Previews New 2009 Release's 3-D Stereo Film-Making Features

Andersson Technologies LLC will be demonstrating the latest SynthEyes 2008+1 (2008.1) release of its versatile and affordable camera tracking application at NAB Booth SL7406 in Las Vegas, April 20-23. The new SynthEyes release will be demonstrated using the 64-bit OS X version; the leading-edge 64-bit OS X capability was announced in January.
New stereo film-making capabilities headline the new release, with automated stereo tracking, cross-linking, and solving. Camera-to-camera constraints help produce stable and chatter-free results, providing the option to lock any axis of the relative position or orientation to known or to-be-determined values, reflecting the mechanics of the stereo camera rig. For advanced rigs, animated inter-ocular or vergence constraints can be set up, including "hold" regions to eliminate chatter. For example, in a shot where the inter-ocular distance is static to begin with, then decreases, a hold region can eliminate chatter during the stationary portion.
Other new features support both stereo and regular single-camera shots, particularly concentrated in the SynthEyes image preprocessor. Highlights include:

* Simplified lens-distortion workflow
* Floating-point and half-float processing and storage
* Cubic distortion support
* Arbitrary lens-distortion curve presets
* 3-D Color LUT support
* Mirror imaging for mirror stereo rigs
* Keystone-correct camera re-aiming
* Batch sequence rendering
* Enhanced scriptability

These capabilities combine to make SynthEyes a powerful tool for 3-D film-making pipelines, in addition to its traditional strengths in visual effects and stabilization.

Background

SynthEyes offers a complete high-end feature set, including tracking, stabilization, 3-D stereo, motion capture, and mesh building. It handles camera tracking, object tracking, object tracking from reference meshes, camera+object tracking, multiple-shot tracking, tripod (nodal, 2.5-D) tracking, mixed tripod and translating shots, zooms, lens distortion, and light solving. It can handle shots of any resolution—-DV, HD, film, IMAX—-and can solve shots with thousands of frames. A special feature simplifies and speeds tracking for green-screen shots. The image preprocessor can help remove grain, compression artifacts, off-centering, or varying lighting.

SynthEyes offers complete control over the tracking process for challenging shots, including an efficient workflow for supervised trackers, combined automated/supervised tracking, incremental solving, and a hard and soft path locking system. You can set up a coordinate system with tracker constraints, camera constraints, a line-based single-frame alignment system, or manually. SynthEyes exports to about 25 common animation and compositing packages, standard.

Credits

Selected projects using SynthEyes include Australia, Bedtime Stories, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Defiance, Doubt, Fast & Furious, Gran Torino, Hannah Montana: The Movie and Best of Both Worlds (3-D), The International, John Adams, Magnificent Desolation (3-D), My Bloody Valentine 3-D, and The Spirit; television shows such as Caprica, Fringe, Leverage, and the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

System Requirements
SynthEyes is offered for four platforms: 32-bit Windows, 64-bit Windows, 32-bit OS X, and 64-bit OS X. Windows versions support XP or Vista. The 32-bit OS X version supports OS X 10.4 or 10.5 (Intel/PowerPC); the 64-bit OS X version requires OS X 10.5 Leopard (Intel). We recommend 2-4 GB for 32-bit versions, 4 GB or more for 64-bit versions. See the web site for more information.

Pricing and Availability

SynthEyes 2008 is available now. SynthEyes 2008+1 will be available a few weeks after NAB. SynthEyes 2008 licenses start at $399 for 32-bit versions. The 64-bit OS X version is $599. The 64-bit Windows 2008+1 will be $499; presently it is $449.

SynthEyes 2008+1 is a no-charge dot release for existing SynthEyes 2008 customers and will be available for testing via the support web site in mid-April.

The company website offers a free demonstration version of SynthEyes (currently 2008) at http://www.ssontech.com