Importing a stereoscopic Wiretap timeline follows all the principles and restrictions outlined for non-stereo Wiretap timelines (see Importing the Wiretap Timeline). Similarly, once in Lustre, it is indistinguishable from a “local” stereoscopic timeline. Under specific circumstances, however, when rendered back to the Wiretap server, the timeline will lose its stereo status in the originating application. The status can easily be regained.

Recall that in an Autodesk Visual Effects and Finishing application, such as Smoke or Flame, the metadata must always be identical between the left and right eye layers. The layers must share the same resolution, bit-depth and framerate. They must also be of the same duration, and have the same number of edits, in the same places. If the metadata falls out of sync, the timeline loses its stereo status.

However, in Lustre it is sometimes necessary to apply processing to just one layer of a stereo timeline. For example, applying a cut and animating the brightness channel can be a convenient technique for correcting a shot that becomes increasingly bright as it progresses. A cut applied to one layer but not the other puts the metadata out of sync, and the shot is no longer recognized as a stereo timeline, once rendered back to the Autodesk Visual Effects and Finishing application. It appears as a timeline with two layers, but without any of the stereo features or interface components.

When this arises, simply select the shot that caused the metadata to fall out of sync, and adjust it. Often this can be done in the originating application. In the case of an added cut, for example, you can “hard commit” the two shots involved. This renders the frames and eliminates the cut, “re-synchronizing” the metadata.

For other information on the Stereoscopy feature, see Stereoscopy.