Friday, April 29, 2011 Collaborative 3D Video Project Update 4/11 – Jordan, Mexico and South Africa onboard for Principal Photography

I just want to fill you in on some of the developments in the C3DV project that grew out of the ICCN annual conference recently in Los Angeles. The movie deal capital of the western world lent the project a little of its aura and we were able to take some big steps forward, most notably during a read through of the first draft of the completed script in a very speedy, informal session in the Biltmore hotel's lobby. Among those sitting in for the reading were Freedom Reign, from the Clubhouse in Hayward, CA and Suha Syouf and Saif Atari from one of the Clubhouses in Jordan, in the Middle East. Freedom discussed ways that his Clubhouse could develop much of the CGI needs of the project and Suha and Saif jumped in to take on much of the principal, live action, 3D videography. The script, originally written in English and Spanish (the Spanish scenes already pegged for shooting in Mexico City with the members of Alejandro Jiménez's Clubhouse) will now be shot in Arabic and Spanish and subtitled to accommodate members and audiences in various languages. Skype meetings are already in the works to begin the process of reconceptualizing the English language scenes for their new setting and any issues of cultural relevance. Following the reading we looked at imagery online of the areas around the Clubhouses in Jordan for suitable location settings. It looks to be an exciting transformation for the characters and setting of (formerly) Mike and Lee, and their CGI pet dog, now more likely a rabbit.

Part of the entusiasm for the shift to filming in Jordan was instigated by inadvertently seeing a video that Saif and Suha presented of a large, metal camera jib that one of their Clubhouse members had developed (video below). The idea of the 2 cameras mounted on the jib, shooting in 3D as they swept through space, was too exciting to ignore and we instantly found ourselves talking about the possibility of working together on this project. Before the conference had ended, the small camera package was passed on to Saif and the two Samsungs are probably already mounted on the jib as I write this. We'll post some test imagery of that as soon as it comes in. Alejandro has also purchased two Kodak cameras, similar to the Samsung cameras that went off to Jordan, so that his Clubhouse will be able to start shooting their scenes fairly soon.

And I can't leave out mention of the fortiutious discovery of some beautifully drawn work by members of Paballo Diboke's Clubhouse in Soweto, South Africa. These drawings sparked a conversation with him about filming some of the 2D scenes of the artist creating the characters as depicted in the script of first being introduced as a series of drawings that are eventually transformed into full, 3D, live action charaters. Paballo readily agreed to work with his members to draw and shoot the scenes needed for this portion of video. Skhumbuzo Ngobese, Coordinator of the Clubhouse in Etwatwa, also in South Africa, offered to help out with this part of the project.

Also, while at the conference, we held a panel discussion on the state of 3diy.blogspot.com and it's plans for the future and as a clearing house for information on the ongoing C3DV project. Many people have used the blog for the various demos, many unrelated to C3DV, and we hope to be able to continue posting fun 3D project demos and ideas going forward. So stay tuned. It will also continue to serve as the project page for C3DV as filming is about to get underway on 3 continents.

Lastly, the first draft of the script was completed with the members of Jeff Sweeton's Clubhouse outside of Chicago, IL. Members at Clubhouses in Utah, New York City and Bogota, Colombia all pitched in on the writing of the script. Jeff Sweeton pulled this whole aspect of the project together over several months. Without that effort this whole post would probably be about a cool camera jib video I saw while wandering around at the conference, but not too much about what was being done with it.

Home made camera crane \ رافعة كاميرا - صنع منزلي from PBYRC computer clubhouse on Vimeo.

أحد أعضاء نادي الكمبيوتر, أنس, قام بصناعة رافعة للكاميرا تسخدم في تصوير الأفلام, حيث قام بإعادة استخدام بعض الأدوات المنزلية بطرثقة ابداعية

سيتم استخدام هذه الأداة في انتاج بعض افلام النادي و دعم مشاريع برنامج أصوات الشباب "أدوبي" و أفكار أخرى

انتاج 2011

One of the clubhouse members, Anas, has built a home made camera crane for using in film making, he resued old material avialble at his house in a very creative way

this tool will be used in film some videos at the clubhouse, and supporting the Adobe youth voices program and other ideas

produced 2011

Tuesday, April 5, 2011 C3DV Green Screen Test - Mexico City to NYC

C3DV Green Screen Test - Mexico City to NYC from Computer Clubhouse on Vimeo.

This is just a quick test to see how some green screen shooting done at the Clubhouse in Mexico City (the boy and girl characters on a green screen) could be composed with other footage (dog, background, sound fx) created or acquired at another location (NYC). There are some chroma key issues, lighting/shadow problems, aspect ratio differences, etc. But the main point is just the facility of working w/elements from different sources. It took about an hour to put these elements together.

Friday, March 25, 2011 Setting Up the 3D Camera Rig

Here's a quickie demo of the point-n-shoot HD 3D camera rig for the collaborative 3D project. If you are at one of the clubhouses shooting scenes for this movie you will want to have a look at this video demo before you start shooting w/the rig. It's incredibly easy to set up and use but there are a few important things to remember:

1. Make sure the cameras are oriented in the correct left and right arrangement (they should match your eyes) and the centers of the lenses of the two cameras should be approximately 2.5 inches apart. If you are using the bracket mount that is currently with the rig (just a short length of metal bracket purchased at and cut by Home Depot) you will have the benefit of the pre-marked holes to mount the cameras into. If you're using a different bracket, just make sure there is a way to get the lenses the correct distance apart. If that angle distance widens too much, the footage may be unusable. Ideally, a bracket with slots, rather than holes, would be better for this purpose.

