Are Ad Agencies 3D enabled?

When I’m speaking at seminars, I usually start off with topics that are of generic interest to everyone, when it comes to the “3D Revolution Revival”. One favorite topic goes like this… “Don’t AD Agency execs go to the movies? …if the do they must surely have noticed 200 pairs of ‘captive eyeballs’ sitting in their seats, 3D glasses on the ready… and the ADs all play in… Glorious 2D!”

What a waste of the 3rd dimension! The Ad world seems to have missed this boat. While they were busy getting fascinated and “abusing” Augmented Reality, they seem to be missing out on the next great revolution in visual communication: Stereoscopic 3D!

There is now a desperate scramble to create 3D ads, after all there are captive eyeballs just begging to be entertained and immersed in all the 3D around. Unfortunately the execs in AD agencies have not taken a 101 on stereoscopic 3D yet, so do not know if an AD will do harm, or be counterproductive or hit the right spot everytime.

A Quick 101 for AD agencies on Stereoscopic 3D:

In a recent Advert that I came across on Youtube here (in 3D) there were some issues worth mentioning. The two screen grabs above show one such issue, A depth “jump cut” from the first scene, which actually looks like a 2D shot offset into the background with a 3D looking table and vase in front. The next shot jumps right at you to the image above. If an ad such as this plays in a cinema or indeed even on 3D enabled flat screen TVs, the audiences will be assaulted with eye-strain trying to fuse such imagery. By itself a 3D Advert would just be a minute long, but damage can start at anytime for different people and certainly after a few Ads play back to back…

Ad Agencies owe it to the future of 3D advertising, to know how to vet adverts in 3D. While this is actually the job of a Stereographer, it is never a waste of knowledge for the creative dept of an AD agency to know the basics. With that in mind lets look at some general knowledge and build awareness for creating good Stereoscopic 3D advertising.

• The biggest taboo that stereographers will tell you in 3D is “excessive parallax” Excessive parallax in simple language is how much separation there is between left and right images. The whole balancing act between art and science of getting this right is what stereographers do in 3D movies.

• The second issue to watch out for is Stereoscopic window violations: The first image above shows a table and vase in the lower right corner. It is way in “front” of what is called the stereo-window; the stereo window being the physical screen plane of the projected movie or the surface of the TV screen and the border. It ruins the sense of immersion or the suspension of disbelief that stereo 3D allows us to create, if objects or people are in front of the stereo window and are “cut-off” . A person would look like a dismembered body floating at the waist, while his/her legs and hands are behind the “window” . In the image above the tables legs are chopped off while the rest of it seems to cross over into the audiences space. More severe window-violations occur if the left or right edges of the stereo-window are disturbed.

• Cinematographers are now aware of these basic rules of shot framing… however newer production companies will still be making these mistakes. It makes sense for the Agency Executive to know and identify these problems, so that the client has a pristine 3D advert that does not distract or detract the audiences attention.

• Retinal Rivalry: One form of retinal rivalry is when one eye sees part of an image and the other does not. This is usually exhibited on the left or right edges of a 3D movie. In the screen grab below this section, you can see it on the left side of the 3D image. More of the lamp is visible with one eye, and is partly hidden in the other. (using 3D glasses close each eye in succession while watching the image)

• Motion Graphics: How far in negative Z-space (coming out of the screen) is comfortable. There is always the desire to float objects or text right into the laps of audiences. This is after all the 30 seconds of in-your-face 3D that is allowed in an AD to impress the ‘brand message’. However knowing the limitations on a scene by scene basis is what the Art dept of an ad agency should know, so as not to harm the audiences or make them go cross-eyed by hitting them in the face with text or objects…while the previous scene was that of a deep living room or far away ocean.

• Contrast and Color: Will the colors of text and objects or the clothes of the actors contrast heavily with the background? This can lead to cross talk or “ghosting” in a 3D presentation.

The more that AD agencies know about 3D, it’s creative possibilities and the creative limitations… the better they will be able to harness this powerful new medium of Visual communication for branding.

To complete this article, below is an original screen grab of a scene from the same 3D ad:

The screen grab shows two of the “red flags” that Ad agency execs can, bynow, identify.
a) The extreme retinal rivalry as evident in the lamp on the left side of the image, and
b) the extreme parallax (image separation) in the background. if people were to try and look at the ceiling lamp or other objects in the background, their eyes would need to “diverge” or look outward to fuse such imagery. It gets worse if such a 3D scene is projected on a cinema sized screen. The magnification would add to the excessive parallax.

The Solution!:

Having a good stereographer is critical when creating an AD film in 3D. Just as a stereographer ideally works with the Screenplay, the Director and the DP right from the onset of a 3D feature film, similarly it should not be any different for an AD film. After all a good AD film is like a mini-feature film.

By working with a stereographer from the start, creative camera blocking can be done to work within the framework and guidelines for producing good stereo visuals. Later in post production, a stereographer can work with the VFX and editor to rectify any unforeseen issues that may have gone unchecked during planning and shooting.

The only way to correct for errors in post production, is the use of software tools and knowledge of stereography. Unfortunately there will be sacrifices to me made in most cases. In the correction done below, I had to sacrifice the Lamp and the flower on the left AND realign the “convergence” point by applying “HIT” and Floating the Stereoscopic 3D window. The entire scene’s depth budget had to be re-distributed as best as possible while not creating window violations.

Floating the Stereoscopic 3D Window:

What is a floating stereoscopic window? The image below is inset into a black background for this effect to work properly. When looking at the image below (with red-cyan 3D glasses), and paying close attention, you will see the entire image floating off the surface of the screen. This allows us to gain a bit more of stereoscopic ‘real-estate’. A more technical explanation would be getting into too much detail… suffice to say, that knowledge of this technique is something that AD agency creative depts, can use as an asset to suggest to post production studios when appropriate.

Modern feature films in 3D use this a lot. The reason it is not noticeable is because of the dark cinema environment. (akin to the black background of this article).

Modern feature films in 3D use this a lot. The reason it is not noticeable is because of the dark cinema environment. (akin to the black background of this article).

The screen grabs are from a 3D Ad which is viewable in 3D on Youtube

It is not the intention to critique this particular Ad, but more of an awareness initiative for best practices in production of Stereoscopic 3D content. The images are for educative purposes only

Bad 3D can only lead to audiences getting put off with the experience. New 3D networks such as SKY3D have very Strict Guidelines for content in 3D.  With the increase in 3D films and now 3D television broadcasting, AD Agencies need to take the initiative of educating their in-house departments on how to leverage stereoscopic 3d as they enter a new media delivery platform: The Stereo 3D enabled home.