Stereoscopic Imaging

Floating Window Maya Camera Rig

Create a camera rig that can use the floating window technique for Maya.


Due to the compression for this video, there is some cross talk present. Also, due to the subject matter that I chose (I can see it wasn't the best subject matter to demonstrate this effect, but I wanted to see what I lot of repetitive lines/bars would do to the stereo effect) it might be difficult to really notice the floating window effect anyway.

While I do not believe that this method is the best way to implement a floating window, I created a camera rig inside of Maya that has the ability to function like a floating window. The high level controls for the camera have custom attributes/sliders that will bring in or out two "floating windows" on either side of the camera, one for the left camera and one for the right camera. It's function is pretty straightforward.

The reason why I do not feel it is a wise decision to create the floating window in production is because you would need to do a LOT of test renders to get it correct. The floating window is meant to reduce strain and pinning on the sides of the frame and for the most part, you won't notice that until you're looking at the final product. And when you are looking at the final product, you might need to adjust the amount of the floating window a lot and it might change. These are things that I don't exactly feel are wise to do while you're trying to set up your shot and test your renders. You certainly can, but I feel that it would simply create a much larger and more time consuming step that is easier in post. Lets say you set up your render with this floating window rig and it looked fine during your test renders, but then when you look at the final footage and you see that the window is too far over or not far enough over, you have to rerender everything. While if you did it in post you could make that change easily and never need to rerender anything - at least for that reason.

Review

What I Learned/Challenges

- I learned what a floating window is and how it's used to help the final stereo effect.
- I learned about about the advantages and disadvantages of a floating window.