With 3D, however, you still have to do a lot of things twice, even if you are using Cineform Neo3D. For example, if you are rotoscoping a section of video (converting live-action footage to lifelike animation), you have to do so for the left channel and then again for the right.

That isn't the only headache. Three-dimensional filming can be incredibly complicated, as you are not only looking at focus but also at the depth and the spatial relationship between objects across several planes. If your setup is only slightly wrong, your foreground image will quickly resemble a blurry, ghostlike object floating somewhere in space (not in a good way).

At the moment, only one well-known editing suite handles 3D video natively: Sony Vegas 10 ($600), which is compatible with several types of 3D input (separate channels, side-by-side, and top-and-bottom 3D footage, for example). However, when it comes to rotoscoping, the same limitations apply; you have to work with each channel separately.

All of that time-consuming, expensive editing is for naught unless you can watch the results of your work. You will need a 3D TV and some glasses to get the most out of your 3D film. You can watch it on a standard-definition TV with red-and-blue glasses, but the effect is pretty disappointing: The quality isn't there, and instead of the image's being crisp and popping out of the screen, it comes out more blurry and hazy.