After reconstructing every character and set in Nightmare to create a rotated picture for
`the second eye, a team of computer graphics engineers split each frame into layers that
`pop out to the audience at different depths. (Video still courtesy of Disney Enterprises,
`Inc.)
`
`PopularMechanics.com, Oct. 31, 2006 -- When Disney executives first approached Colum
`Slevin about revamping its stop-motion animated classic The Nightmare Before Christmas into
`three dimensions, there was more head-scratching going on at George Lucas' Industrial Light and
`Magic offices than by Chewbacca with a hide full of fleas. Could Slevin and his team really
`engineer a computer-graphics miracle to recreate all of Tim Burton's beloved puppets for high-
`quality (and high-grossing) 3D, or would this just be a gimmicky feature like the 20 minutes of
`Superman Returns in IMAX? Thirteen years after the original, with no quick-fix digital version to
`work from and the necessary polarized projection technology just beginning to roll out, was it
`really worth it?
`
`"It seemed prohibitive, and that in and of itself seemed appealing," says Star Wars vet Slevin,
`ILM's executive in charge of production and a Nightmare 3D executive producer. "We don't like to
`be told what we can and cannot do."
`
`What the ILM impresarios did was digitally transform Jack Skellington's Halloweentown into
`perhaps Hollywood's finest technical accomplishment of the year, completing the first-ever
`conversion of an entire celluloid film into 3D at a breaking point for the now burgeoning format of
`red-and-green glasses lore. Take that, Superman.
`
`The fundamental trick of 3D film is to convince the brain into having depth perception by sending
`discreet images to each eye. While the left eye can enjoy a cleaned-up version of the original
`movie, the painstaking challenge of 3D conversion lies in reconstructing each frame for the right
`eye--essentially making a second version of the movie that appears rotated two or three inches to
`the right to make up for the interocular distance and create a combined, or "stereo," point of view.
`
`That was easy enough for Slevin and his computer-graphics designers when they developed
`Disney's 2005 Chicken Little in both 2D and 3D with only computer-animated graphics. But for
`The Nightmare Before Christmas, with its 770 shots of meticulously constructed stop-motion
`puppets, they had to create computer-generated proxies of every character and set. ILM, using
`digital effects tricks it had discovered in the Star Wars re-release days, was able to project the
`digitized original version directly onto these new CG "mannequins," then swing the digital camera
`over a few inches for the right eye's brand-new perspective.
`
`From there, the ILM team cut each frame into wedding-cake layers, which would pop out to the
`audience at different depths and speeds based on their "stereo" script for the film. "It was
`basically sort of a flow chart for the points where things became more intense and more relaxed,"
`Slevin says. "It's a little bit of the same field of knowledge as scoring a movie."
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`The result was a seamless layover of computer animation on top of stop-motion artistry--even the
`notoriously picky Burton says "the movie has kept its original purity, and the 3D actually adds
`much more to it." But that was only the right eye's worth, leaving the task of presenting an optical
`illusion that has eluded Hollywood for more than 50 years up to the increasingly advanced field of
`digital projection technology.
`
`To project pumpkin king Jack Skellington in 3-D without giving audience members the
`nausea of 1950's-era experiments with the format, a digital projetor alternates at high
`speed between images intended for each eye. (Disney Enterprises, Inc.)
`
`Disney sent a hard-drive with the 3D remastering to Real D, a young company whose optical and
`digital-signal-processing advancements simultaneously feed images for each eye into one high-
`end DLP projector. With the left-eye, right-eye images alternating at high-speed, polarized light
`beams the light waves carrying each different-angled picture into only the eye that's meant to see
`it.
`
`If an audience member closed his right eye, he'd see a movie that came out in 1993. But open it,
`and the polarized, Ray-Ban-esque glasses for Nightmare 3D split the back-and-forth frames
`moving so fast his brain can't tell the difference.
`
`"Hollywood has failed again and again in separating the right and the left eye," says Josh Greer,
`co-founder and CEO of Real D, which also supports 3D projection for the U.S. military, NASA and
`the automotive and aviation industries. "There was the problem of `ghosting,' which is light
`leakage--meaning that when you're looking at the left eye, some of the right eye image leaks
`through and creates nausea. Now Real D is trying to look at the fundamental idea of 3D systems
`and perfect it."
`
`Disney helped the cause by partnering with Real D in the installation of more 3D digital projectors
`for the release of Chicken Little, and top theater chains outfitted themselves with the technology
`for this year's Monster House. While Real D chairman Michael Lewis projects the company will
`have 500 screens equipped worldwide by the March release of Disney's Meet the Robinsons,
`digital projection remains in its infancy, with even the most enthusiastic proponents among
`filmmakers taking a wait-and-see approach.
`
`"It's going to take a while," Lucas told Popular Mechanics in an interview last year. "Eventually,
`most films will be shown digitally, and a few will be shown on film." He still hopes to re-release all
`six episodes of his Star Wars series in 3D, but only once theater technology is ready.
`
`Titanic director James Cameron has gone one step further, insisting that he will film solely in the
`format from now on with his own 3D rig, beginning with 2008's Avatar and Battle Angel the
`following year. "Digital 3D is a revolutionary form of showmanship that is within our grasp," he
`proclaimed at the National Association of Broadcasters' Digital Cinema Summit in April. "It can
`get people off their butts and away from their portable devices and get people back in theaters."
`
`Robert Zemeckis' 2004 Polar Express, for example, proved a huge success--and motivation for
`holiday 3D movies like Nightmare--when it took in $45 million for its co-release in IMAX 3D, the
`format leader with about double as many screens as Real D. Combine that with the IMAX records
`for the select scenes of Superman Returns in 3D, last year's box-office slump and poll numbers
`showing Americans would return to theaters with more full-length features in 3D, and Hollywood
`is ready to jump beyond the silver screen.
`
`Before the end of the year, IMAX will show the computer-animated Open Season in 3D, with
`Zemeckis' Beowulf following in performance-capture animation for 2007. If that weren't enough to
`give Jack Skellington a run for his holidays, he better watch out: Harry Potter might be coming to
`3D town next summer.
`
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