You’ve probably heard how it took 60 weeks and $18 million for James Cameron to convert Titanic into 3D. But do you know how the 2D-to-3D conversion process actually works? Here’s a great article from Extreme Tech that provides insight into this very precise art:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/124965-titanic-how-do-you-convert-a-movie-to-3d-anyway.
MasterImage 3D continues to turn the spotlight on the 3D community with our Partner Spotlight blog series. Today, we talk to Veera Raju, who manages the Natural User Interface Team for Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI)
My name is Veera Raju, managing the Natural User Interface Team at Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI). As part of my role, I have the privilege to work with one of the most exciting TI product lines (at least, in my opinion): the smart multicore OMAP™ processors. These processors rest at the heart of next-generation stereoscopic-3D (S3D) experiences, offering the highest-quality and performance, all at low power levels.
Using OMAP processors as a solid foundation, we partnered with MasterImage 3D team to help OEMs bring “on-the-move” S3D capabilities to life on smartphones, tablets and other mobile products.
Bringing S3D to the mobile environment is no simple task. In fact, I provided some details to the process in a previous EE Times article. Knowing what it takes, what makes OMAP processors the optimal choice for mobile S3D capabilities? Among other benefits, the OMAP line up utilizes two ARM® Cortex™-Ax cores, hardware accelerators (IVA HD, DSP, ISP) and two ARM Cortex-Mx cores, which run the S3D processing and enable full-HD S3D experiences. This intelligent architecture helps OMAP processors provide superior quality S3D viewing experience through the use of display subsystem accelerators. The processors are extremely power-efficient even when carrying out the most intensive S3D tasks – since the majority of S3D processing is offloaded to hardware accelerators and the lower-power Cortex-M cores to free up the Cortex-A host CPUs. We also provide OEMs with unique algorithms that run on hardware accelerators, in an effort to save costs through manufacturing misalignment correction of cameras, and use preferred convergence options to enable high flexibility for users to choose between different S3D quality.
This is a great video from Qualcomm at Mobile World Congress 2012, showing the Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor in action on a developer tablet. MasterImage 3D provided the full high-definition glasses-free 3D display in WUXGA (1920×1200) resolution. Check it out!
MasterImage 3D continues to turn the spotlight on the 3D community with our Partner Spotlight blog series. Today, we talk to Douglas Triconi, CEO of Jump! Creative.
Tell us about Jump! Creative? Why did you start the studio? What has been your favorite content you’ve created? Why did you get into 3D?
Jump! is a marketing and production company that specializes in 3D. I started Jump! to create an environment where we could make out-of-the box content, from advertising to feature film. Jump! got into 3D in 2009, creating marketing campaigns for Real D. Then we brought that expertise to our core Home Entertainment clients at Disney, Sony and Fox.
What kind of philosophy do you bring to 3D content creation? Tell us about some of the short-form 3D content that Jump-Creative has made. How do you decide what 3D shorts to make? Where did Son of a Pitch come from?
Our philosophy is alternative 3D content. People see sporting events, concerts and ice caps melting in 3D. We do comedy, comics and hot girls in bikinis. Outside of original content, we look for existing content that can either be reshot in 3D or reconstructed through our proprietary cost effect 3D workflow. Son of a Pitch was an existing 2D web series, that’s currently playing on the Nintendo 3DS and soon to be on the HTC 3D EVO phones. We look to develop content that will be consumed on the go, as the auto-stereo devices penetrate the market this year.
MasterImage 3D is wishing 3D marvels Hugo and Pina best of luck at the Oscars tonight. You get our votes!
Hugo for Best Picture…
Pina for best Documentary…
It’s that time of year again… Sangria and cell phones. It’s the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the biggest mobile technology and content 
conference of the year.
For us, it will be all about the glasses-free 3D tablet. See it for yourself in Qualcomm‘s booth (Hall 8, 8B30). Based on Qualcomm’s award-winning Snapdragon S4 processor, the Mobile Development Platform (MDP) Tablet 3D Edition will debut at Mobile World Congress 2012. We promise to post some pictures next week live from the show. Here is a brief Snapdragon overview from Leon Farasati at Qualcomm.
Anyone who reads Ain’t It Cool News, Dark Horizons, or checks the upcoming 3D release calendar on BoxOffice.com, knows about some of the cool 3D movies coming up in 2012. But the full list may surprise you. From James Cameron’s Titanic, to Ridley Scott’s return to the world of Alien with Prometheus, there’s a 3D release for every genre fan this year. There are likely over 35 3D studio films slated– 11 are between May and August and both Disney and Sony have committed to six releases. Dust off your polarized eyewear. It’s gonna be fun!
The Blockbusters:
The Avengers - The movie that every Marvel Comics fan has been waiting for… The Avengers will be a 3D conversion, but director Joss Whedon insists he thought about the format “every second while filming”, so our hopes our high. It doesn’t hurt that the film is perfectly casted and that the trailer looks about as good as a comic book movie can get. See for yourself.
