July 23, 2009

Super 3D

I experienced a couple of cool video-geek-moments this week, starting with a little collaborative work with the Immerse Visualization Center (IVC).    Ben (friend, and current viz-student) works for the Institute for Scientific Computation, the organization that operates the IVC.  Ben asked me if they could use some of my stereoscopic images as material to help demonstrate the capabilities of the IVC.  Of course I said yes.  After gathering and calibrating some of my stereo-photos, I handed them off to Ben.  A few hours later, Bobby (my graduate assistant), Ruben and I headed to the IVC to see how well my 3D photos appeared on the big IVC screen.  Seeing them on this system was very impressive.  Ruben and I noticed details in some of the images that we had never seen before.  It was super cool!

New Toys Cameras

The second big moment for this A/V-Geek was the delivery of the lab’s new XDCAM-EX3 HD cameras.  For years now, I’ve been fighting/begging to get all the necessary hardware and software to enable our students to do full high-definition work.  This summer, Bobby and I have been setting up new workstations and installing software to make HD production in the lab a reality.  The final piece to the puzzle was the EX3.  Now the lab has three of these cameras, and all the required accessories.  Needless to say, I’m looking forward to the fall semester so the students can start working in HD. Check out the little sample video below.  We shot the footage in an hour and edited it in just a couple of minutes!