Yes, what you’re asking is totally possible. It is called re-dimensionalising and is an area of contention among the S3D community. I personally think the technique has a lot of merit and should be explored as it offers a huge amount of creative potential, but I would suggest making sure you’re doing it well as most bad reactions to 3D films are usually from badly converted footage, which can be very painful to watch. Here’s an article about the different ways to convert 2D footage into 3D footage: http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/12/12/how-to-convert-2d-footage-to-stereoscopic-3d/

In After Effects it is possible to do this to a certain degree using some very simple techniques. To write about this might take some time so I’ll do a full post on it and let you know when it’s online. To get you started though, you could try making a depth map, a black and white image and applying a displacement map effect to normal 2D layer using the displacement map and shifting the pixels by 20 or so in the x value. This should give you an idea how the technique works. I used this technique to produce this 3D painting of Isaac Asimov: http://www.luniere.com/2012/01/08/portrait-of-isaac-asimov/

Anyhow just curious about this whole concept. It intrigues me to no end, and I want to make a comp now. You’ve thoroughly inspired me to go ahead and do it. I just need some info from people that know what they’re doing with this. Saves me a lot of research and trial and error.

Thanks in advanced,

Andrew Ronholm
Owner, Creative Director, VFX Supervisor, Art Director
Enigmatic Studios (My own freelance name)
enigmaticstudios.net

extile85@gmail.com
admin@enigmaticstudios.net