rs ANIMATION SECIVRES CONTENTS - Kidscreen

3D
STEREOSCOPIC
By Kate Calder
3D’s NEW
DIMENSION
While the small screen is
currently the target for
consumer electronics makers
pushing 3D-enabled products,
it may be even smaller screens
like 3D tablets and phones
that gives the production of
3D stereoscopic kids content
the boost that producers and
service houses working in the
space are banking on
Three years ago, James Cameron’s Avatar ushered in a new
era of 3D stereoscopic entertainment. The fi lm wove a new
technology into the storytelling and grossed more than
US$2.7 billion worldwide. It also kicked off a mass upgrade
to 3D screens in movie theaters around the globe, with 3Denabled
screens jumping from approximately 12,000 in 2009
to almost 42,000 this year, according to media research fi rm
IHS Screen Digest.
“As the big screens have converted, the demand for 3D
content has started to draw content towards it,” says Michele
Martell, COO at L.A.-based 3D live-action and animation house
SD Entertainment. TV manufacturers are also rolling out better,
cheaper 3D-capable sets (Screen Digest predicts 43 million
3D TV sets will be sold worldwide by year’s end) and glassesfree,
auto-stereographic sets are only a few years away from
reaching the mass market. In the meantime, 3D products from
personal GoPro cams to tablets and smart phones are starting
to fl ood retail shelves. Screen Digest reports that consumer
spending on 3D products across all categories will hit US$338
billion this year. “The momentum in entertainment is in these
other devices,” says Martell. “It starts the vocabulary and the
visual sensibility for people.”
3D
STEREOSCOPIC
Service house Tiny Island’s Dream Defenders now airs on US 3D channel 3net
KIDSCREEN’S ANIMATION SERVICES ISSUE 2012
9