VFX compositing for a 3D documentary: compiling a demo

As we prep to shoot our first 3D documentary, our compositor, Jakub Kuczynski, is getting ready to produce 3D VFX for the show.

We use these photo-real visuals in the explosive demolition series Blowdown, which we’ll be filming the next episode of, mostly for:

1) Locators – help orient the audience and show where the crew is working at a particular point.

2) Disaster scenarios – show the audience what will happen if different aspects demolition plan go wrong.

3) Dynamic structure shots – fly-overs, fly-throughs, fly-ins … allows audience to experience the strength, grandeur and engineering prowess of structures that Controlled Demolition Inc. implodes.

Here are two examples from previous shows: Super Stadium and Spyship:

Locator VFX: RCA Dome. Indianapolis, Indiana

Disaster scenario VFX: Hoyt S. Vandenberg. Key West, Florida

As part of this process, Jakub’s generating sample 3D VFX shots so we can assess them and so I can take some on my trip to meet with broadcasters the week after next.

We’ll combine the 3D VFX clips with some of the 3D test footage we’ve shot so I can give the broadcasters a solid visual idea of what we’ve developed so far.

One of Jakub’s shots – a fly-in to pyramids.

Why I’m including this in the 3D demo:

Look forward to the final.

Shooting a 3D documentary: demolition POV – ContourHD versus GoPro HD

3D POV, here we come. We’ve started looking into cameras to shoot POV footage for our first 3D documentary.

This content is a must – there’s nothing like being able to put a camera where no human dare go and capture the scene from that angle.

For example, what’s it like to ride on an excavator boom while it’s ripping bleachers apart?

An excavator demolishing bleachers, the RCA Dome

This is a screen grab from the demolition of the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana, the subject of a previous Blowdown show – the explosive demolition series we’ll be filming in 3D.

Now imagine part of the grapple in negative space.

But it’s going to take a bit to get there.

The cameras we use have to be:

1) Lightweight enough to be mounted onto a Magic Arm, or duct taped/fastened to something on the machine.

2) Placed at an interaxial distance small enough to film an object within 1 ½ metres from the lens.

3) Workable with a customized side-by-side rig (that we’re apparently going to build … of course).

4) Capable of turning on in sync.

Our stereographer, Sean White, has narrowed it down to two contenders: the ContourHD 1080p or the GoPro HD.

Suspect the Contours will reign because they’re less boxy, but the GoPro’s a bit better quality – so I’d like to find a way to use if possible.

We’ll see how the “dare to compare” goes.