The 3D Experiment
The GoPro 3D!
A few weeks ago as I was sitting at my desk, a gchat message popped up on my screen from Mr. Nicholas Jaouen, he had big news. Tone isn’t always the easiest thing to convey via text, however Mr. Jaouen’s tone was apparent and cyrstal clear. He sounded more like a 10-year-old on December 23rd right after having found Christmas presents hidden in the upstairs linen closet. He was so excited I could almost hear the stutter in his keystrokes as his fingers struggled to keep up with his thoughts. He eventually went on to explain that he had just ordered the 3D kit for the GoPro cameras we all now have and love so much. My initial response was “wow, that’s pretty cool and all, but what are we going to do with 3D footage?”. Mr. Jaouen, being the cultured techno-nerd that he is, continued to inform me that GoPro had acquired a company called CineForm and was giving away software to conform the left and right images (necessary for 3D) into one 3D video file. As he continued to brief me on the basics of 3D video workflow I was becoming just as excited as the stutter-typing 10-year-old he was. After we both cooled off a bit, we started to make plans to run this intriguing new gizmo thru it’s paces as soon as it arrived… it arrived on Monday, we shot on Saturday.
It seems a little funny that I feel like we’re on cutting edge and kinda cool for shooting a little video in 3D, when we all know that 3D has been around for years and years. However what is new is the barrage of popularity that 3D is now getting thanks some more elegant technology, movies like Avatar and every TV manufacturer trying to sell us the “next big thing”. 3D has made a comeback and it looks like it very well may be our “next big thing” in film and broadcast. Chances are that you are probably reading this on your computer/Phone/iPad screen, all of which are not 3D devices (yet) and so we are forced fall back on earlier forms of 3D tech for our current 3D viewing . Some people like Mr. Jaouen for example have the ability to do the cross-eyed viewing method but others like myself cannot and will have to use the tried and true red/cyan glasses or anaglyph to be technically correct. The next step is to determine what method is going to work for you.
3D Viewing Methods
Cross-Eyed Method – This is a bit weird but I’m told when done correctly will provide pretty good image quality. I have never been able to get this method to work for me so I’m not really qualified to give instructions on how to do it. Basically the method is that you cross your eyes and view a “side-by-side” formatted 3D video. You attempt to force your left eye to view only the right image, and your right eye to view only the left image, this should create a third image in the middle of your vision that will appear in 3D. Here is a video that will explain this method better than I can.
Anaglyph Glasses Method – Probably the method most of you are familiar with, all you need to do is grab a pair of those weird red/cyan glasses and watch an anaglyph formatted 3D video. The down sides to this method are that the red/cyan glasses create a funky color cast on the video, and the quality isn’t what you may have seen in the theaters with the RealD 3D technology.
Hang in there, we are getting to the video I promise, next topic YouTube.
YouTube for 3D
YouTube has put in place a pretty robust 3D viewing experience, it allows me to upload a side-by-side formatted 3D video and handles the conversion into other formats on the fly. By default YouTube is set to use “Red/Cyan Glasses” which means if you have those glasses you don’t need to do anything more then press play. If for some reason you are seeing a side-by-side image instead of a strange red/cyan blurry image, follow the steps below to tell YouTube that you want to use anaglyph glasses. This is also the procedure for choosing any other 3D viewing device, including no device, which means you are opting for the cross-eyed method.
First locate the 3D options button on the YouTube video player, and select “Other Options”. You will have to press play for this button to appear.
You will be taken to another page where you can choose what 3D viewing device you want to use. Select “Red/Cyan” under the Colored Glasses options.
You are now taken to another page with a test video formatted for the viewing device you have chosen, if you can view the video, click the “It works! Take me back to my video” button.
You are now setup for watching YouTube videos in 3D! You should only need to do this once as YouTube will remember your settings. If you are using anaglyph glasses to view the video you have a few more options that you can play with to make the video look different, depending on your personal preference. These options are found under that same 3D options button on the YouTube player. You have the choice to view the video in “Full Color”, “Optimized (Dubois)”, or “Grayscale”, really all this does is change the color of the video. Personally I like the grayscale option, it eliminates the weird color cast that the anaglyph glasses create and seems to be a little easier on my eyes, but play around and see what mode works best for you. Since the video is in 3D you will have the best experience if you turn the quality up to 720p.
Now that you have read my entire post on making a 3D video and showing you how to view it, Mr. Jaouen, Señor Reese, and myself present MTB3D enjoy.
PS: I ordered a bunch of anaglyph glasses from amazon, so if you are just dying to see the 3D awesomeness, contact me via the contact form here on the site or drop me a line somewhere online and I’ll send you a pair.
Oh and if you’re diggin’ the 3D vibe we are throwing out here, mash that like or tweet button so all your friends can know how cool your other friends (us) are.
