1. CHRIS CHURCHILL
Digital Filmmaking Program, Dept. of Mass Communication &
Theatre, University of Central Arkansas

2. STEREOSCOPIC 3D PRE-
VISUALIZATION, TESTING, AND
ACQUISITION
• Tools
• Pre-Viz
• Testing
• Production

3. KNOWN CHALLENGES
• Rolling shutter/Frame sync
• Interaxial distance
• Ease of use
• Limited Camera control
• focus, monitoring, ect
• Live stereo monitoring system

4. STEREOSCOPIC RIG
side by side Canon t2i

6. STRENGTHS
• Good image
quality
• Low cost
• Light weight/
maneuverable
• Custom
• Better color
fidelity than beam
splitter

7. WEAKNESSES
• Loss of alignment
• Matching focus/exposure between
cameras
• No control over interaxial
distance

8. PRE-PRODUCTION

9. STORYBOARDS
• Student involvement
• Live Action Storyboards -
work through how scenes
would be constructed
• Animatic - apply to 3d space

10. ANIMATIC

11. STEREO TESTS

12. TESTING
• Stereoscopic calculator
• Frame rate and object
speed tests
• Near/Far distance tests
• Green Screen

13. INFORMED STYLISTIC
DECISIONS
• Slower camera and subject movement
• prevent rolling shutter and motion disparities between cameras
• Limited in/out camera movement
• Cuts down on needs for focus pull
• Wide angles
• Combats wider interaxial distance
• Cropping to feel more close up

14. PRODUCTION

15. CAMERA REPORTS
• More information is required
than a 2d shoot
• Lens information
• Near distance
• Far distance
• Expected convergence point
• Camera height
• Crop Factor

16. UNEXPECTED PROBLEMS
• Rig alignment
• Canon’s “flat” setting
• Cumbersome interaxial distance
• Tests
• Inadequate monitoring

17. W. SCOTT MEADOR
Digital Filmmaking Program | Dept. of Mass Communication &
Theatre | University of Central Arkansas

18. STEREOSCOPIC 3D POST
PIPELINE AND VISUAL EFFECTS
INTEGRATION
• File Wrangling
• VFX
• Tools
• Lessons Learned

19. FILE WRANGLING
• Copy and rename T2i files to hard drive (CCC the hard drive overnight)
• Synch in FCP in H.264 (first issue - synch with flash that came after the slate)
• Flip/Flop the Left clip in the Viewer
• Batch export from FCP as ProRes HQ (using new hard drive)
• Import new footage into project
• Edit the Right as a 2D film

20. FILE WRANGLING
• Conform the Left
• Flatten the Right Sequence to Track 1
• Export as XML
• Edit XML file to change Right to Left and Import
• Copy and Paste new Left project into the Right project’s V2
• Check to make sure everything worked
• Export for VFX
• Make all clips Independent and remove any transformations
and/or speed changes
• Re-name each clip and put in new bins (L01, R01)
• Batch Export (keeps new names and clip durations)
• Bash shell script to add “.mov” to the file names

21. VISUAL EFFECTS
• Each shot went into a Google
Spreadsheet
• Virtual Scenery created using Blender
• Moving shots tracked in Syntheyes or
Mocha when needed
• Using campus compute cluster to
render moving scenery
• Each shot went through greenscreen
extraction and character separation
• Pull keyed shots and backgrounds
together

22. VISUAL EFFECTS
• Adding effects to holograms and aliens
• DI
• Depth Grading
• Requires some distorting
• Separate parallax controls for
foreground and background!
• Using anaglyph for first pass
• Stereo projection (polarized) for
second pass
• AE files, footage, backgrounds on shared
storage for artist access
• VFX artists: Scott, Chris, Robert Steed,
and Lyle Arnette

23. POST TOOLS
• Final Cut Pro 7 - Edit and transcoding
• Adobe After Effects CS5 - Compositing, DI, Depth Grading
• Imagineer Sys. Mocha for AE - Planar tracking
• Syntheyes - Camera tracking
• Blender - Virtual Scenery modeling, rendering, and compositing
• Dashwood Stereo3D Toolbox - Ghost busting

24. LESSONS LEARNED
• Works!
• We will have a finished film the meets our expectations - an
experiment...
• Data pipeline worked well
• Virtualscenery allows us to overcome deficiencies in the
camera rig - character separation where needed, background
parallax is separate operation

25. LESSONS LEARNED
• Do all of the pre-production during pre-production (obviously)
• More tests of the whole pipeline (caught the slate error sooner)
• Scene design before animatic
• Totally underestimated the scope of the VFX post (~100 stereo shots!)
• Need to Experience It...
• Everything happens 2X (compositing, rendering, storage)
• Scene design should support the shoot instead of a sketch

26. THE FUTURE
• Build a better camera rig (and get better cameras...)
• 60p (helps overcome lack of genlock - cleaner movement)
• Open Source Pipeline (personal preference)
• Plan for more student involvement in post-production
• Shorter Script!

27. BRUCE HUTCHINSON
Digital Filmmaking Program | Dept. of Mass Communication &
Theatre | University of Central Arkansas

28. CHOOSING STEREO FOR
EUROPA
• Chance to try something new
• Guinea pig for in-house
developed stereo rig and
pipeline
• Short script
• Science fiction

29. ADVANTAGES TO SHOOTING
IN STEREO
• Genre/Science Fiction
• Useof virtual
backgrounds allowing
more control
• Hologram effects
• Novelty

30. DISADVANTAGES TO
SHOOTING IN STEREO
• Genre/Drama
• Clean
visual design (quarantine
room) meant less
opportunities for depth
• Interiors
• Contribution to story

31. PRE-VISUALIZATION
THE STEREO TRAP

32. PRE-VISUALIZATION
THE STEREO TRAP

33. PRE-VISUALIZATION
THE STEREO TRAP
• Camera Movement
• Blocking and Staging
• Balancingdepth compositions
with motivation for character
staging and movement

34. PRODUCTION
CONSIDERATIONS
• Lack of Close-Ups
• Inability to shoot “dirty”
OTS
• Slower movement
• Focus Issues (our rig)
• Convergence and depth
placement

35. THE BIG QUESTION #1
• Why shoot in 3D?
• What does increased
depth add to the
narrative?
• What does increased
depth add stylistically?

36. THE BIG QUESTION #2
• Is stereo “realistic”? Or “more realistic”?
• Boundaries of screen
• Scale distortion
• Lack of viewer movement
• Lack of movement tracking
• Exploration of “non-realistic” uses

37. SIMILARITY TO TECHNICOLOR
• Limited increase in realism
• Use in specific genres
• Increased time and money
• Over time became more
realistic, efficient, and
inexpensive

38. QUESTIONS?