There are three major ways to create Lightfield video:
Shoot video with a camera
Render video using a software tool
Capture video inside real-time software
You can use a variety of 2D and 3D cameras to create Lightfield videos. We'll list them here from highest potential for quality to lowest.
The best way to capture Lightfield 3D video is to build a custom stereo rig using two or more high-quality cinema cameras. Doing this is difficult, but can yield the highest quality results. The distance between the sensors, the accuracy of the synchronization, the precision of the calibration, and of course the quality of the sensors and optics all play a part in the quality of the outcome.
You should expect to use a 3rd party software tool to stitch, synchronize, and align the images. You should edit the two videos into a single SBS file for viewing on Lume Pad or editing. High disparity SBS video made in this way will look much better viewed in Stereo View Mode (ST) instead of Lightfield View Mode.
Purpose-built stereo 3D cameras have a wide range of potential quality, even within units of the same model. While there are many different models, we recommend the Sony HDR-TD Series Camcorders for 3D video if you can find it. For subjects you're shooting from a closer distance, the RED Hydrogen One is also considered one of the best 3D video cameras available today. High disparity images shot on stereo 3D cameras will look much better viewed in Stereo View Mode (ST) instead of Lightfield View Mode.
One of the best ways to create Lightfield video is with LeiaCam, which shoots SBS video on the Lume Pad.
To learn more about LeiaCam, check out the LeiaCam page.
One phenomenal (but slightly less common) way to capture landscapes is to use a drone for aerial videos. When run through Lightfield Studio, drone aerials are converted into Lightfield video. To learn more, go to Editing Lightfield Video.
A very high quality but VERY costly way to capture Lightfield video is to shoot it in an orbital camera rig. This is a rig of many cameras surrounding a subject that are synchronized and shot simultaneously. After stitching all the frames together consecutively in a linear video, you can use Lightfield Studio to convert it into a Lightfield video. To learn more, go to Editing Lightfield Video.
You can also use a variety of normal cameras to shoot 2D video to convert to Lightfield later. Your smartphone, a DSLR, a mirrorless camera, or even a cinema camera can all be used. You can even use a webcam!
You can either convert from 2D to Lightfield in real-time in the LeiaPlayer app, or you can convert a professinal Lightfield video in Lightfield Studio.
To learn more about instant 2D to Lightfield conversion, go to 2D to 3D Lightfield Conversion.
To Learn more about professional quality 2D to Lightfield conversion, go to Editing Lightfield Video.
There are a variety of software tools that let you render out a stereo 3D or Lightfield video.
You can use the Leia Maya Plugin to render out a Quad Lightfield video in Maya.
Some creators compose Quad Lightfield and SBS videos in other apps using custom camera configurations.
There are plugins that allow you to render your game scene in SBS and Quad, and you can use that to render a Lightfield video. Leia's SDKs for Unreal Engine and Unity can be used for this to render Quad Lightfield video.
You can also capture 3D video from inside some of your favorite real-time apps or games on Windows PC.
You can actually capture 3D videos from many popular PC games using a 3rd party tool that gains access to the graphics engine's depth buffer like SuperDepth3D. Try these tools yourself to experiment and see the best ways to capture 3D videos inside your favorite PC games. SuperDepth3D supports over 100 of the most popular AAA PC games of all time. Here is SuperDepth3D's game compatibility list.
Everything you need to know about Lightfield videos on Leia devices.
There are three major ways to view Lightfield video on Lume Pad:
LeiaPlayer: For local video files
LeiaTube: For video streams from YouTube, Twitch, and other services
LeiaFlix: For renting Hollywood movies in 3D
LeiaPlayer lets you play back a variety of 2D and 3D filetypes on your Lume Pad's storage in Lightfield View Mode. To learn more, go to the LeiaPlayer page.
To learn about which filetypes are supported, go to the Supported Filetypes in LeiaPlayer page.
LeiaTube is a service that lets you take an online video stream from your favorite platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, DailyMotion, and more and have them automatically convert to Lightfield 3D. You can use 2D video streams, SBS 3D video streams, and even VR180/360 video streams.
LeiaFlix makes it easy to rent high-quality Hollywood movies on the Lume Pad. Simply make a LeiaFlix account, add a payment method, and voila! You can easily rent a huge variety of movies from studios like Warner Bros. and Universal.
Sharing Lightfield Video is easy! You can simply send the SBS or Quad Lightfield file to the other person using any communication platform that supports sending video and it will be able to be played back on the recipient's Lume Pad.
In most cases, editing Lightfield video for Lume Pad is largely the same as editing 2D video. However, there are some caveats.
One major consideration is that Lume Pad has a 16:10 ratio. If you'd like to make use of full screen on Lume Pad, you may want to create a 16:10 video. However, 16:9 and wider ratios will play on Lume Pad with horizontal black bars above and below your content, or the user can double-tap the screen in LeiaPlayer and have the video fill their screen.
There are three kinds of video you can edit into Lightfield video that can play on Lume Pad:
2D Video
3D SBS Video
Quad Lightfield Video
If you wish to play it back on Lume Pad using Instant 2D to 3D conversion in LeiaPlayer, then the process is identical to editing a regular 2D video.
Working in SBS is the recommended method for creating Lightfield video on Lume Pad. Users will be able to play the content back in both Stereo 3D View Mode and have it automatically converted on-the-fly in Lightfield View Mode if they wish as well.
Luckily, most major NLE's fully support 3D SBS video. These include:
Currently, there is no tool to edit Lightfield native video such as Quad Lightfield. Though you can string Quad Lightfield video together in any NLE (video editing app), none of the tools in the apps are aware of the Lightfield format's structure, which limits what you can do with it. Due to this, we currently only recommend converting to Quad Lightfield as one of the last steps of your editing process if you choose to use it. In most cases, creators should probably work in SBS instead.
If you'd like to share it to many people, you can upload it to YouTube or another video platform that's supported by . If you want the video to work for users of legacy 3D devices and VR headsets as well as Lume Pad, share SBS video to YouTube.
If you just want to share your video with Lume Pad users, you can upload your video to . To learn more, go to .
For 2D video, you have one major consideration which will affect decisions you make: will you want to keep the output in 2D and have it converted on-the-fly in LeiaPlayer? Or will you want to convert the finished product (or the original clips) into Quad Lightfield using
If you wish to adjust the depth of the conversion, make manual edits to the Lightfield views, or use the 2D clips as part of a larger Lightfield video, then you must first do as much editing as you can to the 2D video until the clips look the way you want, then use 's 2D Content Conversion to convert the files into Quad Lightfield. To learn more about 2D Content Conversion, visit the .
Once you have your SBS master of your video, you can either use it as-is everywhere in the Leia ecosystem, or use Lightfield Studio to convert from SBS to Quad Lightfield for specific mastering for Lume Pad. To learn more about Lightfield Studio's Stereo Content Conversion feature, go to the .