Stefan D. Voigt

Tags: Creative Commons | essay | S3D | stereoscopic

Because the overall 3D stereo experience in Ice Age 3 was pretty good I'll just point out a few things.

First thing are the quick transitions / cross-fades between some shots.
I've allready heard that transitions in S3D have a different effect than in 2D images. Actually, it appears like your object or character is magically resolving into something else. Of course this impression makes sense, because with S3D you have a spatial perception of all objects in the scene. In a transition these objects are getting half transparent and are revealing another object that fills out the same 3D space.
Regarding Ice Age 3 the transitions where to fast for perceiving depth, so it was just a bit confusing and nothing more.

An effect that worked pretty well is the blurry POV of Diego following a deer. I saw the film in 2D first and wondered, if this would work out in S3D. I assume that there is no depth during the blurry moments and the image is reduced to a flat 2D impression. It would be very interesting how Dreamworks made the transition between 2D effect and S3D imagery. But maybe  I'm  all wrong and the blurry vision of Diego is a full S3D effect, which would be very great. Doing this in stereo without getting the audience confused is really a big achievement.

Another thing that attracted my attention where the matte paintings in the far background. Of course it's realistic that you don't perceive depth in that range with binocular disparity - which only works within six meters, by the way. What fascinates me in this case is that I want them to be round and plastic, just because I am watching a S3D film.

But maybe some slight camera movements revealed the matte painting to me. I am remembering the scene, where Sid is moving up a hill to bring back the eggs, while it begins to rain. The camera is following his movement and you can see Sid in the foreground - with great depth, nice and round. But the giant mountain in the background is really flat. That's because a matte painting gives you no information of relative / parallax motion, when the camera moves. So matte paintings may work great for a still camera, but as soon as the camera moves you'll get it.

"Short stereoscopic review of Ice Age 3" by Stefan D. Voigt  is licensed under a  
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Germany License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here.

Tags: Creative Commons | essay | S3D | stereoscopic

Like the guys of 3d revolution I want to write some reviews specially about stereoscopic movies. So I can find some more do's and don'ts for my stereoscopic storytelling section.

The 3D of Disneys Bolt is almost perfect. Of course the guys working at Disney are professionals and are spending a lot of time on research and development only for stereoscopic 3D. There were no troubles with ghosting, there was always a clear focus and the 3D depth effect was strong, but still subtle. I only was reminded of watching a stereoscopic 3D movie at some scenes: For example when Mittens reaches out a piece of styrofoam to Bolt like it is a deadly weapon. Mainly at "out of the screen moments".

Maybe Disney keeps the most of the movie behind the floating window (special depth technique of Disney - very nice) and only has a few scenes, where something actually comes out of the screen. But I am just assuming this, I have watched the movie only once in S3D.

Over shoulder shots also work pretty well with the Disney techniques. They where a big trouble in Beowulf, for example.

But the greatest thing about the S3D of Bolt was the emotional impact. I was very moved by the movie and couldn't really tell why. I assume that S3D involves you so much more in the action - because you are feeling closer to the characters. This leads to feeling more with the characters and emotes the whole film.

But maybe my eyes where only watering because of the music and the great overall storytelling.

Related Links:
3d revolution - film reviews of "Beowulf" and "Journey to the center of the earth"

"Short stereoscopic review of Avatar" by Stefan D. Voigt  is licensed under a  
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Germany License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here.