{"id":45293,"date":"2019-01-17T17:34:01","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T00:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.realsenseai.com\/uncategorized-cn\/the-beginners-guide-to-3d-film-technologies\/"},"modified":"2019-01-18T00:34:01","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T07:34:01","slug":"the-beginners-guide-to-3d-film-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realsenseai.com\/cn\/news-insights-cn\/the-beginners-guide-to-3d-film-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beginner\u2019s Guide to 3D Film Technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"\nby Suzanne Leibrick<\/a>, RealSense\u2122 Technology Specialist<\/em>\n

What is it?<\/h3>\nWith growing interest in new immersive entertainment platforms like Virtual and Augmented reality, 3D photos on Facebook, 360\u00b0 videos on YouTube and more, it can be hard to understand the nuances and differences between all of these different photo and video technologies, and even harder to know where to start if you\u2019re someone who wants to create something new.\n

360\u00b0 Photos and Videos<\/h3>\nLet\u2019s start with one that\u2019s been around for a couple of years now. 360\u00b0 (and 180\u00b0) photos and videos capture a scene from a single point in space, but do so in a way that allows them to capture the entire scene around that single point. You can think of this as an extension of panoramic photos \u2013 instead of just capturing an image of a large stretch of landscape, a 360\u00b0 photo captures the whole landscape, including the sky and ground. You can capture 360\u00b0 photos (also known as photospheres) using your phone and various different applications like Google Street\u00a0View<\/a>.\n\n360\u00b0 videos require the use of a special camera<\/a> or camera setup like a multiple Go-Pro rig<\/a> so that all of the image is in-frame at a time. After capturing 360\u00b0 film, it is edited in similar ways to traditional film, though any setup with multiple cameras does sometimes require editing so that seams (or stitch lines) between the cameras are invisible. There are also additional issues with 360 \u2013 when there\u2019s no such place as behind the scenes, you may have to find a creative place to hide equipment and crew while\u00a0shooting.\n\nThere are many ways to view 360\u00b0 films and videos \u2013 from social media and YouTube<\/a>, to various virtual reality platforms. The biggest limitation of this medium is that you are limited in your ability to control or move around the scene. You are limited to wherever the film-maker decided to place the camera. You can look around, but only as much as you would be able to move around in a swivel chair bolted to the floor \u2013 something that is inherently limiting the level of immersion a\u00a0viewer can\u00a0feel.\n

Stereoscopy<\/h3>\nStereoscopy refers to technologies that mimic how human vision works to create depth perception in a scene. We perceive depth with a variety of visual cues and information, but a primary part of how we sense depth is our brains processing the information from two eyes \u2013 since they are at two different positions, near objects can appear in vastly different positions to each eye, where far objects appear to be in virtually the same spot. You can try this concept out very easily \u2013 hold up a finger close to your face, and alternate eyes \u2013 the finger appears to move. If you move it further away, it appears to move much less. Our brains synthesize this information and use it to help us determine distance and help us perceive the\u00a03D\u00a0world.\n

\"\"Source: lookingglassvr.com<\/a><\/em><\/sup><\/p>\nStereoscopic technology has existed for quite some time, the basic concept being to use two cameras, positioned roughly human-eye distance apart to film or photograph a scene, and then for those images to be viewed in a way that presents each of those images to your eyes separately. If you have access to a Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard headset, you can view some digital versions of very early stereoscopic photos using the Looking Glass\u00a0VR<\/a>\u00a0application.\n\n3D movies work the same way \u2013 they\u2019re filmed using a special camera that records each eye-image simultaneously (or those same images are generated digitally). When you put on a pair of 3D glasses in the movie theater, the lenses are polarized<\/a> in such a way that each of your eyes sees only what it is supposed to, to give you the illusion of 3D objects in front of\u00a0your\u00a0face.\n

\"\"Source: lookingglassvr.com<\/a><\/em><\/sup><\/p>\nSome 360\u00b0 cameras are also stereoscopic, giving objects in the scene more depth, but your ability to move, or move the camera in the space is still limited \u2013 Stereoscopy is the illusion of 3D, not true 3D. Facebook\u2019s recent foray into 3D photos is also a stereoscopic solution \u2013 the phones which support creating compatible photos are using the data from dual cameras to create the depth illusion. In the case of the iPhone X, they can also use the data from the front-facing structured light depth camera to determine foreground and background\u00a0objects.\n\nThe RealSense\u2122 Depth Cameras D400 series<\/a> also operate on similar principles \u2013 by using two sensors, depth is calculated on a per-pixel basis for an entire image. The D400 series are stereo depth cameras that use the disparities between the images, along with additional infrared information, to build a highly accurate depth map of\u00a0any\u00a0scene.\n

Volumetric Capture and Film<\/h3>\nWe have discussed Volumetric Capture here previously \u2013 discussing our showcase at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival<\/a>, but it\u2019s worth going into further and talking about what exactly it is, and more importantly, how you might get\u00a0started.\n\nSimilar to 3D scanning<\/a>, Volumetric Capture involves capturing objects and people in their entirety, with both depth and from every angle. The difference here is that while 3D scanning (and the related Photogrammetry) is static, and can be done using just one camera moving around a space or object, Volumetric Film is video, so objects and people have to be captured in real time. This means that many cameras need to be used \u2013 placed all around the subjects of the film, to capture them from every\u00a0angle.\n

\"\"Intel Studios<\/em><\/sup><\/p>\nStudios is an example of a Volumetric Capture dome. At 10,000 square feet, it\u2019s the world\u2019s largest. It uses up to 96 high resolution digital video cameras spaced around the dome to capture everything within the space. Once the images are captured, they are processed by some heavy duty servers and special software to turn the feed from all these individual cameras into something that is truly 3D. What that means is that volumetric films can be viewed at any time from any angle. Remember the revolutionary bullet time effects in The Matrix? Because they used many cameras to film those shots, they could move the point of view of the viewer around at will. With more advanced technology today, not only can we render out volumetric video from any angle, but we can display that same content in a way that allows the viewer to navigate their way around a scene at will \u2013 whether that\u2019s using a mobile phone for Augmented Reality, playing back inside a Virtual Reality headset, or using depth cameras placed on digital screens to allow you to navigate via gestures. Check out<\/a> the volumetric capture experience created by Studios that debuted at CES 2019. You can also view the behind the scenes video below.\n\n