Thanks Airbag. No magic really, just some tricky and often time/cpu-consuming Photoshopping. I'll answer in the Images & Cameras thread with a bit more... see here ...

Answered from a question in this thread...


In general, I usually do the following for the big anaglyphs....

~ First, I run raw MC100's and MC34's through the appropriate (manually recorded preset for image size in question) Photoshop automation to carefully remove all the lens "schmutz" from each set (MC100 has 2 big ones and MC34 has now developed 3 smaller ones) so there aren't any distracting "floaters" in the final anaglyph. They're very distracting and break the immersion.

~ I then mosaic each separately with as close to the same projection as possible (varies depending on the pano).

~ Aligning them is done manually by eye in Photoshop by dragging the left channel over the right, and resizing and aligning it by eye with transparency set at 50%. Before splitting the channel colors I usually tweak the levels for an bit brighter illumination without saturating the whites. Some anaglyphs tend come out rather dark otherwise.

~ The crucial (and tricky) part is getting all the matching L & R objects in the matching channels to align along the same horizontal plane for the least eye strain. Even with a near identical initial projection for each, it usually requires a bit of careful warping in several areas. That's the most time (& CPU) consuming part.

~ And lastly, by aligning the horizontal offset so the focal point (where the channels have little to no offset) is more biased to the immediate foreground rather than the distance, it keeps eye strain in check because the eye seems to naturally prefer that the left channel falls to the left of the right channel. Below that focal point the channels reverse, which is harder on the eye. That said, the reason not to have the focal point at the bottom of the frame is that in doing so the top offsets often become far too wide to pull together at high zooms so a compromise focal point must be determined. This will vary depending on the field depth between top and bottom of course.

If all works right... it comes out looking good!

Additional new anaglyph views... (and all full res 2D versions in one zip at bottom).

Sol 194 - Looking eastward toward the eastern "shore" of Yellowknife bay. Just beyond that are really good views of the very well defined and relatively "clean" looking banks of the other High Thermal Inertia depression a bit further east, just over the rise beyond Yellowknife bay's eastern flank. The sheer cleanliness and distinctness of this boundary is interesting to ponder. It almost seems to have a "berm" like look to it....
(Click thumbnail for full resolution 21660 x 1500 pixel -9.2 MB version):



Sol 186 - Centered on due west, this is another huge panel that can be examined in great detail with some considerably interesting things to find...
Click thumb for Quarter Resolution version (5937 x 2040px pixels - 5.2 MB):

Half Resolution version is here in a 17.0 MB Zip: Sol186-MC100-MC34-Due-West-Foreground-Anaglyph-11785x4080px.zip
Full Resolution version is here in a 47.9 MB Zip: Sol186-MC100-MC34-Due-West-Foreground-Anaglyph-23750x8160px.zip


Sol 184 & 198 - Centered on due east, this hybrid combines the large Sol 184 mosaic with the overlapping Sol 198 mosaic (lower right 1/4 of frame). The blob in the middle (and a smaller one at center right) are portions of the robotic arm from the Sol 184 main pano for which the Sol 198 portion didn't quite cover over and there were no suitable substitutes for (and one MC100 frame at far right is still AWOL). Snake River is nicely captured at lower right. As bland as the Yellowknife Bay flats first appear there's some interesting features out there, including lots of MSL tracks, and, at middle upper right (if your zoomed in well it pops right out) a very bright spot that at first glance looks like another EDL artifact, though there are rover tracks very nearby so it could just be a wheel fractured piece of rock catching the back-light just right. The rock brushing circle done near Snake River is visible too. It doesn't reflect as much of the back-light as I'd think it might being so fresh. It'd be interesting when rolling again to get a closer look at it to see if it has accumulated any discernible dust cover since exposure.
Click thumb for Quarter Resolution version (5687 x 1987 pixels - 5.0 MB):

Half Resolution version is here in a 16.2 MB Zip: Sol184-and-198-MC100-MC34-Due-East-Foreground-Anaglyph-11375x3975px.zip
Full Resolution version is here in a 46.9 MB Zip: Sol184-and-198-MC100-MC34-Due-East-Foreground-Anaglyph-22750x7950px.zip


