Examining 3D Subtitling

Jonathan Jenkyn, project specialist and software developer at Screen Subtitling, gave a short presentation on subtitling for stereographic media.

Challenges:
–“You can’t subtitle the same in 2D as in 3D. The 2D depth cue wins, and you are going to cause headaches, nausea.”
–Placing subtitles in a standard position in front of the imagery: Subtitles may be a very long way away from the material (in certain shots). Eyes will tire from the need to refocus.

Jenkyn suggested that subtitles match the parallax of a scene, matching the focal object or foremost object.

–Display size matters. Material must be re-mastered or adjusted for display types.
–“It takes about four times as long to do 3D versus 2D subtitling”
–“Can it be down automatically? … It can if you use disparity mapping. pushing broadcast quality through disparity mapping the results can be poor”