Weber State University shows us how to shoot 3D in HD for $250 (video)
By Tim Stevens 
posted February 17th 2010 9:17AM
posted February 17th 2010 9:17AM
posted February 17th 2010 9:17AM
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*looks around for 3D glasses*
@commenter7
"throws some together using red&blue sharpies and clear lenses. Doesn't see anything special"
@steel Good thing I still have mine left over from buying the Jonas Bro.... I mean... Heat? Ya Heat is a manly movie
@bazookafx3
I dont think polarized (however you say it) will work
Ill just use these vintage red/blue ones from Spy Kids 3D
@commenter7 What an AWFUL movie.
@commenter7
the sequel is much better ..
@commenter7
Don't worry. The glasses don't make this less boring.
Obligatory OVER 9000.
Now that that's done,
"especially considering those cameras are over $100 each."
As is the $21,000 camera. Just saying.
On topic, I like the ingenuity of some folk. But, with these cameras, is there a way to store video as its being recorded? That way you don't have to stop recording, pull out the SD card/connect to a computer, off load, then reattach the cameras to the rig?
@BigJayDogg3
eye-fi SD card should be doing good!
@creepin
Wouldn't that require having to still stop recording to do upload though? Like wouldn't you have to stop the video currently being recorded for you to use the card's functionality and upload the video to a site?
@BigJayDogg3 The camera just isn't made for transferring content on the fly. Just like you can't use a Mino as a webcam.
Eye-Fi is more comfortable than pulling out the card, but with GB file sizes the Eye-Fi takes foreeeever.
@BigJayDogg3
Not sure if these cameras have HDMI-out (the Flip HD cameras do), but if they did...well, you could use some Blackmagic Intensity Pro capture cards ($200 each) to capture the streams. It'd take a pretty hefty computer to write two streams at the same time though (you might want to use separate SSD drives for each, since that's probably the biggest bottleneck today).
This of course pretty much limits you to putting the cameras on tripods at that point though, and staying within 10 feet of the system. And lack of interesting screen content pretty much negates the reason to use 3D in the first place...
@BigJayDogg3
If you were actually shooting a film this is somewhat moot. You shoot scenes in films, not events and a scene is not very long. Even a 5min scene would be epic (that would only be 18 scenes for a 90min film), most would be under a minute. Even shooting lead in and out wouldn't add much.
10min of 1080i is only about 500meg considering that it is heavily compressed even on an XDCam, we aren't talking RED here.
That doesn't take long to transfer, you'd have done it before the next scene was set and run through once or twice as a practice.
If you captured a bunch of scenes, say all the ones using that set the same would hold true as you setup the next set.
Your concerns are more if you were shooting an event straight through to then chop up at edit and were concerned about the storage running out before the end of the event. Even then it assumes the cameras were locked off (so movement might be noticeable) and that you needed no edits for some reason.
Such a situation would be more a corporate event and I'd reckon 3D talking stiffs really wouldn't add anything to your product.
@Hexydes
They do
If you click on the source link, they have the parallel images, where you can cross your eyes. They did a good job with this! I'm impressed!
@Zac89
Thanks, that's much better.
Yeah... But how much does the editing software cost??
@GreggSymington We used Adobe CS4 (which is fairly pricey, but we already had it). We also tried it in the video sequence editor in Blender (blender.org) and got a favorable result.
You should be able to do this in any multitrack video editor that allows for channel mixing and additive compositing.
@GreggSymington
You can use StereoMovie Maker - free and good!
@takeos Awesome.
In that video above the only thing that really popped out was that top piece of wood where the birds can sit on.
The two cameras are not gen locked. So the time difference between left/right frames is considerable. When the birds move quickly the 3D effect is damaged.
Sometimes the biggest problem is the phrase "all you have to do is..."
@BuzzMega, another problem is that the setup would need to be recalibrated every time the subject distance changed. Unless they plan to shift individual frames around in post-processing (could be time consuming or ugly or both; not sure).
@BuzzMega We might address that by hot-wiring the record buttons to a single button -- that would get the cameras synced at record time at least. Could be better, but it's mostly off the shelf and very cheap at this point.
@RonProctor
Yes I think the true challenge of all these projects that use consumer cameras is genlock input or another way to make one camera the slave or the other.