Full Resolution 2D versions of all of the above are here in one 83.2 MB Zip: Sol184-186-194-198-MC100-Mosaics.zip

Airbag, hey thanks for the color-coded index to the recent mosaics. Very helpful indeed. Yours and James Sorensen's work on piecing them all together is very nicely done. I'll confess, I'm with Impreprex on sitting out on any attempt at a full resolution version for now. And ultimately, the disparate times of day between the various mosaics make for somewhat less of a masterpiece compared to the free time likely required to perfect it probably warrants. That said, some of the recent mosaics are pretty remarkable on their own. Here's an anaglyph sampling of a few notables thus far (full resolution 2D versions available in one zip at the bottom of this post)...

Sol 188 - Looking W toward the crater rim. Wide open spaces feel and wonderful depth perspective in this one.
(Click thumbnail for full resolution 22,000 x 2280 pixel -12.3 MB version):


Sol 198 - Looking NE toward the mid-bay mound in diffuse morning light. Mt. Sharp foothills backdrop is completes the scene.
(Click thumbnail for full resolution 6,683 x 1,338 pixel -2.61 MB version):


Sol 193 - Looking SSE. The extreme upper left offers a nice (if only partial) perspective of of the beginnings of the dune field. Just below that are good views of the large flat-sided boulders also off in that direction. The prominent knoll at the south end of Shaler can also be seen at center right, along with the distinctive line of familiar boulders bordering it's east side.
(Click thumbnail for full resolution 21,576 x 2,345 pixel -12.3 MB version):


Sol 192 - This one's huge and the minute detail you can drill down to here is pretty remarkable. It's the central (and largest) portion of the three adjacent foreground close-up mosaics acquired on Sol 192. Especially notable at far left center is a tightly grouped knot of jagged fractured rocks that contain a large number of the "gas-bubble" nodules discussed beginning at this post. Many more of them are apparent in various places throughout the mosaic.
(Click thumb for Quarter Resolution version at 6,818 x 3,068 pixels - 10.2 MB):


Half Resolution version is here in a 31.1 MB Zip: Sol192-MC100-MC34-Foreground-Partial-Anaglyph-13637x6137px.zip
Full Resolution version is here in a whopping 85.9 MB Zip: Sol192-MC100-MC34-Foreground-Partial-Anaglyph-27275x12275px.zip
Full Resolution 2D versions of all of the above are here in one 87.2 MB Zip: Sol188-192-193-198-MC100-Mosaics.zip

There are several other new and varied 3D pairings from the last few weeks that, time permitting, would be nice to render too. Will post soon if possible.

Here are the dedicated MC34/MC100 anaglyph pairings from Sol 172 and Sol 173. Finally able to catch up a bit! Spent the last 10 days away from home and my laptop fried on day one! Kept in the loop via mobile device, but it's nice to be back in the saddle on my own rig at last. Have spot cleaned all dirt spots from both channels to keep 'em crispy & clean. Lots of interesting details and nice low sun angles too...

Sol 172 - Click thumb for half sized version (10800 x 4110 px - 9.34MB):
Full resolution version is here in a 27.25MB Zip: Sol172-MC100-MC34-Anaglyph-21600x8220px.zip


Sol 173 - Click thumb for half sized version (11100 x 4230 px - 16.71MB):
Full resolution version is here in a 49.32MB Zip: Sol173-MC100-MC34-Anaglyph-22200x8460px.zip

Well done, very well done. It harks of sunset dreams from other worlds. Disturbingly real.

Very well done James. Here's my take on the full resolution version (with complete removal of the MAHLI lens schmutz):

Click thumb for Quarter-sized version (5500 x 4250 px - 2.93MB):


Half-sized version (11,000 x 8,500 px - 9.29MB) is here.
Full Resolution version (22,000 x17000 px - 22.94MB - Zipped) is here.

YOWSERS! Look what just came down. -- MAHLI self-portrait #2 -- Here's a quickly rendered draft - reduced to 3294 x 2655 px... yeah baby.



