Anyhow, I have decided to make the stereocam available for FREE again. There is just too little time to further develop the script to  justify the current pricetag. This version is up to date and includes all PRO features.

Get the free PRO version: 3dhippie_stereocam_v2_1_5

Have fun doing stereo 3D and tell me about it

Donations are still welcome

Download FREE Version.

Buy the PRO version:

1. Advanced frustum with adjustable planes (watch the video to understand the concept)
2. Save to seperate folders enables you to split the render output to left right and stereo folders.
3. Better gamma handling in the stereoscopic window
4. Bugfixes

adjustable planes from DavidShelton on Vimeo.

Essentially there is three new behaviours:

• Using SHIFT in combination with a spinner or a plane will have an effect on pixel parallax values.
• Using CTRL in combination with a spinner, rollout or plane will have a direct influence on the interaxial and zero parallax
• Using SHIFT and CTRL will affect the interaxial and a pixel parallax value

What sounds complicated is in fact very intuitive behaviour. Use SHIFT to affect pixels, use CTRL to keep the pixels but change the depth, or use SHIFT and CTRL to change the depth, but don’t change the screenplane.

All Ctrl shortcuts require a PRO License to work.

GET THE FREE VERSION
You can download the latest version here:
3dhippie_stereocam_v2.1.1_free.zip
All PRO users will receive an email with a seperate download link

OR BUY THE PRO VERSION

DETAILED LIST OF NEW OPTIONS

Nearplane and farplane:

• (default) Move to adjust pixel parallax values.
• SHIFT move to move the entire frustum
• CTRL move to automatically get a new interaxial and zero parallax
• CTRL + SHIFT move to adjust the interaxial but keep the zero parallax

Screenplane or Zero Parallax spinner:

• (default) Move will also move the frustum
• SHIFT will change the pixel parallax values only

Interaxial Spinner

• (default) Changes the dimensions of the frustum
• SHIFT keeps the frustrum and affects nearlimit and farlimit values

Parallax Presets rollout:

• (default) Frustrum will change it’s shape
• CTRL Interaxial and zero parallax will change

Nearlimit and Farlimit Spinner

• (default) adjust the individual limit
• SHIFT adjust the other limit too to keep the overall disparity
• CTRL add pixels to the foreground or background by changing the interaxial and zero parallax
• CTRL + SHIFT add pixels to the foreground or background by changing the interaxial and also affecting the other limit

Stereoscopic Window Sync button

• (default) move screenplane and frustum
• SHIFT move the screenplane only

3dhippie stereocam v2.0 is available now. It includes an amazing amount of new or advanced features to let you create unbelievable 3D images and movies:

OVERVIEW

• Real camera plugin
  You can create and move it like a standard targetcamera or use a convert macro if you prefer the old technique.

• Preview speed
  This has been improved fundamentally. A Full-HD frame optimized anaglyph takes less then a second, making it much more attractive to render anaglyph previews.

• Alignment (PRO).
  The stereocam can now be aligned to left, center or right side, so you only need to rerender one camera if you made adjustments. It is also very useful if you want to convert old short films to 3D with less rendertime.

• Pixel parallax presets.
  Choose from and create new pixel parallax presets to get the 3D just right.

• Great Vray-Implementation.
  The stereocam can be switched to VRay with the click of a button and offers you the choice of using two physical cameras or the stereoscopic helpers.

• Horizontal overscan (PRO)
  Render your images wider without affecting the field of view and have the ultimate control over your depth in the post.

• Net rendering
  Send jobs to the network just like any other camera.

• Stereoscopic viewport preview
  Watch your viewport in 3D while working. All changes will be immediately reflected in the stereoscopic window.

• More compositing types
  Choose from red/cyan, magenta/green, or amber/blue with monochrome, half-color or optimized algorithm.

• Stereoscopic player connection (PRO)
  Utilize the power of the stereoscopic player from 3dtv.org .View and adjust either your interactive viewport preview or the rendered results from within the Stereoscopic player offering you even MORE compositing types (e.g. quad-buffered opengl, 3dvision, iz3d).

• Realtime zero parallax adjustments (PRO)
  Adjust the zero parallax even after you rendered! Just shift the images until the desired depth placement is reached, hit „sync“ and the rig will accomodate to your changes.

• Stereoscopic animated viewport sequence (PRO)
  Make an animated viewport sequence in full-HD. You can generate a 3D-Clip or use the stereoscopic player connection.

DOWNLOAD

You can download the FREE version here: DOWNLOAD

The PRO license is worth 249€. To order a PRO license download and install the FREE version first. You will need your authorisation code to complete the purchase. Read more about licensing in the accompanying readme file.

To get the most benefit from 3dhippie stereocam I highly recommend to purchase a license of the stereoscopic player as well.

