Check Out 3D Concept Art from ‘The Hobbit’ from New Video Blog

Get out your red and blue 3D glasses, Peter Jackson has released his fourth behind-the-scenes video blog from the sets of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again in New Zealand, this time taking a closer look at how he’s using 3D, why he’s using it, the cameras he’s using, etc.

Along with the video I’ve also captured the above shot from the behind-the-scenes look, which gives you a look at how concept artists Alan Lee and John Howe have gone so far as to try and create old school red and blue 3D versions of their concept art with one red drawing and one blue drawing. Even better, it actually works if you have a pair of the glasses… Trust me, I tried. Just give the image above a click or click here for a larger version.

As for the content of the video, Jackson opens it by saying, “Shooting The Hobbit in 3D is a dream come true. If I’d had the ability able to shoot The Lord of the Rings in 3D I certainly would have done it. What I did on Lord of the Rings is I had a 3D camera taking 3D photographs. Hopefully, one day, maybe even on 3D Blu-ray, we might actually be able to show you some of the 3D photos from 10 or 12 years ago.”

He discusses using the RED Epic camera (they have 48 of them) and 3D camera rigs developed by 3ALITY (they have 17 of them) while exploring the use of mirrors in order to get the camera lenses close enough together to mimic the human eye and how they’re actually able to change the 3D effect within the shot.

Jackson also references how they’re shooting the film at 48 frames per second, twice that of other films and by doing so it’s causing difficulties with makeup, hair and prosthetics due to the high definition cameras. Additionally, the RED Epic camera, according to production designer, Dan Hennah, “tends to eat color” so they’ve had to add color to the set, which you’ll notice in the Mirkwood scenes. Jackson follows that up saying that while they’ve had to oversaturate the image, the colors will be graded down in the final product to just get the barest hint of color in the finished film.

But I don’t want to spoil the whole video, give it a watch below.



The first of The Hobbit films to hit theaters will be The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey arriving on December 14, 2012. For more information including the cast and additional images click here.

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