Maya Digital Studios, the company that pioneered the art and technology of animation and visual effects in India, has successfully converted the biggest blockbuster of its time Sholay from 2D to Stereoscopic 3D. One of the most difficult movies to be converted from 2D to 3D, 250 artists of Maya Digital Studio converted 285120 frames to transform Sholay in 3D and create an interactive movie watching experience.
“The first and the most important challenge which the team faced was restoration and colour correction of the movie’s negative. The film had to be scanned; several portions had to be painted and touched-up using various softwares and many manual processes. It was after this restoration process that the film was ready for 3D conversion”, said Ketan Mehta, MD & Chairman, Maya Digital Studios.
“This was followed by creation of a depth map, which indicates what is near the screen and what is far away. With the help of the depth map, a 3D environment is created, and the third dimension is given to the image. This combined with other processes like adding of colours, placement of objects in frame is a time-consuming, technical process that requires a lot of precision along with creative insights.The tediousness of the task can be imagined from the fact that one second of filmed footage is 24 frames, and the length of the film is 198 minutes. So essentially, the 2D to 3D conversion of Sholay meant conversion of 285120 frames, from 2D to 3D”, he further added.
Maya digital Studios have ensured that the final 3D output of Sholay is as good as the legendary movie.