Stereoscopic Animations
(Created 04/03/2005)
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Now
that you know how to create stereoscopic images, it's about time
to learn how to create stereoscopic animations. The stereo setup
scene that you can use for creating stereo images is the perfect starting
point. You can download it here.
Vue 5 Esprit users have to change the settings in the Render
Options to
"Only visible layers". Vue 4 Professional
and Vue 5 Infinite (or newer) users can use the scene as it is.
Before you start to create a flight or a walk through a scene you have to imagine what really happens. If you for instance turn left into another street, your left eye moves in a tighter curve than your right eye. If you turn right into another street the left eye moves a longer way than the right one. And what happens if you fly with an airplane? A plane banks when it turns. That means turning to the left the left eye is closer to the ground than the right
eye.
Why do I tell you all that? I want you to understand that you can't just apply the same animation path to the left and the right camera. To get a stereo effect in an animation you can't animate the "eyes" (cameras), instead you have to animate the "head" that the eyes are attached to. Let's use a cube to simulate a
head.
Now it's time again for some testing. Add some objects to your
scene to prove if the setup works properly. Attention! If
you want to change the position of your camera or the point of view
select just the cube to achieve the settings. The left and right camera
will follow accordingly. Don't do any
changes to the camera directly!!! When you're pleased with
your test scene select the CUBE (head)
to
animate it. The easiest way is to use the Mover
Wizard in Vue 4 Professional, respectively the Animation
Wizard in Vue 5 Esprit
and Vue 5 Infinite.
Open it by right-clicking the animation icon  .
Click Next and
select Airplane to
test if the cameras follow the cube properly when it banks.
Click Next to
get to the next page. You'll see that "-
Y axis" is chosen for the main
axis. That would mean the cube (and also the camera) looks into your direction. You
want it to look in the opposite direction, and that's why you'll
select "+ Y axis" for
your main axis. Click Next and
you'll see the cube moving in a preview. We don't want to change
anything here for this test, and so you click Next
again. This is the most
important part because now you'll create the animation path of
the cube. To let the airplane bank, you have to create a curvy
path similar to the screenshot below. |
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Click Next to
go to the next page. You can ignore this page for now and go
to the next one. Here you would normally see a preview of the animated cube,
but because it's placed in an invisible layer you can't see it, of
course. :) Click Next
and then click Finish.
That takes you back to the working space and you see the animation
path in all 4 views.
Activate your left camera and left-click at the animation icon to
display the Timeline. Here you'll see the duration of your
animation. Each added way point is displayed as a keyframe. You
can render a small preview of your animation by clicking the left
icon on the timeline. It gives you an impression of your animation
to see if you have to change something. When you're pleased click
the right icon on the timeline to render the left eye animation. To get a good
stereo animation I recommend to use a lossless file format. I used an
uncompressed AVI file format and saved the file as "left.avi".
When that's done activate your right camera and render the
animation. I chose "right.avi" as a file name.
Now we have to create a stereo animation from the "left.avi" and the "right.avi" file. I used the freeware StereoMovie
Maker. Go to File / Open Left/Right
Movies... to open both your
animations. You'll see both animations and beneath them a
composition that shows you the difference of the views. |
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Now you have to decide what type of stereo output you want to
create. Go to Stereo
in the menu to select the type you want. I chose Color Anaglyph/color (red/cyan). |
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Now you can play your stereo animation to see how it works (Play/Both). BTW, if you want to view your animation side by
side in cross-eye view you'll have to swap the animations (View/Swap Left/Right).
When everything is OK you can save
your stereo animation (File/Save Stereo Movie).
Here is a small version of the created
animation:
I hope this tutorial is
also easy to understand and easy to follow. |
