Cannes 2009: 3D film Up to make history at festival opening

The film 'Up' is the first animation ever chosen to open the festival, which is now in its 62nd year. The comic tale from Disney's Pixar Studios cost $150 million to make and is a far cry from the fuzzy 3D offerings of old.

Gone are the red and blue cardboard glasses that left audiences feeling seasick in the 1950s. Instead, moviegoers on the French Riviera will be asked to exchange their Ray-Bans for special polarised spectacles.

Disney has a dozen more three-dimensional movies in the works and Hollywood executives hope that the technology will prove exciting enough to lure audiences back into the cinema. Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of Pixar's rival, DreamWorks, has described the new generation of 3D as the third great revolution in the history of film, after the arrival of sound in the 1920s and colour in the 1930s.

Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton and George Lucas are among the directors working on 3-D projects, while studios are dusting off past blockbusters and giving them the 3-D treatment, including The Matrix and Toy Story.

The only glitch is that not every cinema has the equipment to show the films in their full glory, and it is an expensive investment in the midst of a global recession.

The technological wizardry of 'Up' is not the only thing which makes it stand out from previous animated offerings. Instead of the usual cute animals, Disney has tapped into pensioner power by making the hero a 78-year-old balloon salesman who sets off for South America by tying thousands of balloons to the roof of his house.

"That it's an animated film is noteworthy because it's the first time, but the important thing is that it's an excellent film in its own right," said Thierry Fremaux, director of the festival, when explaining his choice for opening night.

3d Skate

Wear your 3d glasses red/cyan
click for bigger image

ARTmostfierce by Sebastian Denz.

Sebastian Denz traveled for almost three years across Europe to shoot a series of 3D Photographs with Carhartt/Europe's team of professional skateboarders. The result of his work is a series of 3D skate photographs in a quality never seen before. Inspired by the virtual world of videogames Denz seeks to: "Bring up for discussion a hybrid space that is somewhere in between virtual and real - a 'Postvirtual Space'. Therefore I took photographs of more than 20 Carhartt/Europe-Team-Skaters with a unique large-format-3D-camera (8 x 10 inches), which has been built especially for this project and took 2 years to produce. The exhibition shows some of them in the 'real hyper-reality' of life-sized high resolution 3D-images."

MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D DVD & 3D Blu Ray

Out Now!! 3D DVD & 3D Blu Ray with anaglyph magenta/green glasses

Drawing in 3D

The Wacomvision is a three dimensional canvas for creating and viewing art, products, and models. Three dimensional paintings can be created and shared online. Brush size, pressure sensitivity, and brush type are customizable. Snapshots and videos can be taken of your artwork. Not going to make it to the Louvre? You can use this product to download and view preserved art up close and from all angles.

In a business applications, imagine being able to walk around a concept car or viewing a model without a rapid prototyping lab, model making time, or money. Three dimensional models can be sent between clients to review work. Notes and requests can be marked and saved on certain areas of the models using the pen tool. You can also virtually render, paint, record, and capture views.

This product uses a state of the art virtual tracking system called IGPS Technology. This modular product has three transmitters that are wireless and placed around the edges of your 3D canvas. After the transmitters are automatically calibrated for each use, they use invisible infrared laser signals that create a three dimensional environment. The pen is imbedded with a sensor in the tip that streams its exact 3D position using the signals from the transmitters. The information is relayed back to the console and wirelessly transmitted for viewing through the virtual glasses.

A USB connection to the console allows for viewing of outside virtual models to be used as underlays. You can choose to view your artwork with or without the actual physical background. Multiple people can be linked to the same projection so you can work as part of a team. In order to bring up the interface, the button on the pen is pushed. The interface menu can be dragged and docked all around your environment. The button on the top right hand edge of the glasses can be pushed to allow for picture and videos to be taken.

Designer: Lauren Argo

Stereovision for Real 3D Funiture!

Wait a second… isn’t that already 3D? Behold the devastating addition of 4 legs to an already-4-legged-table. Brutality! Redundancy! So many extra legs! And what’s the deal with this red and blue here? It’s a “Stereovision Table,” and it’s made for those with a sense of irony in technology.
Here we have some wild optics tricks that span back centuries. The red and blue is a reference to the 3D glasses technology that’s lasted for years and years. Now it’s done!

Designer: John Nouanesing

"It's been ten years since I did any stereo images, and I've finally gotten back into it. You'll need red/cyan or red/blue 3d glasses to get the full effect. Click for the big version.
I'm interested in 3-d architectural spaces, and so making one into a stereogram was an exciting challenge. I also like the juxtoposition of sensual images and cold, hard, geometry.
The overall cartoon idea is an homage to Abner Dean and his incredible meisterstück What Am I Doing Here? The beach imagery is cribbed from Paul Cadmus's paintings from the period when he was hanging out on Fire Island with Margaret and Jared French. And the building is in large part inspired by paintings by Peter Blume. The pen technique was an attempt at emulating Will Elder during the Humbug period."
Jason Little