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The most beautiful iconic language ever designed. Unfortunately, it didn't catch up. A quick intro. The official page (it's an authentic webpage from 1994, be indulgent with the formating!).

Avatar was designed to be 3D from the start whereas Alice wasn't.

For some, this may be incredibly important.

Current technology is not true 3D - the actual distance of where your eyes are looking hasn't changed. All the current technology does is present a different 2D perspective to each eye.
So actually, it is your mind that is creating the 3D effect by extrapolating from those cues and ignoring others (focal distance, lack of physical movement, lack of tactile & smell cues).

Now some people's brains create a more immersive 3D effect than others'. Early cinema goers ducked to avoid oncoming trains. Remote tribes first encountering TV often have similar experiences.
All of us learn to distinguish between TV & reality (probably before our memory works around age 4) and use different brain modes for interpreting each. Books too.
Now, I'm the kind of person who likes to sit in the front row in the cinema and pretend I'm at an IMAX. So when it came to Avatar, knowing that it was my mind making the 3D effect, I hypnotised myself to make it as immersive as possible (yes, I'm a hypnotherapist)

So in the opening scene where you fly over the forest, my jaw dropped and I remember exclaiming “holy shit” out loud. Because I actually felt like I was there.

The concept of having an alternative Avatar reality is the perfect metaphor for coping with this. I felt it was more that my 'Avatar' that was a bit faulty rather than any flaws with my sensory interpretation.
However, I ran into problems about 20 mins in.
For 50 years or more, 2D filmmakers have been panning and cutting shots because they knew that their audience wasn't treating the camera as their own physical perspective. But if you're fully immersed with a 3D experience, it makes you feel like you're moving & teleporting every few seconds.

Avatar was designed to be 3D from scratch and does this much less. Still, after 20 mins I had major motion sickness. Alice in Wonderland was designed to be 2D, does a ton of cutting and panning, and would have been unwatchable for me in 3D.

In the future, I think many scenes will have to be shot twice, or perhaps with multiple, moving 2D cameras and a static 3D camera for the same shot.

Food for thought my paranoid friend..

Nope, false. Kodak did not have a patent monopoly. In fact, they LOST patent suits to the inventors of celluloid film (Goodman) and instant cameras (Polaroid).

Well, maybe he did (or somebody under his employment did), but he wasn't the first.

Behold the brothers Lumière!

perhaps you should think twice before sputtering silly trolls then.

anyhow, we got up there first, in 1902
man in the moon

:-)

Let's see, thanks to Bush I've been able to witness a war over weapons of mass destruction (Iraq has WoMD you just can't see them fool)...

Amazing that everybody but you saw them. Even the Democrats (including Bill Clinton and the United Nations).

I've been given the honor to go through a POS economy (and don't give me this Clinton set it up crap, the GOP was in office for 6 years before Clinton, and for 6 years the economy crap)...

Say what? 1980 - 1992 set up the 90's, despite Clinton's attempts at the opposite. What exactly DID Clinton do to stimulate the economy in the 90's, aside from largest tax increase of US history? In case you're wondering, you can't use that old "it was lower in percentage of the overall economy" crap because you don't accept that argument for Bush's economy either, which, BTW, Bush's deficit is LOWER in percentage of the overall economy than Reagan's.

Bush appointed Ashcroft cut the DOJ's budget for the Microsoft case & changed course from justice to slap on the wrist (if you can even call it that)...

This one I agree with. I'm not sure why Microsoft got away with it, but neither are you. That's the point. Perhaps (and I know this may be difficult to accept for a WHOLE LOT of people on /.) the government knew something about Microsoft's business practices that the general public doesn't... just maybe.

Bush appointed Ashcroft -- gaining control via the homeland security bill -- put an end to the inconvenient reports filed by the ATF each year that showed the stats of gun dealers in regards to them being caught selling illegally...

If you're insane, and you want to shoot someone 15 times in the head, do you REALLY think waiting 2 weeks to purchase a handgun is going to stop you from getting one? Seriously... if you're certifiably crazy and you want to murder someone, not having a gun isn't going to stop you. Want proof? Try taking a sledgehammer on an airplane with you and tell them it's your "safety blanket". It's not a dangerous weapon, right? It's certainly not a gun, so it must not be too dangerous...

my state -- along with the vast majority of the states -- are poor as hell now due to tax cuts that lead to a drastic cut in federal funding...

I'd recommend looking into your state's budget and finding out what programs they've started. I'll assume you're not living in California, which has a high budget for 1 reason that I can sum up in 2 words: Gray Davis.

Oh, but this president doesn't get laid, so I guess that should make me proud. Because getting laid is much more shameful than inciting a war that lead to the death of thousands of innocent people (Oh, I think I figured it out, Saddam is using ultra-high tech /invisable/ WoMD!).

I assume you're referring to the Clinton case... involving Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, etc. Maybe you don't understand, but getting laid wasn't the problem. If Clinton would have simply said "Yeah, I got a piece of ass, so what?" I'd have no problem with it. Unfortunately, he lied under oath. In case you're taking notes, that's perjury... which seems to be a crime only when a Republican commits it.

Oh, and while you're whining about the innocent people dying because of Bush standing up for what's right and decent in the world, maybe you should look into the humane torture practices your buddy Saddam was committing. The last figure I heard was a LOT higher than a thousand or so.

If it were the Painstation I'd watch it. The Painstation is a version of Pong where one hand controls the game and the other rests in a pain unit. Every time you miss the ball, you get some pain. The first person to remove his hand from the pain unit loses. The pain comes in three kinds: heat, whip, and electric shock.

Those wacky Germans!