by Carlos García Moreno-Torres

Ever since Avatar came out 3D seems to be the magical word that makes any movie a blockbuster. All of a sudden, the audiovisual entertainment industry (films, TV and videogames) has been trying to convince us that a 2D world doesn’t make sense anymore, releasing all kind of 3D products, from movies to Television sets & TV channels, videogames, cameras and photography books.

Steve Jobs recently said that users don’t want to see amateur clips, that they “want Hollywood movies and TV shows (…) they want professional content and everything in HD”. Of course this is not necessarily true (although some of his thousands of fans might take his word as gospel), but the truth is that big feature films are now easily reachable online (HULU, Netflix, Apple TV…) and the times of terrible quality pirate videos seems to be on its way out. So, no matter if the competition is Youtube or professional content, the truth now is that you can have good movies in HD and even decent popcorn at home.

In this era of the movie theater at home, the film industry needed something to get people back to the cinema, to enhance the experience and add something you can’t have from the comfort of your living room (besides avoiding the costs, the queues, the car ride, the parking…), and they decided it would be 3D.

After a year where the motto seemed to be you just need to make it 3D to make it a success, it looks like theaters won’t be able to hold the exclusive on 3D for as long as they would like. 3DTVs and cameras keep coming onto the market, PS3 and XBOX360 support 3D, and the Nintendo 3DS is coming out soon, with a 3D screen that doesn’t need glasses. Nevertheless, the evolution seems a little slower for the screens we spend more time on, that are our main window to the online world: phones and computers.
But, is it just a matter of time until we replace all screens for glasses-less 3D screens? Will we experience real 3D interfaces and websites anytime soon? In my opinion this doesn’t seem likely. As for online video, things are different.

Over a year ago YouTube quietly added 3D support. No big Apple-style announcement, just a new feature developed out of the endlessly productive 20% time free that all google engineers have to work on the projects that they’re passionate about (same 20% that gave birth to Gmail and Orkut). The solution, simple and elegant, has been evolving all these months, and allows you to select the 3D technology you’re using (different kinds of glasses, 3DTV or none at all to see both 2D views next to each other). Some of the other biggest online video sites like Vimeo also supports 3D.

This just shows how online video doesn’t necessarily stay in the “amateur hours” of Youtube and the artsy clips of Vimeo, but keeps and eye on the industry, not forgetting about 3D and the growing community of 3D creators that work and share their expertise online.

Interestingly, in a time when 3D is the big hype, it has been growing quietly in the guts of online video, and although most users don’t seem to notice it now (only about 5000 3D videos on Youtube!), the structure is being built so it will be ready and available when 3D screens invade the computer market.

If that finally happens (and according to the current industry tendency, it seems inevitable), Hollywood will have to find a new way to get people to theaters. Maybe they should try making good movies, that always worked.