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MillimeterCES 2010: Stereoscopic's Coming-Out Party
Jan 8, 2010 5:41 PM, By Trevor Boyer
Technologically speaking, the new decade is getting off to a considerable bang with CES 2010. As you probably know, stereoscopic 3D is, as was long expected, the big, sexy story of the show. James Cameron's Avatar endured delays and months of naysaying from those who predicted its failure (and the failure of 3D cinema along with it). It's just become the second-highest-grossing film in 20 days of release.
Now is therefore an appropriate time to see how far the industry has come in the past year with regard to stereoscopic 3D. Last year around this time, I wrote an article for Digital Content Producer that surveyed the stereo 3D landscape, focusing on the promise it held for productions outside of the Hollywood studio system. That meant sports, a bit of reporting on the prospects for 3D television, and profiles of a few indie folks working to produce stereoscopic content without a lot of funding or even a logical outlet. (Art-house cinemas aren't equipped with RealD systems, and there's as yet no "HDNET for S3D" for home consumption).
It was they who intrigued me the most, and I thought of them when, at CES this week, Panasonic announced a product that had been teased at NAB 2009: an integrated dual-lens stereoscopic HD camera that's made to order for under $20K. It's got automatic and manual convergence adjustment built in, so the role of a dedicated stereographer pulling convergence might soon be relegated to the big-budget productions. It sure sounded like a game-changer, and I asked Vic Love, one of the producers profiled in my article last year, for his reaction. On his way to CES, he emailed me, "The game-changer will be when thousands of these Panasonics start going out the door. Unfortunately, there is no MPAA for 3D quality."
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True indeed. Standards are still a sticky issue right now. But late last year the Blu-ray Disc Association announced the release of its 3D specification. So there's progress.
And 3D television seems to be on its way as well. Discovery and ESPN have both announced that they're launching 24-hour 3D TV networks. ESPN says it'll start with the World Cup in June.
What seems to be the bottleneck at this point is the paucity of professionals who are currently able to produce stereoscopic content. Love has a sanguine view of that challenge:
"As far as stereo education, its getting easier to learn stereography, what with new textbooks like Bernard [Mendiburu]'s and neat stereo calculators like Inition's StereoBrain and Florian's stereoscopic calculator, and integrated stereographer-friendly 3D tools integrated directly into the camera system, like 3flex from 3ality. ... And post is stepping up as well. I like the idea of Ocula 2 plug-in from the Foundry, and how it addresses adjusting IO in post, not perfect, but a great tool, and a sign of what's to come.
"One- to two-day training workshops run by qualified 3-D professionals are being set up many places now, and will only proliferate. And along with the WYSIWYG nature of 3D these days, the learning curve and the barrier to entry is not longer the steep, hard climb it was five years ago."
So there you have it. What was a tiny niche two years ago is a rapidly expanding slice of the industry. There's certainly a lot to learn. For his part, Vic Love is in talks with a distributor for his production 9 Mile. If you're at CES, TDvision is showing the trailer in its booth.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.