SENSIO: 3-D Made In Quebec Makes It Big In Hollywood

24-Jun-05

When the credits for The Adventures of Shark Boy Lava Girl in 3D (SBLG) roll up on the big screen during its North American release on June 10, the name SENSIOô, a Montreal company that specializes in 3D technology, will appear in a leading role. The young Quebec company was hired by Robert Rodriguez, the producer behind such Hollywood blockbusters as Spy Kids and Sin City, to add its innovative and unique services in stereoscopic (3D) encoding and engineering to offer an unparalleled visual experience for the world premiere of his latest 3D movie.""For SBLG I wanted to go beyond the traditional 3D experience"" states Robert Rodriguez, the movie's producer and director. ""Using SENSIO's engineering approach to 3D was a key factor in achieving what I feel is a much better immersive experience. They developed a rigorous technique that takes away the guessing and uncertainties usually associated with making a 3D movie. By training our crew and vendors on how to use this technique, SENSIO allowed us to be more efficient in creating a great 3D movie.""SENSIO was mandated to oversee all 3D-related aspects of the movie: from training the pre-production camera crew and technical advice on the sets to training the post-production and special effects companies, such as the legendary Industrial Light and Magic. ""By converting an empirical craft into an exact and applicable science, we are the first and only company in the world to ensure quality control in all steps from the production and creation of 3D content to its presentation,"" states Pierre-Hugues Routhier, Vice-President Engineering at SENSIO. ""Working with Robert and the entire crew was an extraordinary experience and we are very proud of the final visual result that we obtained together.""S.A.F.E. 3D encoding: unique technology developed in QuebecAnother major contribution from SENSIO that earned it a logo appearance at the end of the credits was the encoding of the film using the company's revolutionary SAFE 3D or ""Smart Anaglyphic Fatigue Eliminator"" technology.""When SENSIO came to me with my movie done in SAFE 3D encoding, I was blown away that they could improve the color perception and viewing comfort when wearing conventional red and blue glasses. Looking at the final product, I can honestly thank SENSIO for giving us the tools that allowed us to make such a great 3D movie"", emphasizes Robert Rodriguez.Before the advent of SAFE 3-D, the color coding technique known as anaglyph was one of the oldest used for 3-D movies. The Lumieres brothers employed it for their 3D movie L'Arrivee du Train en Gare almost a century ago. This traditional method, which has evolved very little in the last 100 years, uses red for the left eye and green and blue (cyan) for the right eye to make a new encoded 3D image. This procedure resulted in a stereoscopic image (3D) that led to visual fatigue and discomfort and could even lead to headaches and nausea.Today, with SAFE 3D encoding, which uses advanced color management algorithms, watching 3D movies with red and blue glasses has finally become comfortable and worthwhile. ""We developed a revolutionary technology and encoding process for this movie. It gave us the flexibility to adapt the coding according to different scenes and even to the specific glasses used for the movie theatre projection, which resulted in an exceptional improvement in quality,"" specifies Nicholas Routhier, Sensio President and creator of the SAFE 3-D technology.Toward a new era of 3D moviesThe evolution of 3D has taken giant steps recently. The major Showest press conference held in Las Vegas last March confirms the interest of Hollywood's biggest players in producing and promoting 3D movies. George Lucas (Star Wars), James Cameron (Titanic), Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) and Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, Sin City) are all committed to producing 3D movies and even went so far as to state that the future of movie theatres relies on 3D. With the projects Sensio have planned, the Montreal company is in a very good position to become the world leader in 3D movies.

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