Hi there,
do you know any plugins or tools for Cinema 4D for creating stereoscopic 3D Animations? And are they comparable to the quality of the Maya stereotools?
I am using Cinema 4D Studio, Z-Brush and I would produce for a Sony 3D-TV with Shutterglasses.
Any help, ideas oe links would be appreciated. 
Boma
Itâs very easy to create stereoscopic renders in C4D without any plugins at all (though there are plugins out there, DeGamma for instance for dealing with lens distorted stereo imagery). The trick isnât in the rendering though, itâs in how the images are interleaved, each tecnology uses itâs own process, for some you simply place the images side by side on a plate, for others you must overlay them in different manners either interlaced or channel mixed as in traditional anaglyph, then others require the images to be placed one frame after the other and high FPS. Youâd normally do this during or just prior to encoding to the format to be outputted. With a Sony TV Iâve no idea what tools are available, but theyâd most likely be outside of your 3D app.
Itâs important for me to know how to setup up the cameras. Like the digital equivalent to the analog camera rig. Are there Applications that help me with the setup of the two cameras?
I found this pretty useful recently:-
http://www.svoigt.net/index.php/downloads/23-downloads/57-free-stereoscopic-camera-rig-for-cinema-4d
there are two forms of stereoscopic camera-setups:
one ist âtoed inâ, the other âparallelâ. it´s crucial to know which way you want to go.
the camera rig itself is very easy to do. you´ll find a lot of tutorials covering that.
the priciple is always the same, no matter what software you use.
If you really want to dive in and learn the nuts and bolts of a good Stereo setup in c4d, Iâd suggest reading through Stefan Voightâs tutorials (posted above) and hightly reccommend Tim Claphamâs classes on the subject at FXPHD. HE covers pretty much every aspect of setting up a very versatile stereo rig in cinema. HAving realtime feedback via the recently added camera shader makes a world of difference.
There are also a few nice rigs posted if you do a search here. But if you want to learn the mechanics yourself the classes will be well worth it.
I just saw at the magazine rack in the U.S., an issue of either 3D World, or perhaps Computer Arts (one of the UK magazines, I browsed through several) and it had a feature on creating 3D anaglyphs. The issues are about a month behind by the time they make it to the U.S. so it might not be the latest issue in Europe.
I looked on the 3D World and Computer Arts websites, but couldnât find the 3D anaglyph tutorial⌠Sorry. I did see it last week on the news stand thoughâŚ
All I found in the recent issue was this 2D articleâŚ
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/premium_content/2d__and__photoshop/anaglyph_images
Joe
Hi
I think you are most likely not going to want to use anaglyph for anything more than to test your stereo results unless thats the delivery method requested (OP poster needs to setup renders for shutter glasses). Its the mecahanics of adjusting the 3d camera offset thatâs most crucial. The s.voight link above includes a nice anaglyph setup overview. AE also comes with a handy effect called 3d glasses that lets you render your pairs to anaglyh (and I believe Per Anderâs plugin does as well right out of cinema).
Hey there,
many thanks for mentioning my site
You can find all the interesting stuff at:
http://www.svoigt.net/index.php/tutorials
And also some stereoscopic reviews to get some âdoâs and donâts in stereoâ:
http://www.svoigt.net/index.php/english
And here is the link to my camera rig (again ^^):
http://www.svoigt.net/index.php/downloads
Feel free to ask questions!
Iâve also created a facebook group about stereoscopic 3D,
so all the interested artists get to know each other, network and can discuss things:
http://www.svoigt.net/index.php/component/content/article/8-news2009/64-stereoscopic-artists-unite
I also recommend everybody to read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/3D-Movie-Making-Stereoscopic-Digital/dp/0240811372/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1285709466&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Iâm collecting professional infos about stereoscopic 3D from keynote speakers (Disney Pixar, ImageMoversDigital,⌠), lectures and websites for almost 2 years now. And still this book has given me very good advice and made some things clearer for me.
Actually itâs very well written and pretty easy to understand!
best regards,
Stefan
Thank you all so much. 3D-TV will be delivered soon, canât wait to delve into the world of S3D!
Hi Boma,
can you tell something about how to produce a 3D-Blueray-Disc for a 3D-TV like the one you bought?
I know how to make stereoscopic footage and get a left/right-split or to get anaglyph-video. But how do I get my movie on a 3D-TV?
Hello Holger,
very interesting question! I donât really know about standards for bluerays.
Because stereoscopy is pretty new there arenât common standards yet, I think.
I just heard of the Stereoscopic DCP with JPEG 2000.
This is a standard for digital cinema distribution, but maybe it will
also be of importance for a stereoscopic blueray.
