Maddy

The image above is in 3D. To see it in 3D, wear red/cyan anaglyph glasses with the red lens over the left eye.

The goal of automating (applying one set of algorithms to an entire batch of images or an entire video) anaglyph optimization is to create very colorful anaglyphs with almost no retinal rivalry, using the least amount of effort.
The optimization and conversion process (with tweaks) for a red/cyan anaglyph (left eye - red) has 4 basic steps:
1) Apply any desired color tweaks to the stereoscopic pair (equally) with a Hue/Saturation filter.
2) Properly mix the channels of the left perspective with a Channel Mixer filter.
3) Slightly raise the gamma level of the left perspective with a gamma Levels filter.
4) Convert the left perspective to red and the right perspective to cyan, then layer them together.

This is _just_ the optimization tweaks and anaglyph conversion… if you need to adjust stereoscopic alignment or make other stereoscopic compositional adjustments, you’ll need to add those additional steps. Thanks to nested compositions, this is one of the best and easiest ways to optimize anaglyphs.

Here’s the steps explaining how I implemented an anaglyph optimization and conversion procedure with Adobe After Effects:

1) Import a stereoscopic pair and create a “Left” comp (composition) and a “Right” comp. Place the left perspective into the “Left” comp and place the right perspective into the “Right” comp:

2) Create a “Crossed” comp for the side-by-side stereoscopic pair (wide enough for both perspectives), nest the “Left” and “Right” comps in the “Crossed” comp, properly position the nested “Left” comp in the right side and properly position the nested “Right” comp in the left side. Create an Adjustment Layer and place it on top. Apply the Hue/Saturation filter to the Adjustment Layer (Effect > Adjust > Hue Saturation) and for this example, in the Reds Channel Control, set the Red Hue to +37 and drop the Red Lightness to -27. You can adjust any of the colors and settings in the Hue/Saturation filter for different effects and preview the changes in real time in a final “Anaglyph” comp, later:

3) Create a “Left for Anaglyph” comp and a “Right for Anaglyph” comp. Nest the “Crossed” comp in the “Left for Anaglyph” comp and also nest the “Crossed” comp in the “Right for Anaglyph” comp. Position them in their proper places in the frames. Remember the left perspective is on the right side and the right perspective is on the left side in a crossed pair (in the nested “Crossed” comps), so be sure to shift them the proper directions:

4) In the “Left for Anaglyph” comp, apply the Channel Mixer filter (Effect > Adjust > Channel Mixer). In the Red-Red Channel, change the amount to 0, change the Red-Green amount to +66 and the Red-Blue amount to +33. You can play with the Red-Green and Red-Blue settings a bit, e.g. some people might prefer RG +70 and RB +30.
Change the Green-Green amount to 0 and change the Blue-Blue amount to 0. Also, apply the Levels filter (Effect > Adjust > Levels) and set the Gamma amount to about 1.35 or so:

5) Create an “Anaglyph” comp. Nest the “Left for Anaglyph” comp and the “Right for Anaglyph” in the “Anaglyph” comp. Only one perspective will be visible (the one on top) until you apply the next filter:
To complete the anaglyph conversion, apply the Set Channels filter (Effect > Channel > Set Channels) to the top comp (it doesn’t matter which one as long as it is the comp on top). Using the default Set Channels filter settings, set the Source Layer 1 to “Left for Anaglyph” and set the Source Layer 2 and Source Layer 3 to “Right for Anaglyph”. Leave Source Layer 4 set to “None”: