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Hi and welcome to printed3dglasses.com. This website has been developed to assist you in choosing the right printed 3D glasses or branded 3D glasses for various 3D promotions. Wether it's printed paper 3D glasses, hand held 3D viewers, magazine bind-in 3D glasses or maybe even 3D glasses of your own shape & design, this website will be able to provide you vital information to make you next 3D marketing campaign / 3D promotion a breeze.

Wether you're representing a business, magazine, marketing company, promotional company, education department or government department most of you already know the key to developing any marketing project is careful planning. Because development of a 3D promotion using plain or branded 3-D glasses is new to many people we are going to show you a number of guides, tips and tricks to save you time, money and help you to make sure that your 3D promotion is launched smoothly.

Stress; it's something that we all want to avoid; and that is exactly what we are aiming to do with our 3D marketing campaign plan. We are going to cover each aspect of planning your 3D campaign so that you can work out:

1. The correct 3D products to use (EG: - 3D glasses, 3D viewers, magazine 3D bind-in glasses)
2. Common printing, packaging and delivery methods
3. The right 3D marketing material to use (types, options and sourcing)
4. What makes a good 3D image
5. What Makes a bad 3D image
6. In what order should I prepare my 3-D campaign
7. The time required to prepare your 3D promotion
8. What will be the total 3D campaign cost

First of all you need to know what type of 3D campaign you want to execute. We will now run through some common 3-D campaigns and list the most suitable 3D product / products next to them. You will notice that some of the 3D campaigns have more that one product listed, this is because that the 3D product you will use will also largely depend on how long it will be used for. General rule is if the end users will only be viewing a few 3D images then hand held viewers will usually suffice, however if you have a magazine run devoted to 3D with many 3D images then glasses or bind-in 3D glasses are a much better option.

1. 3D Magazine (printed / branded 3D glasses, bind-in 3D glasses or hand held 3D viewers)
2. 3D Invitations (printed hand held 3D viewers)
3. Trade shows (printed 3D glasses, printed hand held 3D viewers)
4. 3D Nightclub promotions (printed 3D glasses, printed hand held 3D viewers)
5. Other 3D Marketing (campaign dependant)

When it comes to printed / branded 3D glasses & 3D viewers these can most of the time be printed in either standard PMS colours (Pantone Matching System) or full colour CMYK. Off-set printing is usually always used, although digital printing is sometimes used for low order quantities. Options are also sometimes available for printing on the front and back sides of the 3-D glasses or 3-D viewers, although generally only front side printing is available for magazine bind-in 3D glasses. Finishing coatings can include matt and gloss oil based varnish or matt or gloss lamination. Standard printing usually consists of printing on the front side only in either PMS or CMYK. Costs are generally dependant on your chosen options.

Packaging options are usually either:

FLAT PACKED which is where they are delivered in small bundles from 50 to 100pcs and 1,500 - 5,000pcs to a carton depending on the type of 3D product used.

INDIVIDUALLY FOLDED which is where the glasses are individually folded and packed 1,400 - 2,500pcs to a carton. (not required for 3D viewers)

INDIVIDUALLY FOLDED & POLY-BAGGED which is where the glasses are individually folded and poly-bagged and packed 2,000 - 2,200pcs to a carton (not required for 3D viewers)

The method of packaging will be dependent on how you are planning on distributing the product. Either individually folded and poly-bagged 3D glasses or flat packed hand held 3D viewers are best for magazines, invitations and other marketing campaigns where the product needs to be either glue gummed onto the marketing material or sent out in the mail. Where as flat packed is better for trade shows or hand outs. Flat pack is also the cheapest option with individual folding / folding & poly-bagging attracting a additional cost in not only the packaging but also the attachment to the marketing material.

When the time come to decide what type of 3D marketing material you want to use there are a number of paths you can take. The most widely used type of 3D glasses and printed 3D marketing material combination would be a Red / Cyan anaglyph format. This is where your Red / Cyan 3D glasses or 3D viewers are used in conjuction with your Red/Cyan anaglyph 3D images / 3D marketing material.

The reason this type of anaglyph format is so popular is that 1. it has been around for an extremely long time and is a tried, proven and effective method for viewing anaglyph 3D images. 2. the colours are much lighter than the Red/Blue anaglyph format which tends to make anaglyph photographs and images much darker. 3. they are relatively cheap and quick to manufacture compared to some of the newer formats that are showing up.

Depending on what you are doing your next decision after you have chosen you format is to decide what type of 3D artwork you want to produce. When it comes to making an 3D anaglyph image there are really only 4 main methods, however 3 and sometimes all four of these start with a stereo pair or stereogram.

