The big hype this year was the Super Bowl 3D commercials with the biggest disappointment coming after most everyone put on those also much-hyped 3D glasses and saw little or no 3D effects.
Everyone needs to know that Dreamworks’ Monsters vs. Aliens promises to be a big hit on the big screen, and Sam Ramadan believes it will be, because unlike the Super Bowl commercial which was broadcast in anaglyph stereo YB vision (the producers call it Color-Code 3D), the actual film will be shown in theaters in Real 3D and IMAX 3D, which offer a 3D-controlled viewing environment and use stereo polarized 3D glasses that are unisex (independent of feminine or masculine vision)
Sam explains that there are three main reasons why 3D will not work in broadcast TV:
1. Chaotic viewing distance
2. Uncontrolled TV display size
3. The variety of analogue, LCD, LED, and plasma display formats
In the case of this year’s Super Bowl ads, Sam adds a fourth reason why people were disappointed: the wrong 3D glasses were used.
After reviewing the 1080 pixel wide-screen version of the commercial on his 17-inch MacBook Pro, Sam noted that the commercial would have had to be originally designed to be viewed from a distance range of 45 to 90 cm (about 17 to 35 inches) for the 3D effects to be fully and properly enjoyed.
Sam explains that the normal stereo 3D viewing angle of a human being ranges from about 55 to 60 degrees with a minimum focal distance of about 20-30 cm away from the object (where depth perception is at a maximum).
One thing we all know is that the further away we go from an object the smaller it gets, so there is a strong and direct relationship between perception of size and distance. What most everyone missed noticing is that the further away we go from a real object, the less 3D depth we perceive. This is the main reason why 3D is not ready for broadcast TV, and may never be.
Sam had to sit 60 cm away in order to enjoy the Monsters vs. Aliens 3D commercial on his 17-inch MacBook Pro monitor. But in order for each of you to enjoy the same, how far do you need to sit? Let’s assume you have a 42” LCD TV screen at home. To have the same 3D experience, you would need to stand about 50 inches away from the screen (about 1.3 meter), and to watch it on a 60” screen you would need to sit about 75 inches away (about 1.9 meters).
If the TV you’re watching is 27”, you would need to sit much closer, about 26 inches away (about 65 cm). However, at home, this is not how far we normally sit and watch TV with comfort. At home, many of us tend to sit about 9 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters) away from the TV, which means, to see the same trailer on a 42” TV, we are likely to lose depth perception because we are beyond the 2.5 meter threshold distance for 90% of the trailer footage, and on a 27” TV screen it is mute beyond 1.5 meters.
To make things worse, most people who watched the Super Bowl did so at a party or in a pub’s spacious lounge area where, for most, a 60-inch TV screen would have felt like viewing the Super Bowl on a small hand-held 3” TV screen and would have resulted in little or no depth experience.
As long as one cannot control where people sit or stand and what size screens they are looking at, any 3D broadcast is likely to face failure. Stereo 3D viewing can only be successful in a controlled environment such as 1) Real D or IMAX 3D theatres (the latter being the best), 2) computer monitors, and 3) print publications - where viewing distance and visual window size is predictable. In the real world, at the full-angle stereo-view, most of us lose our ability to see depth beyond a distance of 90 feet (about 30 meters).
The above explains the first two reasons for why so many of you put on those 3D glasses and complained that you did not see any 3D effects, and were probably wondering what you were actually supposed to be seeing.
The third reason for problematic viewing is that anaglyphs have never looked good on low-resolution analogue TV sets (this time was no different); they are acceptable on large plasma displays, but look amazingly good in HD on any LCD or LED display. So the type of TV display you were watching also had a lot to do with the level of enjoyment you experienced.
Tip: The best solution to view 3D movies at home is with an HD Polarized LCD or LED home theatre designed with a screen width to viewing distance ratio of about 1:1.5-2.5.