...and there's more. Full resolution below at 7818 x 2471 px...

Some new stereo to peruse.... Here's the portion of the partially complete MC100 Sol 173 pano that currently overlaps the big Sol 170 MC34 pano. The rock of recent interest is not in here (but yes, it does appear to have a Sol 173 MC34 frame pending download):

Click thumb for half sized version (9,957 x 1,693 px - 5MB):


Full resolution version is here in a 19,914x3,385px - 16MB Zip: Sol173-MC100-Partial-Pano-Anaglyph-19914x3385px.zip

The object in question is at the extreme far right of this partial mosaic from the Sol173 MC100 shoot (yellow circle in thumb below). The pano looks almost exactly due south. This area is in area of the 15 frame blank spot in the big Sol 170 MC34 pano, and thus there doesn't appear to be a good MC34 counterpart for stereo viewing yet, unless it was covered by some earlier shoot (I'll check). Below is only the first 58 frames or so of what appears (from current thumbnails) to be a dedicated 140 frame MC34/100 panorama.

Click thumb for half sized version (11,172 x 1,692 - 4.59MBMB):


Full resolution version is here in a 22,345 x 3,385 px - 14.27MB Zip: Sol173-MC100-Partial-Pano-22345x3385px.zip

I confess - I'm a z-axis junkie. But I couldn't resist trying this while waiting for the additional Sol 172 MC100's and their dedicated MC34 companions to arrive. Here's the two overlapping portions of Sol 170's big MC34 pano paired with Sol 172's MC 100 pano. Time of day was close enough to work reasonably well, and so far as I remember some of these areas have never had any good MC stereo views. The Sol 170 light was quite diffuse so there's some slight shadow mismatching and it'll of course render infinitely better when the dedicating Sol 172 pairings are in. Still, not too bad for a cursory 3D perusal I guess...

12,415 x 4,491 px - 10.51MB:


8,635 x 4,491 px - 8.41MB:

... and so it is! 'Tis certainly a worthy enough occasion for an anaglyph - with "Mt. Sharp Superstar" as a backdrop....

Yes, we're sorry for the delay! Had to grab some breakfast and well you know... that other morning stuff. Here's the Sol 172 pano in all its hi-res MC100 (spot-free) glory. The small missing block at bottom, like the Sol 170 pano seems to have been purposefully not imaged as the sequence numbers skip right across the gap. The tracks left from the trip to Costello and back between Sols 127 to 132 are visible at upper right along with some of the damage done to rocks along the way, including one reasonably good sized slab at far right center that seems to have fractured right across the middle (lower right of this frame).

Click thumb for half sized version (11425 x 2246 - 5.17MB):


Full resolution version is here in a 16.67MB Zip: Sol172-MC100-North-Looking-Foreground-22850x4491px.zip

Edit: Judging by the thumbnails down so far this pano series appears to have at least an additional 36 frames not yet down - AND - an entire set of dedicated MC34's to boot for ananglyphing.

Here's a preliminary look at the very nice (and huge!) Sol 170 MC34 panorama. Interestingly, it seems the big 15 frame block that's missing at upper right seems to have been purposefully skipped, as the row sequence numbers do not show any numeric break across the 3 rows of the gap. This faces the low sun angle, so not sure if that was a consideration or not. The other two missing frames at right have thumbs down so presumably will be in soon, and there are two more missing frames that appear to extend the far upper right of the pan. There's a small stitching anomaly at the left flank and base of Mt.Sharp I'll try and fix in the final version. There's a ton of detail in here of areas not previously covered by the MC's on the flat of bay.

Click thumb for half resolution version (15000 x 4285 px - 9.24MB):


The original came in at just over 32,000 pixels so I reduced it to 30,000 for now to save the JPG easily after PS post-processing. Will render a full sized version when the missing frames are in. For now, the near full resolution version (30000 x 8569 px - 26.72MB - ZIP File) is here: Sol170-MC34-Mt.Sharp-Yellowknife-Panorama-30000x8569px.zip

Stunning views everyone. Ahhh yes... Mt. Sharp. Here's yet one more in 3D...



