Changing 3D convergence while Online (click for larger image)

Shooting and Broadcasting FIFA in 3D – Observations:

2010 will be the decade that heralds main stream adoption of a new Visual Communications medium – Stereoscopic 3D visuals. While we all know that 3D has been around since the 1950’s and earlier, this time around aided by Digital Technology, this medium of viewing moving pictures is here to stay. The movies have made it popular, and now it’s entering homes thanks to 3D enabled televisions and content production in full swing – from Sports to Documentaries and more.

A world’s first in sports events is this years FIFA World Cup being shot and transmitted LIVE in Stereo 3D. The FIFA WorldCup takes place every 4 years, so 2010 will go down in history as the start of Immersive Sports viewing.

What can be learnt from the first Stereo 3D transmission of the FIFA World Cup? Let’s dive right in…

Day 1 – FIFA in 3D:

Prior to the actual game starting, a small opening ceremony was also shot and telecast in 3D to the world. Producing LIVE 3D has it’s challenges, it has to be acknowledged. But just as in any live event, rehearsals are key to ensuring a smooth and successful audience experience. We all know that this time the revival of Stereo 3D banks heavily on just that – It has to survive already pre-conceived notions in peoples minds that 3D viewing = headaches.

Fortunately, this time around there is ample technology to assist in such endeavors. There should be minimum reasons for hic-cups to occur in Live scenarios with the kind of budgets, hardware and expertise available. With that in mind let’s take an independent look at some of the good and not so good examples as seen in Live 3D production on Day 1 of the FIFA World Cup 2010.

• Extreme LIVE Convergence ramps – A big no-no in Stereo 3D: The image above is a sequence of 2 frames grabbed from a longer clip of about 3 seconds where possibly the online operator / stereographer played with the horizontal translation (H.I.T) of the left and right images, to change the perceived depth of the scene. While 2 or 3 seconds does not seem a long time, if done often enough while people are watching the scene it can wreck havoc and lead to eye-strain and headaches. In the example above at first the audience seems to pop out a bit, then the parallax is changed *while being transmitted live* to give the scene more depth.

Cross fade in 3D with left right camera mis-sync

• Crossfading in 3D with mis-matched depth and image mis-sync: Another scene later in the game shows a cross fade or dissolve between what seems to be a flat 2D image or a 2D to 3D conversion to another scene where the depth did not match. In addition the cut also shows what appears to be an image mis-match. If viewed with anaglyph glasses alternatively closing each eye at a time, the two different frames can be seen. This is not an anaglyph 3D specific error, it can be equally bad with shutter glasses or Polarized 3D viewing.

In both examples above, with the help of live Preview monitors in OB trucks, the Online Editor should either be, or be assisted by an experienced stereographer while making LIVE mix decisions between cameras.

Skewing the stereo 3D window

• Skewing the Stereo Window (2D to 3D conversion artifact?) : Click on the image above to bring up a larger image view. It can be seen that on the first image the depth graduates deeper toward the right side of the image, and second image the reverse is true. There are a variety of reasons to skew or “float” the stereo 3D window as seen successfully employed in recent 3D motion pictures. However in this particular instance (the FIFA match) there was no obvious benefit or gain (our independent opinion).

Without actually being present at the Live shoot, we can only guess… and guesses may be wrong, but it looks like the result of 2D to 3D conversion technology being employed as stated in this article “HBS will generally locate its 3D cameras lower and closer to the field than 2D cameras; it also plans to use 2D-to-3D conversion technology to incorporate some 2D camera feeds where necessary”.

Or it may have been for some creative reason, suggested by the Stereographer / Online Editor.

2D to 3D conversion at FIFA?

• 2D to 3D Conversion at FIFA 2010?: From looking at the image above with a pair of anaglyph 3D glasses (click for larger) , the “flatness” of the 3D is hard to miss! both left and right images seem simply offset into depth space, while the actual features of the people are flat. There is no 3D separation between the player and the background stadium, and the entire image has tell tale signs of 2D to 3D geometric mapping. An inverted sphere like appearance. This approach to stereoscopic 3D will not further the sense of “immersion” that audiences crave when watching a Sporting event in 3D.

It is our opinion that these kinds of shortcuts will only retard the advancement of Stereoscopic 3D as a new medium for visual enjoyment. This article says that 2D to 3D may have been employed, due to lack of space for setting up 3D camera rigs. With access to budgets and smaller full function Digital HD camera rigs, this is no longer an excuse.

Use 3D Graphics for Stereo Depth Ramping

Stereo 3D Graphic Stingers:

There were many things done well in the FIFA 3D coverage too!…

Overall the coverage of the game in 3D was done well, with selection of camera angles (if a little too safe). The use of Stereo 3D “stingers” like the FIFA word-logo above worked well to acclimatize the audiences eyes and brain when cutting between different depth scenes or between slow motion to live action. This helped ease any sudden depth jumps or depth mis-matches between camera cuts.

A suggestion would be to make a variety of such Stinger “Depth Ramp” graphics such as a Soccer ball starting at negative Z-Depth (out of screen) and going into positive Z-Depth (into the screen) for about 2 seconds and have these for ready triggering on a frame-store device attached to the vision mixer. The same stingers played in reverse could be used when cutting between far and nearer action sequences.

Note: The links for Slow-motion and Realtime Stereo 3D Graphics are for informative purposes only, and may not be the same systems as being used by the FIFA 3D production team.

