WHAT IS A PHANTOGRAM, AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
A "phantogram" is a special kind of 3-D illusion, a kind that has even more of that stuff-popping-out quality that can make a photo or drawing seem solid and real. If you enjoy experiencing the illusion of depth -- and you must, or else I cannot imagine why you are reading this -- and you have not seen phantograms before (or not seen them properly), get ready for a surprise. This is 3-D like you would not have thought possible.
HOW TO VIEW A PHANTOGRAM
Phantograms have to be viewed at an angle. If you are looking straight ahead at your monitor, as in the illustration at right, your monitor should be tilted back 45 degrees from vertical. If you are looking down at your monitor, as you would with a laptop or small screen, the monitor should be tilted back even further, perhaps even laid flat. If your monitor doesn't swivel, you'll have to prop up the front of it somehow, with books or other objects. And if you really can't tilt your monitor in any way, you'll just have to move your head low enough to look up at it, perhaps by sitting on the floor.
Why would you go to all that trouble just to look at a picture? Just do it, and then look at this picture. That's why.
You see? That is so real, it's almost frightening. When photographer Dan Jacob created this crocodile image, he says children "were daring each other to place their hands in the gator's mouth." Yes, it's the same Dan Jacob who made the 3-D lilies video I posted yesterday, and he happens to be a champion phantogram maker. He has a set of them on Flickr, and it is probably the best collection of phantograms in the world today. That might sound like hyperbole, but you also have to remember that very few artists are making phantograms today; it is something of a dying art. A will turn up other examples, but Dan's are the best. I'm glad he made so many of them.
THE FUTURE OF PHANTOGRAMS
Will phantograms ever become popular? Or if not popular, then maybe not quite so obscure? They might, as flat-panel monitors become the norm. Could you imagine the whole family wearing their 3D goggles, gathered around their tilted television, to enjoy a phantogram movie? I can imagine them. They look silly. But they're enjoying themselves, and that's what counts, isn't it?
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Sean, I feel ultra-honored to be on your blog twice in a row. I can’t thank you enough for what you said about phantograms. Phantogramming well may be a dying art unless people like you step up and revive it any way they can. You’re absolutely right about the advent of flat screens being a blessing to the phantogram world. The main limitation of phantograms is the special requirement of viewing them at an angle of about 45 degrees. Some day, when many users will have the kind of coffee table touch screen as demonstrated recently by Microsoft, phantograms may make a substantial come-back. Thanks again, Dan Jacob
I had not considered the Microsoft coffee table gizmos, but you are right. With those, the phantogram would actually be easier to view than a regular anaglyph picture! Of course, the effect would not work all the way around the table; everyone would have to be viewing it from the same side. But still.
Nice Phantogram Dan.
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