Stereo conversion in post gets a bad rap thanks to crap jobs like Clash of the Titans, but it’s a necessary part of many live-action 3D projects. Incredible close-ups are hard to shoot in true 3D due to interocular restrictions, and older projects have to be done in post. Over at FXGuide, Mike Seymour has a great article on how it’s done and a case study on the great results seen in the latest Chronicles of Narnia film.
3D animated films, such as Toy Story 3, Tangled and others find it easy to correctly generate stereo imagery from either stereo-RenderMan use or just rendering the entire scene from two similar but offset virtual cameras. For everything else live action, normal stereo production is hard. Even Avatar required tiny amounts of stereo conversion, for example the opening macro eyeball shot was far too close for a stereo camera rig to film, and this first shot of the film was converted stereo from 2D.
