Introduction
Autostereogram is a plug-in for Adobe After Effects that allows you to create the optical illusion of a 3D scene from a 2D depth map. An autostereogram does not require any special device to view the hidden 3D scene but it requires proper vergence (or convergence) of the eyes. The brain does the rest. You can use random dots or texture to create an autostereogram.
To find more details about autostereograms, please visit the following Wikipedia page: wiki/Autostereogram.
Note:
- There are two ways for viewing an autostereogram: the parallel (or wide-eyed) and the cross-eyed methods. The parallel method requires the eyes to look behind the image surface, whereas the cross-eyed method requires the eyes to be focused on some point in front of the image surface.
Parameters
Depth Map Layer
This parameter specifies which layer must be used as depth map for the creation of the autostereogram. Typically you would select the layer to which the effect is applied, but you can choose any other layer.
Pattern
This parameter defines the pattern used to create the autostereogram. You can choose between Random Dots, Random Color Dots or a Texture.
If Random Color Dots is selected you can adjust the contrast of the dots by using the Dot Contrast parameter. If Texture is selected, you need to select a composition layer to be used as a texture. Use the Texture Transform parameter to indicate whether the texture must be cropped or resized.
Note:
- The quality of a texture can highly influence the resulting autostereogram. Try different types of texture to see what best fits your expectations.
Stereogram Type
This parameter controls the type of the autostereogram. You can choose between Divergence or Convergence. With the Divergence (Convergence) type the 3D scene appears behind (in front of) the image plane.
The following example illustrates the difference between the Divergence and Convergence types.
Repetition Period
An autostereogram uses a repeated pattern to create the illusion of a 3D scene. This parameters controls the width (in pixels) of the repeated pattern.
Note:
- If you have a 1920x1080 depth map and want 10 repeated patterns (or columns) for instance, you would set the Repetition Period to 192 px. When using a texture, it is sometimes desirable to have it of the same width of the Repeated Period (192 px wide in this example).
Oversampling
This parameter allows you to virtually increase the size of the depth map and may reduce slice artefacts.
Post-Processing
Although it is easy to do blurring and sharpening adjustments in After Effects (using the corresponding built-in effects), Autostereogram provides a quick way to do that using the Blur and Sharpen parameters. These can be used to make the grain chunky enough for compression to handle it, for instance when you want to share the resulting autostereogram online.
Troubleshooting
If you detect a bug or have any questions about Autostereogram, do not hesitate to contact our customer support team.
Please visit Motion Boutique website to be informed about Autostereogram updates, tutorials, and more.