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Good 3D cinematography forums?
It’s still such a relatively niche and cost-prohibitive field which is probably why all the internet forums online seem to be relatively tiny and uninhabited. The ones that I’ve seen at least. I’m looking for how others have built custom rigs or their experiences with monitoring.
My primary objectives right now are to build a 3D rig for GoPros (or bigger cameras) that will allow active toeing-in like eyes angling inwards. Perhaps using some RC gears or whatnot.
Secondary objective is finding out how people even monitor these things! I’d need an HDMI port from each camera into the different halves of an Oculus/Vive or whatnot. Or whether there’s a special kind of monitor that overlays them simultaneously to check for discrepancies. -
6 Replies
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You may have trouble finding one because 3D capture is going away in a lot of cases. Post conversion is becoming more common, and even the theaters are finding that 3D doesn’t drive ticket sales anymore.
That said, look up “convergence,” which is what you’re referring to when you’re talking about toe-in.
This book may be helpful.
3D is a fad, and one that seems to be going away, but it never hurts to understand all the tools available to us as filmmakers.
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Even in the Oculus/VR space? That seems to be picking up if anything.
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Yes, but 360 degree VR video, if that’s what you’re referring to for Oculus, is not shot in stereo. You can’t do it without blocking one angle with part of the camera rig. You might be able to shoot a 180-degree field in stereo that way, I guess, but you’re going to run into big issues anywhere but center-of-frame.
It’s much easier to generate stereo Oculus content with game software, etc, because there is no physical camera–Oculus can render two separate eye views for any viewpoint without an actual two-camera rig getting in the way. But in the real world, VR is shot with a 2D 360-degree camera–two side-by-side 360-degree rigs, shooting stereo, would get in each others’ way at the 90-degree marks.
Is that what you’re getting at? I’m still not quite sure what you want to accomplish, so it would help to have more clarity on that.
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Yes, I am interested in creating 180-degree stereoscopic content
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Fair enough. You may need to resign yourself to, say, 165 degrees, given that at 180, your stereo rigs would still appear in each others’ shots.
Bottom line, I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. I’d suggest building a very simple rig to test the concept before spending any time or money on developing any kind of motorized convergence rig; a pair of GoPros, side by side, would do the trick. The problem will be that your lens distortion in your corners may not be conducive to stereo. But that’s why you’re shooting tests! I know, also, a lot of people will just monitor the left eye on set.
After you figure out whether the footage is usable (and post-production-able) from your rough rig, then you can worry about how to build a fancier on-set monitoring system, and/or an autoconvergence rig. You’ll have other problems to solve, too; GoPros work entirely automatically (unless they’ve made big changes in recent cameras), so you won’t be able to adjust exposure, white balance, shutter speed, etc. to get the cameras to match. That’s a whole other story!
It may seem like I’m just laying out hurdles, but I’m rooting for you! It’s an interesting challenge, and I hope you’ll report back with your findings.
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What you’re really need are two of these badboys.
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