{"id":228,"date":"2011-02-02T21:20:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-03T04:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/?p=228"},"modified":"2011-02-02T21:20:22","modified_gmt":"2011-02-03T04:20:22","slug":"stereoscopic-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/2011\/02\/02\/stereoscopic-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Stereoscopic Video"},"content":{"rendered":"

3D Movies<\/a> have been all the rage ever since Avatar<\/a> came out and made a ton of money.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“3D” has risen and fallen in popularity multiple times in the past, but it looks like it is here to stay for now.\u00c2\u00a0 The point of no return will be reached when auto-stereoscopic <\/a>(no glasses) displays are widely available at reasonable prices.\u00c2\u00a0 In the meantime, certain sectors of the market will have opportunities to push the limits of the technical envelope with stereoscopic production.
\n
\nStereoscopic video<\/a> is basically just video with separate streams for the left and right eye, and the viewer’s mind interprets the differences between those angles as perceived depth.\u00c2\u00a0 There are three main technical challenges presented by stereoscopic production.<\/p>\n

The first step in the process is to generate and record two separate images of similar but different perspectives.\u00c2\u00a0 This is usually solved with specialized hardware,\u00c2\u00a0by using\u00c2\u00a0rigs to mount two narrow cameras in parallel, or using a beam splitter <\/a>to record two similar perspectives with larger cameras.\u00c2\u00a0 Recently there have also been cameras released that have multiple lenses as an all-in-one option.\u00c2\u00a0 Ideally\u00c2\u00a0both the separation between the lenses and the\u00c2\u00a0angle at which\u00c2\u00a0they converge should be easily controllable, especially for live recording, since those two values have a significant impact on the final stereoscopic effect.\u00c2\u00a0 The other acquisition option for content generation, is to render two separate perspectives of a computer generated 3D<\/a> animation<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 This requires no special hardware, just a few changes to the software and settings, plus a doubling of render time and storage \u00c2\u00a0space.<\/p>\n

Depending on the acquisition approach, there are a number of extra steps in the post process<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Both angles must be\u00c2\u00a0matched together, synced down to the frame, and usually muxed in some fashion.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually they need to be aligned, the convergence needs to be set, and there may be a color shift from the beam splitter that needs to be compensated for.\u00c2\u00a0 Any visual effects will be much more challenging as well.<\/p>\n

Finally there is the issue of displaying separate images to each eye from the viewers perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 This can be achieved with separate miniature screens for each eye, or more frequently, by finding some way to filter out the opposing view from each eye, from the combined image.\u00c2\u00a0 This can be done with color filters<\/a>, polarization<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0alternating shutters<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0or lenticular <\/a>screens, to control the image that each eye sees.\u00c2\u00a0 Ideally there need to be ways for the stereoscopic effect to be previewed immediately on set, examined during the post process in the edit rooms, and delivered to the final target audience.\u00c2\u00a0 This makes display solutions <\/a>the first logical aspect to be examined, even before camera options.\u00c2\u00a0 The basic\u00c2\u00a0ideas behind many of these viewing options will be discussed in the next post.\u00c2\u00a0 Following that, we will examine some of the other practical ramifications imposed on the post-production process by stereoscopic projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3D Movies have been all the rage ever since Avatar came out and made a ton of money.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“3D” has risen and fallen in popularity multiple times in the past, but it looks like it is here to stay for now.\u00c2\u00a0 The point of no return will be reached when auto-stereoscopic (no glasses) displays are widely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[42],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hd4pc.com\/techblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}