panoramic images

need software/tools

[HelenDev]

I've had a quick browse through ww for threads on this but they all seem to be a couple of years old, so I thought it might be worth asking about it again...

What tools are needed to create these panoramic images, quick time VR or whatever else they might be called?

Can anyone recommend any? Free would be nice but if not, cheap(ish) would be necessary.

[limbo]

Hi Helen

I think you may be best to play it using swf. Flash seems to be the most widely supported/accepted of all the 3rd party animation software and can do what you ask (I have seen it, not built it)

Cheers, Limbo

[Don_Hoagie]

Hi Helen- just to be clear, you're looking for 180-degree or 360-degree views, correct?

Flash and Quicktime are pretty widely accepted... the cheapest way I can think of would be to take a crapload of photos of the subject and then make each photo a frame in a flash or QT movie. If you had a Mac with iMovie this would be amazingly simple to do (as Steve Jobs slips me a 5 spot). If you have a program that can make QT movies, and you have a digital camera, this solution would basically cost you zilch.

And in case the term "crapload" is too vague for you:

Consider how you personally would look at something in 360 degrees... if it were a car, you'd walk around it. If it were a room, you'd spin around in one spot. Do that with your camera, taking a picture as many times as you need during the event to get the point across. The more pics you take, the better the 360 effect, but the larger the movie file will be. Something like a room usually needs at least 40 pics to look like a smooth 360 movie.

[travelin cat]

The key to all of this is taking the images.... there is a lot of sofware out there that will "stitch" the images together, but it is vitally important to have properly taken the images to begin with.

Many years ago we made lots of QTVR images for clients, we purchased a product from Kaidan that makes sure that the film plane is always oriented exactly the same for each image, now with digital cameras, there is no film plane but there is a point physically in the camera that must be exactly in the same spot as you rotate the camera or the effect of seamless spanning is lost.

I suggest you go to Kaidan's site and review their products... they have a great deal of info available there.

With the correct equipment and practice, you can make beautiful panoramic images.

[stever]

As long as you have the stitching software (and there are some free solutions around there, I believe - I use one that came free with the DW4 CD), you can also do this in dhtml (which avoids Flash and Java problems) using a scroller.

Otherwise I have used a free Java viewer in preference to Flash, but that's only because I can input a normal image in the Java code rather than having to deal with Flash (at which, I admit, I am little more than a novice).

[HelenDev]

Cheers for all the suggestions guys :) I'll go and do some reading up...

I'm particularly interested in the flash route, as I already have flash. If anyone can recommend any tutorials on that or doing it with DHTML I'd be interested.

[zackattack]

Hi HelenDev

I have just completed a panaormamic viewer for a client, which uses flash. I bought a component from flashloaded.com they have a panoramic componenet that costs next to nothing and you can skin it and configure buttons/menu etc to suit. This viewer gives you the ability to zoom/pan up/pan down/left and right and create your own hotspots and comes with a preloader

There is a very good support forum for all thier products where people have tried to customise with XML etc.

I am not selling the product myself honeslty..! but was just very impressed, as you can tell.

It is worth mentioning however that this viewer does not project images into a sphere shape or cube, but if you have decent panorama shots the result is still very nice.

As for stitching, realViz.com do a good stitching software programme, they have a cut down ('express') programme, but i am sure there must be something free out there - also have you got Photoshop I believe the latest version enables you stitch photos in there - but I have never used it myself.

If you sticky me I can send you a link to my results using the flash component.

All the best

ZA