous amount about making animations, and how much time you can spend selecting angles, sequences and generally fiddling around.

Our cat makes his second website cameo appearance in this animation.

3D Photographs

A 3D model also allows me to indulge in one of my old interests-stereo photography. The basic principal is that you take two photos of the same scene. The camera is moved over between them by the distance between your eyes. Then you show the left photo to the left eye, the right photo to the right eye, and your brain creates the 3D depth. Here are two old ways of doing this.

Free ViewYou can get the most striking depth using this method. Unfortunately, you can also get a headache and eye strain. It takes some practice, but is quite impressive when you get it.

Click on the image to enlarge. Position your head vertically, about 2 feet from your monitor. Slightly cross your eyes until the two images merge in the middle to form a third image, then focus your crossed eyes on the middle image. It helps to try to get the two images of the person to exactly align.

A more detailed description of how to free view, with some examples, can be viewed at: http://education.sdsc.edu/bewise2009/3d/3dstereo.html

Anaglyph Image

Get out those oh-so-stylish red and blue glasses you saved from childhood, and take a look at this image. An anaglyph combines the two photos above. One image is tinted blue, the other red. When wearing the red/blue glasses, each eye sees only one image and voila’-3D!

This image was created using terrific (and free!) anaglyph software written by  Takashi Setitani. One source for red/blue glasses is: http://www.rainbowsymphony.com/freestuff.html