Give us a consumer HD camera that can be genlocked to another camera, or a hack to do the same, and that's when consumers will be part of a true 3D revolution. (Without spending $21K!)
@RonProctor can't you just nudge the timing in a video editor?
@J1000 Yep -- In fact, I bumped the birds about two frames. we used audio spikes to get the alignment as close as possible. Trouble is 1/30th (or even 1/60th) of a second suddenly seems like a long time when you want perfect sync! The birds ended up being about 1/2 frame off.
or buy one of these.. FinePix REAL 3D W1
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/3d/camera/finepix_real3dw1/
@dansus We wanted to be able to change the baseline to 1-2m when we fly it on our high altitude balloon (space.weber.edu/harbor). I tried splitting a FinePix with a table saw and it stopped working for some reason. ;)
I pulled out muh 3d glasses from My Bloody Valentine and i wasn't impressed, I guess with a little tweaking it would work, but I'm happy just shooting in HD. And red/blue 3d is so 1990's shouldn't we be working on Real-3d?
@swaggtech
I look at 3D as a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. It's a gimmick. Until the day comes where I don't have to wear ANY glasses, can sit at ANY angle, AND can buy a consumer HD camera that will record 3D for under $1000, 3D is a non-starter. It's just something that the TV industry is foisting upon the public in an attempt to get them out buying TV's, and it's not going to work.
The most interesting technology at CES, in regards to television, was the streaming video that was being included in many of the sets. That's where technology is going, not gimmicky 3D.
@swaggtech
This should be able to do any sort of 3D. They just did red/blue to demo it, they all did stereo images and if they had the technology (they might) and you had a monitor that could display it (probably not) then yah, they could have done Real3D.
It is not very good 3d in my opinion. It works but not that great.
@jldv6125se We're going to try it on a polarized screen soon – it should look a lot better. We think it's pretty good for the price! :)
@RonProctor For the price it does great. I look forward to seeing more about cheap 3d.
Looks like they just copied this design from an artist in New York.
http://bit.ly/aShqcU
Here is something he did with the rig mentioned above.
http://bit.ly/aHdPry
Just thought you should know.
@dfizzle We weren't aware of that project – very nice. We kind of did this on a lark once we realized how cheap the cameras were.
I bet you run into problems with the camera's independently auto-focusing if you shoot something with more action. Cool simple idea though.
@frizbplaya These particular cameras haven't given us much trouble that way, but that would be a concern with some of the nicer cameras. You could rock manual focus on the really nice cameras though, but your rig starts to get really expensive! :)
Wow, Weber State came up with this? Really? Before BYU or U of U? I think this is the first time I've heard of Weber coming out with anything cool in the history of Utah. Mind is blown. Still won't attend that college. I like city life too much.
@bluerei Ride the FrontRunner! ;)
So what software are they using to get both R and L video channels? This would be great to try out once I can afford a 3D monitor (hate anaglyph).
@Xerxes028 We used Adobe Premiere CS4, but you can do this in almost any multitrack video editor. I tried it in the video sequence editor in Blender (free at blender.org) and got a favorable result.
I was doing this 3 years ago with two Casio Exilim cameras, what's the big deal:
http://www.pbase.com/eskin/image/59759222
@Michael Eskin We kind of did this on a lark and didn't look into what had been done before. That's a sweet design.
I'm surprised I haven't heard of this before. I go to this school! I'm posting this from the computer lab in the Weber State Union building, but I haven't heard about this. It just seems a little strange that I have to receive this news from a website rather than locally.
Why is the distance 6.5 cm? Isn't it usually more like 7.5?
The FinePix Real3D is 7.7 I think.
@takeos It was very scientific: with the cameras lying face up on a table, I put my face very close to them with both eyes open and basically did the "cyclops trick" to line them up. We traced their positions on paper, took measurements, and it turned out to be 6.5cm on the nose.
We're going to try some long baselines next. I'll bet 1 or 2 meters would be an awesome way to get depth out of distant objects (like mountains, ships, etc).
Good to see it done on the cheap but the University of Colorado's flow visualization course has been doing this for a few years now. Just google "flow vis" and take a look around. Luckily we have the RealD 3D guys in town to come help out each year.
somebody knows like turning normal video to 3D anaglyph (red/blue) in mac os x 10.6.2?