How to create real 3D stereoscopic images?

 (by Jean-Sebastien Perron)

Left Eye / Right Eye

Center Eye??

When do you need this technique?

-You are tired of the flat world presented to you on tv, theaters and papers

-You are a big fan of IMAX 3D

What is not covered here

-When you have all the needed images

-You will need a free software for creating the final Anaglyph images (red/blue for black and white 3D images and magenta/cyan for color 3D images)

-These software are very simple to use and they are free : search them on the web.

-I use "Stereo Movie Maker" and it's excellent

-You need to load the left video and the right video and chose the output options

-Take a look at the "Stereoscopic church video" in my Movies section

-You need to buy a pair of glass or a "special viewer" for side by side images

-Maybe you are lucky enough to have a double projector with polarized glasses

-In Realsoft there is many ways to set and edit parameters to many objects at the same time

-For clarity I won't cover these features here

So how do we rig the camera to generate the left and the right eye view?

-Create 3 camera in the top view

-Place them side by side separated by a certain space between (normally this should match the human eye)

-Rename them "LeftEye", "MiddleEye", "RightEye"

-Rotate the left and right  camera so they point in the middle of the center camera

-Create a sphere at the center of of the lookat of the 3 cameras

-Make that sphere invisible in the final rendering

-Rename that sphere "Target"

-Put all the cameras and the target in a level and name it "MyCamera"

-From now on you will only move the cameras by moving the "MyCamera"

-You will animate the camera by animating the "MyCamera" never move the individual cameras

-Now we need to make the 3 cameras track (look at) the target sphere

-Select the "LeftEye' and the "Target" and Select "Map" in the "Lattice Mapping" tab

-Select the mode to "Look At point'

-Do the same with "RightEye" and "Target"

-It is not needed for the "MiddleEye"

-Now we need some adjustement

-In the "Map" tab of the "LeftEye" and "RightEye"

-Make sure that only the "Rotate" is selected

-It is needed that the left and right eye point at the same place

-Like your eyes do in real life (the one you had before using Realsfot)

-It may work otherwise but in some case it will be very uncomfortable or the 3D effect may be reduced or exaggerated

-Now move the "Target" away parallel to the "MiddleEye"

-Never move the "Target" left or right only in straight line away or closer to the "MiddleEye"

-The "LeftEye" and "RightEye" should always look at the "Target"

-Now the sad part

-The only way to know if the "Target" is close enough or too far is to test it

-You may also have to play with different distance between the eyes

-Don't animate the distance between the eyes

-You may animate the "Target" distance

Workflow

-Now the setup is complete

-Now you can animate your camera by using the "MyCamera" only not the cameras themselves

-You select witch camera to render or see in the preview window by selecting the "Eye" and then setting it to "Current"

-It is with the "MiddleEye" that you should work with

-You should always look trough it, animate by looking from it's point of view

-The "LefEye" and "RightEye" are only used for rendering the final image

Rendering

-Render the video or the images from the "LeftEye" then from the "RightEye"

-Load them in any "anaglyph maker" software

-Enjoy

In my dream

-It is possible to create a "Poste Image Effect" directly in Realsoft that would create an anaglyph image from 2 other images (layer)

-I just don't remeber the formula for anaglyph

-And I am not a "power user"