An unforgettable sunrise, a complicated stunt, or the unattainable emotion of the actors in the scene is unique and cannot be repeated. It’s unacceptable if that’s the moment when the sharpness wasn’t set exactly or the right angle hadn’t been chosen. Any number of things might happen at any second to prevent the right impression being captured on film.

One new technology that could be used is filming using multi-camera systems, known as light-field technology. This means that a single recording contains several different views, which are then used in post-production to recover the creative opportunities that sometimes seem to go missing on set. The processing of light-field data, or data from multi-camera systems, is a new and promising trend in movie production. This editing flexibility during post-production makes complex and expensive retakes or additional filming a thing of the past.

New software plug-in for post-production enables light-field data processing

Until now, the processing and testing of this new way of working with light-field or multi-camera data was only possible with proprietary and very complex programs which are difficult to handle for most users in post-production.

Experts at Fraunhofer IIS are currently working on putting this light-field processing into practice in a useful way. At IBC 2014, they’re introducing a software plug-in for the Avid Media Composer that allows working with this type of data and selecting and adjusting the parameters for different effects over a graphical user interface.

To this end, the experts at Fraunhofer IIS are developing an auto-calibration method that can correct geometric distortions in the camera position (rectification) without test charts, calibration patterns, or special markers. Depth maps of high pixel density are calculated based on the scene. These depth maps can be used to generate new high-quality views for 2D, 3D, or multi-view displays.

In practice this means that by intelligent processing of different views, change in sharpness, change of the perspective, 3D effects or camera movement in all spatial directions can be calculated. This allows as many additional views as necessary to be generated from the existing views. Changes or modifications of the parameters are operated by special algorithms in such a way that the user gets a preview of a scene with the adjusted effect at any time. The adjustment of the effects or camera movement is carried out over a menu with timeline and slider functionality. The big advantage for the integration in the Avid Media Composer – as a first step – is that the user does not have to switch between different software programs. Further plug-in integrations are scheduled. A licensing model for the software is available for professional users that like to work with this new technology. The processing software is currently in the state of first implementations and testing, but offers great potential for the design of new, cost-efficient working processes in recording and production technology.

The Fraunhofer Digital Cinema Alliance consists of Fraunhofer IIS, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI, Fraunhofer IDMT and Fraunhofer FOKUS. The alliance provides a network of deep expertise and intelligence for the development of scalable technologies and international standards that allow customers to stay ahead of the market.

About the Fraunhofer Digital Cinema Alliance

The Fraunhofer Digital Cinema Alliance consists of Fraunhofer IIS, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI, Fraunhofer IDMT and Fraunhofer FOKUS. The Alliance provides a network of deep expertise and intelligence for the development of scalable technologies and international standards that allow customers to stay ahead of the market. With the start of digitalization in the moving picture industry, these institutes joined forces in 2004 to offer R&D expertise with one face to the customer. The institutes are all well known in the industry for award-winning developments and standards like MP3, H.264, the DCI Compliance Test Plan for Digital Cinema, IOSONO, easyDCP software etc. In addition, they are contributing to ISO, SMPTE, ISDCF, EDCF.