C.E.S. 2010 – 3D is Everywhere!

CES 2010 is all about 3D. It is everywhere! Sometimes, it feels like every vendor has simply thrown up something and called it 3D. Even the CES information kiosk monitor says 3D.

Toon Boom has dominated the 2D market. Toon Boom is not a 3D rendering program….or is it?

Toon Boom has a lot of 3D capabilities, but it has a different look. Toon Boom is not for rendering a “Toy Story” type of animation. But, the 3D effects possible in Toon Boom can create a totally different look that no one has yet appreciated.

Many may remember the Viewmaster toy that allowed you to see views in 3D. Many of the slides had characters like Bugs Bunny that were actually 2D drawings, but placed with different positioning in relation to other characters and the background objects. The view was a very interesting type of 3D cartoon. The drawings were 2D, but were positioned in a 3D world.

See where I am going with this?

Toon Boom’s animation programs, especially Animate Pro, are able to work with 3D space.

Consider creating two cameras, positioned like two eyes. It is easier than you think. Go to the Network View in Animate Pro. Just copy and past the first camera with its peg, and then add a second peg to the second camera and offset it slightly to the left. Call this “Camera-left.” Wow! You now have two video files after you have rendered so you can input these into your 3D software.

I played with this technique in the following animation. Obviously, YouTube does not do 3D, but, if it did and I could output it correctly for the particular system, parts of this scene would be in 3D!

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