QT panoramas-- how???

[EricChadwick]

A guy posted a tutorial for this on the discreet board awhile back. I haven't tried it, but saved the thing just in case. Here's the text. The Zip file is 40k, so I can't attach it. Email me if you want it.

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How To Create QuickTime Cubic VR’s

I have created a method of producing multiple QTVR’s from Max (It requires VideoPost so it wont work in Viz – But I have a work around – see later in this doc)

It requires GoCubic from PanopticVision. (Its free) You can get this from:
http://www.hoptour.com/downloads/gocubic

And Windows Scripting Host from Microsoft. You can get this from:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting

In the attached zipfile:
QTVR-Cameras.MAX – 6 Cameras Grouped (Max4)
QTVR-Output.VPX – Videopost file
QTVR-Rename.XLS – Excel Spreadsheet
QTVR-GoCubic-Batcher.VBS – VBScript to control GoCubic

There are 3 steps required:
1. Render 6 images (Front, Right, Back, Left, Up, Down)
2. Rename the resultant images to suite GoCubic’s requirements
3. Use GoCubic to combine the 6 images into 1 QTVR

Step1 – Render 6 images:
Create a Camera with a field of view (FOV) of 90 degrees pointing forward
Call it Cam-QTVR-Front for example
Copy-Rotate it 90 degrees to the right and call it Cam-QTVR-Right
Do this 4 more times till you have 6 cameras called:
Cam-QTVR-Front
Cam-QTVR-Right
Cam-QTVR-Back
Cam-QTVR-Left
Cam-QTVR-Up
Cam-QTVR-Down
All pointing in their respective directions.

Group the 6 cam’s as QTVR-Shots (or whatever)
You can now move the group around on a frame by frame basis to where ever you want a viewpoint in your scene.

In Videopost create a CameraEvent for Cam-QTVR-Front that last for 100 frames ( or whatever)
And an ImageOutput event with a file name of FRONT-.TIF for example (Obviously the frame number will be appended making it FRONT-0000.TIF for frame 0) and a target folder of X:\QTVR-MAX-OUTPUT\
Add another CameraEvent for Cam-QTVR-Right along with its corresponding ImageOutput event.
Repeat for all 6 cameras.

When done render the sequence with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.0 (IMPORTANT).
Lets say you render frames 3 to 5 you should have 18 images called
FRONT-0003.TIF
RIGHT-0003.TIF
BACK-0003.TIF
LEFT-0003.TIF
UP-0003.TIF
DOWN-0003.TIF
FRONT-0004.TIF
RIGHT-0004.TIF
BACK-0004.TIF
Etc………..
DOWN-0005.TIF

VIZ METHOD:
The only way I can think of doing this is VIZ is to render the 3 frames of Cam-QTVR-Front and the n the 3 frames of Cam-QTVR-Right etc until you have the 18 images

OK so now we have 3x6 images just 1 problem - GoCubic wants the last character of the file names to be “1” for FRONT, “2” for RIGHT, “3” for BACK etc… so I have a batch file for renaming the files, well actually I have an Excel spreadsheet that generates a batch file.

It looks something like this:
REN Front-0000.TIF Pano-0000-1.TIF
REN Right-0000.TIF Pano-0000-2.TIF
REN Back-0000.TIF Pano-0000-3.TIF
REN Left-0000.TIF Pano-0000-4.TIF
REN Up-0000.TIF Pano-0000-5.TIF
REN Down-0000.TIF Pano-0000-6.TIF
REN Front-0001.TIF Pano-0001-1.TIF
REN Right-0001.TIF Pano-0001-2.TIF
Etc…

I’ve got it going up to 0100 (if there ain’t a file of the required name it ain’t renamed!)

Open the spreadsheet and change the text in blue to match your settings, select the cells in RED – Copy to the clipboard – Paste into notepad – save as QTVR-Rename.BAT (or whatever)

Now for the fun bit – GoCubic has no batch or command line capability so you have to make the QTVR’s one at a time, which if you have 85 of them (I do) can get a bit laborious. So…….

How about a VBScript to automate the whole lot:

Open QTVR-GoCubic-Batcher.VBS in Notepad (or whatever) and find the section below:

'****SETTINGS****
PathToGoCubic="G:\QTVR-Max-Output\GoCubic.exe"
PathToFiles="G:\QTVR-Max-Output\"
FileNHead="Pano-"
FileNTail="-1"
FileNExtn=".TIF"
PanoHead="Cubic-"
PanoExtn=".MOV"

Change the settings to suite and have a go, it prompts you for the range or make i.e. 3 to 5.

