While I’m very impressed with the technology, 3D seems to be one of those things that surely won’t catch on. For me, there are just too many barriers. Of course, that means I’m probably wrong, but isn’t this an uphill battle? What’s the benefit?
The Drawbacks
First, there’s the high price of entry. Don’t think I need to go to far into this one, but who has the money for this stuff? Second, there’s the goofy glasses. Please don’t dismiss this. It is just plain stupid to have to wear huge ill-fitting glasses in a movie theatre, but we are supposed to do it in our homes too? And have they not realized that MANY people complain that it makes their eyes hurt, or that it is blurry, etc. etc. etc? The technology needs some work.
The Gimmicks
But technology aside, I have consistently had one other major complaint – gimmicks – or, more accurately, just one gimmick. I would love to say this is because of the newness of the technology, but years ago when I went to Disney and saw Donald Duck in 3D, the only thing that was impressive was the wave of people reaching out and trying to touch him as if he were in their face. It seems like every movie being made now has the same silly gimmick. There is always a scene that is only there to make you think something it about to splatter, or jump, or explode, or erupt in your face. It’s just plain cheap.
The Good Stuff
I went to see Toy Story 3 today. This changed my perspective just one tiny little bit.
I don’t think the use of 3D was gimmicky at all, and in fact, it was very thoughtful. It got me a little excited actually. Their use of 3D in the credits was genius to me. The titles were slightly smaller and pushed slightly into the background, and the names were just a bit bigger and in the foreground. By adding this third dimension to the text, they effectively created a new level of hierarchy that I had never seen before. The names jumped to my attention, and yet the titles were not so far back that they were unreadable. This was a very welcome break to the typical title on the left and name on the right scenario.
I know it’s just one small detail, but that’s what takes things from good to great, isn’t it?
The Future?
Well, prove me wrong, but I don’t think 3D will be the future of television, or even movies. However, I do think there is an interesting future of a new visual language to be explored here. Exploring how foreground objects relate to background objects could be a very important part of how we design.
Even if there are no new big design revelations, I hope that this can be inspiration to how we think about typographic hierarchy in the future. How can we push certain details back, while highlighting others? While I’m not overly hopeful about the future of 3D, I do hope it can push the visual arts in a positive direction. Only time will tell.