SpiderCam Pulfrich 3D

SpiderCam in Stereoscopic 3D:

The SpiderCam is a modern day marvel of ingenuity in camera systems for Sports coverage. It won’t be long before a remote operated Stereo rig consisting of 2 Si2K minis or other Iconix Cameras would be mounted for a Stereoscopic 3D capable SpiderCam. Of course, at those distances, it would be necessary to use these lightweight, yet high resolution (and high latitude) capable cameras on a motorized Rig so that Inter Axial separation of Cameras can go from 3 inches to a few feet if needed for vista like 3D shots.

In the FIFA 3D shoot it seems (we can’t be fully sure) that a regular 2D SpiderCam was used and the output fed through a 2D to 3D Converter. This could be an explanation for the extreme flatness seen in some of the image-grabs in the pictures above.

SpiderCam Pulfrich 3D Extract:

A tip for the FIFA 3D TEAM:  Use the principles of Pulfrich  -or- time multiplexed stereo 3D, what would be really effective is doing a very high angled down shot using the Spidercam, while the Spidercam travels in an elliptical orbit around the periphery of the Stadium. As long as the angle is right and there is not much vertical movement of objects in the ensuing sequence… Pulfrich 3D could be extracted giving realistic “roundness” and not the flat 3D as seen on wide angle shots of the stadium and crowd. This takes a little preparation but can produce highly effective 3D footage – if at all 2D to 3D needs to be used.

As we look forward to the remainder 24 matches to be covered in Stereo 3D, it may be worth looking into tips and techniques such as 5 effective ways to shoot better 3D for Sports.

**** Update June 21st 2010 ****

It’s been a hectic week with 3D assignments here at Real Vision, but we are still following the FIFA 3D broadcasts and most of the 3D matches are being recorded in Side-by-side full color 3D format on a DVR for later review and learning. Since the writing of this article, quite a few discussions and debates have sprung up on discussion boards. While I also have been mildly chastised for being overtly critical… my argument is that if mistakes are not pointed out, sub-standard work (stereo 3D in general) could become the new standard.

I have been involved in stereoscopic 3D for the past decade, growing from amateur to serious amateur (modesty is best) as have many professionals who send in mails of encouragement. I feel that there should still be a market left for 3D, *if and when* I decide that I want to go about it commercially, and it should not be left for dead as it has been in it’s past incarnations, due to audiences getting headaches from badly produced content.

With that small rant out of the way… let’s try and be more constructive in any dissection of the event henceforth. There are some constraints that the 3D crew doing the FIFA 3D coverage, have mentioned in forums such as LinkediN. Taking these into consideration, and the fact that there are still good matches to come, let’s dive back in…

"FIFA Coach Cam" - creative use of 2D video in 3D space (click for larger view)

2D to 3D Coach-Cam suggestion:

First off, credit to the 3D team, as the coverage is getting to a a joy to watch, and cutting between depth scenes is great…

In the image above on the left is an original screen grab of the live telecast where due to constraints of available 3D rigs at the event, a 2D camera feed is passed thru a 2Dto3D converter and the resulting output as can be seen, is less than spectacular. A suggestion (doctored image on right) would be to always “box-in” such a 2D feed and pipe it in through the Stereoscopic 3D Graphics Generator unit in the OB van, overlaying it creatively in a 3D frame for instance. This makes for much better Stereo 3D viewing in our opinion.

Vertical Mis align visible on Goal Post

Vertical Disparity and Stereo Window Skew:

A peculiar stereo window depth skew is noticeable in more than 75% of the coverage of the game. Sometimes it’s a gradient depth slope from left to right and at other times vice versa. As a result severe vertical mis-alignment is noticeable on parts of the image, which are still not corrected by real-time correction hardware. We hope this will get addressed or explained by those in the know, particularly is this a creative choice? or the result of using a realtime 2D to 3D converter at the FIFA 2010?  Readers can comment in the comments section below this article.

Flat 3D Soccer Cheerleaders?

3D Sports is about “being there”:

Pardon the caption on the image above, but during the half time break in the match, a perfect time to show off 3D visuals and lend a sense of immersion to audiences viewing the event in 3D, the camera angles and choice of depth was not to our liking. It is easy to criticize another professionals work, but if it was possible to upload the whole half time segment, it would show a rather bland selection of 3D visuals. The entire cheerleader performance was almost from the same camera angle and depth setting. Although a poor quality anaglyph capture above (which does not affect 3D depth), it can be seen from this sequence of grabs the relative “flatness” of the scene.

Suggestions:

• Closeup of the turf near the Goal – Let the audience feel what it is like to be the goal keeper
• Non-zoomed in 3D of the Stadium crowds. – 3D Camera operators need to get closer to the audience with handheld 3D rigs.
• The Bench – Up close to players on the bench, an occasional tour around the field. Can be pre-shot and injected into the live stream if time constraints prevent ad lib shooting

Interesting visuals are needed to add to the 3D flavor of the games. Audiences who cannot be at the Stadium in person need to “feel” they were there with the help of 3D! We hope to see more creative off-field use of 3D at FIFA 2010 for the remaining matches.

Abrupt convergence adjustments being done while on-air.

The above image is a screen grab from a sequence that was executed live during half time. Such abrupt adjusting of convergence can lead to eye-strain in audiences and should be avoided. Subtle and gradual adjustments where possible, or use of Tally to monitor and go live, only after adjustments are done.

- These are the views of the author only and aimed as an open discussion to further the art of stereoscopic 3D production.

Contact Real Vision for Stereoscopic 3D services and Stereographers with varied experience in Live 3D, online and offline stereo 3D production.