Just a word of warning for anyone about to splash their hard earned cash to grab the 3D Blu ray of Spy Kids All The Time in The World in 3D (or 4D with the aroma-scope cards) – STOP!

This is without doubt the worst conversion job I’ve seen yet, they definitely didn’t take all the time in the world on this one! It even surpasses the slap dash 3D on Clash of The Titans. Apart from a regular haloing effect around characters there were some of the weirdest choices I’ve ever seen on dimensionalization. In one shot the young girls head was split in two with the part behind her hair band in the background and the other part in front. When looking through windows instead of there being depth to the outside it was like looking at a flat TV screen and on one shot a floor seemed to be on the same plane as the cut out table above. I really can’t advise you strongly enough don’t waste your cash it’s awful.

The conversion was done by Speedshape who somehow managed to convince the Weinsteins to entrust them with the totality of the conversion – I can only imagine their tests were way better than the final film demonstrates – perhaps they got an intern to do the majority of the actual film?? Most worrying is I read they are involved in converting Piranha 3DD and if it’s down to this standard I’ll definitely be giving it a miss.

Spy Kids All The Time in The World 4D – poor, poor, poor. AVOID!

We’ve got a cool new rock ‘n roll themed 3D template as part of our RockCandy Singlez package: 3D Pink Strip Show.

The RockCandy 3D Singlez Collection is a series of individually downloadable templates created in Adobe After Effects CS4. These templates are fully editable with all parameters and content able to be changed or replaced. Each template includes a fully operational version of Enhanced Dimensions eD-3D Virtual Stereoscopic Rig for After Effects CS4 and above.

Don’t forget there’s a whole section dedicated to tutorials for RockCandy 3D including Singlez templates, plus extensive tutorials on using the eD-3D Virtual Rig for After Effects CS4, CS5 & above that is at the heart of RockCandy 3D.

To find our more pop over to our 3D online store.

One of the challenges that we’ve had to deal with in this final stage of submitting Cycle 3D into film festivals is the issue of creating the projection format suitable for digital projection systems, when working within an extremely limited budget.

Digital 3D projection systems require a industry standard DCP package that is effectively a JPEG 2000 compliant image sequence and a series of specific files to be created in order for this to playback from the digital cinema server. Unfortunately for indie filmmakers this format can’t be generated by any of the prosumer level tools from the likes of Adobe or Sony so alternative options are required.

When completing FourPlay 3D in 2010 I was quoted £250 to convert the 3 minute short to a DCP and at that time I started researching and trying out various options. At the time the only free solution I found was OpenDCP –in fairness it did actually work but I found it extremely slow and cumbersome to work with – considering the DCP I was creating was relatively short it seemed to take an inordinate amount of processing time. Unfortunately this also tended to crash on my PC and I could not get it to restart a failed conversion, meaning it would go through the entire achingly slow JPEG2000 conversion process from scratch every time.

With the completion of Cycle 3D, I decided it was time to reassess the situation and see if there was any new free (or inexpensive) ways to create the 3D DCP myself. I’m glad to say I located a new software package, DCP Builder, that promised to do the job and although it took a little while to get to grips with it was well documented and supported by its creator Guiseppe Baruffa.

The software itself installed and worked seamlessly, although you do require an activation to code to remove watermarking. Installers are available for Mac, PC and Linux and once installed on my Windows 7 64 bit PC and registered the DCP building process was straightforward. Using the step through wizard I was able to set all the options, locate the appropriate TIFF sequences and the stereo audio file. It took a couple of attempts to make sense of how to make it a stereoscopic DCP with stereo soundtrack but once I figured it out it was sensible enough. The program then battered through my footage and managed to convert the 10 minute short in around 6 hours on my AMD Phenom II X6 processor with 16GB RAM.

For testing purposes I fired up Stereoscopic Player that is really handy for testing that all the required files have been created successfully and gave it a run through. Obviously it would be handy to have an actual digital cinema server to test the DCP on but at this stage I’m happy that the DCP has been successfully generated even if I can’t test it in a live server situation.

Although DCP Builder is offered as freeware for non commercial use, this software has already saved me several hundred pounds so I gladly made a donation to help further development of this great tool.

Download DCP Builder from DSP Laboratory now and give it a shot!

The Hill Country Film Festival that runs in Fredericksburg, Texas has an open call for 3D shorts.

For the first time this year HCFF has a 3D Shorts category for films under 40 minutes in length. The Festival was created to celebrate and showcase filmmakers from Texas and around the world, and features independent films, both short and feature length, as well as hosted filmmaker Q&A/interviews, discussion panels, a filmmaker’s lounge and festival parties.

Check out how to submit on the HCFF website.

As part of the production process for Cycle 3D I tried out the DFX v3.0 suite of plug-ins from Tiffen. The suite simulates a wide range of film stocks and lenses as well as fixing typical digital artefacts such as digital noise and digital blocking.

Read my full review of the Tiffen DFX 3.0 Suite here.

As part of the film festival process we’ve completed the poster for Cycle 3D along with the tagline – “Death is just the beginning… Cycle 3D”.

The film is now submitted to three festivals and over the next few months will be submitted to a wide variety of festivals wordwide both mainstream and indie as well as 3D specific. Your support is most appreciated so if you would like to see Cycle 3D do please like us on Facebook to keep up to date with potential screenings.

Visit Cycle 3D on Facebook.