L4P.TV | Session 30: L4P Brings you 3D Automotive Videos - AUDI S5 ABT 3D Car Configurator

Here is the latest and the greatest on what the future has instore for us. More and more we are starting to see 3D videos released on youtube and vimeo and now this trend has spread to the automotive world. Here is a short by GreenZero, a company principally specialized to develop 3D contents for any 3D platforms from portable media players to IMAX DOME. GreenZero can handle the whole 3D movie making process - script writing, concept art, animation, shading, rendering, post production, music, sound effects, promotion stuffs etc.

Also here is some info on this process from our friends at 3DFilmFactory: Most of us humans see life in 3D. That’s because we have two separate, distinct eyes that naturally create two, slightly different perspectives. In the brain, this small variance in image perspectives is interpreted as depth and dimension. In the world of 3D filmmaking, we replicate this process by using two cameras. One camera to represent the left eye and a second camera for the right eye. Then we sync, place the cameras on a 3D rig, align and offset the two cameras. We’re then able to film a subject, deriving two images with a slight perspective shift. When these images are overlaid in post, the perspective shift produces the illusion of dimension, or 3D. What’s miraculous about our human eyes is the ease, speed and accuracy at which they’re able to re-focus, converge, and shift from one object to another, delivering a beautiful 3D picture all in under a millisecond. It’s much more difficult to re-create these precise actions in a 3D filmmaking environment. But human eyes, although amazing, do have a few setbacks when it comes to stereo viewing.

Since the distance between our eyes is ‘fixed’ on our faces, as the distance to objects increases or decreases from us, our eyes can’t change their position, or perspective. For example, notice that mountains in the distance appear flat. This is because the perspective shift (distance) between your two eyes is fixed and slight, so that at such distances you see virtually the same image and therefore no discernable dimension. In such an instance, 3D filmmaking has an advantage over human eyes. Filmmakers are able to increase the IO (inter-ocular) distance. In this context IO refers to the distance from the center of one camera lens, or eye, to another. An increase in IO creates a greater shift in the image perspectives and thus accentuates the 3D effect. So when filming mountains at a great distance (miles away) in 3D, your two cameras may be 10-20 feet apart or more, depending on your shooting ratio and/or desired 3D effect. This ability to change the IO is the 3D filmmaker’s primary tool for manipulating dimension – depth and pop. Conversely, pushing two cameras closer together (decreasing the IO), diminishes the perspective shift, thus reducing the 3D effect. Beyond IO manipulation, stereographers (3D experts) can incorporate secondary tools like convergence (tow-in) and image alignment (xyz axis) to achieve a comfortable, eye-catching 3D images that ultimately serve the story. As a side note, when filming mountains in 3D at a distance, typically NO convergence (tow-in) would be used, but rather the cameras would be fixed straight ahead.

About 3D Film Factory
Since 2008 we’ve been the leader in professional, affordable 3D camera rigs and 3D production monitors, as well as a full-service 3D production company that offers 3D rig rental, stereographers ‘for hire’, and 3D post production, as well as, 3D training workshops and seminars. Our veteran stereographers are some of the best in the World and they’ve filmed stereoscopic 3D projects for major clients on almost every continent. Our clients include Disney, ESPN, NASA, Discovery Channel, Honeywell, USC Film School and many others.