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Digital Staircase Blog
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3D Photography
Photographs are immensely valuable in helping us relive moments in time. However, as flat depictions of reality, traditional photographs fail to capture a level of immersion that comes only from actually inhabiting a three-dimensional environment.
Enter three-dimensional (3D) photography. The goal is to augment the standard photograph with depth information. These 3D photos can then be displayed on upcoming 3D televisions and other 3D display technology. Perhaps surprisingly, these 3D photos can also be seen without the aid of additional hardware! One need simply learn an appropriate viewing technique (more on this in a bit). We developed Stereocam to aid in the capture of 3D photos. These photos are displayed as stereo image pairs (or stereograms). In stereo image pairs, the left and right halves look similar, but are subtly different in important ways. In "parallel" stereo image pairs, the left eye is meant to stare at the left half and the right eye is meant to stare at the right half (often thought of as focusing on a point behind the image). In "cross-eyed" stereo image pairs, the left eye is meant to stare at the right image and the right eye is meant to stare at the left image (often thought of as focusing on a point in front of the image). The examples below are all "parallel" stereo images. They have also been reduced in resolution for better web viewing (Stereocam saves in high resolution). Many first-time viewers find it helpful to start by viewing the stereo image pairs up close (nose might even touch the display screen) and then gradually move away while trying to fuse the two halves into a single image in the middle. When successful, a third image will appear in between the two halves and should appear in full 3D. For more information, see the following references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereogram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy Enjoy these Stereocam-captured photos!
Enter three-dimensional (3D) photography. The goal is to augment the standard photograph with depth information. These 3D photos can then be displayed on upcoming 3D televisions and other 3D display technology. Perhaps surprisingly, these 3D photos can also be seen without the aid of additional hardware! One need simply learn an appropriate viewing technique (more on this in a bit). We developed Stereocam to aid in the capture of 3D photos. These photos are displayed as stereo image pairs (or stereograms). In stereo image pairs, the left and right halves look similar, but are subtly different in important ways. In "parallel" stereo image pairs, the left eye is meant to stare at the left half and the right eye is meant to stare at the right half (often thought of as focusing on a point behind the image). In "cross-eyed" stereo image pairs, the left eye is meant to stare at the right image and the right eye is meant to stare at the left image (often thought of as focusing on a point in front of the image). The examples below are all "parallel" stereo images. They have also been reduced in resolution for better web viewing (Stereocam saves in high resolution). Many first-time viewers find it helpful to start by viewing the stereo image pairs up close (nose might even touch the display screen) and then gradually move away while trying to fuse the two halves into a single image in the middle. When successful, a third image will appear in between the two halves and should appear in full 3D. For more information, see the following references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereogram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy Enjoy these Stereocam-captured photos!
Making of the Firebeast (from A Wizard's Odyssey)
The firebeast is one of the more formidable monsters in the labyrinth stages of A Wizard's Odyssey. As potential heroes quickly find out, it is invulnerable to fire-based attacks. In fact, only water-based spells can stop the firebeast's relentless charges.
The picture above shows progressive stages in the monster's design. The leftmost rendering is a wireframe rendering, which shows how the firebeast's surface has been divided up into sets of triangles. Every character in the game is first described as a set of triangles because modern graphics cards are very efficient at drawing them.
The center rendering is a Gouraud-shaded solid rendering. Gouraud shading is a very common way of drawing solid objects that somewhat hides the object's faceted representation (flat triangles).
The rightmost rendering is a textured rendering. We have effectively glued artist-drawn images onto each of the triangles to give the firebeast more interesting details without introducing more triangles.
Once the firebeast model is fully textured, we load it up into a custom animator program to define various animation poses.
This picture shows one frame in which the firebeast is taking a hit. One of its leg components is translucent because we are editing that part in the animation editor. After all the animation frames and inter-frame timings are set, we save all the data and load it into the game. The game can then, based on the mood of the firebeast, choose some animation sequence to play and smoothly transition between the animation frames using a process called interpolation.
Here is an in-game scene where the firebeast has just finished a stomp; the stomp releases a shock-wave that propagates very quickly outward. In response, the player has activated the fire-protection spell which can counter any fire-based attack.
Hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at the firebeast's design!
Announcement and SmartSplice Tip
Hello!
Two thoughts:
1. Digital Staircase wants to see your awesome SmartSplice creations!
We've been really impressed with what you've sent us so far. Keep them coming!
Please send your creations to: submit@digitalstaircase.com
(If you give us permission, we may feature it in a future blog post!)
We've been really impressed with what you've sent us so far. Keep them coming!
Please send your creations to: submit@digitalstaircase.com
(If you give us permission, we may feature it in a future blog post!)
2. SmartSplice Tip: Creating figures and diagrams.With the new features in SmartSplice 2.0, it is now easy to create figures and diagrams using SmartSplice. In this tip, we'll give a brief overview of some of these new capabilities. Step 1: Load an image from file (here, we chose a photo of a Malaysian marketplace). 
Step 2: Tap Extract/Insert, Insert object, and then Figure object. Choosing Arrow will bring up an arrow to be inserted: 
Step 3: Double-tap the screen to bring out options (e.g., flip, rotate, color,...). Here we chose rotate. The green circle with marked angles pops up to aid in precise rotations. Drag your finger about the circle's center to rotate. 
Step 4: Double-tap when done rotating; then drag the arrow and resize it as desired.
Step 5: Double-tap the screen again, and choose Color & opacity. Use the sliders to choose the desired color and opacity of the object being inserted (here, an arrow). 
Step 6: Press OK when done. Press the Insert button to insert the arrow into the image.
Step 7: We'll now want to add some text. Tap Extract/Insert, Insert object, and then Text. Tap on the text box that appears and fill in the text you wish to insert. Press Done on the Keyboard, and then OK to proceed. 
Step 8: Choose the color, size, and position of the text (as you would for the arrow above). Press Insert to insert the text into the image.
Step 9: Try adding other elements to the image, such as a speech bubble. The bubble starts out opaque, but can be made semi-transparent by playing with the opacity slider. 
Step 4: Double-tap when done rotating; then drag the arrow and resize it as desired.
Step 6: Press OK when done. Press the Insert button to insert the arrow into the image.
Step 8: Choose the color, size, and position of the text (as you would for the arrow above). Press Insert to insert the text into the image.
Hello!
Welcome to the official Digital Staircase blog!
Here at Digital Staircase our mission is to bring the power and enjoyment of visual computing to everyone! We have some very exciting (and ambitious) projects in the works, and we'd love to share them with you as soon as they are available. We'll announce them right here (at: blog.digitalstaircase.com), so subscribe to us (or check back here for updates)!
For starters, we'd like to introduce some products that will make your life on the go more enjoyable and convenient. SmartSplice (version 2.0)
SmartSplice is an image editing app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It uses advanced computer algorithms to simplify and speed up many photo editing tasks, opening up possibilities that would be difficult to achieve even with professional programs costing hundreds of dollars.
Buddy Groups (version 2.0)
Buddy Groups (version 2.0)
Buddy Groups is an iPhone and iPod Touch app that allows you to manage contact groups and image galleries. Create, trade, and email contact groups on the go! Organize images into galleries on your mobile device instead of sync-ing to computer each time you want to create a new directory. Buddy Groups also allows you to wirelessly trade information (contacts and images) via WiFi and Bluetooth.
Both SmartSplice and Buddy Groups have free Lite versions that you can download to try out as well! Thanks for visiting, and be sure to stay tuned for more exciting news in the coming months: blog.digitalstaircase.com Sincerely,
The Digital Staircase Inc. Team 
