Basejumper.com - archive

Heres my set up for creating a BASE jumping 3D film, wont be ready for a couple more years though!

How are your cameras adjusted for the shifting focal point.
Making a setup that has the spacing adjustable, and the cameras able to focus on the same point in the distance is manditory for good 3D. Paralel cameras tend to only work okay-ish.

are you going to put a vertical polarizing lens on one and a horizontal lens on the other? When you compile the video, it would be camera 1 frame, camera 2 frame, camera 1 frame, camera 2 frame, etc... Just need the rep rate to be high enough not to perceivable... Should work fine.

Only done 2 jumps with it, and the 3D effect works great using PC8s and the red and blue glasses, only recently upgraded to HD and used it for the first time at the weekend, not played with the footage yet, the cameras are currently placed 4.5" apart, although i will decrease that at some point.

heres my test footage, inside the plane footage clearly shows my cams are too far apart but outside the depth really shows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un4U9ZyiNOg

Oh dear...I really do need to learn more about digital 3D dont i?!

Sorry mods, we've gone completely off topic here, feel free to move all this elsewhere!

this looks like a potentially interesting topic to many. it would be a shame to lose track of it in the other thread.

I love innovation. Good luck!

The cameras should always share the same focal point. And the depth of the scene determines the spacing of the camera.

If your subject is within 1 to 5 meters. Cameras can be practicaly touhcing. If your subject is 100 meters away, the cameras need to be half a meter apart, to retain depth in your scene.

The focal point (zoom in, and lock both cameras on the same subject) should be the nearest point in your scene.

Idealy your setup allows for adjustable spacing, and you record various jumps with a set distance/focus. And mix those in editing to go from close to far.

The high end cameras used for films such as avatar adjust the spacing of the cameras and aim of the lens on the fly. Some pretty cool YouTube videos showcase that 'slightly more expensive' solution.

If you have questions, dont hesitate to ask (this stuff is part of my dayjob doing VFX and 3D animation)

rather than avatar quality, i wonder how it could in slightly acceptable way. so, are wide angle lenses out of the question?

Thats only the projection method. During shooting, all you need is two cameras, and proper allignment.

Projection can be anything from Anaglyph, dual projectors and polarized lenses. Or (more affordable) a 3D monitor and shutter glasses.


No it doesnt...
As you need a monitor capable of showcasing 120hz, and glasses that are synched to the monitor.
The alternating left/righ eye is done by the player, and all you need to do is supply a videostream in stereo.

The most common formats are 2 seperate left/right videos, and (which is the 'tv' standard for 3D) a normal 1920x1080P signal, with the left/righ eye allongside eachother (each eye gets 960x1080 resolution) or above eachother (each eye gets 1920x540 resolution), or an interleaved method, putting left/right on even/uneven lines (similar to normal interlacing on video).

For those looking for a cheap 'real' 3D setup for home, Nvidia makes a great set of 3D (shutter) glasses, with infrared syncing with your monitor (which should be 120hz capable).

Wide angle lenses, as long as they match, are possible. Though extreme lenses tend to cause footage to not allign properly on the sides. So its usually common to resort to smaller angles (0.6 or no wide-angle lens)

why do the cameras have to be separated more for a focal point farther away? I mean, our eyes are fixed and we can sense 3D.

Because otherwise (like your eyes) you loose a sense of depth, as things get further away from the camera..

http://gizmodo.com/...t-camera-of-the-year

There are several similar cameras available, but as you can read in most reviews, the 3D effect falls 'flat' when objects are to far from the set range of the camera, due to the fixed lens spacing.

so is the 3d experienced in the film with a large camera separation more 3d than that experienced with the eyes?

its not about 'better/different' than what our eyes do. Its about maximizing the depth available in your field of view.

Imagine you get the best depth experience in the area 1 to 10 ft in front of your eyes. Beyond that region, you loose depth perception, and things only look 'far' away. But no longer really have a true sense of depth (its easier to judge is something is 1 to 10 ft away, than judging if something is 500 to 510 ft away)

By varying the distance between the lenses, you can effectivly 'scale' the scene (the virtual 'head' the cameras are attached to, grows). Thus making the 1 to 10ft in front of the eyes thats 'in focus' and showing maximum depth perception, suddenly go to 6ft to 100 ft of depth. So things to close to the camera dont work anymore, but for bigger scenery, or imagery further away, it creates the depth across the whole scene.

Combined with the camera spacing, the lenses also focus on the subject. Similar to the eyes.
Something to close (outside the focal range) will make you look cross-eyed.

Take a look at this video, for the more expensive setups. But the same concept.
The ones we normaly use have a dual setup. One for close up shooting (1 to 10 ft) and one thats wider appart (30 cm or so) for stuff further away.

Its possible to shoot with one setup, but its just a matter of experimenting with the range that one gives you. Idealy your setup allows for two (near/far) setups, so you can do a 'close up' shoot on one jump. And a 'far away' shoot on the next one. So you have a nice range for editing.

The cameras should always converge towards the same center-point. So for the tandem-example you showed, that one would probably be 3 ft away or so.

There is also a lot of post processing you can do with your footage, to alter the focal point. But thats another 10 posts or so...

When working fully in the virtual realm its a lot easier (though using the same principles).
And there are also some ways of creating 3D in post, deriving it from left to righ/right to left motion in source footage.
An example of that one can be seen here (the wingsuit footage in the 2nd half was shot with only one camera, and post processed to create a faux 3D effect, the rest is 3D animation on photos etc.)

GoPro in 3D...

In the near future GoPro will be releasing a new waterproof housing that will fit 2 HD GoPros side by side as well as an included sync cable and software.

I've seen the 3D footage they've already been producing for test footage and it is very slick. I believe if you already have two GoPros you can just purchase the 3D expansion pack, or buy everything at once.

Heres a link I found that has some photos and info:

http://www.bustedknucklefilms.com/news/gopro3d/

Can't really contribute to the technical talk from above, but I can say the GoPro system I've seen seems pretty simple and should be a cool option once they start selling.

 
Also, 3d video I have seen from GoPro was played on a 3d tv so the colors were normal and not the weird red/blue that the sample video shows.

guess thats just another option for how to play the footy....

Thats just playback method.
If you have the correct hardware you can use normal (shutter or polarized) glasses. For a normal home monitor, the anaglyph (colored glasses) are the only means of presenting.

But of course, the source material can be shown/viewed with any mothod when shot in 3D.

if 3d video becomes common for base footage, i'll never leave home to make a base jump because i'll be sitting watching my 3d tv.

Just got back from Swiss, I'll post my 3D clip within the next couple of weeks

This is what you really need...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...50_3D_Camcorder.html

Sorta..for the price of 4 normal HD cameras, and a fixed lens setting that only gives you a depth range quite near to the camera...Id skip it..

Many thx for your explanation, but i really doubt that the most persons understand the requirements and limits in base and skydiving, but aside from this, 3d is very cool, if the right man work with it.