Issue 129 – Toy Stories
Lee Griffin of equipment vendor Eurotek, gives Niall Kitson a practical industry viewpoint on the future of 3D.
Niall Kitson: What software and hardware would you recommend for setting up a stereo editing suite?
Lee Griffin: That’s a very interesting question. We are at the advent of stereo 3D and manufactures are now beginning to implement it into their editing and graphics applications and pipelines.
Firstly, the most widely used 3D mode is still anaglyph. In terms of physical hardware, existing CPUs (central processing units) are currently acceptable for stereo 3D editing. Reviewing the files is a different matter. JVC seems to be pioneering the technology in the professional world. It has just announced a
new monitor – the GD-463D – that uses the Xpol polarising filter method, which moves beyond the standard shutter method to provide a stable, flicker-free visual experience. Whereas the left eye and right eye information switches back and forth on a standard shutter glass display, this always displays left and right images on the screen to offer clean, steady 3D pictures.
In the offline scenario, Avid has announced support for stereo 3D in their latest version of Media Composer (v.3.5). Through their list of third party developers Apple’s Final Cut Pro also supports it with a free beta plug-in [available at http://straylight.tv/pluginz/].
In the 3D world proper, Autodesk seems to dominate this market and is pushing the boundaries with three major packages: 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage.
Stereo 3D lends itself to animation better than live-action due to animators being able to set up a virtual camera rig [i.e. a computer-generated approximation of how a scene would be shot in a live-action production from any angle] so the effect seems much more real.
Maya is used widely in Hollywood. In Ireland, 3ds Max would be the most popular and Autodesk provides a free stereo plug-in for this product.
In the digital intermediate and finishing world, both Assimilate, with their Scratch product, and advanced Autodesk systems such as Flame, Smoke and Lustre – all of which are used by DreamWorks – are ideal platforms to finish stereo workflows.
The full article is printed in Film Ireland 129.
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