SEE IT IN ACTION

Watch a video demonstration online here:

3dhippie stereocam v2 from DavidShelton on Vimeo.

To pass the time, check out the new video. It showcases all new features (PRO features are marked as such).

3dhippie stereocam v2 from DavidShelton on Vimeo.

This is a very exciting announcement. After a long time of development the new stereocam version is almost ready. If you want to check it out, contact me immediately. I need people to experiment with it and provide me with good feedback (bugs, missing features, awkward behaviour etc.).

Here’s a summary of the new features:

• Real Camera Plugin
  You can create and move it like a standard targetcamera or use a convert Macro if you prefer the old technique.
• Preview Speed
  This has been improved fundamentally. A Full-HD Frame optimised anaglyph takes less then a second, making it much more attractive to render anaglyph previews.
• Alignment.
  The Stereocam can now be aligned to left, center or right side, so you only need to rerender one camera if you made adjustments. It is also very useful if you want to convert old short films to 3D with less rendertime.
• Pixel Parallax Presets.
  Choose from and create new pixel-parallax presets to get the 3D just right.
• Best Vray-Implementation.
  The Stereocam can be switched to VRAY with the click of a button and offers you the choice of using two physical cameras or the stereoscopic helpers.
• Horizontal Overscan
  Render your Images wider without affecting the field of view and have the ultimate control over your depth in the post.
• Pixel-Parallax Ruler
  Get the best overview of how your depth is beeing distributed over the scene with a implemented ruler.
• Net Rendering
  Send jobs to the network just like any other camera
• Heavy Optimization
  Lots of minor improvements provide you with a smooth workflow

The biggest new feature, although, is called the Stereoscopic Window. It is the Stereocam’s very own Frame buffer and offers amazing possibilites:

• Interactive Viewport Preview
  Watch your viewport in 3D while working. All changes will be immediately reflected in the stereoscopic window.
• More Compositing types
  Choose from red/cyan, magenta/green, or amber/blue with monochrome, half-color or optimized algorithm.
• Stereoscopic Player Connection
  Utilize the power of the stereoscopic player from 3dtv.org .View and adjust either your interactive viewport preview or the rendered results from within the Stereoscopic player offering you even MORE compositing types (e.g. quad-buffered opengl, nivision, iz3d).
• Realtime ZPS Adjustment
  Adjust the ZPS even after you rendered! Just shift the images until the desired depth placement is reached, hit „sync“ and the rig will accomodate to your changes.You can also go the other way around and adjust the screenplane in the rig. The stereoscopic window will update even a rendered image.
• High Quality Nitrous Preview
  Sacrifice some interactive speed to get a non-grainy 3d viewport preview.

RemapPSD bridges the power of render to texture inside 3ds Max and the photoshop application. With RemapPSD you can easily map your entire photoshop file to a different set of uvs. The script will handle even very complex photoshop files with:

• layers with masks
• folders with masks
• nested folders
• adjustment layers with masks
• layered tiffs

An example case: You have worked on a lowpoly game character and are almost done when the lead artist approaches you with the request to give the character’s face more space on the texture. This is not so difficult if you are working on a flat image, but impossible to do with complex photshop files. With RemapPSD it’s inredibly easy. You can change the uv-layout of an existing model and the psd file with all the layers, folders, adjustment layers, masks etc, will be remapped with just the click of a button.

I hope you will find it just as helpful as I do. It is probably best to watch the video tutorial on vimeo.

DOWNLOAD:

go get it from scriptspot: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/remappsd#comment-14437

or use the direct downloadlink: remapPSD.mzp

INSTALLATION:

1. Select Maxscript/run and choose „RemapPSD.mzp“
2. You will find the macroscipt under customize in the category „3dhippie“. Assign it to a shortcut or make a new menu item.

USAGE:

Basically you need three things to make the script work.

1. Any piece of textured geometry
2. Two sets of UV’s: Channel 1 for the old mapping, Channel 2 for the new mapping
3. A standard material with a bitmap texture as it’s diffuse map

RemapPSD will do the rest for you.

The script will run through four phases:

1. Photoshop will pop up, open the document, save it under „[originalname]_remapped“ and do some preparations.
2. Back in 3ds Max render to texture will render all layers.
3. Photoshop will collect all rendered images and update the psdfile.
4. In 3ds Max the original object’s material will be updated to use the remapped psd file.

That’s it. You can now continue working on your psd file which will be organized just the same as before, with all layers, adjustment layers, folders and so on.

LIMITATIONS

You cannot remap vector elements, such as vector masks, or text layers, or smartobjects. All of those elements will be rasterized.

SATISFIED?