With so much time spent scrutinizing ground details, whenever the whole of Mt. Sharp can be integrated into the view, it just reminds one of things to come; getting over to that behemoth and uncovering it's majesty and mystery close up. Taking a step back in perspective, it still astonishes me how remarkable it is that this incredible machine was actually flown to - and landed safely - in this amazing place.

Some new foreground views from Sol 165:

Patch of ground on MSL's right side, looking NW (5112 x 4477 px - 5.05Mb):


Smaller 2 frame patch off to the left of the above mosaic looking westerly (2353 x 1380 px - 712KB):

New foreground details from Sol 166...

MC 100 (6902 x 5418 px - 5.4MB):


MC 34/100 anaglyph (6902 x 5418 px - 6.74MB):

Got it. Thanks for the clarification. I stand corrected. I'd missed the pertinence of FredK's isolated GIF streaks. Nice forensics everyone.

Here's the stunning MC100 view of John Klein down today from Sol 164. Oh my. There's a splendid amount of detail in here, and at a nice low sun angle to boot...!

MC 100 Mosaic (6302 x 5291 px - 6.71MB):


The MC 34 coverage offers a great anaglyph pairing too. The sun angle was a bit higher during the MC 34 shoot so the shadows mismatch very slightly, but not enough to keep from gleaning out a handful of really interesting and enigmatic features (6302 x 5291 px - 7.72MB):

John Klein anaglyph views - Sol 164...

Hazcam:


Navcam:

Foreground detail from Sol 159....

MC 34 view - at lower right is the driven over fractured rock of the pending full-res MAHLI close-ups...


Corresponding MC100 view... (central area of the MC34 mosaic)


Anaglyph of the MC34/MC100 overlap...


Edit 12/18/2013: Added 1 additional late-arriving frame to the center right MC100 mosaic and its corresponding anaglyph channel.

Anaglyph version of the wider of the two Sol 153 Mc34/MC100 sets... a few pretty interesting things in there too....

Click thumbnail for the full resolution 13229 x 3570 px - 12MB version:

East "Shore" of Yellowknife Bay Anaglyph...

Always on the lookout for panoramic anaglyph opportunities I noticed that the narrow 15 frame MC100 pano from Sol 147 (posted by Ant103 here) might provide a right channel for a portion of the left side of the big MC34 Sol 137 pano (posted here). Turns out, aside from a minor difference in the time of day that causes a few shadow variations, they pair up pretty nicely and provide a fairly decent close-up look at the eastern "shore" of Yellowkife from MSL's current location. There's nothing seminal or surprising here, but it's interesting to note the two (maybe three) distinct "Shaler-like" layers that run very consistently the entire length of the "shoreline" just beneath the thicker "caprock" formation.

Click thumbnail for full resolution 17060 x 2100 px - 6MB image:

.......aaaaaand with that last Sol 141 image now down (& without further adieu, drumroll please) another Humongous Anaglyph (36,824 x 9221 px) comprised of the Sol 136,137,138, & 141 MC34/100 sets. At almost 37,000 pixels wide you can really get lost in this one. All MC100 dirt spots (and some tiny MC34 ones that showed up) have been removed and alignments tweaked up nice for a super-clean z-axis stroll around Yellowknife......

Click the thumbnail for a Quarter Sized version at 9206 x 2306 px - 7.29MB


Half Resolution version at 18,412 x 4611 px - 24.6MB is here: Sols136-137-138-141-Yellowknife-Bay-Anaglyph-18412x4611px.jpg
Full Resolution version at 36,824 x 9221 px - 47.5 MB is here (in a zip file): Sols136-137-138-141-Yellowknife-Bay-Anaglyph-36824x9221px.zip

Two five-frame animated GIF anaglyphs of the Sol 150 turret deployment. The sequences seem to have been taken very close in sync if not simultaneously. Frame 3 of both appear to have the Dust Removal Tool in a deployed position over what looks to match rock details in the close up views of "Ekwir_1", defining it's location pretty well.

Hazcam view... (900x811px - 2.44MB)


Navcam view... (755x1011px - 2.86MB)