Checkout these links for more information:
http://www.3dtv.at/Products/Jpeg2000Decoder/Index_de.aspx
requirements for a stereoscopic DCP:
http://www.dcimovies.com/DCI_Stereoscopic_DC_Addendum.pdf
Fraunhofer institute creates DCPs:
http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/bf/bv/cinema/dcpplayer.jsp
For a private use on home cinema systems, you will have to match the specific format of your 3D TV. It really depends on the method your TV uses. But most commonly you will provide your TV with two streams and the TV itself calculates the rest.
There a three different methods for providing the two streams:
These are the methods I came in touch with, so try and see which one works.
I donât know any standards yet, so please tell me if you find out something!
Thank you!
You can also checkout and download the different versions of my student project âBROKENâ:
http://www.svoigt.net/index.php/broken/20-broken
Maybe saving you some render time and After Effects trouble 
best regards and good luck,
Stefan Voigt
Hello Stefan, thank you for your answer. Actually I dont have a 3D-TV jet. But the only reason I would buy one is to watch my own 3D-Content. I was sitting in front of a new model of the Sharp-3D-TVâŚI was overwelmed by the clear and bright 3D-Quality( and I saw a lot 3D-movies in theatre). Sharp uses the Quatron-Technologie which adds a fourth color (yellow) to the RGB-Pixels.
WellâŚI thought I have to Produce a Blueray 3D-DiscâŚbut maybe there is a Input for two-channel-Streems.
I found one link to a product for Blueray-authoring. But its way beyond private use-prices. So I think we are talking about future when talking about producing private 3D Blueray.
Check this out: http://www.netblender.com/main/products/blu-ray-3d-solutions/
greetings, Holger
Wow, what a price! 
And I thought the CS5 bundle is expensive!
The Sharp 3D TV sounds very nice, but have you also thought about a 3D Display for your computer? Zalman offers a very cheap display or you could go with some shutter systems by Nvidia.
This way you could just use the stereoscopic player ( http://3dtv.at/Downloads/Index_de.aspx ) and watch even YouTube videos and play games in stereo!
There is much more stereoscopic content on the net than in television.
But if you fell in love with the Sharp Display: go and get it ^^
There will always be a way to bring the content from your computer to the television.
best regards,
Stefan
@ HolgerBiebrach
I just found this link about free Unencrypted 3D movie DCP mastering for Digital Cinema Servers:
http://realvision.ae/blog/2010/09/free-unencrypted-3d-movie-dcp-mastering-for-digital-cinema-servers/
Maybe you can break it down to work on a home cinema system.
Stefan, Iâd be interested to know the merits of toeâd in versus parallel cameraâs. I have a 3d project coming up where the client wants something to come out of the screen and practically scrape the viewers foreheads.
I have been advised to go parallel because the workflow is so much easier, and eye strain is less. But my concern is that the 3D effect will become flattened somewhat with parallel.
No, the effect wonât get flatter with a parallel setup.
It just depends on your focal length, parallax and how you setup your cameras generally.
Toed-in and parallel in my opinion are two different approaches on the stereoscopic view.
A toed-in setup lets you focus only on the center of the scene, while in a parallel setup the audience can wander around with the eyes. The big disadvantage of toed-in setup is the keystoning effect.
You can watch my stereoscopic session 2 for a comparison and a quick explanatio of the keystoning effect:
http://www.svoigt.net/index.php/tutorials/22-stereoscopic-3d/59-stereoscopic-session-02-camera-setup
If you are using Cinema 4D I would recommend to use my setup as it also saves you the effort of cropping everything, when using a parallel setup.
Thanks Stefan, I plan on using your excellent setup.
Part of me likes the idea of Toeâd in because it replicates how out eyes really work. But in a movie the audience chooses where they want to focus their eyes, as opposed to real life where our eyes will always keep the center of our attention in focus.
Pixarâs recent 3D short, Day and Night used parallel cameraâs whereas Avatar used Toeâd in.
I wonder why they chose Toeâd in for Avatar? Surely they understood its limitations. Is there some other advantage? Is it more ârealâ?
In a full cg project you can get the cameras as close together as you want.
Therefore in a full cg environment you will most likely use a parallel off axis setup, because it makes the least problems.
Avatar is mainly a life-action movie. You canât get real cameras as close together as you want. Thatâs why you will have to toe them in. On set they often mix the techniques as far as I know. They get it close with the parallel workflow and are adjusting the parallax with a software linked to the cameras. Because the software isnât fine enough they do a little bit of toe-in, what makes the whole setup toed-in.
But they do a lot of corrections in postproduction to compensate for the technical flaws.
So it depends on whether it is life-action or full cg.
Hi Stefan, I will check this out. I certainly will get me a 3D-cinema-system next year. So I will compare a lot and will share my knowledge here.
cheers, Holger