2. Once the cameras are arranged and the bracket is attached to the tripod (the cameras and tripod plate are attached with generic bolts and wingnuts that were purchased at Home Depot), and your actors are ready to roll, turn both cameras on, press record on each and then, BEFORE calling action, be sure to have someone clap their hands in front of the lenses to establish a synch point. THIS IS CRUCIAL FOR EDITING. Because the cameras aren't controlled by a single motor, it is impossible for them to start on exactly the same frame. The frame of video in each camera where the two hands meet gives the editor a perfect synch point for the rest of the shot. After the clap is complete, call action and have your actors perform their parts. THIS HAS TO BE DONE FOR EVERY TAKE. It's like the old hollywood movies when you sometimes saw someone holding a slate (or clapboard) and smacking the two top sticks together before action was called. That was done for synching sound and image. We're doing it to synch two left/right (eventually red/blue) images (the sound is already permanently in synch as they are now recorded on the same media).

Thursday, February 3, 2011 Stereographic photos with just one camera

Check out Keith's post on how to take 3D anaglyph pictures using a single camera. He has some pretty neat examples as well.

Thursday, November 18, 2010 C3DV - Tech Tests Update: CGI 3D to Anaglyph 3D

At long last, we've seen some 3d modeling conversion tests. And they look promising. As the requirements of the C3DV project call for mixing live action and animation in the same scenes, we decided early on to incorporate 3d modeling programs for the CGI material. Contributors to the project would be working in a variety of software programs--3D Studio Max, Maya, Poser, iClone, Blender, etc.--and the feeling was that we should do tests in each of these. The test were to prove that our theory of converting 3d modeling imagery to anaglyph 3d would work. And they did. You can see some early results below. The basic requirement for these artists was to emulate the double lensed camera approach to shooting live action 3d for anaglyph. To do that, each artist working on a test created two simultaneous (left and right) camera views in their program, with each virtual camera approximately 2.5 inches apart, just as w/the live action cameras (note: some programs offer far more specific control of camera placement than others). Then the outputted virtual camera files were sent off and processed for red and blue layering/blending in Final Cut in the same way as the live action footage. As we had hoped, the effect was exactly the same for both live action and CGI created imagery. The tests are extremely short and some are more effective than others, but you should be able to see an early, somewhat crude, working example of this technique in each of these. If you have any suggestions, or want to submit a test in another software, please feel free.

Poser by Sean Bryan at HCCI Computer Clubhouse, NY

C3DV Modeling to Anaglyph Test - Poser from Computer Clubhouse on Vimeo.

3D Studio Max by Leontyne Robinson at the Harland Boys and Girls Club Computer Clubhouse, GA

C3DV Modeling to Anaglyph Test - 3D Studio Max from Computer Clubhouse on Vimeo.

iClone by Freedom Reign at Eden Youth and Family Center Computer Clubhouse, CA

C3DV Modeling to Anaglyph Test - iClone from Computer Clubhouse on Vimeo.

Monday, November 8, 2010 3DIY - Dog Tutorial

3DIY- Dog Tutorial from Computer Clubhouse on Vimeo.

In this tutorial you will learn how to model the Disney character from the movie Bolt (2008), using Autodesk 3ds Max. This method can be applied when modeling any type of K9.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 Collaborative 3D Video Project -- Story Treatment

This story was developed as a collaboration between participants of the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, during the summer of 2010, interested in exploring three dimensional story development on an international scale. The Clubhouse Network empowers creative outputs and outcomes from underserved youth throughout the world and this story attempts to represent several key values expressed by teen and staff participants including:

• an ability of youth to construct a world using illustration, Legos and media,
• self deception of youth following trauma,
• a dog viewed as an oracle but an unreliable source of direction and
• varied landscapes including a steampunk, fantasy garden, desert and urban milieu.

A detailed 15 page story treatment document was created that covers the characters, locations, and shooting techniques (none of which are set in stone at this point). The synopsis below will give you a quick idea of the story and the sensibilities of the project. (More detailed character and location documents can be provided.)

Untitled
A Synopsis in Three Acts
Act I

An Artist at a Computer Clubhouse creates Lee, an adolescent girl running away from her home with her family dog, Taymor (probably a cgi character), whom she was criticized for imagining was famous people. In another part of the world, Jose, an adolescent boy also flees his violent home but is followed by Esme, a teenage girl from that home.

Act II

Lee stumbles into a surreal industrial lot and is told by a seemingly wise prophet to enter a magical garden beyond the lot but she loses Taymor when she enters the garden. Jose leaves Esme and finds Taymor in the lot after it has been abandoned. Lee’s brother Mike, having followed her, discovers her in the garden.

Act III

Lee, Mike, Taymor, Jose and Esme meet in the abandoned lot and, escaping an attacking Snake, realize they must join together to survive. The Clubhouse Artist puts them back in their respective homes with their new understandings.

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The next step is to begin writing the script based on the story treatment. I will be working on that with some of the members at the Howard Area Computer Clubhouse here in Chicago. However, we would really like to have your input into this process. Now that we have established the basic premise of the story, characters and locations, almost anyone that would like to write individual (or multiple) scenes can consider doing so. You can contact me for a full copy of the treatment as a guide to the scenes that need to be written and we can discuss what you might like to contribute. Our team here at Howard will take on the responsibility of coordinating any scriptwriting done throughout the network, and beyond, to make sure that it all fits together. You could write a lot or a little, and you can see your words turned into 3D action! Give it a try.

Prospective screenwriters, please get back to us by November 15th.