Sony vegas and its 3d function

[Marco Maiello]

Hi,
I was thinking about the Sony vegas 10 3d functions but i didn't understand one thing.
is there a way to convert the 2d material in something that is stereoscopic?
For example if I shot with a 5d can i convert the material in a 3d video?
If yes how??? :-)

[Adam Stanislav]

Converting 2D to 3D makes as much sense as converting a black & white picture into color. The information is simply not there.

[John Lorince]

I am not so sure I agree with the above post. I mean all 3d footage just grabs two different looks of the same scene just ever so slightly off center of another. So one probably could offset your video clip by doubling the video to two tracks and play around with the stereoscopic settings. You may be able to get a 3d feel from that. I always say if your determined enough you can make mountains out of mole hills.

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

To create a 3d image, you need to have the viewpoints of a scene separated by the same distance such as that of each eye. Each eye will see a slighly different perspective - when the brain combines these images, it creates the impression of depth.
Just copying the same image is not going to produced 3d. As Adam said, the visual information needed to create depth just isn't there...

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by John Lorince

I am not so sure I agree with the above post. I mean all 3d footage just grabs two different looks of the same scene just ever so slightly off center of another

And all color footage just grabs the chrominance in addition to the luminance. :)

They are not “just ever so slightly” off center. Please try this experiment: Hold a finger at an arm’s length in front of your eyes and look at some object several meters in front of you, roughly in the same line as that between your finger and the point at the center between your eyes. Close the left eye. Your finger will now appear to the right of that object. Open your left eye and close your right eye. This time your finger will appear to the left of that object.

Even the slightest difference between the distance of two objects, distance measured from the center point between your eyes and to the two planes those objects are in, will affect their left-right distance when viewed by just the left eye or just the right eye. Add to it that most objects are themselves three-dimensional, so the tip of a person’s nose and the root of his nose are not in the same plane. Neither is the chin and the cheeks, and different parts of lips, the eyes, front and back of the ears, etc.

Every pixel in the image can be at a different distance from the camera than the pixel next to it. The depth information is not there. At least with color, you can just guess which chrominance to add to your luminance, and the two combine neatly (even if differently from the original). It is not that simple with depth information. Not to mention that if you manage to move an object correctly, you leave a hole in the background and have to figure out what to fill it with.

I am certainly not opposed to 3D. I am the guy who wrote the plug-in that made 3D editing in Vegas possible before Sony jumped on the bandwagon. But if you want 3D, shoot in 3D!

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by John Lorince

...I mean all 3d footage just grabs two different looks of the same scene just ever so slightly off center of another. So one probably could offset your video clip by doubling the video to two tracks and play around with the stereoscopic settings. You may be able to get a 3d feel from that...

Depends on how you do this. If you have multiple layers of video on different tracks, say, a background layer and a text layer, you can make adjustments to move apparent location of the text forward and back in the field.

But, you gotta' have layers you keep separate, or, do some rotoscoping and cut out pieces of your image to create layers with.

This is one of the 3d solutions used by Viewmaster, back in the day, used in all of their graphics and cartoon reels... a fine Oregon company. It ain't what we think of as 3d today. It looks like, um cardboard cutouts, or xerox animation style... but ersatz depth can be created.