goldfndr's Journal: Simple 2-D to 3-D?

Earlier I had a dream. I was with my older sister and her husband, they were owners of some sort of art gallery/store; a customer was interested in getting something from overseas, and I said I hoped they had a legal agreement in which a return wasn't possible (like midnightbox.com has). Later, I was listening to the first part of a Family Guy episode, like the season premiere (opening theme not at start). I was driving from my parents' house. I stopped my Buick Wildcat at the Hochmann's and hoped other vehicles coming SE through the intersections wouldn't hit me. About three went around me. Five bicyclists approached, spread across the street, and the one who would've hit me instead did a flying summersault; I didn't check to see if the rider landed okay. I drove on, and nearly exited Brettonwood. Someone it was playing on the street, with colored chalk showing the animation. I exited and entered the apartment complex across. Now I was able to watch it closely and somehow TiVo it to the beginning. Somehow it was in 3-D; it started with objects bombarding Peter, and him not noticing, but his face was nearly a hemisphere. It had a strong resemblance to claymation.

So, ignoring that my sister doesn't have an art gallery, I rarely go to my parents' house, there's no SE approach where the Hochmanns used to live, I sold the Wildcat and bought a Honda Element a couple years ago, and bicyclists don't fly, why am I posting this to Slashdot? I pondered how to automate 2-D to claymation conversion, and settled on a potential technique.

1. Create a perspective drawing, perhaps even coloring it (obviously with a limited palette). Use only right angles (so triangular items would be square).
2. Use a computer program to convert to 3-D and control a clay-carving process. Any curves would become partially spherical.
3. Remove more clay for triangular objects as needed.
4. Use resulting clay layout within the motion picture.

Admittedly, this was a very limited motion picture; it was like clay on top of paper, like Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer video, so more 2-D than 3-D, but still visually appealing.

I don't know how useful this idea is, but I thought I'd get it out there. I'm sure I'll laugh at it once I'm a bit more awake.