Do you have any clue what real 3-D is? Generally, when you look at a TV screen or computer monitor or movie screen, the images you see are in 2-D. You see the height and the width. Look around the room you’re in and you see height, width, and depth. True 3-D is actually seeing the depth, not just imagining it based on familiar reference points.

So get this straight: Roger Rabbit was not in 3-D. He was a flat cartoon with shading and cartoon shadows in a 2-D movie. When Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer rescued all those Misfit Toys and converted the Bumble to Catholicism, they may have been 3-D puppets in the film studio just like any other actor or prop, but the show you saw was in 2-D. Buzz Lightyear is 2-D. WALL-E, 2-D. Got it?

Now, if you’ve ever put on a pair of funny glasses to see images seemingly pop off the screen at you, that’s 3-D. Not quite as real as actually being there, but it’s the only artificial means that comes close. The effect is the result of each eye seeing the same thing from a slightly different angle, as they do in real life. Your right eye sees a little more around the right sides of objects, and the left eye sees around the left sides. Seen together, your brain comes up with the perception of depth.

These two vantage points are called a stereo pair. You can look at stereo views of the Civil War and of President Lincoln and feel like you’re actually on the battlefields or in the same room as Obama’s hero. In the 1950’s, the Creature from the Black Lagoon lunged out of the movie screen toward you. Today’s IMAX Theaters run many startling high-definition Polarized 3-D films.

The following 3-D image of Abraham Lincoln was shot by Lewis Emory Walker in 1865, just weeks before Lincoln was shot a final time by John Wilkes Booth. I have formatted it here to view in cross-eyed freeview style; sit back from the screen, cross your eyes to merge the images, and then focus to clarity.

Abraham Lincoln, 1865

Okay – I’ll fast-forward over any more technical stuff and get right to my point, so as not to hurt your brain or challenge your attention span. I always enjoy creating 3-D images from non-3-D sources. It’s possible under the right circumstances. Let me show you a couple I just put together today. They are both from “The Wizard of Oz,” released in 1939. That’s Dorothy singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to her dog, and the color shot is the beginning of the Yellow Brick Road in Munchkinland.

This is not a 3-D movie, but I took two snapshots of each scene, spaced less than one second apart from each other. When cross-eye freeviewed, you’ll see these images in 3-D for the very first time in history.

Click on any pair above to see a larger version. I’ve done the same with movies like “Gone With the Wind,” “Citizen Kane,” and more recently with “The Matrix” series. But I prefer making 3-D views from the old movies, opening hidden doors in order to step into the past.

Do you have any manufactured 3-D scenes of your own to share?

Hodgepodge Grumblebeak.

• These Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Captions Ever see a picture and immediately think of a funny caption for it? Then go straight to CaptionThis.com and strut your stuff. You can create an account for free and...
• Avatar Pre-Review No, I haven't seen "Avatar" yet. Some of us had other things to do the weeks of Christmas and New Years. But I'm going on Wednesday. IMAX screen, 3-D, 11...
• Almost Being There: Shake-n-Fake 3-D This is a follow-up to last week's explanation of true 3-D images versus the 2-D that are called "3-D" by charlatans and the uneducated. (See Being There: Revisiting the Past...

• Apple tablet... Cool but this is cooler... (if real) Two still mythical tablet devices, the Microsoft Courier and the Apple Tablet, are probably the hottest and most coveted devices that do not yet officially exist. To further fuel the anticipatory gadget...
• Average eyes (or not) Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still. ... Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the...
• DSLR Canon Camera EOS 550D - In-depth review [/caption] Review based on a productionDSLR Canon Camera EOS 550D, firmware version 1.0.6 The DSLR Canon Camera EOS 550D is a difficult product to categorize. Ostensibly designed to appeal to...