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Post by wyvern on May 7, 2014 12:34:06 GMT -9
Came across a book today, Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell by Brian May, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming (published by The London Stereoscopic Company in 2013). It's full of 19th century French photos of 3D models made for stereo imaging, many in both black-and-white and hand-coloured versions, and a marvellous source of gaming or modelling ideas for those with an interest in the undead and demons. Tonight, I found there's an equally wonderful website, with many images in the same mould - although of course, you can only access limited numbers at full to enlarged size or in stereo, as they're also keen for people to buy the book (40 GBP - UK published - or 60 USD). The book comes with a stereo viewer, but for anyone with normal binocular vision, it should be possible - with some practice, if you've never tried before - to freeview the online images in full stereo effect without one. Even if you can't manage, the photos of the models are worth seeing in their own right - the "Surprise!" buttons, where available, give the hand-coloured versions, complete with glowing skeleton and demonic eyes!
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 7, 2014 15:50:25 GMT -9
Marvelous! Thank you for digging this up, wyvern! Wouldn't it be great if someone could figure out their process and replicate it?
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Post by mproteau (Paper Realms) on May 7, 2014 16:06:18 GMT -9
Those are a lot of fun. I had to zoom the page out quite a bit to be able to just relax my eyes into seeing the 3d effect, but it's always a rush when the images snap right into place in your vision and all of a sudden you get the amazing 3d image.
My grandmother has boxes and boxes of pictures from her childhood (90+ years ago?) from France. The quality of the images is just amazing, and the effect using a 3d viewer is wonderful. Makes me feel like I'm seeing magic being performed right in front of me.
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Post by cowboyleland on May 7, 2014 16:43:54 GMT -9
This is what I think a google glass type technology should be used for.
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Post by hasturhasturhastur on May 8, 2014 4:20:20 GMT -9
Marvelous! Thank you for digging this up, wyvern! Wouldn't it be great if someone could figure out their process and replicate it? Looks to me like it's a pair of photos made of a sculpture, the colour trick is then done by colourising on the back of the image with translucent paint. But I might be completely wrong.
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 8, 2014 7:44:04 GMT -9
From reading the text, it seems that there is some special trick that shows the image in a normal light when the light is coming from the front, however; the image coloring is completely changed when the lighting comes from the back. It is a special process that is apparently done on thin tissue.
It would, indeed be interesting to see if you can duplicate the effect.
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Post by wyvern on May 8, 2014 13:06:31 GMT -9
From the book (yes, I succumbed!) the models were made by sculptors who started out making a living modelling small-scale story-telling ornaments for churches, and miniature fable scenes for stereoscopic photography.
Stereoscopic photos were a massive phenomenon in the 19th century from the early 1850s on. Just about every scene imaginable was imaged this way, using a pair of cameras to each take a simultaneous photo of the scene, the cameras separated by a variable amount dependent on the distance of the objects, so that after processing and printing the photos onto card side by side, they could be viewed to give a 3D impression, as if you were really there, almost. Some people continue to produce such images today (though it's far easier now than coating glass plates with chemicals immediately before taking the photos - the plates had to be still wet when exposed in the camera - then dashing off to develop each pair to tell if they were right or not!).
However, the French developed a technique of printing the photos onto translucent tissue paper, rather than opaque card, and instead of simply hand-colouring the front - as was done for many of the ordinary card stereo image pairs - they painted the back of the paper, and then made pin-lackwits and scratches over items to be highlighted, like lamps and those glowing eyes. Tiny blobs of coloured gels were applied over the holes in the tissue, again on the reverse side, so that when viewed from the front, with a light source behind, the scenes sparkled with colour in key spots, like magic. Another sheet of tissue was fixed over the back of these additions to conceal and preserve them, and the prints glued into cardboard holders, with windows cut in them to let the light through. For those familiar with them, this is very similar to how the more modern Viewmaster stereo viewers worked (1960s onwards). Of course, just creating these tissue images in themselves was almost as much work as sculpting the original models, and needed similar precision skills, but as you can see, the results can be astonishing.
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 8, 2014 13:32:48 GMT -9
wyvern, I knew you'd be the one to dig up the details. Thank you. What a fascinating process, and all done by hand, too, can you imagine the time, skill and patience that would take? That's impressive. Ah, Viewmasters! I remember them! They were the hot thing when I was a kid. I had a few of them in succession. They were great fun. Fond memories.
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Post by wyvern on May 8, 2014 13:57:54 GMT -9
Got my first one with the Moon landing set at Christmas 1969, and although the photos on the Moon aren't in stereo, all the others are. And it still works just as well!
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