studioGPU

Shaking up the time vs. quality tradeoff in the stereo 3D production pipeline

Unless you've been living in a cave the last few years, you know that Stereoscopic 3D is one of the hot topics in CG animation for cinema. Think Up, Ice Age 3, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Toy Story 3, Monsters vs. Aliens, G-Force 3D, to name a few (see more). The market for 3D stereo gaming is probably even larger, with both the X-Box and PlayStation 3 expected to roll out upgrades this year to support stereo 3D. If the topic interests you and you are attending this years Siggraph, be sure to check out the Computer Animation Festival which is devoting an entire segment to stereo 3D.

I've been following stereo 3D for years, but primarily for scientific visualization, where artistic quality control and live action footage were not issues. Then a few weeks back, I came across a twitter reference (@sterlingy) that piqued my interest. The tweet was by the guy (Sterling Youngman) who is behind the Pansy Warrior Princess (PWP) - a somewhat unusual and definitely niche site, that has a pretty sizable fan following, having surpassed one million viewers (reminds me of a cross between Monty Python, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and the recent World Of Warcraft Mountain Dew Game Fuel commercial).

Youngman is producing a Pansy Warrior Princess 3D stereoscopic music video to debut at IBC this September and is using MachStudio Pro as the lighting and rendering solution to keep both time and costs under control without sacrificing creative control.

Stereo 3D production without the big studio budget

The entire PWP music video project will be CGI, except for Pansy and her band, (which will be shot on green screen using Silicon Imaging’s new 3D 2K camera system). The original plan called for rendering the CG with Brazil. However once Youngman committed to going stereoscopic, it was clear that lighting and rendering the CG under the time constraint of being ready for IBC, would not be feasible without a big studio budget for lighters, compositors and render farms. Enter MachStudio Pro.

Details about the technical and 3D production complexities and workflow will likely end up in upcoming magazine articles after the video debuts. So for this post, I am just going to touch on some high level points.

Anaglyph from a preliminary scene rendering. If you have a pair of red-blue 3D glasses, check out this 3D CG image. In the production, MachStudio Pro is used for lighting and materials both in pre-viz and in final renders passes, with render times reduced from several minutes, to a few seconds .

Pre-Viz

Youngman is a 3ds max guy. The scenes he created were moderately heavy. So in his words, doing the pre-viz in Max, even without any significant materials or lights, just to determine the suggested camera moves was “not pleasurable”. Once he exported his scenes into MachStudio Pro however, he could apply lighting and materials all in real time, zipping around even with AO, and reflections turned on - all without having to wait for a lengthy render to view the final result.

Live-action to final composite

After filming the live-action footage of the video in stereo 3D, the pre-viz cameras are dumped, and the live action stereo cameras are re-created in Max . Those cameras are then exported back into MachStudio Pro for rendering left and right backgrounds. Light rigs and materials that were created in MachStudio Pro during pre-viz, can be further adjusted as needed artistically (and applied to whole scenes rather than shots). Then the CG is exported out in passes for final live action compositing and touch-up. Keep in mind that stereo 3D requires two renders to achieve parallax - one for the left eye and one for the right eye. So shaving final frame render times from several minutes down to a few seconds was integral to making this project possible. If all goes as planned, expect to see the PWP 3D video this September.

Enabling the small studio and creative artist

Beyond the production story, what I found really interesting about this project is that Youngman is producing a studio-quality 3D stereo video without the backing of a big studio or big investors. He caters to a niche audience and by combining a lot of determination with several pieces of new technology and integrally with MachStudio Pro, he is able to compete on a creative, production, and time level with much larger and better funded ventures. In many ways, this shakeup in the time/cost/quality tradeoffs are reminiscent of smaller studios using Final Cut Pro to compete with high-end editing systems in big post houses, or PhotoShop artists taking on tasks previously reserved for Quantel mavens. The technology becomes a great equalizer. Catering to niches becomes viable and profitable.

I look forward to watching the PWP 3D video, but even more, I look forward to seeing all of the other 3D CG animation (niche and broad reach) projects it inspires.

About the music

As a way of note and back story, the song that inspired this video was written by Deirdre Broderick with production and guitar solos by guitar icon and legend, David Spinozza. If you are a metal head or a Pansy fan, check out the MP3. Also if you are in the LA area, and interested in watching a the live-action filming, it is taking place next week (June 13-17) at Panavision's sound stage ( email for details).