2D to 3D Video conversion
by Rani Korkise
on
Aug 17, 2009 at 9:25:47 am
Hello everyone.
I've been looking everywhere for a method that will allow me to convert our normal 2d wedding videos to stereoscopic. So far I think the best viewing method would be the anaglyph so the clients can view them in any screen.
Our video will be shot in normal 2d, on a tight budget when it comes to special 3d rigs etc. So a way of conversion (although no where as good) would be great.
Any suggestions or methods you know of would be greately apreciated.
This would no doubt be a great new thing for our company.
Re: 2D to 3D Video conversion by Mick Middleton on Aug 17, 2009 at 8:03:31 pm
Hi Rani,
Sorry to be blunt, but a 3D rig, or stereo-cameras is going to be your best option for now.
There is no convenient or easy fix for converting 2D video to stereo. The reason for this is that you have to generate data that doesn't exist, the small amount of the frame the is different to the second camera. It's possible to paint this in by hand, but it's never easy and very time consuming, frame by frame work, and much more work than setting up a 3D rig.
JVC demoed an interesting unit this year at NAB, which is a box that can do "3D conversion" on the fly. The results looked pretty good, but it was a loop of very standard scenic shots, which can be interpreted easily by algorithms in the hardware. The 3D still looks a bit like cardboard cutouts, which is what you should expect from any 2D to 3D conversion.
I would also suggest that we aren't too far away from seeing some consumer camcorders, like the pannasonic mock up at NAB this year, or kind of single lens systems that could be affordable for wedding shoots. One of these is a split mirror system which hangs off your standard DV lens, and reflects another half image onto your CCD, it's poormans 3D and half the resolution. There is also a one piece camcorder on the market that looks like a set of binoculars, and fuji make a new fine pics stills/video camera that is stereo.
Hope this helps, there are also some guys like tridef, or DDD, but they generally keep their software closely guarded in favour of charging for the conversion process, but even still, most shots will require hand work!
Re: 2D to 3D Video conversion by Chris Eller on Aug 19, 2009 at 4:12:57 pm
Great response Mick. I only have one item to add.
Rani, Fujifilm is releasing the FinePix REAL 3D W1 camera soon. It is a dual lens camera that can do stills and video. I'm still researching the output file formats to see how portable they will be as locking into a proprietary system is usually not a great idea.
Re: 2D to 3D Video conversion by Rani Korkise on Aug 20, 2009 at 2:12:39 pm
A big thanks to both of you on your quick and helpful responses!
So in other words guys I should sleep on the idea for now unless I got a big budget to blow if I want reasonable results.
Chris, that thing looks interisting, but how good could the quality possibly be? Its 10 megapixel, I doubt it would be good enough for proffessional use even in terms of video...
Re: 2D to 3D Video conversion by Tim Wilson on Aug 20, 2009 at 6:03:50 pm
[Rani Korkise]"Its 10 megapixel, I doubt it would be good enough for proffessional use even in terms of video..."
Don't forget: a frame of 35mm film is only about SIX megapixels! Roughly 3072x2048, and 3x2=6. There are a lot of factors that go into image quality besides size...but at least for quantity of pixels, 10,000 is plenty.
Re: 2D to 3D Video conversion by Steven Bradford on Aug 22, 2009 at 6:11:59 pm
There was a camera from Toshiba 17 years ago that did pretty decent 3d. Oddly though it was expensive for a home camera, (US$3500) it was only VHS, not S-VHS. Still, it gave nice results for what it was and I did tape my brother's wedding with it.
Steven Bradford
http://www.3dstereomedia.com 3D company I've worked with since 1990
http://www.seanet.com/~bradford/ my personal home page, find my greenscreen page there.
http://www.seattlefilminstitute.com the school I teach at.
