Motion Media

Neo3D - Professional 3D Editing for Film and Broadcast

Online 3D editing workflow for Adobe, Apple, Avid, and more on both Win and Mac

Intended for 3D cinema, broadcast, Blu-Ray, and Internet distribution, Neo3D empowers traditional 2D industry editorial and effects tools into feature-rich 3D editorial tools.

With versions for both Windows and Mac, CineForm’s Neo3D delivers a real-time 3D editing workflow compatible with most NLEs — including from Adobe, Apple, Avid, and Sony. A Neo3D workflow begins by creating CineForm 3D media that contains full-resolution Left and Right eye information in a single AVI or MOV wrapper. CineForm Intermediate compression is acclaimed for its high visual fidelity, and is used routinely as the mastering format for 2D and 3D film, televison, and archive workflows. The workhorse application for making 3D adjustments is First Light which is included with Neo3D. First Light implements 3D image adjustments, non-destructive primary color correction, plus 2D/3D text and graphics overlays as Active Metadata^™ layers on top of the underlying 3D video layer. During editorial, First Light allows for choosing 3D display modes for an external monitor, real-time keyframeable adjustments of convergence, keystoning, primary color correction, and much more, all performed in real time and implemented through Active Metadata. First Light's Active Metadata architecture ensures media and Active Metadata compatibility with all QuickTime and AVI applications on both Windows and Mac.

Considering workflow, First Light is used in parallel with the preferred NLE, allowing 3D adjustments during editorial playback. The tools in Neo3D can be used for 3D finishing, or can be used to offline a 3D project with finishing performed in other tools. Neo3D is a superset of Neo4K and includes all applications and tools described for Neo4K, including HD Link (Win) and ReMaster (Mac) which convert virtually all camera or file sources into CineForm media at unrestricted spatial resolution.

Neo3D offers the following 3D features:

• Full 3D editorial workflow: Using Neo3D, you have a consistent 3D editing workflow that is cross-platform compatible with Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Media Composer, Vegas, and other editorial and effects tools in a manner similar to editing any CineForm 2D file.
• First Light^™ 3D: the heart of Neo3D. All 2D and 3D adjustments are implemented as Active Metadata under control of First Light. The First Light application is kept active during editorial and allows adjustments of 2D and 3D Active Metadata parameters.
• Display Support for most 3D monitors: Real-time formatting of CineForm 3D media into a selectable 3D presentation format during 3D decode based on the 3D monitoring setup: dual-link stereo, passive polarized, active shutter (page flip), or anaglyph
• Keyframeable 3D Adjustments (all real-time):
  • Convergence: horizontal, vertical or rotation (skew) between Left and Right eyes
  • Stereo color adjustments: white balance, exposure, saturation, lift, gamma, gain, and more
  • Crop/zoom including pan and scan
  • Titles, metadata, and graphics overlays
• Individual Eye Adjustments for color and image flip useful for beam-splitter 3D rigs
• Keystoning Adjustment: Allows correction for camera toe-in/out
• Depth Tilt to adjust relative depth of primary objects in a scene
• Ghost Busting to reduce high contrast ghosting visible on some passive displays
• 3D file creation and synchronization, including slipping one eye relative to another when sources are out of alignment.

Neo3D v5 is now in production on both Windows and Mac, and adds the following features above Neo3D v4:

• support for Adobe CS5 Windows (CS5 Mac support coming soon)
• compatibility with Avid Media Composer v5 on Win and Mac
• (even) more editing performance to your CineForm files
• Many new 3D adjustments in First Light including keyframeability of many 3D parameters
• 2D/3D titles and graphics overlays in First Light
• Tools (histogram, waveform, scopes) and metadata (timecode, etc) overlays in First Light
• command-line converter from Phantom VR cameras to CineForm RAW

NOTE:Some minor feature differences exist between the Windows and Mac versions of Neo 4K. Please verify features in the Trial download prior to purchase.

		Windows		MacOS
Operating System		Windows XP / 64 latest SP Vista 32 / 64 SP1 Win 7 32 / 64 (64-bit preferred)		Mac OS 10.5 or greater
CPU		Min: Core 2 Quad 3GHz Preferred: Core i7 or Dual Nehalem Mac Note: Intel Mac Only
QuickTime		V7.6 or greater		V7.6 or greater
RAM		3GB or greater		4GB or greater
System Drive		7200 rpm SATA (Capacity: User Preference)
Media Drive		Preferred: Two (or more) drives as RAID 0
Notes: For systems below the minimum hardware recommendations, performance may degrade, but software will continue to function. Please review the Readme file installed with the software for more details.

Neo3D - The Basics

The underpinning of Neo3D is the creation and use of CineForm 3D QuickTime or AVI files that contain temporally-aligned Left and Right eyes. Each eye contains full spatial resolution suitable for online workflows. CineForm 3D files are created in a manner that they are interpreted by all QuickTime or AVI applications as if they were traditional 2D files. This allows virtually all 2D MOV and AVI compatible applications to edit CineForm stereo files. This "trickery" to the calling application happens beneath the QuickTime or DirectShow layers where CineForm?s Neo3D blends Left and Right eye information in into stereo HD frames which are passed to (and through) the 2D calling application without its knowledge.

