alice-teacher Binocular depth perception in Alice

[Vanderhyde, James]

Hello, everyone. I had an idea to make a 3D video using Alice, where the user can actually view it in 3D, and it worked pretty well, so I thought I’d share. Unfortunately it’s a lot of steps, and I didn’t find a good way to automate the process, so I didn’t use it in class. Please take a look, and if you think of a way to automate this, it could be very cool.

The best way to view the resulting video is with Google Cardboard or similar device on a phone. You can find all the steps and the resulting video here:
http://vanderhyde.us/~james/alice/

I’ll also paste the steps below in this email so you can take a look now. Enjoy!

James
—
James Vanderhyde
Assistant Professor and Department Chair, Computer Science
Saint Xavier University
3700 W. 103rd St.
Chicago, IL 60655
773-298-3454


To make a 3D video in Alice, follow the steps below. I used Alice 2 on MacOS, but the instructions should be adaptable to other environments.

  1.  First, the movie window size in Alice needs be an 8:9 ratio, rather than the default 4:3, because we will use iMovie to make the final product, and iMovie creates 16:9 ratio videos (widescreen). We need two images side-by-side, so an 8:9 ratio will work perfectly (a little taller than wide). You can set this in Alice 2 in the viewing angles in "seldom used properties" on the camera. The vertical viewing angle should be changed to 0.75; leave the horizontal viewing angle at 0.67.
  2.  Next, create your Alice movie as usual.
  3.  At the very beginning of your movie, create a duration 0 visible change (e.g. turn light brightness to 0 and then to 1). We will need this to align the timing of the left and right clips. It serves the same purpose as a clapperboard in a regular movie.
  4.  Move the camera 0.05 m left for the viewer's left eye.
  5.  Play the movie, then start the video capture (command-shift-5 on Mac).
  6.  Hit Restart on the Alice window. If you don't see the light black out, hit restart again. Sometimes it's not visible, so you have to keep restarting until you see the light blink.
  7.  Stop the recording at the end of the movie.
  8.  Move the camera 0.10 m right for the viewer's right eye.
  9.  Record the movie again. Make sure you see the light black out at the beginning. When you save the recording, make sure you know which clip is right and which one is left.
  10. Trim each clip so it begins right after the light turns on. (You can use QuickTime Player on Mac).
  11. Create a new project in iMovie, and add both clips. Add the right clip first so you know which is which. The one you add first is considered the main clip. Add the left clip so it overlaps with the first clip.
  12. Line up both clips on the left. Trim the longer clip to the length of the shorter.
  13. Select the upper clip and choose Split Screen.
  14. Share the video to a file or whatever you want.

You can watch the exported video in 3D using the "magic eye" trick if you make the window small. You can also watch the video using Google Cardboard or a similar device if you open the movie on your phone.

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