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Can you make 3D movies from two 2D video tracks ?
Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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I am considering upgrade from PD9 to PD10 for the 3D feature.

I'm not clear if it's possible to create 3D output using input from multiple camcorders, ie. 2D video from multiple video tracks.

I looked in the FAQ but it only talks about import from 3D camcorders. I don't have one of those and am not planning to
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James Dotson
Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline
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You can, but it is not a native feature. You have to place the videos in two different tracks and manipulate them until the conversion is correct. PowerDirector expects 3D clips to already be in a side by side configuration. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM
James1
Senior Contributor Location: Surrey, B.C., Canada Joined: Jun 10, 2010 16:20 Messages: 1783 Offline
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Hi,
The program can create 3D-like movies from hi-def videos, with surprising results. The method you are referring to I don't know if the outcome would be desirable..that method is used to create 3D from 3D camcorders that record both 'frames' at the correct viewpoint.
Hope you understand my explanation. I have done a 3D-like video of my grandchildren just to see the results and was quite impressed. These 3D productions need the hi def videos I believe.
Jim
I'll see if I have the ones I did on You tube and post here.
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Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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Hi,

Quote: You can, but it is not a native feature. You have to place the videos in two different tracks and manipulate them until the conversion is correct. PowerDirector expects 3D clips to already be in a side by side configuration.


Thanks. Can you explain how one would go about doing that ?

In my application I want to use two camcorders in static positions, ie. on tripods. They won't be moving at all relative to each other.

I know how to align the video tracks properly on the timeline - I do this already by aligning the audio waves visually.

What I wonder is what requirements there are on the 2 video tracks in order to produce proper 3D. Do the video tracks have to be shot at a certain position / angle relative to each other ?

If shooting at an arbitrary (but fixed) angle, I would assume that PD would need to do some analysis on the 2 video tracks to figure out the correct output.
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Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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James,

Quote: Hi,
that method is used to create 3D from 3D camcorders that record both 'frames' at the correct viewpoint.


Yes. But what is the "correct" viewpoint ? Is there any way to shoot at this viewpoint using 2 separate camcorders ?
Maybe using a special mount of some kind to keep both camcorders in the right spot relative to each other.


Hope you understand my explanation. I have done a 3D-like video of my grandchildren just to see the results and was quite impressed. These 3D productions need the hi def videos I believe.


I'm familiar with the 3D-like algorithms, but I'm not really impressed with them. I want to produce HD video that's also 3D Not get pseudo-3D at the expense of the resolution.
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Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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Looks like Canon is supporting this with their pro camcorders .

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/08/canons-xf305-and-xf300-pro-camcorders-can-now-shoot-in-3d-if/

I can't really afford a pair of $8,000 camcorders though

My main camcorder is a $1000 Canon HG21 bought many years ago. Yesterday I bought a second camcorder, a JVC GZ-E10 for $180.

I did my first video with 2 tracks with PD9 last night, alternating between 2 viewpoints, and it is very nice.

However, the 2 camcorders being different, their image properties are quite different - the JVC picks up less light. If I really wanted to shoot in 3D I would probably have to use multiple identical camcorders for the left anr right eye. At $180, I might just pick up another GZ-E10.

The question is how to align them optically.
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James1
Senior Contributor Location: Surrey, B.C., Canada Joined: Jun 10, 2010 16:20 Messages: 1783 Offline
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Hi,
There is a 'bar' you can buy for mounting 2 camcorders but not sure how good that idea would work.
But as far as I can tell PD10 when outputting to disk can output as you want Two frames 'side by side'
which is the format recognized by the 3D televisions and utilize the polarized or alternating lens' but your TV/DVD player has to have the 3D capabilities. My monitor uses the red/cyan, but when i export for 3D to blue ray disk they are output as side by side.
Try this it is the first one I create, I created with the red/cyan on my monitor but produced to You Tube.
http://youtu.be/S_teUAqD0go
Hope this helps.
Jim
p.s. I am not an expert at this new stuff, but I have played in Magic eye 3D and now video editing. My Camera is JVC Everio HD GZ-HM670 and I have a Canon high def Camera also but JVC one gives better low light shooting. Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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Jim,

Thanks for your response.