Neo3D is a superset of the features in Neo4K, but with the following additional professional 3D features, all of which are implemented in real-time through the First Light Active Metadata processor:

• Keyframeable 3D convergence controls
• Independent eye color adjustment (including white balance)
• Independent eye frame flip (for stereo mirror rigs)
• Floating windows to manage edge violations
• Keystoning to correct for improper camera toe-in/out
• Ghost Busting to correct for high-contrast ghosting on some passive displays
• Dept tilt to adjust relative depth between primary objects in a scene
• Image warping to correct for lens distortion (coming later)
• Dual-link stereo HD-SDI output to drive RealD, Dolby, or XpanD projectors; and to record in stereo mode to HDCAM SR.

Included software components

• CineForm 2D and 3D codec with Active Metadata processor
  • Win: DirectShow, Video for Windows (VfW), and QuickTime components installed
  • Mac: QuickTime components installed
• First Light. End-user application that runs in parallel with your preferred NLE or effects sotware to adjust Active Metadata color parameters, 3D adjustments, and text/graphics overlays on CineForm media.
• HD Link (Windows) or ReMaster (Mac). End-user application to manage file capture and conversion to CineForm files. Allows selection of image pre-processing algorithms during conversion (spatial resampling, telecine removal, and much more).
• Command-Line Converters (Windows). Command-line conversion utilities for conversion of greater-than-HD resolution content into CineForm files, including:
  • R2CF: Convert from Red R3D media into CineForm files
  • VR2CF: Convert from Phantom (Vision Research) RAW files and CineForm files
  • DPX2CF and CF2DPX: Convert between DPX or TIFF files and CineForm media
  • Note: Red R3D and DPX conversions on Mac are performed in ReMaster

Stereo File Creation

• First Step: Individual conversion of Left eye and Right eye sources into 2D CineForm files;
• Second Step: Using First Light 3D, multiplex individual eyes into a CineForm stereo stream.
• NOTE: Certain camera and file sources will have one-step conversion into CineForm stereo files in upcoming releases.

Neo3D Feature Specifications

• OS Compatibility:
  • Mac: OS 10.5 or later
  • Win: Windows XP /Vista /7 (either 32-bit or 64-bit)
• CineForm compression with embedded Active Metadata processing
  • Windows: DirectShow, Video for Windows (VfW), and QuickTime compatible with all video applications that support these interfaces.
  • Mac: QuickTime compatible with all video applications that supports QuickTime.
• Application Compatibility: Most AVI/MOV compatible editing and effects applications including:
  • Final Cut Pro (Mac)
  • Adobe CS3 / CS4 / CS5 (Mac release July 2010)
  • Avid Media Composer v5
  • Sony Vegas 7 / 8 / 9
• Spatial resolution: Unrestricted. As a practical matter up to 8K for each eye.
• File Compatibility: MOV, AVI
• Chroma Format:10-bit 4:2:2; 12-bit 4:4:4(:4); and 12-bit CineForm RAW
• OpenGL display support for timeline and First Light monitoring (Windows only)
• HD-SDI/HDMI monitoring support in Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro: through AJA Kona LHi/3 (drivers supplied by AJA)
• HD-SDI/HDMI Direct-to-Disk Recording: See HD Link/ReMaster below
• Media Sharing with others: Free CineForm decoder with Active Metadata processor available for download on both Windows and Mac
  • Real-time Full framerate playout as user-selectable 2D or 3D format
  • Real-time Active Metadata processing for color adjustments and 3D controls
  • Some feature differences between different NLEs and platforms:
    • FCP/Mac: Kona is recommended for playback for improved performance.
    • PPro/Win: Xena not yet supported for through the PPro timeline in CS4, but it is supported for CS3.
  • During render CineForm 3D files are properly recreated

First Light Application

First Light is included with Neo3D and becomes the heart of your 3D workflow. Neo3D operates in parallel with your editing or effects software, and provides real-time, non-destructive adjustments for 3D controls, primary 2D/3D color correction, and overlays. First Light adjustments are implemented as Active Metadata, which means all adjustments are made non-destructively as a "layer" on top of the underlying video. Active Metadata is implemented in a manner that is compatible with all AVI and MOV NLEs and effects applications. First Light also supports the Tangent Wave 3-ball control surface as an alternative to using software sliders to make image adjustments.

Please click on the First Light tab above to see details of the features included in First Light.

LUT Package

In a separate download, CineForm provides a package of 34 64x64x64 3D LUTs ("Looks") for use with First Light.

HD Link (Windows) or ReMaster (Mac)

HD Link and ReMaster are included with Neo3D for conversion of media into and out of CineForm master files. HD Link and ReMaster convert most all camera or file-based sources into CineForm media. Includes numerour image pre-processing algorithms that can be applied during conversion spatial resampling, telecine removal, and much more.

Please click on the HDLink/ReMaster tab above to see details of the features included in HD Link and ReMaster.