SAN DIEGO — Legend3D (www.legend3d.com) served as the primary conversion vendor for the 3D holiday release of Hugo. The live-action fantasy film is based on the popular children’s novel, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick and represents director Martin Scorsese’s first stereoscopic 3D film.
While Hugo was shot using 3D camera rigs, Legend3D was tasked with restoring, colorizing and converting to 3D an assortment of vintage 2D material across three key sequences. This included classic cinema from the early 1900s, such as Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon and The Merry Frolics of Satan, as well as new footage of Ben Kingsley in his role as Méliès. To accomplish this, the Legend3D team first prepared the source material in 2D, using restorative techniques to stabilize and accentuate the image quality while still retaining the vintage look. This material was then converted to 3D to match the overall depth of Scorsese’s native photography.
“Applying VFX and conversion work to some of the first ‘visual effects’ scenes in the history of cinema … this was intrinsically fun,” notes Jared Sandrew, VFX supervisor at Legend3D. “The footage is inherently playful, which made it really come to life when introducing another dimension.”