Automatically Stereoscopic Camera Control for 3D Animation Production

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel approach for automatically controlling stereoscopic camera parameters that specifically addresses challenges in stereo 3D animation production process.Our proposed camera control method produces stereo contents with preferable depth perception and guarantees visual comfort by optimization of camera parameters. We introduce an attention tracking method to calculate convergence plane, avoiding window violation and minimizing visual conflict. Moreover, we derive an smoothing function on convergence plane that reduces depth jump over time. Then, we calculate the inter-axial separation using a perceived depth mapping. We describe how to implement our method on the Maya plug-in and test the stereo effect using professional stereo 3D animation scenes. The experimental results, including a user study, show that our method enhances the stereo effect. Our controller provides automatic camera control that can be helpful in creating comfortable and faster stereo 3D animations.