CineForm’s stereo (3D) technology is designed for 3D editorial and presentation workflows supporting feature film, television, optical, or Internet distribution.  The heart of CineForm’s stereo technology is the creation of a stereo CineForm AVI or QuickTime file from Left and Right eye sources that also contain some unique characteristics as discussed below. Stereo CineForm files may be used throughout 3D editorial using standard 2D tools (such as Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro) in combination with CineForm’s 3D editorial software called Neo3D.

CineForm stereo AVI/MOV files are compatible on both Windows and Mac including with existing 2D editorial and effects software from Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Microsoft, Sony, etc. A QuickTime or DirectShow 2D application will interpret a CineForm stereo file as if it were a traditional single-stream file and will play the “eye” within the file that is defined as Left (or dominant). When CineForm’s 3D software application (such as Neo3D) is installed, numerous other 3D features are enabled as discussed below.

CineForm’s Active Metadata™ technology is an important part of 3D processing. Active Metadata allows numerous 3D processing steps to be performed non-destructively and in real time on the decoded video stream(s) prior to presenting the requested frames to the calling application, including:

• Convergence controls: horizontal, vertical, and rotation
• Keystoning
• Stereo or independent-eye Zoom control
• Stereo color adjustments: gain/offset, gamma, color matrix, 3D LUTs
• Independent eye color adjustments (beneficial when using beam splitter rigs)
• Independent eye Image flip: (for when using beam splitter rigs)

CineForm’s Neo3D software includes First Light 3D that includes 3D controls to manage Active Metadata database parameters mentioned above, and further provides the dynamic global controls (rules) used by the Active Metadata 3D processor.

Numerous display formats may be selected based on the display device (2D or 3D) plus the capabilities of the installed hardware output device (DVI, HD-SDI), including:

• 2D: Left eye or Right eye
• 3D: Anaglyph for normal 2D monitors
• HD Frame: (side-by-side, over-under, interlace) for 3D HD monitors
• Dual-Link for digital projection (currently Mac only)

Display modes may be switched dynamically by the user between any of the 2D or 3D formats depending on the desired editorial or presentation function being performed.

Creating CineForm Stereo Files.

CineForm stereo files may be created from live camera sources in real time by direct ingest, or from file-based sources of various formats: DPX files, CineForm files, R3D files, etc. Often your camera or file-based sources will begin as separate Left and Right eye content.  In this case your workflow will be to:

1. convert each L and R eye into a separate L/R CineForm file.  We have many Tech Notes describing how to convert camera or file sources to CineForm files so we’ll not dive deeper on this right now.

2. create a stereo (3D) CineForm file by multiplexing (muxing) together the individual eye files.  The mux process is performed on Mac using First Light 3D, a valuable utility that ships with Neo3D, and which you’ll use for many parts of your 3D workflow.

Note: we’ll be providing scriptable tools to convert certain file-based formats, such as DPX files, directly into CineForm stereo files in one step, including encoding of each separate eye and multiplexing into the stereo file.

When creating CineForm stereo files, the assumed synchronization mechanism between eyes is the recorded timecode in each individual stream. However, if files are captured with incorrect timecode, then files from individual eyes may be shifted against one another and re-multiplexed into a new CineForm stereo file without the need for re-encoding.

A key benefit of the CineForm 3D workflow is the online workflow – resulting stereo streams contain full-resolution images for each eye. This allows the same CineForm stereo files used in editorial (and displayed in HD frame mode) to be moved into a digital theater and played directly through a RealD stereo projector using dual-link mode.

As with the creation of any CineForm file, stereo Active Metadata may be inserted into the source stream based on user preference.

Stereo (3D) Editorial Workflow for Mac and Windows

Intended for 3D cinema, broadcast, Blu-Ray, and Internet distribution, Neo3D transforms traditional industry editorial and effects tools into feature-rich 3D editorial tools.

With versions for both Windows and Mac, CineForm’s Neo3D delivers a real-time 3D editing workflow compatible with most NLEs — including from Adobe, Apple, Avid, and Sony. A Neo3D workflow begins by creating CineForm 3D media that contains full-resolution Left and Right eye information in a single AVI or MOV wrapper. CineForm Intermediate compression is acclaimed for its high visual fidelity, and is used routinely as the mastering format for 2D and 3D film, televison, and archive workflows. The workhorse application for making 3D adjustments is First Light which is included with Neo3D. First Light implements 3D image adjustments, non-destructive primary color correction, plus 2D/3D text and graphics overlays as Active Metadata™ layers on top of the underlying 3D video layer. During editorial, First Light allows for choosing 3D display modes for an external monitor, real-time keyframeable adjustments of convergence, keystoning, primary color correction, and much more, all performed in real time and implemented through Active Metadata. First Light's Active Metadata architecture ensures media and Active Metadata compatibility with all QuickTime and AVI applications on both Windows and Mac.

Considering workflow, First Light is used in parallel with the preferred NLE, allowing 3D adjustments during editorial playback. The tools in Neo3D can be used for 3D finishing, or can be used to offline a 3D project with finishing performed in other tools. Neo3D is a superset of Neo4K and includes all applications and tools described for Neo4K, including HD Link (Win) and ReMaster (Mac) which convert virtually all camera or file sources into CineForm media at unrestricted spatial resolution.

Neo3D offers the following 3D features:

Full 3D editorial workflow: Using Neo3D, you have a consistent 3D editing workflow that is cross-platform compatible with Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Media Composer, Vegas, and other editorial and effects tools in a manner similar to editing any CineForm 2D file.

First Light™ 3D: the heart of Neo3D. All 2D and 3D adjustments are implemented as Active Metadata under control of First Light. The First Light application is kept active during editorial and allows adjustments of 2D and 3D Active Metadata parameters.

Display Support for most 3D monitors: Real-time formatting of CineForm 3D media into a selectable 3D presentation format during 3D decode based on the 3D monitoring setup: dual-link stereo, passive polarized, active shutter (page flip), or anaglyph

Keyframeable 3D Adjustments (all real-time): - Convergence: horizontal, vertical or rotation (skew) between Left and Right eyes

- Stereo color adjustments: white balance, exposure, saturation, lift, gamma, gain, and more

- Crop/zoom including pan and scan

- Titles, metadata, and graphics overlays

Individual Eye Adjustments for color and image flip useful for beam-splitter 3D rigs

Keystoning Adjustment: Allows correction for camera toe-in/out

Depth Tilt to adjust relative depth of primary objects in a scene

Ghost Busting to reduce high contrast ghosting visible on some passive displays

3D file creation and synchronization, including slipping one eye relative to another when sources are out of alignment.