NAB Day Two, the 3D Treasure Hunt
"This was a pretty packed 3D day. My whole depth space is filled with Z pixels and I'm even not done. It started at 7:00 with a phone call from France with a 3D company consulting me on their business development. At 8:00 I was already 30 minutes late at the 3D@Home consortium kick-off breakfast. I've been fighting all day to get back on original schedule, but the 30 minutes eventually won.
3D@home is a non-profit (please don't smile) organization created to boost 3D adoption in the living room. Basically, it's a meeting point, or a sandbox, where 3D-content providers and 3D-CE makers try to build synergies until a new format war is slated. Hopefully the industry is still hangover'ing from the HD disks disaster and we may avoid a 3D format war. I won't complain.
Stephane Faudeux, from Dimension 3 Expo had a chance to do some more networking and this year edition looks very promising. Don 't miss it.
3Ality was showing some U2-3D content on a 3D HDTV, and the result was surprisingly good. I would have expected Bono to look a bit shallow when 3D-reduced from a theater screen to a TV. Actually it was really good looking. The screen size effect is a curse going from small monitors to larger screens, but not from the theater to the living room. In 3D, size matters, but increases are more painful that reductions.
As expected, I spent the day chasing 3D products on the floor. It was like a safari, and I got pictures of a dozen 3D displays and six 3D-themed product presentation.
Quantel is showing Pablo 3D, with a Pace demo reel. I've seen better demos. I'm not commenting on the application reboot, that's a given in a live beta demo at the NAB. If the system does not crash, make sure you're not faked by a pre-recorded screen capture. If the rendering goes all the way through, it was likely a proxy render. The problem came from the inaccuracy of the stereoscopic explanation that came along with the presentation. Even the industry front-runners still need 3D education. I won't blame them, for I've been telling my share of deep stupidities during my first decade working on 3D. Why do you think James Cameron stayed almost silent on 3D for so long? He's that smarter than the 3D crowd.
Eyeon is showing the 3D tools developed by Frantic Films for the “Journey 3D” comp'ing. Nothing incredible, just well-done containers stacking left and right images in a over/under layout. Then you set all your effects on this double-sized frame. A node allows anaglyph control, and can be hooked up at any point in the tree. A de-stacking node is available for effects that would mess up the over/under layout. Like a blur that would mix the top of the left eye with the bottom of the right eye. Simple and efficient. You'll likely not bring a 3d beginner all the way to the moon with this, but you'll be able to pull any 3D comp challenge if you know where you are going. I mentioned their 3D-LCDs and 3D rig yesterday.
Iridas was at the Silicon Imaging booth, with a strong 3D theme. Alain Derobe – P+S Technik beam splitter rig is hooked in anaglyph on a 2D display. They had a Samsung 3DTV too, and a stereoscopic-capable DVR. This one seems to record the L/R streams in sync into one single stereo file, easing the ingest and resync processes. All-in-all it was a full 3D booth that just needed a larger “3DTV” sign, and a some glueware. It was more a bag of trick that a 3D post house. Too bad they were so close. It should be noted that Pacific FX has one Iridas to edit “Dark Country” in 3D.
SI's nemesis, aka Iconix, had two mini 3D rigs build by 3Ality and a 3D-capable field DVR from Digital Ordinance, and a 3D demo on one of the ten Samsung 3D display I've seen all over the show. Both DVRs allows real-time control on an external 3D display.
By the way, this NAB was a case for more 3D content. I saw the Pace demo reel four times, the 3Ality three times and In-three conversion of Star Wars II twice. People using 3D systems or displays are in desperate need for content.
Eventually, I went to the Nuke booth and was amazed by the 3D tools they build. Theses guys are smart, super-smart, 3D-smart. They are the only one I know, so far, that are using a disparity map to correct the camera alignment, and control the inter-views offset of 2D actions like paints of rotos. They use the latest version of EXR file format to record both left and right frames in a single frame. They even consolidate their disparity maps against motion vectors. You don't get it ? Never mind, nobody at the NAB understand this key issue in 3D post, but one guy at Nuke does. These guys are the Pixar of the 3D comp. They are on earth just to make the other smart guys look plain stupid. Obviously they got a stereoscopic container, but this one has a wildcat field to accommodate with your very 3D file naming convention. I told they knew what the were doing.
Then I went at a party with my publisher and another half-secret event with [noname] showing [NDA].
I'm now too tired to write any more correct english, so I'm going to bed. Tomorrow, I'll listen to Alvin Tofler on digital future and interview NHK's chief stereographer. I need to be rested by then. I'll then visit the Central Hall, and eventually fly back to Los Angeles for son's birthday. I must have forgotten a couple 3D displays, forgive me. Remind me to talk about Sony-We-Don't-Look-Into-3D, Matrox and Blackmagic."
By Bernard Mendiburu, Digital Stereographer
