[SMPTE News]

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3D

And the stereoscopic phenomenon isn’t about to go away, Ludé and Aylsworth agree. The big movement, they suggest, could be into what Ludé calls “efficient or low-cost 3D production”—widening the stereo net, in other words. 

“I think 2012 will be the year that producers really learn how to make high-quality 3D at a budget that is at, or near, the same as regular HD production,” Ludé says. “Existing cameras, workflows, and processing tools will all improve. This will require new production approaches and efficient technology, but as we’ve seen recently, the cameras, rigs and workflows are all becoming optimized for this kind of work. What they need to do now is have better quality control standards. Quality assurance for 3D is tricky—how do you quantify edge violations and vertical disparity to determine how good is ‘good enough’? As we develop more efficient workflows for 3D TV production, we will get a lot smarter about how to assess quality, based on some (new) metrology.”

Ludé suggests that, eventually, 3D camera rigs for budget-conscious shooting will become simpler. Some manufacturers like Meduza Systems are already placing two imaging sensors into a single camera body, although achieving the best width between lenses for optimal interaxial distance remains a challenge. Ludé also points to research being done on time-of-flight systems for stereoscopic capture, which measure the time it takes infrared light pulses to travel between a camera and its subject so that independent images can be depth mapped and put together later in post as 3D imagery. 

“These are approaches to capturing depth by using a single camera for visual spectrum imager composition, color and texture, and other sensors to calculate and measure depth,” he says. “Time of flight might be that other sensor. There are already fascinating Light Field still cameras (such as Lytroand Raytrix), and they build still images you can re-focus in post. Five years ago, it would have been crazy to suggest such a thing. The big question is whether they have practical applications for movies.”