This article was taken from the April issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Yes, you can recreate Avatar in your bedroom, with nothing more complicated than an ordinary digital camera and a computer. At any rate, you can make an anaglyph -- a 3D image created by overlaying different-coloured images. To view it you'll need old style 3D specs, one red lens, one blue.
1. Get snapping
Take two pictures of the same thing, one with the camera pressed to your left eye, one to your right -- you're trying to duplicate your own stereoscopic vision. A viewfinder is easier to use than a screen; a tripod or a flat surface can help you keep the shots level. When you flick between the two pictures on the camera, they should hardly move.
2. Save to desktop
Download to your computer.
3. Try the short cut
Upload your pictures to an online anaglyph conversion site -- stereo3d.adpeach.com worked for us -- and let it do the work for you. Two caveats: the site may not let you save the picture -- so take a screen-grab; and the 3D effect will work better on your monitor than printed out.
4. Do it the longway
If you're game you can do the job yourself on your computer, either by downloading a 3D conversion program or -- because who wants to clutter their hard-drive? -- with general-purpose photo-editing software: Photoshop or freeware such as Gimp (which works for Windows, Linux or OS X).
5. Fade to grey
Convert both images to greyscale. Now convert the righthand image (the one you took using your right eye) back to RGB -- it will still look grey.
6. Press the red key
Still on the right image: find the mode on your software that allows you to control colour channels (on Photoshop, it's easy; on Gimp, look under "dockable dialogues" in the windows menu). Select the Red channel.
7. Copy and paste
Go to the left image: select all, then copy. Now back to the right image: check the Red channel is still selected, and paste.
8. Put on your specs
You should now have a haloed red and blue image. Put on your glasses, sit back, and enjoy the sense that something is about to poke you in the eye.
9. Start seeing 3D
If you're not getting the 3D effect, you may have got the images reversed -- it's an easy mistake. Repeat the process but with the images reversed, or just turn the glasses upside down. Now you should be experiencing your totally immersive 3D.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
