Now that Avatar is officially the highest grossing movie of all time, it’s inevitable that studios will continue to push 3D as the new frontier of cinema. But actually filming in 3D is prohibitively expensive. Here’s how they fake it.
Not many directors share James Cameron’s obsession with three dimensional authenticity, and not many films have the budgets to support the directors who do. Filming in 3D involves requires the use of two cameras, barely offset, capturing all the action in tandem. The technology involved, and the people who know how to use it, come with a high price tag. So most of the 3D movies that will be coming out of Hollywood in coming months, including the two new Harry Potter films as well as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, create the effect in post-production.
Here’s the gist of it: graphic artists separate shots out into layers of depth, which can number anywhere from two layers for shots with simple shots to eight for shots with more complex compositions. Then, the objects in each layer are carefully traced, creating a topographical map of the scene. Here, the computer steps in, simulating the second camera’s perspective by generating another, slightly offset image. The images in the layers closest to the viewer are offset the most, creating the illusion of things popping off the screen, while the background is only offset slightly.
The more complicated the shot, the more work must be done by hand. With Tim Burton’s detailed worlds, you can bet that a whole team of artists were doing a whole lot of tracing. To read about the process in more detail, head over to Slate. [Slate]
adelaide dancing
February 1, 2010 at 1:51 PM
i’m excited about this 3d revolution although i’m expecting that a lot of duds will be released over the next few years also!
Report Permalinkboc
February 1, 2010 at 4:30 PM
I still don’t think it’s good enough yet. I’ve watched a few movies in 3D already and the biggest problem besides the glasses not sitting on my face well is that if I move my head around some 3D scenes become heavily distorted.
This needs to be fixed unless they expect us to have our heads locked in place for 1-2 hours.
Report PermalinkGraham
February 1, 2010 at 10:00 PM
this is not meant to happen with lenses that use the clockwise/anticlockwise polarisation method (RealD). Perhaps you were watching a movie that used an older polarised method with vertical/horizontal polarised glasses in which case the image can change as you tilt your head left and right?
Report PermalinkPete
April 11, 2011 at 12:47 PM
Ok,Turning your head when watching a movie results in missing the plot specially when it comes to sucking on your beer. To be frank I have watched just about every movie that has come out on blue ray in 3D format some are better than others with the 3D effect, take for instance my wife (any offers)(; she has trouble seeing 3D on TV, cant see it at all with the colored lenses, now testament to the best 3d movie effects go to Resident Evil Afterlife which had her trying to duck objects flying out of the screen. I can’t wait for Avitar to come out in 3d once Panasonic have finished their claim on it, I wonder how good that will be.
Report PermalinkBOC don’t tilt your head and try blue tac to hold the glasses on or buy a Samsung their glasses fit well. Cheers and enjoy 3d for what it is as it may get loads better if OLED tv’s ever come out as a large screen.