If you like the script and have enjoyed the time saving, maybe you would like to donate a little. Me and my family would highly appreciate it. What is it worth to you? A cone of icecream, a pizza, or a new piece of furniture? However much you pay, it will definitely make someone happy.

If you have comments or critique, you are always welcome to write me a line. I can’t promise that I will implement new feature requests, but I will try my best.

STANDARD (MONOSCOPIC)

showreel 2010 from DavidShelton on Vimeo.

STEREOSCOPIC

stereoscopic showreel 2010 from DavidShelton on Vimeo.

All clips from the stereoscopic showreel have been rendered with the stereoscopic camera 3dhippie_stereocam which I am giving away for free on my blog. davidshelton.de/​blog/

If you like the reel and need a Generalist or Stereographer please contact me, I am available as a freelancer.

Projects (in order of appearance) + my part

NEBELWESEN (FOGSPIRITS) – shortfilm
Everything except character animation

BROKEN – shortfilm
vimeo.com/​5082784
Idea, rigging, texturing, technical direction

AUGTSCH – shortfilm
vimeo.com/​11420200
everything

SNACK – shortfilm
everything

GAMEART FOR ANNO 1404 (DAWN OF DISCOVERY)
strategy game developed by related designs, brand of ubisoft.
anno.de.ubi.com/
Modelling, Texturing

TURAN & DOT – character studies
everything

TECHNICAL PART
example of a facial rig used in Fogspirits.

The stereoscopic camera is a free script that I wrote to render stereoscopic movies inside 3ds Max
davidshelton.de/​blog/​?p=216
It is under constant development and can include specialized features as for example 8 stream rendering for xyz3D autostereoscopic displays from zerocreative. zerocreative.com/

Music: Popfront election by Xploding Plastix

Is it possible to achieve realtime stereoscopic previews inside 3dsmax viewports with the 3dhippie_stereocam? That would be great, right? Well: it is! but only indirectly. You can’t have stereo viewports at the moment but there is a brilliant plugin by the russian company kostasoft called 3D Vision Viewer to do something very similar. If you have a secondary monitor the plugin will establish a connection to Nvidia 3d Vision. This means you can have optimized anaglyph, interlaced output or even quad-buffered opengl. Fullscreen and for FREE!

Getting started:

You can get the plugin directly from kostasofts website or you can visit maxunderground if your russian isn’t fluent :-D. There are different versions for each 3dsmax version 32bit and 64 bit:

Download Kostasoft 3D Viewer_x32 for 3DS MAX 2010
Download Kostasoft 3D Viewer_x64 for 3DS MAX 2010

After installation of the plugin, you will find the 3D Vision Viewer at the utilities tab. The interface is very simple. Choose the correct cameras and start the preview. You might not be satisfied with the results: no 3D at all, strong color tints, something’s just wrong. There are good explanations and solutions to all of those problems:

1) It captures the viewports directly
This means, you have to have two viewports with a leftcamera and a rightcamera open. Expanding a single viewport will be destructive.

2) The viewports should be setup in a specific order
Viewport with index 1 should be left, and index 2 right. I would advise to also have a perpective viewport opened. The stereocam has a handy preset for this purpose: 2 cams + persp (bottom).

3) Both viewports need identical shading
Make sure that both viewport look the same. One viewport in wireframe and the other one smooth shaded will be unpleasant 3d. Also set the the transparancy to an equal setting (none, simple or best).

4) Get rid of unnecessary scene objects:

• hide near plane, screen plane and far plane
• hide the camera lookats
• hide viewcube and steering wheel

With all these things in mind it is a fantastic experience to have realtime stereo inside 3dsmax. Have fun. Thank you kostasoft for making this plugin

EDIT: There is a more recent version. Get 3dhippie stereocam v2

I am proud to announce the new version of my stereo rig for 3dsmax. I have rewritten most of the core of the original script and switched to a different system. The camera does no longer work with cropping, but with shifted frustrums. This makes the rig a lot more flexible and professional.

These are the main new features:

- all parameters are animatable
- improved interface (screen plane can be moved)
- target camera and free camera mode
- option to render stereo image sequences
- better Vray integration (vray1.5 Sp4a or Sp5 is required!)
- exact floating frame and window
- control over pixel-parallax values
- new presets for finding the right stereobase
- option to make the cameras converge
- faster previews and true optimized anaglyph
- possibility to preview the same image with a different preview type without rerendering
- better working renderelements and network rendering
- units correspond to the global units
- viewport presets
- stereocamera is placed in a own layer
- deleting the main control deletes all
- Included helpfile
…and probably a lot more

and some more changes.

You can get the updated version here:

EDIT: There is a more recent version. Get 3dhippie stereocam v2

3dhippie_stereocam_v1.6.4.zip