I made a rig to record a 3D film, but it turns out my footage isn't aligned.

[hailthetriforce]

The problem is that one camera captured footage a little higher than the other. Cropping it stretches the image, making the two aligned, but disproportionate. I tried simply putting the raw, side-by-side footage into Roxio Video Lab and it was able to make a Red/Cyan composite video. But, because of the vertical misalignment, the image does not appear 3D. Looking at the two side-by-side and crossing my eyes, I can make out the 3D image, so I know the rig works. Is there any way to fix this via video editing? Or have my hours of footage gone to waste? If there is indeed a solution, I have access to both After Effects, iMovie (though not as comprehensive), and Final Cut Pro (though keep in mind I have very little experience with this software).

[NFox]

I'm no expert and unsure whether this may work or not. In theory it works in my head though! You could enlarge both pieces of footage slightly, then reposition both clips acordingly on the canvas? It would mean losing a bit of quality but its a possible solution?

[hailthetriforce]

I'm no expert and unsure whether this may work or not. In theory it works in my head though! You could enlarge both pieces of footage slightly, then reposition both clips accordingly on the canvas? It would mean losing a bit of quality but its a possible solution?

That sounds like it should work. I'll be sure to give it a try. Even if it doesn't work, it may lead to another solution.

[TimAndrews]

Maybe.....I suspect that after following NFox's suggestion, there will remain some distortion of the 3d image; most noticeably at the top and bottom of objects; where one camera can not only see more of one side of the object, it will also see a bit more of the top (and less of the bottom). In addition, perhaps any enlarging or moving of one clip may affect the interocular distance, which is often set to be the distance between a human's eyes.

[vidmanners]

No expert and certainly not in 3d - but may I ask how much error are you seeing - you say the L/R are not aligned vertically on your rig - just how much was this that you didn't notice . . . ?
I suspect that if the error is a small % of the separation (and that's another can of worms, I've heard) then it will not affect the majority of 2-eyed people.
You need to be aware that possibly those that use specacles with unequal lenses may not bea able to see 3D the way it is intended . . .they'll see the film in a slight distortion, since the film itself (when perfect) is still a distortion of reality.
+ I've seen some 2-colour glasses that are so badly balanced in density the whole effect is quite painful.

However, if the error is considerable there is really no way you can recover the footage, unless you a traveling through a scene (tracking), as it is possible a computer could create the second view, albeit delayed a few frames - but then the trick is to realign them so they appear to be as one.

Computers are not fast enough yet to achieve this, although they might by taking time (in the same way that Rendering can be done on abismal PCs )....but maybe within 10-years they will have such power, with a change in operation...the Cloud is a potential source of such power....byut not yet