FMX 2014: "Gravity" and 3D Conversion

FMX Thursday 24th April 2014
"Gravity" and 3D Conversion by Richard Baker and Matthew Bristowe (Prime Focus World)
The next talk that we attended was about the conversion of Gravity and taking it from 2D to 3D. The company, Prime Focus World, had a stereo conversion set up in 2010 and practiced using it and upgrading it on films that came out prior to Gravity, but it was this film that is ground breaking mark for 3D and it stands above the rest of their work as it goes above and beyond anything that they had undertaken before. They even won best 2D to 3D conversion award.

The entire project was stereo conversion mixed with VFX and they got high praise from James Cameron for the work that they did on it saying that he couldn't flaw the film. They had to decide what level of depth to use so that they created the right feel to the film. They wanted to use long and floaty camera shots and because they had such long shots they had to work on creating seamless joins when they were cutting it down so that they didn't exceed Maya limits. They had to ensure that the depth size stayed the same throughout all of these shots to create the illusion that it is one camera used for all of it, when in fact it's around 6 shots and all taken from 2 different locations.

They used depth to create claustrophobia, especially when Ryan, Sandra Bullock's character, is in the small pod towards the end of the film so that you feel exactly what she does and you learn how she had to cope; making you feel very small, especially in the grandness of space itself.

They first had to get a 2D version and then to work out where they want the 3D to occur and what will be in front and stick out into the scene. They had shots where they only had the 3D stereo and then some that had the VFX on top of that as well. They then had to add lots of other layer and passes that were all converted as well to be able to get that correct amount of depth. With Gravity, due to the large emotional shots that they had, they needed to ensure that every shot with conversion was perfect because if there was the slightest thing wrong with the transition between shots the audience would be able to tell.