1. Use a stereo pair taken using a 3D camera, set of 2 digital syncronised cameras or a single camera that it used to take both left and right images, (you can only do this with still objects). You then convert this stereo pair to a anaglyph 3D image. You other option is to purchase stock 3D images.
2. You can design your vector / raster artwork and then duplicate it and alter the objects on one or both sides to artificially create a stereo pair. You then convert this stereo pair to a anaglyph 3D image.
3. You can start with a stereo pair of photographs or an anaglyph image or photograph and then add or combine additional vector / raster objects to the image and turn these into anaglyph format by manipulating the red channel of each added object to once again create you stereo pair. The type of manipulation will depend on the object and how you want it to came across to the viewer in 3D.
4. You can start with a 2D rasterised image like a JPG and convert it to 3D through a number of various methods such as manipulating the red channel or duplicating it then manipulating, warping, cutting out variours objects and shifting them about to create a stereo pair and then convert it to an anaglyph image.

If good stereo pairs / anaglyph images are produced the results should be a natural and easy to view 3D image.

4. What makes a good 3D image?

It's true that not all anaglyph 3D content is equal. The difference in the effectiveness of the 3D from image to image can be substantial. You just have to search for anaglyph images or photos or red/cyan images and you will find that some are OK, some are good and the occasional one is pure generous. Getting a good 3D image is like any type of media, much of the time it will come down to being in the right place at the right time or choosing the right scene to shoot from the right angle or all of this combined. However shooting a 3D image does have another side to it. Not only does the photograph have to be good but you also need to take into account how the objects in the scene and the 3D camera settings will affect the outcome of the shot. There are many times when the shot looks great but the 3D is poor due to incorrect camera settings.

The quality of the 3D imagery is also much of the time in the eye of the beholder. What is pleasing to one person may not be to another.

In general a good 3D image should have either multiple objects or various levels or depth within the shot so the viewer can reference the distance between the objects or various points on a single object. See red/cyan anaglyph examples below.

So looking at the above images you will first notice that they are quite different. One is an outdoor shot with many levels of depth set over about 100m while the other is a close-up shot with a very shallow depth of field yet if you have a pair of Red / Cyan 3D glasses available you will notice that they both work extremely well.

The reason for this is that even though they both have different depths of field the key is that they both contain objects or reference points at multiple levels of depth within each image.

In the flower shot the leaves, flowers and foliage give you the various object depths within the image and with the outdoor shot there is a combination of larger and smaller objects at various levels of depth. This makes each of these 3D images work extremely well.

One other important factor in a good anaglyph image is colour.

An unfortunate downside of anaglyph images is that certain colours will be adversely affected by the colour of the lenses. EG: - with Red & Cyan lenses any colours with stronger reds and blues or colours based around these colours like orange with look darker or a blackish colour. A way to avoid this is either to shoot scenes without theses colour in them; minimise these colours in the shots or desaturate or convert your stereo pairs to greyscale before converting to a anaglyph. It is sometimes also possible to replace certain colours with light pastel colours to reduce the change in colours when viewing the image or artwork in 3D.

5. What makes a bad 3D image?

1. To much separation can be a real killer on the eyes and if your audience aren't used to viewing 3D then it can be a disaster. Left and right image separation should only be set at a distance that is comfortable for viewing by a subject that does not normally view 3D images. Too much separation will just hurt the viewers eyes.

2. Camera separation and convergence is vital to a good stereo pair. Camera separation should be somewhere between 20 - 30mm for each metre you are away from the nearest object in your field of view. This includes the ground. Stereo pairs can either be shot in parallel or with the camereas converging to a point. If converging, all objects within the scene should be behiend the convergence point. An oblect can be in front of the convergence poit but it cannot be allowed to come in contact with the edge of the frame. Objects in front of the convergence point will stick out of the image. Images with too much seperation or where the cameras are toed in to much can cause a large amount of seperation in the background and will ruin the 3D image and cause heavy eye strain.

3. Strong colours based around the colour of the anaglyph lens colours will cause the colours in the image to go dark or black when viewed in 3D. Use of these colours will make the image unpleasant to look at.

4. Lack of multiple levels of depth can make a 3D image uninteresting and boring. The more depth reference points the better. EG:- The more objects in your scene set at different depths will improve the quality of your 3D image.

6. In what order should I prepare my 3-D campaign

1. Work out if a 3D anaglyph campaign is suitable for you?
2. Contact a supplier and get a quote and production times for your 3D glasses or viewers.
3. Work out how you plan to distribute your 3D glasses / viewers.
4. Work out what type of content you want to use and how long it will take to source or convert it.
5. Get quotes and lead times for converting your 2D artwork to 3D if required
6. Get quotes for a 3D photographer or someone who can advise you on 3D photography techniques.
7. Calculate how long it will take from start to finish then add at least 1 - 3 weeks to allow for unforseen issues. (campaign size dependant)
8. Review your content for any problems.
9. Test your content on as many subjects as possible before launch.
10. Order your glasses early so they arrive with plenty of time to spare.

To be continued.......

For further information on printed 3D glasses, wholesale 3D glasses, general 3D marketing material or quotes for please contact Oz 3D Optics

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