3D Stereo with a 2D tool

Here's a quick trick: you don't need Fusion's 3D engine to get stereo 3D. You can manage it with an instanced pair of 2D tools - so long as they do 3D rotation :-) All you need to do is produce two slightly-different viewpoints, and combine them. It can be faster to render, too.

The simplest method is to just rotate the view on the Y-axis a degree or two. This produces a nice stereo view centered on the axis of rotation, and anything in front of the axis will pop out from the screen. However, if we want a different effect, e.g. with the object inset into the screen further, we'll need to adjust the pivot point to be in front of the object.

Here's a quick example with Text+ (please excuse the ghastly colours - I needed something that worked with anaglyph glasses, and I have no taste). Since it's 3D internally, it's pretty easy to do this with. We need to adjust the pivot point on each tool, then rotate each inwards slightly so that they converge at the text itself. The two viewpoints are then combined with the Combiner tool, for easy display in Fusion's stereo view.

A quick note on how it's set up:

• The instance of the Text+ tool has all the same settings, with a couple of de-instanced exceptions.
• I used the Line Pivot Z control (in the Lines section of the Transform tab) to offset the text into the screen, since there's no pivot control in the Layout tab. This is equal in both tools.
• Rotation has to be done after this stage, so Line Angle Y is used to do the rotation rather than Layout. There's a small rotation in the main tool, and an expression in the instanced tool rotates an equal amount in the other direction.
• We also horizontally offset the two viewpoints from each other slightly to fine-tune the convergence point. This can done with the Center control on the Layout tab (and an expression on the instanced tool).
• You can't adjust the other Layout controls without disturbing the stereo "rig", but Text+ allows you plenty of other options - Word- and Character-level transformations, multiple elements with their own offsets, the Follower modifier; there's plenty of scope for fun.

It's a hack, but who knows, you might find a use for it. Other tools you could do this with include DVE and 2D Particles. The latter even allows you to use a 3D camera tool to set the viewpoint, though you'd need a second camera for the instance.