Tutorials

Creating 360 Degree Images 

ArtMatic Voyager has the capability to create cylindrical 360 degree images suitable for making into QTVR movies. Additional Mac OS X software is needed, and it is available for FREE. Just follow these simple steps: 

1. Design your scene as you normally would. When you are happy with the settings and the camera position, move on to step 2. 

2. Set the vertical tilt as close as possible to zero (unless you seek to achieve a strange camera angle effect in your QTVR movie). 

3. Move the zoom slider all the way to the left (focale angle 360.00). The resultant view point may seem too far from the scenery of interest and thus the QTVR movie might not provide the results you want. Here is where a bit of trial and error comes in to get the optinmal camera position for 360 degree imagery. Once you are happy with the scene and camera position, move on to rendering. 

4. For optimal results, set the quality to ''best''. 

5. Render pict to file - ensure that the size image you create is divisible by 4 in both dimensions. This is very important for QTVR to work properly. 

The larger the image you create, the larger the resultant QTVR file will be. If you intend to show your Voyager QTVRs on a website or email them to people, or post them to forums, this may be an issue. If they are only going to be viewed on your computer or distributed by DVD/CD then this is not an issue. As a guide, a 3200x1600 pict (13.5Mb, 2.4 hour render for me) created a 2.3Mb QTVR file, whereas a 1600x800 pict (3.4Mb, 40 minute render for me) created a 648Kb QTVR file - still displaying quite reasonable image quality and suited for low bandwidth web use. Ideally, you should provide both resolutions for those wishing to view your work, together with a thumbnail image so they get an idea of what the scene will look like before downloading... 

The resultant pict file is now ready to be made into a QTVR movie file. 

QTVR Creation Software 

There are several commercial programs available for Mac which will create cylindrical and spherical or cubic QTVR movies. They contain good documentation and I will not cover them here. However, there is a FREE utility for Mac OS X distributed by Apple Computer Inc. which does the job quite well. Apple''s MakeCubic Utility Application is a simple tiny utility application (only 692Kb) that is provided by Apple for people who want to create cubic QuickTime VR panoramas from six faces or from equirectangular (a kind of sphere-to-rectangle projection) images, or even cylindrical 360 images. It is available for FREE downloading from the Apple developer website here: 

http://developer.apple.com/documentation//QuickTime/InsideQT_QTVR/5Chap/chapter_7_section_3.html 

Voyager cylindrical rendered images are not fully immersive as they do not render the area of the scene viewed straight up and straight down. This is not an issue and is easily overcome by use of the MakeCubic Uitility settings. This free Apple utility is simple to use and very fast. It takes me under a minute to turn a completed Voyager pict into a QTVR movie file. 

Once you have downloaded the MaceCubic App you are ready to proceed.

MakeCubic Utility and Voyager 360 Pict Images 

The MakeCubic utility is quite easy to use and has all the settings needed to control every aspect of your resultant QTVR movie file. The below screen capture shows the convert window interface. If you use these settings you will be well on the way to your first QTVR. 

See the attached MakeCubic utility convert window screen capture showing the recommended settings for use when turning a Voyager pict into a QTVR movie file. The settings are explained below. 

Working down the file settings: 

You don''t need to change the default equirectangular settings. 

Choose the file Voyager just created. 

Compression settings are important - they control image quality and file size. I prefer Photo JPEG and 90% as the best compromise between some compression and good image quality. 

Fast start preview for web use as per my settings. 

The preview can be more compressed - I use Photo JPEG 75%. 

Ignore hotspot settings - not applicable here. 

Movie settings - this is where we control the lack of straight up and straight down rendering, and also deal with distortion issues for the user:

Pan lets the user move left and right. As we have a fully wrap around image we leave 0 and 360. Default is where the user will first see the scene when the QTVR opens. 180 is in the middle, and as this is where we middled the scene we created, I recommend using 180. 

Tilt is where we control how far up and down a user can look. As we cannot go too far up or down without distortion becoming very evident, use -65 and 65. This means the final 25 degrees from straight up or down to the limit setting will not be viewed by the user. I set the default tilt to -10 looking slightly down from the horizon. 

FOV is field of view. The higher the number, the more ''zoomed out'' the viewer is. If you zoom out too far then the equirectangular projection appears distorted. If you zoom in too much then the image will be zoomed in so far you will see ugly pixellation. I thus use min 30 and max 60 and set the default at 50 which usually gives the best quality result. 

Window size. Make your window too small and the user experience will be diminished. Make the window too big and those with older monitors may not be able to properly see it (yes many still use 800x600 screens). I use the 600x400 pixel size for web use. (However, QuickTime has the ability to flip to full screen using command-F and the user can resize the window by dragging the window corner). 

Tiling is best left to auto-tile settings at first. When you are more experienced try changing this. The more tiles, the higher the resolution (and file size). If you have a high res source image, it may be worth exploring with these settings. 

Quality of normal 50% for motion and high 75% for static works well for me - this will also affect final file size. 

Once you have the settings entered, click OK to create your QTVR movie. If these settings work for you, save these preferences for next time in the MakeCubic main menu. If you seek greater quality, or bandwidth is not a priority concern, up the quality settings, use higher res original images and showcase the wonderful worlds of Voyager... But remember, best to also have lo-res versions for those who are more bandwidth challenged to see as well. 

I hope this tutorial is of help to you. Drop me a line if you have posted onto the internet some of your own Voyager QTVRs to share, or if you have any corrections or suggestions regarding this tutorial. 

QTVR Examples 

You can see some example files to demonstrate what I have talked about on my ShareCG gallery.