Enhanced Dimensions made history last week by launching Scotland’s first 3D Music Video. The video is for a song called “Gloria (The Death of Me)” by Edinburgh based indie band The Raw I’s. The video has been online less than a week, with no commercial promotion, yet has already raked up over 1500 views.

The 6 minute long 3D video can be viewed using red cyan 3d anaglyph glasses on:

•  YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/EnhancedDimensions)
•  Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/channels/stereoscopic3d#13514033)

The concept of the video is of a futuristic Hologram Projection Kiosk where a band performs – with the band depicted as projected holograms while the stage props, in this case guitar amps and drum kit, are solid objects. Imagine being able to buy your own little hologram theatre and watch your favourite band performing right on your desktop, that would be amazing. The concept was in part inspired by the memory of the Sega Holographic coin-op “Time Traveller” from the early 1990’s, and partly by the variations on the ”pepper ghost” illusion that is back in vogue being used at live events/theatres etc to project “holograms” in front of a live audience.

The video footage was shot using a single Sony HDR-FX 7 with the cast performing to the track in front of a greenscreen. The cast were then composited in a 3D environment created entirely within Adobe After Effects and the various shots and moves were generated with the stereoscopic effect controlled using a custom After Effects 3D rig. With this 3D rig, once the scene and general camera moves are created, the stereo effect can be increased or decreased in order to render versions suitable for a variety of screen sizes. The online version is created for a 23″ Samsung Syncmaster - this version is therefore optimal for around a 20-26″ screen.

The rendering was a massive task – each character has three animated tracking lights, plus every internal panel of the kiosk has a multi-layered animation continuously playing with certain effects syncronised to the drumbeat.  All this is rendered using an off the shelf quad core PC with 4GB RAM. To make one change, e.g.  changing the guitar amp design, would entail a week to re-render all the individual shots then another day to render the various final output 3d formats. All told the video has taken over six months to complete.

Creating the holographic look was key - it had to look a bit grungy with some harshness to suggest the technology wasn’t super smooth and that this existed in a real world environment. The fact that as you get closer the effect becomes more obvious, just as if you got too near a TV more and more artefacts become obvious really brings the look to life. Getting the hologram look right was a little like the recreating scene in Star Wars where R2-D projects Princess Leia… only not quite as sexy.

A very early clip of this was actually used in the short film “FourPlay” that won an InvaZion Award earlier this year – it’s quite interesting to contrast them now. The red cyan anaglyph version of the video can be viewed online however if you have suitable technology you can download the full HD version from the link below. A very early anaglyph version of this video that shows how far this has come will be available online soon.

• Download the half HD side-by-side version of the 3D video here.
• Download the separate 1080p Left & Right 3D Video Streams here.

Sources from the 3D World Magazine & Sony 3D competition have noted via their forum that around 50 entries were received for the 3d short film competition. Entries came from all over the globe, including  Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and the UK. The good news is, as there are over 50 prizes up for grabs, everyone should get some prize to reward their efforts.

The original plan was to announce the winner at this week’s SIGGRAPH and to showcase the winners there, however the sheer volume of entries has delayed this. Steve from 3D World via the forum said that he expected the winners to be announced once they get back from LA. With SIGGRAPH closing at the end of this week hopefully that means everyone who entered should be hearing in early August.

Find out more about the Sony 3D World Competition.

Engadget has run a story regarding the possibility of Panasonic releasing a consumer level 3d camcorder later this year. Unlike the $21,000 model that is already available to those with a suitable budget the consumer model would need to hit the sub-$1000 mark for it to be even considered as a viable consumer camcorder.

The specs are sketchy suggestions are that it will be an adaptation of an existing high end 3MOS model with a 3D Conversion lens shooting at 1080p at 60fps. Apparently Panasonic will advertise this as “The World’s First 3D Shooting Camcorder”.

Find out more at engadget.com

To celebrate the launch of our very first 3d music video Enhanced Dimensions has got a music themed competition running to the end of August 2010.

The fantastic prize pack up for grabs includes:

• Hannah Montana’s “Best of Both Worlds Concert” DVD in glorious 3D with a limited edition 3D cover (also featuring The Jonas Brothers)
• A pair of our cool plastic framed anaglyph glasses
• “Gloria (The Death of Me)” 3D music video on DVD with additional 3D glasses - not available anywhere else!

To stand a chance of winning these fantastic 3d prizes you need to check out our music video over on YouTube and give us the answer to the following question:

• What is written on the front of the drum kit in the video “Gloria (The Death of Me)”?

Email your answers to 3dprizes@enhanced-dimensions.com no later than midnight on 31st August for a chance to win this unique prize pack.

Filming 3d footage on a budget brings with it a range of technical challenges. Beyond the basic hurdle of understanding how to control the 3d effect, actually having equipment that can overcome even a few of the issues to get a decent stereo shot is a challenge. Without James Cameron level budgets most indie level  filmmakers are experimenting with their own rigs – some with greater success than others.

Over the next short while I’ll be out testing an inexpensive basic side by side rig I’ve put together for under £200 and I’ll be sharing its strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully sharing this will inspire others. There are already some really interesting stereo enthusiasts sharing their information and suggestions – if it’s something you’re investigating I’d suggest you take a look at The Stereoscopic 3D Channel – TESTBED on Vimeo for some fascinating videos. I can highly recommend Pavel Houda’s videos that are so chock full of information I can only hope to even touch on the level of some of his skills.

I’ll also be sharing links to the various component parts I’ve used and will demonstrate the process of creating the stereoscopic footage in After Effects for deployment in anaglyph and side by side format.

Do please bookmark Enhanced Dimensions and check back with me for more as this experiment rolls-on.

We were fortunate to be filming in an amazing location last week so I took the opportunity to get some images and video footage of the fantastic art and surrounding woodlands of Jupiter Artland just outside Edinburgh, Scotland.

Jupiter Artland is a contemporary sculpture garden in the grounds of Bonnington House, outside Edinburgh. Works by many leading artists have been commissioned and then constructed in situ, with the relationship of each artwork to its topographical location being a crucial feature.

If you’d like to see our stereoscopic slideshow of the amazing art and surrounding woodlands do check out the Jupiter Artland Stereo 3D slideshow on The Stereoscopic 3D Channel.

Take me to the Jupiter Artland 3D Slideshow now.