3D Video – How Do They Make Things Jump Out Of The Screen – Parallax Width

narrow-vs-wide-parallaxI got an email from a reader asking how 3D movie makers make things feel like they are coming out of the screen. The best answer I can give is that to achieve this effect, you show a lot of depth and dimension when you are actually shooting the video. In other words, have a very distant background, and have the object you want to leap out of the screen positioned a lot closer to the camera. This causes the background to have a narrow parallax effect, and the item in the foreground to have a wide parallax effect.

Here’s a sample video showing the effect, and you will need your red/cyan 3d glasses to see the effect – Check it out! I Got’s me a block of wood Yo! BOOYAH!

httpvh://youtu.be/ekua0h2r8Iw

Below is a screen capture from the video. If you look closely at the tip of the block of wood you can see that the gap between the left/red channel of video and the right/blue channel is quiet wide. This distance makes the object appear close to the viewer. If you follow along the length of the piece of wood towards my hands you will notice that the distance between the red and blue channels narrows. This narrowing gives the feeling of depth and dimension, tricking the viewers brain into thinking I am further back in the field.

Parallax-EffectIf this video was shot in 2D and you wanted to convert it to 3D, the perspective of the parallax (The Wood coming out at you) would be lost, and the effect would not be as dramatic. You probably could rebuild it using something like Adobe After Effects, but it would be a MAJOR MAJOR undertaking. The quickest, and easiest way to achieve this effect, is to create it and shoot it in 3D.

3D Video for Beginners Part 2 – Watching your 3D Video on Mac, Windows or Linux with BINO

Bino LogoSo now you have created your 3D video file, its time to watch it back and see how it looks. If you try to open it using Quicktime or Windows Media Player, you will see your two camera feeds simultaneously in “Side by Side” format.

side by side videoIn order to see the 3D effect, and watch your video in 3D you will need to use a player that is capable of handling Stereoscopic Video files. There are quiet a few out there, but my Favorite is called BINO. I like it because it is really easy to use, can play your side by side video file back in lots of different flavors of 3D (like red/cyan, amber/blue, green magenta), there are versions for Windows, Mac and Linux/Unix, and the best part, its completely free!

You can download BINO from the bino3d.org web site HERE.

Once you have downloaded, extracted and installed BINO you can launch it, and from the file menu select your Side By Side video file, and the player will appear. You now need to set only two parameters, you need to tell BINO what kind of file it is you want to play, and how you want it played back.

In the “Input” drop down menu, select “Left/Right Half Width”, and in the “Output” drop down menu, select the display method that corresponds to the 3D Glasses you will be using to watch the video. I have the ones with the Red and Blue lenses, so I use Red/Cyan High Quality mode. Now, just push play and see how you did.

Bino WindowYou can make your video go full screen by double clicking the playing video. Double clicking on it again takes you back to window mode.