Siggraph

I never thought about it like this before, but what we know as a close-up shot isn’t really a close-up at all. Phil “Captain 3D” McNally from DreamWorks Animation likes to instead refer to this staple of 2D cinematography as a “big-up.” The object isn’t any closer to the the audience, it’s just bigger.

That’s just one example of the redefining of traditional movie terminology that McNally peppered throughout his talk about discovering the difference between 2D and 3D moviemaking this morning during the Animated 3D Cinema: Imaginary Worlds Brought to Life panel. Because 2D techniques are so ingrained in filmmakers and audiences as the only way to make films, it is ironically seen as real life. In reality, 2D moviemaking is the art of converting a spatial world into a flat one. McNally showed a clip from the studio’s Kung Fu Panda that was quite impressive in 3D, but then revealed the process behind converting a 3D production through the 2D filter- about 1/3 of the clip was the same, 1/3 was slightly adjusted 2D footage, and 1/3 of it was new or extended edits.

For the eyes to be able to focus, it is easier if “each shot lines up on the depth of the previous shot,” McNally says. One 2D-to-3D-converted clip was an entire 14 percent longer to allow the audience time to immerse themselves in each shot spatially. Even though the angle is different, the axis of the character in the foreground will more times than not be the same.

McNally concluded his talk by showing a very funny clip from DreamWorks’ upcoming classic monster movie/sci-fi parody Monsters vs. Aliens, the first movie from the studio to be authored in 3D from its inception. After a giant alien robot lands in the desert, a U.S. president (who looks like a horn-rimmed Ira Glass by way of Bruce Campbell) bent on showcasing his strength climbs a giant staircase to be the first man to approach the robot. His first choice to make contact? The five-note keyboard pregression from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, of course.

Monsters vs. Aliens looks like the kind of movie that has so many adult references one wonders what kids will think of it. Count me in in March 2009 when its released.