Space Chimps 2, the second installation of Twentieth Century Fox’s computer animated series was originally intended to deliver only as a 2D movie. However, Light Iron’s stereoscopic workflow for offline through finishing made making a 3D feature with multiple delivery formats financially achievable for the film.
Edited in Final Cut Pro, the offline used Quicktime-wrapped HD proxies of each eye’s delivered file sequences. The film’s final 16 bit animated TIFFs were delivered in separate folders, one for every shot of each eye’s renders. Using the XML/AAF information in the offline project files, the Quantel Pablo’s conform tools targeted the file names and timecode-embedded headers from the lists, automating the conform process.
Both sequences were graded in Rec709, starting with the left eye’s HD master in 2D for both Blu-Ray and DCP and an emulation LUT to trim for the film print.
Next, with Pablo’s stereoscopic plug-in enabled and Dolby 3D engaged, colorist Ian Vertovec applied the left eye’s primary HD color to the right eye and adjusted brightness for each sequence to compensate for the 3D light loss. Finally, both eyes were assembled for the final convergence pass, QC screenings, and file exports for the DCP creation
By completing the flat HD version first and trimming for each subsequent version, Light Iron’s stereo digital intermediate team allowed adjustments to each format to be made in inches, insteadof feet - reducing the eyestrain on the audience, and contributing to extensive savings for DI hours spent versioning.
Images courtesy of Vanguard Animation