Quote: Hi,
There is a 'bar' you can buy for mounting 2 camcorders but not sure how good that idea would work.


That sounds promising. Do you know know where I can find it ?


But as far as I can tell PD10 when outputting to disk can output as you want Two frames 'side by side'
which is the format recognized by the 3D televisions and utilize the polarized or alternating lens' but your TV/DVD player has to have the 3D capabilities. My monitor uses the red/cyan, but when i export for 3D to blue ray disk they are output as side by side.


That's good news. I guess I will have to download the trial of PD10 and see how well this works.

I do have a Sharp 60" LCD 3D TV in my bedroom upstairs along with a HTPC. I can play Blu-ray 3D discs just fine with that combination using PowerDVD 10.

My dual-display video editing setup downstairs does not have a 3D display, though.


Try this it is the first one I create, I created with the red/cyan on my monitor but produced to You Tube.
http://youtu.be/S_teUAqD0go


Thanks, I will check it out on the 3D display.


p.s. I am not an expert at this new stuff, but I have played in Magic eye 3D and now video editing. My Camera is JVC Everio HD GZ-HM670 and I have a Canon high def Camera also but JVC one gives better low light shooting.


http://camcorder.jvc.com/products/comparisonchart.jsp?modelId=MODL029004

Looks like your JVC GZ-HM670 is a better model than my GZ-E10 . It has a better CCD. It has internal memory which mine doesn't but I really don't care as I use an SDHC 32 GB card and I don't want to hook the camcorder to the PC anyway.
Lens is the same. Yours does stills and mine doesn't; I prefer to use a dedicated camera for stills anyway.
Not sure about the X.V color.
On the other hand, yours as a touch screen which is a big minus in terms of usability IMO.
The other differences seem fairly minor and mostly relate to in-camera editing.

The low light performance certainly isn't bad on the E10 but could be better. I will have to compare with the Canon HG21 shooting from the same spot without to have a valid comparison.

Which Canon do you have ?

Here is the video I did last night. It starts with the Canon video and then alternates with JVC, and so forth.
It was only the 3rd time I pressed the record button on the JVC.

You can see the JVC video is much darker. But the viewpoints are different as well as zoom levels.
This isn't really lowlight to begin with, but it is a large room with a high ceiling, and all lighting is recessed CFLs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E2OI7jnSF0&list=UUdW4UsySkeXj7ITMhQpbllw&index=1&feature=plcp
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Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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Were you speaking of a mount like this ?

http://www.amazon.com/Vanguard-Multi-Mount-Horizontal-Mounting-Multiple/dp/B001HBIYFO

By the way, does PD10 has a function for automatically aligning multiple tracks based on audio ?

Right now I'm doing the time alignment visually based on the audio wafeforms. Since I mute one audio track it is not an enormous problem if it's slightly off, by say, a frame. I try my best of course, but I have not exactly measured how far off I might be. Actually since 1 frame = 16 ms I probably would notice it zooming on my hands playing the piano and listening ...

For 3D video it might be more of a problem, though, I probably want the video to be aligned exactly to the frame.
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Wolfgang 1
Newbie Location: Austria/Vienna Joined: May 30, 2010 06:19 Messages: 49 Offline
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It is not possible to pair two videostreams in the PD10 as you can do that in other products. Unfortunately not. The way suggested here is something that should not be recommende for 3D really. Kind regards,
Wolfgang
Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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Quote: It is not possible to pair two videostreams in the PD10 as you can do that in other products. Unfortunately not. The way suggested here is something that should not be recommende for 3D really.


Which other products allow this ?
I would want to see the results of this method to be able to judge for myself whether it's worthwhile pursuing or not.
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vn800rider
Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline
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I haven't explored PD10 (other than the original trial version) as I have been away travelling over the last few months so my comments do not relate to the editing facilities of P10.

