We've all seen lenticular pictures in novelty and tourist shops. You
know the ones: They're coated with the textured plastic surface that
gives you the illusion of a 3D picture - and you don't even have to
wear special glasses. Or if you rock the pictures back and forth,
they give you the illusion of an image moving or morphing into
something else. Two years ago, producing this kind of an illusion
was a very expensive proposition. The software cost thousands of
dollars and the lenses had to be ordered in bulk. But today,
thanks to Motion Graphix's Motion Magic 3d Creator, anyone can
achieve the same picture effects with a home computer, Photoshop and
a good colour printer.
The 3d Creator kit includes five lenticular lenses (10 x 8 inch plastic sheets with permanent adhesive on one side), driver software that you install in your Photoshop plug-in directory, and an instruction booklet. You can purchase 20 additional lenses for US$79 through Motion Graphix's Web site.
The program is quite simple to use. Once you've installed the plug-in drivers and launched Photoshop, all you need to do is go to the actions palette and call up the specific type of project you want to create. You can choose from two-flip, three-flip, and four-flip 3D animation. If you're doing, say, a four-flip animation, you need four separate photographs (all preferably the same size) for the effect to work. Open the four images in Photoshop and click the play button in the actions palette. The software goes to work to combine all four of your images into one image that you then print out on your colour printer.
The printed picture will look really strange when it comes out, but don't worry. It looks funky because it has been rendered to be viewed through a lenticular lens. To see if your print came out to your liking, place the image behind one of the included lenticular lenses and move the lens over the picture until you see a clear picture. If the image looks good to you under the lens, peel away the protective backing and carefully put your picture down on the lens. But do this carefully, as once you apply your image to the lens, it's stuck there forever. There are no redos. And that was our main concern with this package. The first picture we made didn't quite match up correctly and ended up looking awkward and skewed. If you think this is something you're really going to get into, we suggest you buy an extra lens pack, because mistakes will happen along the way. Even if you aren't as mistake prone as we were, you'll still want to create more than five images once you get the hang of it.
The other thing we need to mention is that your final picture will look only as good as the image(s) with which you begin. A 2- or 3- megapixel camera will give you pretty good results. We don't recommend you buy this if you're using a 1-megapixel camera. Also, your final picture will look only as good as the printer you're using. Today's bubble jet printers from Epson and HP produce fine results. And don't skimp on the paper - use the good stuff. When we did our tests, we printed our colour pictures on regular white paper and, although the effect worked as advertised, the pictures colours looked dull and lifeless.
Motion Magic 3d Creator is a clever novelty. At US$99, the application is fairly expensive for a novelty, no matter how clever, when you consider that you get only five lenses in the box and that you need Adobe Photoshop to use it. But if you're one of those people who's always trying to find a new way to impress your friends and family, we guarantee you'll receive your share of "Wow, that's so cool" when you show off your creations. If the kit came with ten lenses, we'd say pick it up in a hurry.
Motion Magic 3d Creator
Company: Motion Graphix
Price: US$99 plus US$13 postage.
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