Chapter 321 3D Photography and New Equipment and Technology

Chapter 321 3D Photography and New Equipment and Technology

Chapter 321 3D Photography and New Equipment and Technology

Although "Avatar" in early 2010 made the concept of "3D movie" stunningly unveiled to the world, it also set off a trend of shooting and producing 3D movies.

But in fact, there are still only a few real 3D movies nowadays. Most movies are converted from 2D to make 3D a standard feature of the film.

But Wang Hao's "Inception" is different, it is a real 3D movie, so it requires the use of 3D photography equipment that is different from other movies.

In this regard, Wang Hao mainly relies on the support of Sony. As the world's most well-known consumer electronics manufacturer, Sony has extremely rich technical accumulation in photographic machinery and graphics processing.

After the huge success of "Avatar", Sony also became extremely interested in 3D photography production.

And in the recent Christmas season, "Young Spider-Man" achieved good box office results, so Sony is also planning to make the next Spider-Man movie in 3D mode.

It just so happened that Wang Hao's new movie also planned to adopt 3D mode, so Sony Pictures has been persuading Wang Hao to adopt the 3D photography system that their group is developing.

这其中有索尼最新研发的8K分辨率成像器件的F65超高分辨率数字电影摄影机，其成像器件集成了约2，000万个像素，密度是传统4K拜尔图形成像器件的2倍；采用便携式SR存储卡记录单元SR-R4。

有基于MPE-200多画面处理器的MPES-3DQC1全新3D质量监控系统，能通过测量3D立体视频中是否存在过度视差以及3D视频失真的数值，来对完整的3D视频予以评估。

With the HXR-NX3D1C handheld 3D high-definition camcorder, you can shoot 3D material simply by adjusting the left and right parallax, which is extremely flexible.

有PMW-TD300肩扛式3D摄录一体机，采用了两组3片1/2英寸CMOS成像器，实现了惊人的高画质3D成像，最小1.2米汇聚距离，3D成像范围更广。

有高质量画面监看级的PVM-2541/1741OLED监视器，均采用索尼独有的Super Top Emission技术的RGB10比特驱动1920X1080像素全高清分辨率OLED面板。

It can be said that the equipment Sony gave to Wang Hao and his crew is already the most advanced at present.

Wang Hao did not reject Sony Group's good intention.

However, based on Sony Group’s current research on 3D photography, it is not yet able to provide a one-stop photography solution service.

So in addition to spending some time at Sony Pictures, Wang Hao also visited 3ALITY.

The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Burbank, Hollywood, California, USA. Its full name is 3ality Digital Systems. Its 3D stereoscopic bracket equipment system, high-end technology and high-quality services have played a vital role in the field of real-life 3D.

When Wang Hao visited the company, he saw their flagship product, the TS series bracket - TS2.

This is currently the best 3D shooting bracket in the world, occupying 3% of the world's market in the field of 90D brackets.

3ALITY's TS series is equipped with 8 motors, and the height, pitch, wheelbase and convergence surface are all completed through background commands.

In particular, their patented image processor (SIP), which uses highly advanced artificial intelligence and image recognition technology, can match relevant pixels from the two cameras to improve and maintain the calibration effect between the left and right images.

In addition, it can correct the geometric aberration, color and density caused by the lens, provide metadata readings and a variety of single and multi-channel outputs. Not only can it view images with zero latency, but it can also feed back data from the background processing system to the TS bracket in real time to quickly adjust the picture and ensure that the captured 3D images have no loss of quality.

Don't underestimate this point. You should know that the principle of 3D movies is actually parallax, that is, different graphics are sent to the left eye and the right eye respectively, thus forming a three-dimensional image.

To achieve this goal, two cameras are needed to simulate the human eyes to record images, shoot the same target scene, and integrate the image signals together.

But there is a problem. In the past, when shooting movies, there was only one camera for each scene, which was adjusted and controlled by one photographer.

