American Cinematographer - August 2008 - (Page 68) An Eye-Popping Adventure set, there was a 13' screen and a digital cinema projector with a shutter glass system for stereo playback that could show both live and replayed 3-D video while the crew was shooting. In a nearby screening room, there was a silvered 24' screen and dual-projector system for watching dailies. As a result, Brevig could immediately review everything that had been shot and make quick decisions about which sets could be struck — something that proved extremely helpful given the film’s 50-day schedule. Journey features 726 visualeffects shots, and because every shot had to be made twice — once for each eye, and often with different tracking, rotoscoping and paint work for each eye — in effect there were 1,452 effects shots. These shots were divided among five facilities: Frantic Films, Meteor Studios, Hybride, Mokko Studio and Rodeo FX. Townsend convened a meeting of representatives of all the facilities early on to encourage them to share as much information as possible. “That was an absolute necessity for this show,” he notes. “We knew a lot of energy would be spent trying to solve stereo problems, and we didn’t want people to have to solve them on their own.” Although the facilities shared information, they approached working in stereo differently. Some companies treated the work like 2-D shots for as long as possible, working on the image from just one eye, then turning on the second eye only at the very end of the process. This meant less render time, but it also meant there were fewer chances to capitalize on the fact that stereo can be as important to a shot as color, contrast and composition. Other companies worked exclusively in stereo all the time. Townsend says the problem with the second approach was that it was less efficient to render everything in stereo all through the process, especially at times when the stereo wasn’t the most important aspect of the shot at hand. He says the ideal is to establish a strong foundation in stereo by working with both eyes at the beginning, turn off one eye and work in 2-D during the middle of the process, then turn that eye back on toward the end. “We just have to fine-tune the middle, and how often you go back into stereo to check,” he says. Technical issues aside, one of the biggest challenges on the visualeffects front was helping the artists to see 3-D. “Throughout the course of the project, we found that some artists see it very clearly and others don’t,” says Mike Shand, Frantic Films’ visual-effects supervisor. When artists were shown 3-D 68 http://www.photosonics.com http://www.photosonics.com
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