Anaglyph (Three-Dimensional) Web Design: The Next Big Thing?

posted on 29th September 2010 by Callum Chapman with the tags: "3D", "Anaglyph", "Web Design" .

Over the past few months I have been stumbling upon a few sites that have been using anaglyph images to create a three-dimensional effect on their websites. Anaglyph, for those that don’t know, are the images with red and cyan in them which require red and cyan glasses to be able to see them in the manner which they were created to be seen.

Obviously, most people don’t just have 3D glasses laying around when browsing the WWW – so is this just a mimic and a bit of fun? This post showcases a few examples of anaglyph web design which are well worth checking out.

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My personal opinion is that this is pretty cool. I’m not a fan of anaglyph three-dimensional movies (or even the new IMAX ones for that matter), but when it comes to static images I think the anaglyph 3D effect is great fun – such as books and websites. The best thing about it, is that you don’t actually need the red and cyan glasses to be able to view the website, yet these sites still manage to look pretty great!

Although anaglyph images on websites are becoming more popular as the IMAX 3D movie scene is getting bigger and bigger, they are still hard to come by. Do you know of any anaglyphic web designs? If so, please share them with us and our readers in the comments at the bottom of this post. So what do you think of anaglyph web design? A good or bad thing? Could it be the next big thing?

Bubblewood

Bubblewood uses anaglyph images on just a sub-section of their site – called “Concept Store – Put Your Glasses On!” – which allows you to look at one of their concept stores in a groovy three-dimensional effect, keeping in mind you have a pair of anaglyph glasses laying around! As I previously mentioned though, even without any glasses the anaglyph images give the site an awesome retro look.

Snowdin

Snowdin is a lovely Flash-based site that crosses anaglyph images with normal images to create an awesome interface. Being built in Flash, the site has some lovely animations that only add to the three-dimensional experience if you have glasses but still looks good without them!

Plants and Animals

Plants and Animals (a Canadian band) use anaglyph images to make their background image really pop out from the screen, and to be totally honest, you don’t really need glasses at all to make it work, especially as the background image moves around when hovering your cursor in different areas.

Anaglyph Resources

a small hand-picked selection of resources

If you want to be inspired by more anaglyph images that produce interesting three-dimensional effects, check out the following:

• Tutorial: Create An Awesome 3D Anaglyph Poster (Psdtuts+ Plus/Premium)
• Glasses: 3D Glasses – Red and Blue
• Book: Moon (3D)

We want to be able to grow the above list of resources – do you have an awesome anaglyph 3D book, or a tutorial you think is worthy of a place there? Link us up in the comments and we’ll add it!

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