Amazing 3-D

When I had formed an interest in 3-D, I was looking for a book with coverage of 3-D movies. A friend of mine, who was a flea market dealer had a copy of 'Amazing 3-D' and traded it to me. What impressed me about this book was that the coverage was much more than 3-D movies. It includes chapters on stereo photography, 3-D comics, and a good general history of 3-D. This book was published in 1982 and is still considered by many 3-D enthusiasts to be the best general introduction to 3-D and reference to 3-D in comics and movies. The 3-D boom of the early eighties was kicked off by the 1981 movie "Comin' at Ya in 3-D". Dan Symmes, co-author of 'Amazing 3-D', was critical of "Comin' at Ya in 3-D" calling it 'bad 3-D'. Of course those of us who saw and thoroughly enjoyed "Comin' at Ya in 3-D" were unaware that we were enjoying 'bad 3-D'. Frankly, it was an egotistical remark from someone who failed to realize that if it had not been for "Comin' at Ya in 3-D", this book would never had been published. It was then that the so-called 3-D experts proceeded to make their own 'good 3-D' movies and frankly bored the hell out of their audience thus killing interest in 3-D movies by the end of 1983. Symmes developed his own 3-D movie camera system which he called 'Dimension 3'. The subsequent company Dimension 3 converted polarized 3-D films to anaglyph 3-D (red/blue) for television broadcast and were also responsible for the conversion of "Comin' at Ya in 3-D" to anaglyph for the DVD release. Their conversion process is also known as 'horrible 3-D' although they will tell you they are the only ones who know how to do 3-D right. Despite Symmes ego, he is one of the foremost experts in 3-D and sharing his knowledge of the subject certainly is a treat for anybody who is interested in 3-D in any of its various applications. [For anybody interested in 3-D movies, one of the better publications mostly dedicated to 3-D movies and especially those from the early eighties was an issue of Cinefantastique magazine: double issue vol. 13 no.6/vol. 14 no. 1, September 1983. You may be able to find this on the auction sites.]-Bob