Welcome to N3D.studio!
2020 has been a real setback in many ways. So much has been canceled or postponed and now going on for months without end, it seems like it will never go back to the way it was. As a result I've had to postpone plans for a project this summer that would take me back to New Mexico to film in 3D. Right now, that project is on hold and that has freed up some time to work on this site and also finish up production on Botanica 3D which is my first release on 3D Blu ray.
This site will be a work in progress for awhile yet as more content is added. So if things look empty or incomplete, there will be more info added from time to time. This site is a home for my own work with stereo film photography, digital 3D stills and 3D video projects. There is a dedicated page under the Gallery tab for some still 3D work. Not alot there now but more examples will be added soon. Also, I plan on documenting some of my adventures with 3D which will be featured in the News tab. I have no set schedule for these, they will come as ideas, thoughts and time permits. Right now, as I type this, I work alone. I film everything and handle all the day to day work on these projects myself in my free time. There's no big studio or budget. I have been working with 3D since 2014 and have become somewhat obsessed by it. I love the trueness of 3D, the perspective and dimensionality. The effect of 3D is an illusion, but that illusion is real enough. I love the time-honored tradition of native 3D and filming with dual lenses. I respect Hollywood's new conversion techniques which are quite impressive when you throw enough people, time and money into it, but there's nothing like handing a duel lens camera and experiencing the natural results.
I mentioned that N3D.studio does not have a big budget. This isn't IMAX. I wish I had that kind of buget and crew. I want to be upfront with you now, please don't expect that level of polish on these features. I will do my best, that's all I can do. If for some reason you don't like the feature and are not happy with your purchase, I understand, I'd rather give you a refund than have an unsatisfied customer. That's why I have 30 day returns.
I want to make it clear I am not affiliated with any other production company now or in the past. For now I work alone. That may not always be the case. I will update the about page if anything changes on that front. With that, I will add that positions are available. I would be willing to work with others on a limited basis or longer but understand that travel is likely a must, and the pay isn't great. This is a hobby for me mostly with the only reimbursements with disc sales. Which is why N3D.studio is just a website name and not an incorporated production company at this point. I'm fine with leaving it at that. We'll see how it goes. I have ideas for many features right now to keep me busy for the next few years and I should have no trouble doing them alone.
So check out some of the info here. Right now my first feature Botanica 3D is available to order on eBay. You can read more about that film on the film page. I am currently in development on my next project but that has been postponed until things open back up. If you have any questions or comments please direct them to: tom@n3d.studio
3D/4K
3D looks great. 4K looks great. So 4K3D shold look awesome, right? Yes, it really does. But it's also not easy (or cheap) putting a 4K3D rig together. I have experiemented with a dual camera 4K rig for a few years and the results were quite good, however only if there is not much movement in the scene. This is due to the cameras not being genlock-synced. They can show miss-framing depending on how much the cameras are apart when they're firing. I have looked for a combination to putting two 4K cameras together and there's no easy solution to making it work, unless you spend more money and move to a beam spitter, over/under rig. You might be able to set up two cameras side by side, but with my current rig at 82mm eye spacing, we're already out 5 or 6 feet with closest usable distance. Most 4K cameras with genlock are going to be larger bodied cameras with a width of 4 or 5 inches at least. That means two of them together, depending on cabling and rigging, will have a closest stereo base of over 100mm! That's not good for closeups. That's where a beam spitter comes in. I built a small beamsplitter based on the "100.00 beamsplitter example". You can google that and see what I mean. I have a photo up in my camera section if you want to see mine. There's so much more work getting everything perfect with a beamsplitter. You have all 3 axis to align, plus you have to deal with reflections and f-stop differences between the two mirrors. The bottom camera that shoots thru the mirror is darker than the reflected image of the top camera.
I have restricted my beamsplitter rig for macro work only as I pretty much need controlled conditions and setup time, experimenting time, multiple shots to get things right. It is not for run and gun work. My side by side rig is much easier and I have used it for some work but again sync can be an issue so it will depend on movement in the scene most of all which camera is used. If there is too much movement I will use a 3D 1080p camera. My best is the Panasonic AG-3DA1. That was the camera used on Botanica 3D. I have now outfitted it with external Nano Flash recorders. I can get near uncompressed 4:2:2 video out of it now. But there is some added weight and buik so it's strickly for project work. It's a large and heavy camera before the added gear, now it's probably around 10-12 lbs. I also have the smaller Panasonic HDC-Z10000 but the recording method is a more compressed single MVC stream. Also two GoPro 3D cameras that can shoot 2.7K 24P. I have other cameras too but for 3D films I use 24 frame so not all cameras have that option.
If you've seen Botanica 3D, I think you wil agree that the Panasonic 3DA1 can get some fantastic 3D images and has really decent image quality and color straight out of the camera, considering it is only HD resolution when the industry has moved into 8K and beyond. Botanica 3D was filmed with only internal compression recording. Along with that the recording compression is 21mbps average AVCHD for each seperate eye-view which holds up fairly well considering it's not a professional codec. With external recording I can now get up to 280mbps I-Frame (or long-gop) MPEG2 4:2:2, 8 bit which uses Sony's XDCAM recording. On future projects with the 3DA1 I will be using external recording.
4K3D rig, I can use but it's limited use do to lack of genlock sync. The images need to be static or slow moving for it to work right.
