| Author |
Message |
    
Chris Caldwell
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 12:40 am: |   |
Is it possible to start from a linear 360 degree, already stitched image and turn it into a circular 360 degree image? The image in question has overlap at the edges, but Panofactory (trial version) tells me that I need to select al least two images to stitch. |
Antony Dewar
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 8:22 pm: | |
Not found a way to do that (yet). But what you could do, is take your 360 degree and crop this into two images (with a 20% overlap) and used these to be stitched together to make the circular image.
Well, worth a try?! |
John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait
Post Number: 80
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 4:07 pm: | |
Yes, it is possible to start with a 360 degree image to make a VR image. The trick is, if your image is already a single panorama, then you don't need to use the Wizard or the Stitch command. The Wizard and the Stitch command are for creating a panorama, but your image already is a panorama.
In this post I will explain how to use The Panorama Factory with a 360+ degree image from a swing-lens or rotational camera (e.g. Roundshot) camera. I'll also explain how to use The Panorama Factory with an image edited in other software that is already exactly 360 degrees.
(Note that the FAQ How to modify the final image in photoshop also covers some of this material.)
Instead of using the Wizard, we'll have to use the Classic (menu-based) interface. See Using the Classic interface, step by step for more on the Classic interface. Of course you won't need to use the steps related to stitching. However, reading the cropping, resizing and enhancing steps should be helpful.
There are three steps to the process:
1. Crop the image to exactly 360 degrees.
2. Add hotspots.
3. Export the panorama
STEP 1 -- Crop the image to exactly 360 degrees
- Dismiss the Wizard by clicking the Done button. You don't need to use the Wizard.
- Use the Import Images... command (File menu) to import your panoramic image file.
- Double-click the thumbnail for your panorama to make it the current image. (The current image is the big image shown in the lower window pane.)
- You should probably start by using the Fit on screen command (View menu) or the Fit button in the toolbar to zoom so that the entire image is visible in the window.
- Apply the Crop command (New image menu). This will display a special cropping rectangle on the image. Please read Crop the stitched image for information on using the cropping rectangle. I'll assume you have read this page as I go through the remainder of the procedure.
- Adjust the width of the cropping rectangle to encompass approximately 360 degrees. The next steps will adjust the width to exactly 360 degrees.
- I recommend you increase the zoom factor to a value greater than 100% in order to precisely adjust the edges of the crop rectangle.
- Scroll the view to show the left hand side of the crop rectangle. Using the pointing finger cursor or the double-headed arrow cursor, drag the intersection point between the horizon line and the left side onto a recognizable point near the left end of the image.
- Scroll the view to show the right hand side of the crop rectangle. Using the pointing finger cursor or the double-headed arrow cursor, drag the intersection point between the horizon line and the right side onto the corresponding point near the right end of the image.
- Drag the top and bottom of the crop rectangle to just enclose the entire height of your image.
- Click the Approve button.
At this point, a "Cropped" thumbnail will appear in the upper thumbnail list and the current image change to the cropped image. Since you placed the left and right ends of the crop rectangle on corresponding points, the image should be exactly 360 degrees wide. (Note that the "pointing finger" cursor allows you to tilt the cropping rectangle, if necessary. This probably should not be necessary assuming your camera was on a tripod.)
STEP 2 -- Add hotspots
If you followed the procedure in STEP 1, the cropped image is the current image. If you are importing a 360 degree image edited from other software, you'll need to import it and then double-click its thumbnail to make it the current image.
Use the Hotspot command (Image menu) or the hotspot toolbar button to add hotspots to the image.
STEP 3 - Export the panorama
When you try to export the image, The Panorama Factory will complain that it is not a "panoramic image". You see, in order to export the image to a VR format, The Panorama Factory needs to know the field of view of the image and whether the image is in cylindrical or spherical (equirectangular) projection.
When you stitch the image in The Panorama Factory, it calculates the field of view and the projection automatically. However, when you import an image that is already a panorama, you need to tell The Panorama Factory these things. Here's how to do it:
- Double-click the thumbnail to make it the current image. If you followed STEP 1 and STEP 2, the panorama already is the current image.
- Use the Properties command to open the Image properties dialog box. Or you can right-click the current image and select the Properties command from the popup menu.
- Select the checkbox This is a panoramic image.
- Select either Spherical reprojection or Cylindrical reprojection. The correct choice for images from a swing-lens or rotational camera is Cylindrical. Either Cylindrical or Spherical (equirectangular) should be used for a panoramic image image from other software depending upon the format produced by that software.
- Enter the horizontal or vertical field of view for your image. The Panorama Factory will automatically calculate the other value. In your case, you should enter 360 for the horizontal field of view.
- Click the OK button.
Now that The Panorama Factory knows the field of view and the type of projection, you are able to use the Save Image As dialog box (File menu) to export the image to a VR format.
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