Finally some good news for 2D-to-3D conversion: Barry Sandrew’s Legend3D proprietary conversion technology is a finalist for the prestigious 2010 Most Innovative New Product Awards (MIP) for software in San Diego.
Sandrew, a Ph.D. and former neuroscientist who has more than 14 visual effects patents, created the Colorization technology in 1987 and then enhanced it in 2000 with advances in digital technology that semi-automated the process, leaving room for “significant creative input.” With 135 color conversions under their belt in the past seven years, the company applied that Colorization technology to develop a 2D-to-3D conversion process in 2005.
Both processes were demonstrated at the International 3D Society’s Tech Awards last month in a preview of a work-in-progress four-minute clip being produced by Legend3D of silent film star Harold Lloyd’s iconic “Safety Last” presented by granddaughter Susan Lloyd. The final version will be shown at the second annual 3D Society Awards honoring creative arts on Feb. 9, 2011.
Legend’s pedigree
Legend3D did the 3D conversion on many scenes in this year’s “Alice in Wonderland” from Tim Burton, created the first digital 3D commercial for movie theaters (“Skittles Transplant”), and the opening credits and interstitials for the 3D episode of “Chuck” that followed the Super Bowl last year, recently completed three 2D-to-3D conversions for DreamWorks that took only eight weeks each, and has been doing a lot of what Sandrew calls “911” work for studios on films that ran way behind in the conversion process and needed help to meet release dates.
That “911” work can cost on the high side of what Sandrew says is about $30,000 – $200,000 per minute of converted film. He makes it clear that Legend3D has not been involved with any of the recent films that took a beating from the media and the industry about poor 2D-to-3D conversion.
The company also worked with Burton on a one-minute sample conversion of “Nine” but there was not enough time to commit to converting the entire film before its release date.
Sandrew says the films he is most anxious to see converted into 3D are the biggest films, including “Titanic,” “Star Wars,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” “Spider-Man,” “The Matrix” and many others. He could not comment on which, if any, Legend3D will work on.
MIP Awards a “great honor”
Illustrating the breadth of technologies covered by the awards that encompass more than 100 companies in eight categories, the two other finalists in the software category with Legend3D are Intuit for its TurboTax SnapTax income tax filing technology and SuperAgent for its SuperAgent.com website for comparing small business health insurance plans.
Winners will be announced during a luncheon from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10, at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Ca.
“It’s a great honor,” said Sandrew of being a finalist for the award from CONNECT, a 25-year joint effort of the City of San Diego, the University of California San Diego, and the private sector to stimulate the commercialization of science and technology discoveries from the local research. Last year’s MIP awards were attended by more than 800 of San Diego’s top executives, entrepreneurs and academics.
Sandrew, who has been involved with UCSD for some time, said he is most proud of the fact that, especially in this economy, his company has hired hundreds of people in the San Diego area — 275 in the last nine months and another 150 by May. As the Legend3D technology is all proprietary, new employees are immediately trained on the technology and process, he said, noting that it is very intuitive for filmmakers to grasp when working with Legend3D on conversions.
Including the studio he opened in India ten years ago, Sandrew’s company employs about 1,100 people. The recent and upcoming hires are all due to a deluge in studio demand for 2D-to-3D conversion, he said.
Defining Hollywood thinking
“We’re literally defining the way Hollywood is thinking about making movies,” Sandrew said, adding that there are very few companies that can convert to 3D and make it look natural.”
Asked whether this technology will only be useful until the industry catches up to the technology and begins shooting everything in 3D, Sandrew said no, that there are “lots of expensive problems associated with shooting in 3D initially (“camera capture”), and that using traditional 2D cameras during production and converting to 3D in post-production is easier, quicker, less problematic, and less expensive.”
“ We allow filmmakers to produce in a medium in which they are most comfortable – 2D – and studios are happier because it’s cheaper,” he said.
Recent 3D films that have been panned by the industry and critics about the quality of 2D-to-3D are the result of rushing the conversion process, Sandrew said. “Not enough time was allowed to put creative thought into it.”
Additionally, there are thousands of catalog titles that Sandrew says will be converted to 3D for theatrical, 3D Blu-ray, and 3DTV. Contrary to the belief by some in the industry that it is more difficult or challenging to convert non-digital films to 3D, Sandrew says not true from a technical standpoint using his system, though it may require more creative input from the filmmaker who may not have pre-planned which elements of each shot he wants to be in the foreground, for example.
Future rooted in the past
Sandrew says his technology that has been recognized as a finalist in the MAP Awards was initiated five years ago when he first began seeing what James Cameron was doing with “Avatar” and saw Samsung’s early 3D TVs.
“Our pipeline is more efficient. We can convert black-and-white movies to look as if they were shot in color. The Colorization process is about 55% the same as the 2D-to-3D conversion. Now we use the same process to create depth — we developed additional software to take the process into the 3D realm.”
“There are less than a handful of companies that can actually do this.”
— By Scott Hettrick