Category Archives: the mindlab

For now we see through a glass, darkly – Part 2

the mindlab, , ,

Drax the Destroyer. DRAX THE DESTROYER. At that moment it was no longer August, 1985 but February 1973. American POWs were released by the Viet Cong, the US and Red China established diplomatic liaison offices, and in domestic matters I was continuing my never ending role as sparring partner for DeWayne Bell, Buddy Green, Eric Anderssen, and Michael Colobussi.

Looking back on it now, I still can’t figure out why I bought that particular issue of Iron Man. It sure as hell wasn’t the cover. But from the moment I saw the first page I was hooked.

Iron Man

Iron Man was not a big draw for me as far as comic buying habits went. I seem to remember him most from reading a reprint story from Strange Tales when he kicked the crap out of the Crimson Dynamo (the Commie imitation, who, naturally, was no match for Yankee know-how and ingenuity). In an act of mercy, Shell-head let CD escape. After failing his mission, he returned to his rendezvous point with a Soviet sub and they let him drown, stating that failure could not be tolerated. For a kid, that was pretty heavy stuff so maybe that’s why I picked up #55, plus it had a green guy a la The Hulk on the cover.

Continue reading For now we see through a glass, darkly – Part 2 →

Thanksgiving 2008 photos

the mindlab,

I don’t think I ever posted photos from last Thanksgiving. I don’t upload all my photos at once usually, so it can be a couple months before they are all uploaded. They’ve been up for the most part for awhile now, but I forgot to post the link here. Click on the photo below to see them.

brian

Call for Blimp Designs

the mindlab

Tim has recently agreed to be in a film where he pilots a blimp. Resultantly, I’m looking for some miniature blimp designs. I’ll probably green screen the blimp, so it would be good if there was a way it could be suspended in front of the green screen. If anyone has any good designs, please post them below or email them to me.

Tim's Blimp

Magic Eye Films

Dragon's Den, the mindlab

Just a random idea I had at some point. Don’t know enough about the technology to know how one would go about it, but . . .

So “Magic Eye” pictures (a.k.a. autostereograms) are those 3D images that you have to stare at a book to get. A few folks can see the images really quickly, some can only see them after staring awhile, and apparently there are quite a few who are never able to see the things.

It’s kind of an interesting effect though if you can get it to work: Hiding information in the background noise in such a way that when you are able to interpret it you can trick each eye into interpreting it differently.

I think one of the things that makes it tough to pick out the 3D image is that there are no obvious visual cues. It seems to me that in a lot of cases with normal vision the human brain is picking out the edges of things, or contrasts and gradations of solid colors that define shape. But those things are absent in autostereograms, so it’s tougher to pick them out.

It occurred to me though that what would happen if you ran together a string of similar autosterograms to produce an animation? The consistency of the 3D image against a changing background might make it easier to spot the image than with a non-animated version.

Voila! I’ve just invented 3D animation without special glasses!

Well, not quite. Apparently someone else already thought of it.

I don’t know if the image portrayed on wikipedia is exactly the best example though. ‘Twer it me, I probably would’ve made the background as a more randomized image (like basic static), rather than a sweeping colored pattern which seems to distract from the 3D image.

Aside from the wikipedia article though I’m having trouble tracking down other good examples of animated autostereograms. Seems to me there should be some small creative sector devoted to them though: Cartoons maybe. Or segments of horror film where a random background (foliage or TV static for instance), kind of becomes 3D and leaps out at the viewer. Or possibly some sort of video game.

I also wonder if there might be ways to color the 3D objects, or have the background pattern be somehow meaningful in the context of the 3D scene it’s self, rather than just the standard splatter painting effect.