Viz Artist

Version 3.10 | Published May 03, 2018 ©

Stereoscopy Best Practices

The following is a list of what to do and not to do to get the best results.

What to do

  • Think of it as a window you are looking through.

  • Make sure that single items which form a new item, like rows of a table, are all at the same distance and not scaled to show the same size in 2D.

  • Make sure that all graphics which belong to one show are positioned roughly the same distance away from the camera. This way you do not need to adjust the convergence parameters all the time.

  • With alioscopy, keep the floating objects not too far from the 0 plane, as this will make them have artifacts.

  • For best effect have objects animate slowly forward and then fade to 0 alpha before hitting the screen edge.

  • With alioscopy, for text that is supposed to be readable, keep it big. Dropshadow is a very good effect to enhance the sense of depth. 3DS productions use HD signals.

  • For a 24" screen the best viewing distance is about 2.8 meters. For a 40" it is about 4.4 meters.

  • With alioscopy, look at the scene from the top view and space things out like in a theatre. Depth and various objects in different Z positions will make it more believable: foreground, middle ground and background.

  • Wobble effects are fine as long as they do not exaggerate the effect, otherwise you get the paper bag effect. This again depends on how far or close to the camera the object is positioned.

What not to do

  • Do not use transparency where it goes over video. It’s OK if a transparent graphics object is over another graphical item if the distance is not too large.

  • Do not use too much depth. Try to keep the items separated not too far from each other. The Z space available for graphics is limited.

  • Do not create animations which come in from the side, especially when the final result will be floating in front of the screen (this is very disturbing).

  • Do not use moving flairs or effects.

  • Do not have any objects pulsating forth and back in Z space as a part of a loop as this will lead to the paper bag effect.

See Also