INTelegance

For the DXARTS course on stereoscopic video I have been doing research into efficient editing work flows.  Today I’ve created a handy little script that can take a single camera After Effects composition and turn it into a side-by-side left/right composition that is compatible with our 3d projection system running the DepthQ software.

The script is custom for HDV footage (1440×1080 pixel aspect of 1.33). This is great for the Canon XH A1 and XH G1 footage. For those of you running the Panasonic AG-HVX200 on your stereo rigs, I am sure this could be easily modified to work with that footage.

By the way, After Effects scripting is super intuitive and easy. I created this script in about two hour without having any previous AE scripting experience.

Download the Script

Instructions

Footage Requirements:

• You need all your footage to be named with the convention MyVideoClipLEFT.mov and MyVideoClipRIGHT.mov and for them to be in the same folder
• Your files should be captured with synced time code so they’re in/out points are the same and they are the same duration
• Make sure the word LEFT and RIGHT doesn’t show up anywhere else in the file names too

To Use the script:

• Create a composition that is 1440×1080 with Pixel aspect of HDV 1080 (1.33) (this is a default setting in after effects for HDV 29.97 and is correct for the footage we shot with the XH G1)
• Edit your movie using only the left camera’s footage. You can do whatever you want here except resize the footage… so masks, effects, time stretching, opacity…is all fair game
• When you are done with the cut you want, select your composition and then select File > Scripts > Run Script File… and select the above Create3dComp.jsx
• Blamo! you now have a new comp that is named YourComp_3dified and it will have widened the composition and placed the right camera’s footage next to the left, flipped and ready to go.
• You can export as you would normally. Note: This script creates compositions that are 2880×1080 with wide pixels, when you export out of after effects you will need to select a custom aspect ratio to get the full 3840×1080 with square pixels.

Hope somebody finds it useful. Feel free to contact me with any questions or bugs