The Foundry (http://www.thefoundry.co.uk) is now
shipping Ocula, a collection of plug-in tools
designed to solve common problems with
stereoscopic imagery, boost productivity in post
production, and deliver a more rewarding
stereoscopic viewing experience, says CEO Bill
Collis. Ocula plug-ins are designed to
automatically replicate key processes on left and
right channels and help artists polish and refine
stereoscopic material, literally removing
headaches from the final viewing experience.

As Ocula plug-ins enable precise, pixel-level
manipulation of stereoscopic imagery, they will
help artists to refine and finesse stereo footage
in a highly productive fashion., Collis adds. The
tool set is based on new disparity-mapping
algorithms, created by The Foundry's Academy
Award-winning R&D team.

Disparity maps track and correlate the
differences in positional space and movement
between corresponding pixels in the left and
right cameras, delivering pixel-level control
over images. Knowing where disparities occur,
Ocula tools apply corrections by warping,
stretching and squeezing only the areas of an
image that require treatment. Image manipulation
using disparity maps is different to the X, Y or
Z-axis shifting of images, where only whole image
planes are being shifted.

Ocula plug-ins allow artists to apply a multitude
of adjustments to stereo image pairs. All
corrections can be made to the left and right eye
channels either together or separately,
minimising or eliminating discomfort from the
stereo viewing experience. Ocula plug-ins include:

° Interocular Shifter, which allows users to
reduce camera interaxial separation in
post-production;

° Vertical Aligner, which automatically attempts
to vertically align corresponding image features
in each view to minimize or eliminate camera
misalignment and "key-stoning";

° New View, which allows the creation of a single
view from a stereo pair of images. Users can
create this new view at any position between the
original views using one or both of the original
views;

° Correlate, which reduces the amount of manual
labour required by artists undertaking paint or
rotoscoping work. Many position-dependent image
manipulations, such as paint/roto, can be
automatically propagated from one eye to the
other;

° ColourMatch, which lets you match the colors of
one view with those of another. It has been
specifically designed to deal with the subtle
color differences that are sometimes present
between stereo views.

Nuke 5.1 is currently the only visual effects
compositing system with an embedded 3D
stereoscopic workflow where left and right eye
channels can be manipulated separately or
together. Nuke 5.1 is, therefore, currently the
only platform that supports Ocula.

Now shipping, Ocula is priced at US$10,00. Nuke
5.1 costs $3,500 with render nodes priced at $250
with the annual maintenance and support contract
prices at $1,000 per graphical user interface
license. Nuke 5.1 is available for existing
customers with valid maintenance at no extra
cost, customers can download now from The Foundry
web site.