Now, two cameras are used to shoot the same scene. If it is a static picture, it is fine. But when it comes to dynamic pictures, one person cannot operate two devices at the same time, so there will be three technical difficulties.

That is, synchronized exposure, synchronized focus, and frame synchronization.

If you want to achieve these three synchronizations, adding a photographer and having two people operate two cameras is not a feasible solution.

Once the various parameters of the picture cannot be synchronized, errors will occur in the picture during integration processing, which is the loss of image quality mentioned above.

This is like a person who has a squinting eye. If this happens to a moviegoer, they will not accept it.

In this case, 3ALITY's TS series bracket comes in handy. The shooting images are monitored by computer and adjustments are made in real time to eliminate the error between the two cameras.

"This kind of graphics processing algorithm and software control program is indeed extremely lacking in our country at present."

When Wang Hao saw the employees of 3ALITY operating the equipment in person, he couldn't help but express his feelings to several teachers from the Beijing Photography Department who were also there to study.

It has to be said that the domestic technological development and scientific research, especially the basic science and underlying applications, in the research of such niche areas is indeed much slower.

This "slowness" not only refers to slow development, but also to the lack of accumulation of foundation.

After all, China's development speed is too fast, and it likes to adopt many things and overtake others in a curve.

This is indeed commendable in some aspects and saves a lot of time and energy, but taking shortcuts sometimes comes at a price.

It took them dozens or even hundreds of years to accumulate knowledge. Do you think you can surpass them in one step? How is that possible!

The development of science and technology is often based on trial and error. There are some pitfalls you have not stepped into and some mistakes you have not tried. So how can you judge which development route is correct?

Wang Hao remembered that he had read an article somewhere that said a foreign steel mill had mastered the metal formula after dozens or even hundreds of years of trial and error before finally getting the right proportion and processing process.

This kind of steel is used in aircraft engines. It is impossible to copy it in China. In the end, we have to follow other people's path, rely on accumulating a large amount of manpower and material resources, and try and error step by step, before we can finally replicate their process formula.

Similarly, the Chinese film and television industry also has this problem of not being down-to-earth in the development of photographic equipment, optical lenses, special effects processing, graphics algorithms and equipment. The lack of attention paid by the country is a problem, but the problems faced by relevant industry practitioners and major film and television companies are even greater.

Except for Tsui Hark, who may have some knowledge of film and television technology, most people only care about how to make money by making movies, how to sign celebrities and entertainers, and how to spend money in wine and women.

As the leader of the domestic film and television industry, Huaying is rigid and unable to develop.

As the leader of the private film and television industry, what did Huayi do? After going public, when its market value was about to break 100 billion, Huayi tried to "get rid of the singleness of film" and turned to real estate and entertainment.

They acquired other film and television chains, bought theaters, built cinemas, amusement parks, and film and television towns, purchased expensive artworks, antiques, and luxury goods, and even built a museum, but they had no intention of investing money in the research and development of film equipment.

And those big stars and directors, they have a lot of children, their nationality changes every day, but their contribution to the film industry is still limited to one-shot shooting...

Just from this point of view, these so-called great directors in China are far behind Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas in Hollywood.

So much so that when Guo Fan shoots "The Wandering Earth" in the future, he will have to lead his team to build the film industrialization system by himself.

From this point of view, the invasion of the entertainment industry by Internet companies is actually a good thing. Although those Internet companies do not have any human resources, they have at least brought a touch of new technology to this stale industry.

Wang Hao looked at the equipment in front of him that represented the most advanced technology in the current film and television industry, and secretly added a task to his future development plan.

He really didn't care much about this in the past. After all, China's international situation is pretty good now, and there is no blockade of technology and equipment in the film and television industry.

In addition, the Galaxy Group had always been in the development stage, and its first priority was to survive, so he and his team members mostly just needed to use the relevant technologies. If the technology was not enough or the equipment was not good, they would spend money to buy or rent them in Hollywood.

However, as the old saying goes, "It is better to have something yourself than to have it from your parents."