You may want to change the following lines:

WScript.Sleep 5000 'wait for GoCubic to start
WScript.Sleep 4000 'Wait for movie to compile
WScript.Sleep 1000 'Wait a bit before next image

Depending upon the resolution of the images (takes longer to compile) and the speed of your computer.

DO NOT have any other app running as the script emulates key strokes and if you switch focus to another app during the script it will send keystrokes there !!!

Have fun – Improve it, destroy it, have a bloody good laugh at it.

Paul Russam

[gnarlycranium]

Ah, so a basic QT panorama is just 4 shots at 90 degrees FOV, stuck next to each other? Or does there really have to be 6? I've not seen any panoramas that look all the way up and down...

I think our internet guy has the apps and whatnot to put together these QT files, he just needs the right kind of image to put into it, and none of us know what that is.

[EricChadwick]

http://developer.apple.com/quicktime/quicktimeintro/tools/

[gnarlycranium]

Ain't got a mac, have a PC... so I can't do anything with most of that stuff-- but thanks for the pointers, posm!

Now I just have to figure out HOW the heck this stuff gets 'stitched' together. Apparently a PICT file is what I'm after... but I dunno how the heck to get there.

[EricChadwick]

Well then I'd try Paul's method, stripping away the extra steps.

[halo]

Photoshop will save a PICT for you :D

[3danim8d]

Gnarly,

We used VR Works to great QTVRs from images rendered out of Max.

You can even create multi-node scenes, great for doing virtual walk throughs of buildings.

www.vrtoolbox.com

[Silmar]

An alternative to this could be the cult3d app

http://www.cult3d.com

[gnarlycranium]

Originally posted by 3danim8d
We used VR Works to great QTVRs from images rendered out of Max.

How did you figure out what images to render, though??

Is it just a matter of rendering out a certain number of images at different angles around in a circle, and then matching them edge to edge, or is there something more complex going on when they're combined?? All I need is to make the right kind of image, I don't need the whole bundle of QTVR software. I think... arrgh, this is making my head hurt... :annoyed:

[mdcorp]

there is also a plugin for 3ds max: maxvr.qt 2 by cebas (http://www.cebas.com)

you can also set hotspots within max. an it creates the quicktimefiles. so you don't have to render seperate images and stitch them together.

it's a nice tool. the only manko is that the hotspots link to html-files and not directly to the other qtvr-files or within one file. so you have to improvise a little bit if you want to youse the qtvr-files not for the internet.

bye, that was my first post :thumbsup:

[EricChadwick]

Gnarly, if you just want to know how to render the images themselves, not all the details of actually getting them into the QTVR file itself, then that part is very easy.

Create an object (dummy, box, whatever) and position it where you want to render the panorama from.

In any material, in any map channel, place a Reflect/Refract map.

Source: From File

Render Cubic Map Files, To File: click on the button to set a filename and location. QuickTime can read most formats, although TGA or TIF are good bets.

Pick Object and Render Maps. Click this button, pick the object you positioned, and it starts rendering. It will use your current render settings to render six 90-degree views of the scene, from the center of the object you picked.

Give the images to your internet guy, he'll know what to do.

[TimWoods]

your discreet reseller should be able to provide you with the DESIGN function. this enables all the things from VIZ4, which includes a panoramic creator, and various other usefull things like light ananlysis, print size wizard, assemblys, and net render region. all very useful.
hope thats helpful.

:beer:

[3danim8d]

Gnarly,

You can get just the basic package from VR Tool Box thta is about a 1/3d of the cost. My experience is though, if you show someone a panorama. Next they are going to want an object and fully ineractive scenes, so it is best to be prep'd with the whole package, it;s only a few hundred$$$.

As for making the images for the Pano, I would parent the camera to a dummy (which has to be located at the camera's pivot point !!! And the camera has to be perfectly level !!!) and then I would render out between 12 and 36 images of the camera being spun by the dummy.

You enter the camera values in the Vr Pano program and it figures out the stitching for you, or you can manually tweek it. Complex scenes with lots of lines require more images to keep the lines from breaking across the stitckes.

I think the Design extension plugin uses a proprietary format and is not Quikctime VR compatible. I'll have to double check that.

[TimWoods]

definitly renders to quicktime vr.
:)

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