3D Photo Projection
You’ve seen it in history documentaries — now the distinctive “3D photo” effect has made the jump to promotional video for two of Humanoid’s newest videos!
The effect uses VFX wizardry to transform old photographs into intriguing three-dimensional scenes, adding depth and allowing a moving camera to explore, bringing the image to life. The team were inspired by working with some engineering firms that had played an important role in the local history of the region.
“A number of our clients have been in business for a hundred years or longer, and they’re very proud of that heritage — more than once we’ve seen a faded black and white photo on the wall which predates video and even film.
Instead of just clipping these pieces of history into their video like a slideshow, we thought we’d take things one step further and give these companies something a bit different to make their video stand out.”
—Chris Gandy, Humanoid’s Creative Director
We first used the effect on a photograph of Charles Leek’s gear-cutting workshop — a company group photo of a scene straight from the early 1900s. Soon after, it was used to even more powerful effect on an historical landscape of Stoke-on-Trent, tracing the origins of Goodwin International as an iron foundry. The shots are memorable video highlights, and often prompt the question: “so, how do you do that?”
Humanoid’s Project Director Tom Down explains:
“We take a high-quality scan of the photo and use image editing software to break it down into smaller pieces, so each element is separated onto its own layer. Then we use our motion graphics tools to spread those layers out in 3D space like a series of flat planes — you’re basically building a virtual pop-up book.
Once it’s set up, you can animate your camera to change its point of view and even move through the scene — it’s a really cool effect.”
What began as a fun experiment has quickly become one of the most popular talking points of our portfolio. If you have a proud history, this is just one of the ways we can make sure people remember it!
Click the link below to watch the 3D photo projection in action.
