ARLs 3D glasses © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008
Today the Exhibition team got our first taste of what our 3D Colossal Squid movie is going to look like. The exhibition opens in December and it will include Te Papa’s first 3D movie!
The production company Animation Research Ltd (ARL) sent us the latest cut of the movie and special 3D viewing glasses. Don’t worry we’ll have normal 3D glasses in the exhibition.
We all took turns to watch using the glasses – that’s Judy our Project Co-coordinator in the photo. Wow. It’s amazing to see the Colossal Squid and a whole lot of other deep sea fish literally come to life in front of you.
You might just be able to make out that the movie is still two separate images side-by-side. Each eye looks at one picture when you use the glasses. Your brain then recompiles them in to a single 3D image. When ARL have finished you’ll see a single image projected onto a screen and use normal 3D glasses.
Judy looking at the movie on her PC © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008
We’re pretty excited about this part of the exhibition. The goal is to give you an idea of what the Squid’s life and environment might be like. We have to say might because until someone films one down in the deep sea we really won’t know for sure.
It has meant there have been some interesting conversations. How does it swim – cockatoo position or with arms straight out in front? How does the beak move when it’s eating? When would it use its light organs, or headlights when hunting?
We’ve been working with ARL for the last 2 months on this 3D movie. ARLis an amazing company in Dunedin who we worked with on the Whales/Tohora exhibition. They created the amazing Sperm Whale versus Giant Squid video.
Not long ‘til the exhibition opens – Dec 13th - and our girl goes on display. We’ll also have a new Squid website. It’ll have lots of the cool exhibition stuff including a version of the movie for those of you who can’t make it into the building. It’ll be a 2D version ‘cos as far as I know you can’t get 3D on the web – or can you?
Lucy Hoffman
6 November 2008 at 9:58 pm
Hi, You CAN do 3D via the internet, just the same as printed or projected 3D images.
A quick ‘google’ found this example.
Of course you do still need the special 3D glasses.
Best wishes,
Smivs.
7 November 2008 at 8:15 am
Hi Smivs – thanks for that – I am going to try to find some of the red/blue glasses and give it a go! Interestingly the glasses we have been using don’t use colurs like these ones do. They are streoscopic in that they turn 2 pictures into 1. Can’t wait to see how the final version is going to work!
7 November 2008 at 3:46 pm
Hi, just wondering how long the giant squid will be on display for?
Thanks
8 November 2008 at 12:41 pm
Hey Jan, the squid will be on display for at least 3 years.
Not sure what the plans are after that but I’ll check out and see what else I can find out about it.
The exhibition opening is scheduled for December 13 – put it in your diary! We are working with out events team to plan some fantastic squid events over the summer!
13 November 2008 at 8:46 am
Hi, as I’m in the UK I will probably never get the chance to see the display myself. The next best thing would be to see the documentary filmed by the Discovery channel, is there any word on when this will be aired in the UK? Thanks
19 November 2008 at 8:35 am
Hi Ross
I am trying to find out from Discovery Channel to find out what their plans are. Stay tuned!