Post-it

Lots has happened with project and I can't really put it all in one post, so I'll break it up to have it make more sense.  This post will be a bit more of a tutorial for my post-production workflow, so for those that this does not concern, you may just want to stay tuned for upcoming posts.


When I last left you, I had done a few test using blue/red anaglyph, using a demo of Dashwood's plugin Stereo3D Toolbox. This is a pretty comprehensive 3D post-production tool, and has been recently updated.  They have two versions available, a lite version with a basic toolset at a 99$ price point, and a more pro version with most of what you would need for 3D post-production, but at a 1500$ price point.

 This made it unattainable for me and so I went looking for other solutions.  It turns out that it is very easy, if only a less elegant, to create 3D in Final Cut Pro, or any other NLE.  I start by finding the synch point (clap) on both clips, set and in on both clips, then superimposed them on the timeline.  From there, I would change the Composite Mode for the clip on V2 to "add".  To do this simply right-click on the clip, go to composite mode from the drop down menu, and choose add.

After that, apply a Channel Mixer plugin from FCP, and for the right eye keep only the blue channel active, and for the left channel, keep only the red.  From there, you only have to adjust the convergence of the images, using either the Wireframe or the Basic Motion parameters.

This creates a functional red/blue anaglyph, that may take a bit more tooling than using a preset plugin, but is nonetheless functional and pretty straightforwards.

I have also discovered a much better solution to red/blue anaglyph with ColorCode3D company.  They produce special anaglyph glasses (and some software) that uses blue/amber filters instead of the traditional red/blue.  The main advantage to this system is color.  Most of the chroma information is kept using the ColorCode3D as the combination of blue/amber re-creates most of the color in the original image.  The other advantage is assuming you have tight convergence in your layers, the image can also be viewed in 2D in what amounts to full color.  I used the preceeding method to create a ColorCode compatible anaglyph, creating a yellow/amber left eye instead of a red one.

They sell paper glasses for pretty cheap, and they are also available for free from the NFB.  I also believe that these where given out during the Superbowl to watch 3D commercial in the US, and here in Canada they where given out by the CBC to watch the Queen in 3D... slight cultural difference.