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Star Wars Films In 3D Due In 2012

Posted by timothy on from the jabba-in-surround-slime dept.

bowman9991 writes "Star Wars creator George Lucas is converting all six films from his iconic science fiction saga into 3D and will re-release them in theatres in 2012. 'Episode I: The Phantom Menace' will be released first."

2 of 409 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ya by visgoth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I saw the remake of Clash of the Titans in "3d" and it was put through a 2d to 3d conversion. The greedy producers had all the existing footage converted to stereo 3d, and the result was craptacular. At best stuff looked three dimensional the way looking into a viewmaster was "three dimensional". At worst it was causing me eyestrain and headaches, although the headaches could have been due to the total shitfest that the movie itself was. If a similar technique is being employed for the Star Wars re-re-re-release than its likely going to have the same strange viewmaster looking effect.

    --
    My patience is infinite, my time is not.
  2. 2D + depth map = 3D! by DrXym · · Score: 4, Interesting
    2D to 3D conversion is rapidly becoming the modern day equivalent of colorization of black and white films. I wonder how long before "now in 3D!" becomes as distasteful as "now in color!".

    The conversion process is basically the computational equivalent of vacuum forming the 2D image over a depth map. Depending on the fidelity of the models that generate the depth map, the effect will vary between passable and looking like cardboard cutouts in a diorama.

    From a technical point of view it will be interesting to see how Lucasfilm deal with the conversion. I think the conversion will be abysmal in the first 3 movies with lots of crappy dust & particle effects tossed in and some reshot CG. Potentially the 3D could be more passable on the prequels depending on how far they go. Most of the prequel scenes are pure CG or composite live action and CG so in theory all these scenes could be rerendered. I think in practice though that probably only a fraction will get the full treatment and the remainder will under go a 2D + depth map process.