Stereoscopic 3D comes home

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Stereoscopic 3D phenomenon is not just a fad anymore. Stereoscopic theatre display may have come and gone at least two times in the past but with today's combination of digital technology, Hollywood's long-term investment goals, and theatre owners' need to pull viewers out of their family rooms, 3D is here to stay.

3D screens are opening every month in theaters across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Even more are popping up in places like China. In my view, the format could spread faster in the developing world than elsewhere because there is less theater infrastructure in these areas to replace.

In the current wave of theatrical 3D, two outstanding technologies are competing for marketplace dominance, namely Real-D and Dolby. In an interesting example of the law of unintended consequences, the film industry has benefited from sophisticated and expensive research conducted for the military and NASA, who have been perfecting 3D technology in flight simulators and satellite image assessment.

Even pharmaceutical companies use 3D to visualise and modify chemical compounds. The result of this research is more comfortable 3D glasses for viewers and a better understanding of the ergonomics, physiological and psychological aspects reducing earlier complaints of eye fatigue and headaches.

Circular treatments for the projector lens and glasses have been deployed in place of the old-fashioned variety that had either horizontal or vertical anaglyphic and polarization. Computer gaming has already embraced the stereoscopic world.

Stereoscopic production comes in four genres: CGI, live-action, 2D converted to 3D or a combination of all of the above. No matter which method is used, the post-production pipeline is becoming more complex - a fact that is demonstrated by the lengthy post-production schedule for director James Cameron's 3D movie, Avatar.

The main reason for the longer post-production schedule is that stereoscopic content comprises two distinct eye-streams - left and right. From the editorial and VFX standpoint, this means two times the work! Among the questions 3-D has posed for post-production is how to deal with the two streams of content that have identical timecodes in order to remain synchronised. An offset or other scheme must be created to ensure the left and right eye streams remain related. Thus far, each project seems to have its own unique solution. In fact, stereoscopic tools, protocols, and workflows are still being constantly invented - which reflects the evolving nature of this new 3-D centric post-production era.

Stereoscopic colour grading takes advantage of the fact that we use two eyes subconsciously to perceive depth, distance, and size of objects in our field of view. Most people have a dominant or primary eye, which is relied upon for precise positional information (such as distance).

Thus, the first step in colour grading stereoscopic content is for a colourist to perform a two-dimensional grade on the video stream seen by the primary eye - a determination that is made when the project is shot. Grading the left or right eye streams independently enables the intraocular distance to be tweaked or a camera's angle or position to be adjusted as necessary during post-production. Ideally, these adjustments should be made in-context and in real time during a grading session.

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