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A company in Canada by the name of RabbitHoles has created a new technique of turning regular 2-D images, such as a movie poster, into high quality, full-color 3-D images that can even have animation sequences implemented into the photos.

Now, I realize that 3-D photos are nothing new, but this technology is far more advanced than the "traditional" 3-D images that you are used to seeing at the movies, on playing cards, or on magazine covers. This revolutionary new technique of turning a 2-D image into a 3-D image makes for a much more realistic look, and some people may have already been lucky enough to see this technology in action - it was debuted in the form of movie posters last week in 10 U.S. theaters for the movie How She Moves.
Cathy Cowgirl in 3-D: created by Ron English

Posters, like the ones debuted last week, give the appearance of "movement" when you walk past them. These innovative animation sequences can be up to 6-8 seconds in length, and they are developed by using an advanced 3-D computer model developed by RabbitHoles that uses a virtual camera to take snapshots of the image at different angles. At that point, an advanced algorithm figures out the lighting for each angle to make it more realistic. This hologram is then printed on whatever type of media desired by using a RGB pulsed laser to create the finished product in full-color.

These eye-catching 3-D photos were unveiled at the 2007 Comic -Con in a poster on display that featured Ron English's character Cathy Cowgirl. This poster showed a short animation of the character cocking her head and shooting her gun as you walked past the poster from left to right. The quality of the 3-D image is unlike any other type of 3-D imagery ever produced for this type of media. I'm sure that more and more of these movie posters will be "popping up" (not funny; I know) across the U.S. In 2008.

Source: Wired

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