Customer Reviews

Amazing 3-D

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When I had formed an interest in 3-D, I was looking for a book with coverage of 3-D movies. A friend of mine, who was a flea market dealer had a copy of 'Amazing 3-D' and traded it to me. What impressed me about this book was that the coverage was much more than 3-D movies. It includes chapters on stereo photography, 3-D comics, and a good general history of 3-D. This book was published in 1982 and is still considered by many 3-D enthusiasts to be the best general introduction to 3-D and reference to 3-D in comics and movies. The 3-D boom of the early eighties was kicked off by the 1981 movie "Comin' at Ya in 3-D". Dan Symmes, co-author of 'Amazing 3-D', was critical of "Comin' at Ya in 3-D" calling it 'bad 3-D'. Of course those of us who saw and thoroughly enjoyed "Comin' at Ya in 3-D" were unaware that we were enjoying 'bad 3-D'. Frankly, it was an egotistical remark from someone who failed to realize that if it had not been for "Comin' at Ya in 3-D", this book would never had been published. It was then that the so-called 3-D experts proceeded to make their own 'good 3-D' movies and frankly bored the hell out of their audience thus killing interest in 3-D movies by the end of 1983. Symmes developed his own 3-D movie camera system which he called 'Dimension 3'. The subsequent company Dimension 3 converted polarized 3-D films to anaglyph 3-D (red/blue) for television broadcast and were also responsible for the conversion of "Comin' at Ya in 3-D" to anaglyph for the DVD release. Their conversion process is also known as 'horrible 3-D' although they will tell you they are the only ones who know how to do 3-D right. Despite Symmes ego, he is one of the foremost experts in 3-D and sharing his knowledge of the subject certainly is a treat for anybody who is interested in 3-D in any of its various applications. [For anybody interested in 3-D movies, one of the better publications mostly dedicated to 3-D movies and especially those from the early eighties was an issue of Cinefantastique magazine: double issue vol. 13 no.6/vol. 14 no. 1, September 1983. You may be able to find this on the auction sites.]-Bob

After a recommendation from a 3D enthusiast friend, I got a copy of this excellent book in order to share the pictures on a 3D Forum I'm in. The photos are great, but every one of them needed enhancing to bring out better dimensional qualities. You can view nearly every image in my Flickr photoset here (I did not put up the comic pages): [...]. As for the information shared within the book, it is highly engaging and entertaining. The author takes you from the beginning of stereographic photography (covering all the different kinds of viewers and cameras that came out) up to the five year craze from 1950 to 1955 that included movies, comics, magazine ads, etc., then the decline after that, followed by the slight rise in popularity in the 70s and early 80s. Due to the book coming out in 1983, it doesn't cover a lot of the 3D movies that came out during that era, only gives details about various upcoming films. On the whole, this is a must-have book for any 3D fan.