On Friday 22nd of October four of the team dived into the interesting world of Stereoscopic 3D imagery at the ’3D IN YOUR FACE’ Convention in Bradford.
As we start to create more and more TV Adverts this new technology will inevitably become part of our workflow so it was very useful for us to get a detailed overview from some of the leaders in the field. First off we need to clarify that when we refer to 3D we are referring to Stereoscopic 3D [As viewed through glasses] and not CGI. According to one speaker the term 3D was coined in the early 20th Century and adopted by the CGI community when this technology become prolific in the 70s.
So as everyone knows if you’ve been to the cinema in the past year, gone are the days of red and green 80s cardboard specs and in comes the dawn of £100 3D glasses and million pound 3D TVs. Both these technologies were at the event and one unfortunate attendee managed to break a pair to the disappointment of the organisers, nearly ending one of the talks!
The first two speakers Andy Shelley from On Sight and Angus Cameron of Vision 3, both having a wealth of experience, working on films such as Peter Jacksons King Kong, gave an introduction to 3D workflow and pipeline, giving insight into the difficulties involved in the creation, management and post production of live action Stereoscopic footage.
The complexities of traditional 2D live action are multiplied by the fact there are two cameras and two streams of data to manage and produce. At any point in the shoot, differences in the cameras can have repercussions further down in the pipeline, when it gets to post production. Things like differences in lens quality, camera rotation, focal length and lens flares etc can become major problems as any corrections will have to be carried out to both cameras, as any difference can cause buzzing in the final 3D output (Leading to a blinding headache).
Here are the 4 of us below from the official pictures.
Credit: Image courtesy of Screen Yorkshire
After a brief lunch and a mooch around the Kodak gallery, taking in a little history we ventured back into the theatre for the next of the guest speakers, Ben Smith of Red Star Studios.
Red Star Studios is an award winning animation studio, specialising in 4D animation shorts for use in public attractions and theme parks. As well as an exclusive screening of their excellent short animation sleigh ride, Ben discussed how his company had achieved certain shots and explained how the company had overcome certain pitfalls whilst making the animation. We found this talk much easier to relate to, as Red Stars workflow resembled more of our own here at Pikcells.
- Following Red Star, the next guest speaker, Professor of graphics and imaging at the university of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Neil Dodgson, amazed us with an insight into his life’s research in 3D Auto stereoscopic TV, having being involved in the industry for 30 years. Some interesting points covered by Dodgson included, the Anaglyph in 1915 and an overview of the history of stereoscopic 3D development.
Simon Gosling of Framestore discuss the making of James Cameron’s Avatar and demonstrated how they composited certain shots in the film. Discussing also the problems encountered and the technology used to overcome the complexities of 3D stereographic film, especially when combining CGI and live action. This was great to see some behind the scenes information, like discovering that they actually pre-animated the whole film from top to bottom at low quality before doing any of the FX.
- Vicki Betihavas’ company “Nineteen Fifteen” is closely involved in developing content for 3D television. Working mainly with music artist and events, having produced the first live 3D stream for SKY Broadcasting, her company are pioneering in many ways to try and change attitudes towards 3D TV.
Conclusion
Although Stereoscopic 3D isn’t new at all, the 3D of today has evolved to become another tool in the film makers kit but the consensus was, that 3D will never be a substitute for a compelling story, good characters and believable world but merely a tool to enhance the viewing experience. As one speaker put it, Casablanca is a great film even though it doesn’t have 3D, FX, Widescreen or even colour.
