Dealing with converting interlaced stersoscopic 3D video to 2D

[David Bogie]

Yeah, doctors. Your client is nuts but there may be no way to cope with their ridiculous expectations.
He gave you a file that consists of about 500 lines of pixels. He tells you to throw away 250 lines and then tells you the resolution isn’t as good as he expected. Obtain the footage form one of the cameras? But, knowing doctors, they didn’t to record all three versions (left right and combined).

IN AE, there is a filter that will interpolate the fields and attempt to build new lines that are a combination of both. It’s not designed to combine fields that from different interocular positons, though. As an object’s distance from the eyes (cameras) increases, the horizontal displacement of the vertical lines increases. Attempting to blend these results in terrible blurring.

But you can then attempt to sharpen the image.

I jut drew some pictures on a napkin. This might work. Lots of work. How much can you charge this guy? You COULD attempt to alter the horizontal positioning of the two fields with a displacement-scale filter. This is a grayscale image that would shift pixels right or left, proportional to the luma of the grayscale. You would create the grayscale based on the maximum distance from the camera of any single object.

This will result is some mild distortion of the image, can’t be helped.

sorry to ramble. That’s how I’d approach it, displacement filters applied to two separate field extractions and then field blended.

God god, I hope someone else has a more practical suggestion!

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Matt Hall]

Interesting idea, using displacement to combine the two angles. Definitely more than i want to do and more than they payed for. I think the difference between the two cameras is too dramatic.

I did bring a test file into after effects and let AE do the deinterlacing instead of final cut. got a better looking image that way. Not perfect, but better looking. I think there really is no way to accomplish what he’s asking for, it had to have been recorded that way. Only thing I’m curious about and want to explore is maybe some hardware solution? Are there boxes that duplicate fields and can give me better result than AE?

Really appreciate the feedback.

Matt Hall
Director, Digital Post
CCG MetaMedia, Inc.

[Chris Morris]

Wouldnt Twixor be able to grab every other field and interpolate them into one frame? You’d still be losing half your lines, but it might do a better job of bringing them together.

Chris