The Dimensionalists

Highlights from The International 3D Society’s recent panel on 2D to 3D Conversion featuring Matt Dejohn VP/VFX Producer at In-Three.

By Ron Henson

Sony Pictures, located in Culver City on the West Side of Los Angeles, was the epicenter of a gathering of entertainment industry leaders in the field of 3D imaging and 2D to 3D conversion on June 17, 2010. The event was hosted by the International 3D Society and took place at the Ince Theater on the Sony Pictures lot. Jim Chabin, President of the 3D Society, took the podium and welcomed the participants. We were introduced to the distinguished panel of speakers. Lenny Lipton, Vice Chair of the 3D Society and President of Oculus 3D moderated the panel and pointed out that most of the folks present have a stake in the conversion business.

For the full article, visit Examiner.com

International 3D Society Announce 2D to 3D Conversion Panel June 17
The International 3D Society in association with the Visual Effects Society will present the 2D to 3D Conversion Panel on June 17 from 6-9 p.m. at Sony Pictures Imageworks. The panel will focus on the latest 2D to 3D conversion technology and processes. The presentation will include a blue-ribbon panel of 3D innovators discussing the pros and cons of converting 2D motion pictures to be shown in 3D theaters. The seminar is offered free to members of the Society as part of its regular series of educational programs. Read more »

Matthew DeJohn, VFX Producer at In-Three, shares the good, the bad and the ugly of 3D filmmaking in the Digital Cinema Report.

With the flood of 3D content coming, no fewer than 25 films this year, it is important to understand how to critique 3D technically and artistically. What does good and bad 3D look like? What causes 3D to be bad or good?

Hopefully with all this ammunition you can not only say if a 3D movie had good or bad 3D, but you can also explain where it went wrong or right. We should all hold this new industry to a high level of technical and artistic quality.

Read the full article here.

Hopefully with all this ammunition you can not only say if a 3D movie had good or bad 3D, but you can also explain where it went wrong or right. We should all hold this new industry to a high level of technical and artistic quality.

Neil Feldman explains the artistic freedom that is available when using the Dimensionalization® process versus other methods of stereoscopic 3D content creation. He also reveals that the original intent for the technology was legacy films, and discusses how that has changed. In-Three is featured in the latest issue of Creative Cow Magazine.

Whether through shooting, CG, or post-production Dimensionalizing, we can all participate in constructing 3D content. By understanding what our strengths and weaknesses are, we can construct 3D content together, and work together to achieve the highest quality at the lowest cost, and the fastest pace.

Read the full featured article here.

There is some ambiguity in the use of terms that describe processes used in the post production of 3D content.

(Parallax) Comfort Zone: This represents the amount of parallax (left/right image separation on a screen) that is acceptable to most people. In a typical movie theater, the comfort zone ranges from about -10 inches of parallax to 2.5 inches for a total parallax span of 12.5 inches. Elements with -10 inches of parallax cause viewers’ eyes to converge at 20% of the way from them to the screen. That is, the perceived depth is 20%. Elements with a 2.5 inch parallax cause viewers’ axes of vision to be parallel; they interpret such objects as being at infinity.

The Parallax Comfort Zone shrinks as a viewer sits closer to the screen. If one were to approach to within 10 feet of a theater screen those images with a parallax span of 12.5 inches would become extremely difficult to watch. (Objects close to a viewer cause the brain, with increasing urgency, to direct focusing and converging muscles to the same spot in space. Because of the Fundamental Discrepancy the two sets of muscles cannot matched.)

The screens people sit close to are TVs and computer consoles. Our tests at In-Three with 3D material tested on 60 inch TVs indicate that the Comfort Zone for the typical distance viewers sit from a TV is about -1 inch to +1 inch. Images with such a parallax span will appear to range from about 70% to 165% of the screen distance.

Important note: Children’s interpupillary distances are narrower than adults’. The 3D they see is more aggressive than that an adult sees. As a result the Comfort Zone for children is always narrower that for adults and that difference must be taken into consideration when creating family fare.

Depth Matching: Depth Matching means adjusting shot to shot parallax (Stereo Distance) so that the viewer’s eyes are not forced to change convergence too rapidly. To Depth Match, the stereographer matches the Stereo Distance of objects of dramatic interest in successive shots. Depth Matching eliminates the Dash Board Effect.

Ramping is one technique for Depth Matching. Another is Registering a whole shot’s depth so the objects of dramatic interest in adjacent shots are near the same Stereo Distance. A third is Depth Grading the objects that need depth
adjustment.

Convergence and Focus: These two terms are important to understanding how 3D works. Convergence describes the angle of the eyes’ axes of vision. For example, at infinity, the eyes’ axes of vision are parallel and about 2.5 inches apart (i.e., the average adult “interpupillary distance”).

Focus, on the other hand describes how the eyes are shaped so as to project a sharp image onto the retina.

Separate sets of focusing and converging muscles send depth cues to the brain. Therefore in viewing 3D one faces a Fundamental Disparity. It involves the fact that the eyes are always focused on the screen, but they converge wherever parallax causes them to track. For most people it is convergence that determines the depth perceived not focus. However, a small percent of the population is
sensitive to these conflicting depth cues.

Dash Board Effect: The Dash Board Effect describes the difficulty of reconverging one’s eyes as Stereo Distance changes rapidly. You can experience this difficult transition while driving by looking back and forth from your dashboard to the horizon. It takes time for the eye’s focus and convergence to settle in. Similarly, cuts between shots that cause rapid reconvergence are difficult for an audience to watch. (See “Hunting Time”.)