If you love movies, the upcoming 3-D FILM EXPO is a once in a lifetime event!

Ah, you're right - that did come out wrong. What I meant to say is that it looked like the viewmaster image from a v-m cartoon reel. You know, the ones that look 3-D only because the drawings are on separate planes.

I love the old viewmaster reels (have many myself, as well as a v-m personal camera), but I find there's a big difference between the 3-D photo images and the ones done from cartoons. I'm not sure if that explains it properly either, but I think you'd know what I mean if you saw it.

Bottom line: at least based on my minimal exposure to it so far, I don't think animated 3-D has the same visual impact as live-action 3-D.

 

From a Michael Starks article on 3-D, pertaining to 3-D animation (in particular, the 3-D animated feature from the early 80's, STARCHASER):

The 3D animation is generally good with four distinct
planes in most shots, but the absence of perspective in the figures makes them flat rather than round and detracts
greatly from the film. If any further 3D cel animation is to be done, it should make use of a 3D drawing machine
which can create stereo pairs with true perspective. Such machines have been known for over 100 years, but no use
of them has been made in commercial animation. In Japan, I visited Vladimir Tamari who has designed and built
such a machine. With suitable improvements, it could do a 3D animated film (or 3D comics) far better, faster and
cheaper. However, the age of cel animation is clearly drawing to a close and one can foresee virtually all animation
in 2D or 3D being done by computer in the very near future.

For the entire article, you can go to www.3dmagic.com and click on ARTICLES.