I.E. Effects' "Inspiration For Flight" Pushes S3D Envelope

Michael here. As a followup to my visit to the set of I.E. Effects' "Inspiration For Flight", I was invited to their offices in Culver City to see their state of the art creative effects studio as well as production artwork and clips from the film.

The show will be a groundbreaking S3D experience, incorporating panaramic screens, beautiful CG animation as well as live action footage to create a unique and envelope-pushing ride. It will debut at the 2010 World's Fair in Shanghai later this spring.

Above and below: images from one of the panoramic cityscapes from "Flight"

I.E. Effects has set up a studio that allows the creative talent behind a project to work on any part of the production pipeline from within a single facility. Clients can work on previsualization, CG effects, color grading, editing, stereo 3D supervision, art design and more without having to jump around from place to place.

The cornerstone of I.E.'s work on "Flight" is a technique called "corner pinning." Their custom corner pinning techniques allow people on the moving ride to see the correct, undistorted image regardless of the angle from which they view the action. Corner pinning also adjusts for the 180 degree curved screens that make up a portion of the ride. I.E. Effects accomplishes all of this by pre-skewing the images and then sequentially projecting these images at the correct locations at the correct moments in time. This allows for a seamless immersive experience from the viewer's point of view.

Seeing 180 degree S3D that is perfect from any angle is something that I would love to experience. From what I saw I.E. Effects has created incredibly awesome CG animations, and the artwork I got to see was stunningly detailed in its depiction of futuristic cities and environments. I eagerly look forward to reports on this ride from Shanghai, and wish I could make it there myself.

Visit I.E. Effects' website