However, some time ago (prior to PD10 release) I set up 2 of my 4 Sanyo cameras on a transverse bar mounted on my fluid head tripod to play with 3D using another editing program.

The cameras were set parallel to each other with the spatial separation of the two lens centres at about 68mm - which is the distance between my right and left pupils - and the resulting 2 video streams were handled by the editing programme which allowed for auto or manual horizontal, vertical and angular alignment and auto or manual time synchronisation.

The resultant 3D was produced as anaglyph as I have no 3D capable display units. Some final editing of the 3D output (titles etc etc) was done in PD9.

Things to note :-
At 68mm separation the right hand camera has to have its monitor folded back so making it very difficult to see or monitor its output whilst filming.

With both cameras being identical (almost) there was no difference in zoom settings, colour saturation etc. making editing very much easier.

Both cameras respond to the same remote control so synchronisation was (relatively) easy.

On my setup, zooming whilst videoing using the remote was straightforward, with both cameras zooming together (most of the time) but editing the zooming sections in 3D proved difficult, as the necessary 3D separation pre and post zoom required some tinkering and I was never wholly satisfied with the results as the zooming 3D effect was never "smooth" enough. In the end it seemed simpler to just cut to a close up but obviously that might compromise videoing in some circumstances.

From my experience, using different cameras without a replicable setup would seem to me to lead to hard work at the editing end.

Cheers
Adrian

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Mar 18. 2012 08:35

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Bubba in TX
Senior Contributor Location: Central Texas Joined: Dec 12, 2009 21:32 Messages: 1332 Offline
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vn800rider

Good to see you are still alive..... __________________________________________
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Bubba in TX
Senior Contributor Location: Central Texas Joined: Dec 12, 2009 21:32 Messages: 1332 Offline
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OK what gives... I only hit submit once and it put out two..................

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Mar 18. 2012 14:59

__________________________________________
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**NOTICE**
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vn800rider
Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline
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Thank you Bubba, just returned after a 3 month sojourn to the Philippines, mainly living and diving on a very small island called Malapascua
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malapascua_Island

but also did a month of travelling and diving in other parts of the islands - Moalboal, Bohol, Apo Island, Dauin, Monarch Sands, and Kookoo's Nest.

Got many gigs of video to edit but also have to do a few things at home so .......

Cheers
Adrian

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
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Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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Quote:
The resultant 3D was produced as anaglyph as I have no 3D capable display units. Some final editing of the 3D output (titles etc etc) was done in PD9.


Do you have an example of the result ?


Things to note :-
At 68mm separation the right hand camera has to have its monitor folded back so making it very difficult to see or monitor its output whilst filming.


My Canon HG21 has an EVF, so the monitor does not need to be open.


With both cameras being identical (almost) there was no difference in zoom settings, colour saturation etc. making editing very much easier.

Both cameras respond to the same remote control so synchronisation was (relatively) easy.

On my setup, zooming whilst videoing using the remote was straightforward, with both cameras zooming together (most of the time) but editing the zooming sections in 3D proved difficult, as the necessary 3D separation pre and post zoom required some tinkering and I was never wholly satisfied with the results as the zooming 3D effect was never "smooth" enough. In the end it seemed simpler to just cut to a close up but obviously that might compromise videoing in some circumstances.

From my experience, using different cameras without a replicable setup would seem to me to lead to hard work at the editing end.


I would probably use identical cameras - I would buy another cheap GZ-E10 for this purpose.
It doesn't come with a remote, nor does it appear to have any IR receiver built-in.
But since I'm both the subject piano player and filmmaker at the same time, I wouldn't be able to use the remote during shooting anyway.

What hard editing work do you think would be involved besides timeline alignment between the 2 video streams ?
I already have to do timeline alignment anyway for my separately recorded audio.
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Xerox [Avatar]
Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Aug 09, 2009 01:36 Messages: 446 Offline
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It can be tedious to line up the images, both temporal and spatial, in PowerDirector 10. But here is the basic setup that I use to create a video in 3D anaglyph (red-cyan) from video taken with two 2D videocameras.