The good news is that Dreamworks publishes the Monsters vs. Aliens trailer online, allowing for controlled PC LCD monitor HD viewing, so some of you still have a chance to see the fantastic 3D effects that you were not able to see during the Super Bowl. The reason we mentioned some of you and not all, is because of Sam’s fourth and final reason for why many more were not able to see 3D, and how some even experienced headaches: the wrong anaglyph 3D glasses were distributed for the occasion.
How is it that the wrong 3D glasses were used?
If any of you have had a chance to read Sam’s “Do You Have Stereo Feminine Vision or Masculine Vision?” article, you’ll have learned by now that when it comes to anaglyph 3D glasses, the placement of the eye filters is somewhat gender-dependent.
For male audiences it is best to place the high-luminous-sensitive-filter over the right eye and the low-luminous-sensitive-filter on the left, and vice versa for female audiences.
In the case of Red/Cyan Anaglyph 3D glasses, for Masculine vision, you would need the Cyan to be on the left, and the Red on the right, regardless of daylight or dim-light conditions. However it is very tricky with the Yellow/Blue filters Anaglyph 3D glasses as the placement of the filter and gender depends if you are watching in daytime or in dim-light.
To remedy this problem, the creators of the ColorCode 3D glasses opted to use two sets of darkened filters using a dark amber to filter the yellow. Unfortunately, their glasses work well for pitch dark conditions where the eyes can get adjusted to low-temperature and extreme low-light conditions usually found inside a cinema theater which is rarely found at home while watching TV.
The use of the Dark-Amber/Blue ColorCode 3D glasses made the experience nonsatisfactory. It seems that the ColorCode 3D glasses were designed for in-cinema viewing conditions where the theater is completely in the dark. They were not designed for at home normal viewing which was the case for the super bowl commercial. So unless you turned off the lights completely at home and put on those glasses about 5 minutes before the 3D commercials appear, then tough luck seeing any details.
The low amount of light passing through causes substantial loss of image details, plus, without proper viewing instructions, people tend to think they don’t see anything at first (like what happens when you turn off the lights, then it takes you a while to see in the dark). From my experience observing people using 3D glasses, when the filters are dark, people tend to feel uncomfortable and they usually give-up before their eyes are able to adjust to the low-lit conditions caused by the dark filters. Many will peak in and out of the glasses wondering why they don’t see 3D yet, and as they do this more than twice, many begin to feel headache.
By contrast, Mission3-D’s Photo3-D Stereo YB Vision glasses are superior than ColorCode 3D under daylight or in well lit conditions where the YB Vision 3D glasses show more details and provide a more comfortable viewing experience. Mission3-D uses a Deep-Yellow/Blue lenses.
Furthermore, before the ads played, there should have been instructions informing viewers of the following:
1. Get close to the TV screen at a size perception distance equivalent to looking at an A4-size landscape page held in your hand.
2. Put the glasses on and close your eyes completely to get your eys used to pitch darkness.
3. Keep the glasses on without taking them off or peeking through.
4. Be patient and let your eyes adjust to the dark filters.
5. Enjoy the show.
If you want to better experience seeing the Aliens vs Monsters trailer in style, make sure you get a durable and stylish pair of 3D glasses from the PHOTO3-D Stereo YB Vision Collection - get the pair that suits you best (currently back ordered).
The problem with the adoption of Anaglyph is that no one really understood fully how it works. This is why Mission3D renamed its advanced version of Anaglyph to Stereo RC format. Mission3D uses a patented spectrum that allows for great viewing for “printed” matter which is mostly seen under either daylight or daylight conditions. Stereo RC 3D glasses technology from Mission3D is best for printing, from certain colors however, YB or MG glasses may be recommended, while polarized technology is best for the movies.
We hope that next time, organizers will work harder to provide you with a more pleasant and enjoyable experience. For any of you who would like to experience the best-ever 3D produced in print, please feel free to visit www.mission3-dgroup.com or email sam@mission3-dgroup.com.
References: Mission3D - the world’s foremost experts on 3D photography.
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