Avatar 2: New 3D rig!

Oct 25 2022

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3D filming which was very popular during 1960s..but the technology  faded away for many reasons.

In India My dear kuttichathan in 1980’s was only successful film.

Again 3D cinematography came into existence by innovative breakthrough happened filming in Digital cinema camera using beam splitter rigs in sci-fi film Avatar Directed by Visionary James Cameron. the success of Avatar paved ways to bring 3D films to big screens, some was shot in stereoscopic format and other films where converted to Digital 3D during post.

In Tamil Enthiran 2.0 was shot Digital 3D format using stereoscopic beam splitter rigs by DOP Nirav Shah.

Now Avatar part 2 way of water to hit screens during December 2022!

Avatar to use Imax 3D cameras ..the biggest is the film most of the sequences happening in under water.

Any filming underwater is incredibly difficult, colours quickly drop off due to water. Blue light wavelengths travel the best underwater, but as a rule, underwater cinematography has to deal with red wavelength light dropping one stop of light for every two metres away from the lens. Filming motion capture underwater is even more complex.

James Cameron utilized the new under water technology invented by Australian Cinematographer Pawel Achtel.

Pawel Achtel ACS is a cinematographer, scientist, and investor. He has been focusing on huge screen cinematography technologies for years. Pawel runs his company called Achtel Pty Limited which is an Australian company specializing in all aspects of motion picture production and cinema innovation technologies.

Pawel invented years ago (in 2015), which is the 3D submersible beam splitter titled DeepX 3D is one of the sole options to offer underwater 3D IMAX imagery without distortion, aberrations, and artifacts.

The Underwater Cinematography Behind Avatar 2: 3D Beam Splitter and Nikonos Lenses

To solve the problem of light loss and housing interference, Pawel developed a system, initially around the RED camera that used special Nikonos underwater lenses. What made this so remarkable is that the lens itself was directly in the water, not shielded by any glass covering or housing. The DeepX 3D System does not require a lens mount as the camera attaches directly onto the housing. It also does not require a lens servo motor or lens port, as the Nikonos lenses are mounted outside the housing. This direct lens approach had been pioneered originally by famous underwater documentarian Jacques Cousteau. Achtel’s patented 3D beam-splitter ‘DeepX 3D system’ was used extensively on James Cameron’s sequels, in New Zealand prompting the legendary director to write that the results were the best underwater 3D images he’d ever seen. “It was quite a bold move to use this technology (flooded beam splitter with submersible lenses)“but according to Cameron  it was the best underwater footage he has ever seen, by far.”

Because the system has no housing around the lenses, the system avoids distortions, and has no chromatic aberrations, no image plane curvature and no astigmatism caused by optical housings. The DeepX 3D is lightweight and small, less than 30kg when ready for diving. The system uses the Epic Dragon cameras. This system is remarkable since it eliminates dome ports or housings it offers over 10 times the sharpness across the entire 6K sensor. As such it was really the only underwater 3D system offering Ultra-High-Definition quality. Importantly for stereo, it has an adjustable stereo base (IA) 0 ~ 75 mm with a patented wet (submersible) beam splitter preventing distortions and resolution loss.

This provided the Avatar team, for the first time, the ability to capture the true beauty of the cinematography with 6K images from edge to edge.

ACHTEL DeepX 3D submersible beam-splitter system explanation. Picture: Pawel Achtel ACS

Russel Carpenter is the  Director of Photography for AVATAR new sequels…DeepX 3D was born, to offer a compact and friendlier 3D underwater setup, and more importantly, to eliminate those artifacts to the movie that can be watched on an IMAX screen with 3D glasses without casting any eye-strain.

DeepX 3D is the only underwater 3D system allowing immersive, high-resolution stereoscopic 3D images underwater. It delivers more than an order of a magnitude more detail than it is possible with traditional housed systems”.

DeepX 3D weighs in at less than 30kg and can be handled by a single cameraman, yet produces images that far surpass those of conventional camera systems. Using dedicated and optically matched underwater lenses, and a unique formulation of reflective material that’s been specially developed for the beam splitter mirror that evenly splits the highly polarised ambient light underwater, Achtel’s new camera system uniquely creates images that meet and surpass, the 4K standard of today’s giant screen technology.

The lenses that were attached to the DeepX 3D System are old, and simple submersible lenses by Nikon. As explained by Pawel: “Nikonos 15mm sn #216940 and #202669 (2xxxx serial numbers were introduced in the early 1980s for UW-Nikkor 15mm f / 2.8 N) were the two lenses selected from a pool of over 100 lenses based on their consistent optical performance and sharpness extending from corner to corner. They have measured MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) in 5 points of the frame to evaluate and chose some of the sharpest optics ever created. These two lenses in combination with patented DeepX 3D submersible beam-splitter offer incredibly immersive and breath-taking underwater images not possible to obtain using any other technology

Nikon Nikonos 15mm lenses. Picture: Pawel Achtel ACS

A submersible lens is a lens that has been specifically designed to take sharp pictures underwater. It doesn’t produce sharp pictures on land. Its optical design incorporates a water medium as part of its optical formulation. Submersible lenses were pioneered by Nikon about half a century ago.  Their branded Nikonos lenses that offered high-quality solutions for range-finder and DSLR underwater still picture cameras. With the arrival of digital cameras, Nikon abandoned its underwater offering. Nikonos lenses to this day offer the highest image quality (by far) when it comes to underwater photography. Thus, this very simple glass was used to capture 3D underwater sequences of Avatar 2 for the huge canvas (IMAX theater).

The film features mostly underwater scenes, which are basically all filmed underwater, in a 900,000-gallon tank that simulates different ocean currents and ocean movements. Actors use a new form of underwater performance capture that combines underwater filming and performance capture like never before, and the Weta team spent a year and a half developing a new motion capture system .

Avatar 2 will hit screens with 3D Imax format with running time approximately 3 hours.

Article by

CJ Rajkumar

Author/Cinematographer

 

 

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