Anaglyph: Stereo Effect in Red and Cyan

An anaglyph is a method of viewing a three-dimensional effect on a flat medium: a photo or a screen. There are several techniques to achieve that stereo effect. Motion pictures nowadays often work with polarized light. Chances are you’ve seen Harry Potter, Avatar or Dune that way.

Red and Cyan

The anaglyph method is much older. Movies were made using this technique as early as the 1950s. In an anaglyph, two images are superimposed; the image for the left eye in red, the image for the right eye in cyan. So, just like with those cinema films, you always need glasses to see the 3D effect. Without glasses, the pictures in this blog post are of little use.

Mars

I was first introduced to anaglyphs when Pathfinder landed on Mars in 1997. That little rover sent fascinating 3D images of rock-strewn landscapes back to Earth. On later Mars missions NASA also made use of these spatial images.

Renderings

For my presentation work at VHP and Royal HaskoningDHV I also experimented with anaglyphs. After all, you don’t necessarily need a high-tech camera. Two computer renderings, taken from a slightly different viewpoint, can also serve as a basis. For example, I made stereo images of the Promenade Bridge (now known as the Lentloper) in Nijmegen, the Marstunnel in Zutphen and the Ferry Pier in Deventer.

The cut-away 3d model of the European Mars Analogue Research station also asked for an anaglyph. And with later projects such as the spaceship Ares from Red Mars and the Bijenkorf from Dudok, I once again couldn’t resist making such a stereo image.

Layering

In some images, the 3D effect is more spectacular than in others. The more layered the image is, the better. In other words: the more things in the image are partially covered by other things, the more depth you see. Objects that seem to protrude from the image, such as the Promenade Bridge below, can also create a wow effect.

Colour

Anaglyph images are usually in shades of gray; that is how the effect works best. However, 3D images in color are also not completely impossible. This is evident from the pictures below of the Ares and the Bijenkorf.

Gimmick

Still, there remains one major drawback to using anaglyphs for presentation purposes. You always need those glasses and most of us don’t have them in our bag as a standard item. Those pictures of Nijmegen, Zutphen and Deventer that I made for Royal HaskoningDHV were never used to convince clients. In fact these stereo images are nothing more than a gimmick. But it’s still fun to give them a try every now and then.