Left Eye video on Track 2.
Right Eye video on Track 1.
Move the Effect track so it's below track 2.
Add the Color Balance effect to each video.
Add the Glow Effect to the Effect track.

Color Balance values for video on track 1 (Left Eye):
Red -255
Green 0
Blue 0
Gradient Depth 0

Color Balance values for video on track 2 (Right eye):
Red 0
Green -255
Blue -255
Gradient Depth 0

Glow values:
Blur Radius 0
Glow Level 19

For video on track 2 (right eye):
Opacity 50
You can change this value in the PiP Designer.

After you have aligned the start of each video (temporal), you need to align the images vertically (spatial). The tops and bottoms of objects in the left-eye video need to align with the tops and bottoms of same objects in right-eye video. You may need to rotate one of the videos, or move it up or down to accomplish that. You may need to distort the video by adjusting the blue handles in the preview window. It's all very complicated and tedious to do. Gateway DX4380, AMD A8-5500 Quad Core 3.2GHz with ATI Radeon HD 7560D; 16GB RAM; 1 TB SATA 7200 RPM; Windows 8 Pro 64-bit; PDR11, PDVD12.
Julien Pierre [Avatar]
Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline
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Xerox,

Quote:
After you have aligned the start of each video (temporal), you need to align the images vertically (spatial). The tops and bottoms of objects in the left-eye video need to align with the tops and bottoms of same objects in right-eye video. You may need to rotate one of the videos, or move it up or down to accomplish that. You may need to distort the video by adjusting the blue handles in the preview window. It's all very complicated and tedious to do.


Thanks for the informative post.

I don't want to target anaglyph. I only want to target native 3D displays. Is it possible to do that with PD10 from 2 video streams ?

If the two identical camcorders were parallel on a horizontal mount, there should be no need for vertical / spatial alignment, right ?

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vn800rider
Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline
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Due to extensive alterations to the house and office (and my travels) all my media systems are in storage. The only 3D example I have is here :
http://youtu.be/bZh8zCMuDL4

but this was really a test about the "disappearing person" using 3D, rather than on the 3D per se. It required the use of four 2D tracks.

Also from my (relatively limited) experience, sometimes the 3D effect, even with 2 identical cameras in a fixed setup, can require a bit of adjustment to get it to be visually pleasing. Admittedly, I was often shooting scenes with a significant difference in distance from the cameras - as you would normally do in 2D - typically panning around a social function in a garden etc and perhaps this was asking a bit much for simple 3D editors to handle.

I came to the conclusion that, whilst 3D was interesting, it required a more sophisticated setup, wider experience and a degree of pre-planning to set up, shoot and edit than I had time (or finance) for, so it is now another item on the future to-do list.

(plus the thought of travelling overseas and diving off a small traditional bangka outrigger with 2 cameras and underwater housings on a rig seemed a bit much , and my fellow divers would probably think me a bit (more) idiosyncratic than I really am.)

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
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Dafydd B [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline
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RE=vn800rider : From my experience, using different cameras without a replicable setup would seem to me to lead to hard work at the editing end.

I agree with what Adrian has written. Wolfgang is also right regarding matching video up. There is a report on the forum where a GoPro editor asked the same question. I tried to assist. I found I could create a side by side but PD would not recognise the footage as 3D, so editing the finish file proved quite difficult. With SbyS the left or right pane is recognised and displayed allowing an editor to carry out Timeline edits. this wasn't the case with the "manufactured" footage. Anaglyph would be the only option.

When I experimented with a two 2d cameras for a 3D set up I noticed the differences two cameras record footage. It made me back away from the effort (wasting my time) as the equipment I had just wouldn't cut the mustard. PD10's 2D to 3D conversion is so much easier ha ha...

The pitfall I found with the 3D camera i have is the lack of zoom - just cant get into that close (2D can) shot.

Dafydd

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Mar 19. 2012 07:59

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