Making "Stereogram"

I have been a fan of Single Image Random Dot Stereogram (SIRDS) images ever since I was first exposed to them. We even own a couple books in the Magic Eye series. So for a few years I have wanted to make my own SIRD. My original idea was that I would make a stereogram of Benjamin and Jeremy. However, it turns out that that is really hard. Making one of these stereograms requires you to be able to design a 3D model of the image that you want to appear. A 3D image of a block or sphere is relatively straightforward; a 3D image of your children is not.

I tried a number of tricks to construct 3D models from photos of Benjamin and Jeremy and eventually decided that

• it was going to be too hard,
• it wouldn't turn out that well, and
• everyone in my extended family would rather get a picture of our children rather than a 3D model of them.

Using the third reason as my primary excuse, I set out to come up with something different.