Wang Hao, who has memories of later generations, also knows that this development model is not a long-term solution.

Don’t underestimate the things that Hollywood technology companies have. When the AI ​​era arrives in the future, the graphics processing data and algorithms accumulated by these companies will become a strong driving force for the vigorous development of AI technology.

Before Wang Hao traveled through time, the AI ​​technology at the time was already able to generate dozens of seconds of video based on pictures. At the same time, the processing of videos had basically commercial value and could greatly improve work efficiency.

Fortunately, the best time to do something is now. Today, the Galaxy Group is booming, has sufficient technological accumulation, ample funds, and a large number of manpower, so it is capable of making up for this shortcoming.

And he is not working alone. These technologies and data related to photography and imaging are also extremely important for OPPO's mobile phones.

You must know that with the development of smart phones and the improvement of cost-effectiveness, photography will become a battleground for smart phones in the future.

In addition, there is DJI. Thanks to the movie "Wolf Warrior", DJI can be said to have entered the fast lane of development. Not to mention that the new round of financing has become a hot commodity, even the military has contacted DJI to discuss cooperation matters.

Nowadays, DJI also plans to get involved in the field of photography, allowing their drones to be directly equipped with cameras, and the development of gimbals is also on the agenda.

In this way, the three companies can cooperate in setting up a research department related to photographic equipment, optical lenses and image processing in Beijing, and recruit a group of scientific researchers from universities to carry out research and development of related technologies.

In addition, with Wang Hao's relationship with Sony, by introducing some technology, it may be possible to catch up with Europe and the United States.

Wang Hao was touring 3ALITY company while thinking in his mind.

In the Internet industry, there is a term called "moat", which refers to the core advantage of a company in competition.

In the past few years, Galaxy Group has been committed to creating the science fiction IP "Galaxy Cinematic Universe", which is the "moat" of their group company.

Now is the time to dig and widen this "moat". We must have the advantages of cultural content, and we must not give up the technological advantages!

After the visit and study, Wang Hao did not even bother to greet Daddario who had come to his door specially, but directly set up a transatlantic conference call and asked the group company to integrate and count the resources of various departments according to his ideas, collect relevant domestic industrial conditions, and discuss the feasibility of this plan. It would be best if a detailed written report could be formed.

After he returns to Beijing, this matter can not only involve OPPO and DJI, but he can also try to contact Huaying.

Although the subjective initiative of state-owned enterprises is a little lacking, it is still okay to let them play supporting roles.

After the meeting, it was completely dark in Hollywood, and Wang Hao finally had the opportunity to enjoy Daddario's service.

After the release of this girl's movie "Percy Jackson and the Olympian Lightning Thief" last year, the movie was quite popular, but the box office performance was average, and her fame did not increase much.

The impact of this is that Daddario's star rating has been lowered, and "no characteristics", "ordinary", and "no memorable points" have become labels attached to her. This also led to a significant decrease in her film invitations after the release of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief".

Daddario, who had just finished filming a big production, was naturally unwilling to accept this situation.

It just so happened that she heard about Wang Hao's new project. After all, the news that Leonardo DiCaprio was going to star in a 3D movie directed by a young Chinese director was quite surprising and spread throughout Hollywood.

So Daddario, who was not doing well in his career, took the initiative to come to Wang Hao, wanting to continue to build a good relationship with him, and also wanted to see if he could have a chance to participate in the project of "Inception".

Wang Hao knew very well what the other party was thinking, but there was really no role suitable for her among the auditions in Hollywood.

Fortunately, Wang Hao is not the kind of person who would turn his back on her after putting on his pants. This year, the Galaxy Group has invested in and produced movies here, including "The Hangover 2", "Taken 2" and "Limitless", in which she can be given a supporting role with more screen time.

With Wang Hao's promise, Daddario was overjoyed. He cooperated very well that night and served Wang Hao very well.

Especially the great mind and strong tolerance that make people love it.

(End of this chapter)