Bruno: Some untechnical info

2008-04-28T15:23:56Z

Some untechnical info

Bruno: typos

2008-04-22T13:35:01Z

typos

Bruno: new tutorial

2008-04-21T20:46:40Z

new tutorial

New page

This tutorial describes just one technique for rendering a video
from a spherical panorama. In this case we are using
[http://www.blender.org/ Blender], an open source 3d modeling
package, but other similar tools can probably be used to equal
effect. Alternatively you can use dedicated software such as
[[Pano2Movie]].

The way this works is to load a panorama as the background for an
empty scene; then set keys for the pan, tilt and zoom of the camera
as you would for any normal animation.

== Prepare the texture ==

There are several ways of rendering an image background in Blender,
such as creating a ''skydome'' or cubic ''environment map'', but
here we are using a [[lightprobe]].

A lightprobe is usually a [[HDR]] image, but in this case we are
just using a normal [[LDR]] image. Lightprobes are 'traditionally'
in a [[Fisheye Projection|fisheye format]] rather than
[[Equirectangular Projection|equirectangular]], so convert the scene
to a square 360° fisheye image with the principal point
on the horizon, I use [[hugin]] for this, but any of the [[GUI front-ends]]
will do. Make sure the pixel width of the fisheye is the
same as the pixel width of the original equirectangular so we don't
lose any resolution.

[[image:Blender-screenshot-002.png|Screenshot of Blender in action]]

== Preparing the scene ==

Did you learn how to use Blender first? Good! Start it up with an
empty project.

First delete the initial cube object and the light, we won't be
needing them. Move the camera to somewhere near directly above the
origin point.

== Create the texture ==

In the ''Buttons window'', pick ''Shading -> Texture buttons''

Then create a new texture: ''World -> Texture -> Add New -> Texture
Type -> Image'' and give it a name: 'robinhoodsbay'.

Then: ''Image -> Load'', and browse for our 360° fisheye
lightprobe image. For some reason, Blender downsamples the image by default, in
''Map Image -> Filter'', change the value from from '1.000' to '0.300'.

== Create the environment ==

Again in ''Buttons window'', pick ''Shading -> World buttons''.

In ''Texture and Input -> AngMap'', pick the 'robinhoodsbay' texture
already created, ''Map To -> Hori'' and ''Preview -> Real''.

== Set the rendering quality ==

In the ''Buttons window'', pick ''Scene -> Render buttons''.

We want to oversample as much as possible to get rid of [[aliasing]]
artefacts, so set ''Render -> OSA -> 16'', and one of the main
reasons for using a rendering package is to make use of motion blur,
so set ''Render -> MBLUR -> Bf: 0.50''. A blur factor of '0.5' will
simulate an aperture that is open 50% of the time, equivalent to a
traditional cine camera.

Note that these settings are probably excessive, this amount of
oversampling means that each frame is rendered 256 times and the
results averaged together.

Now click ''RENDER'' to see the first frame. Actually animating the
camera is something covered in many other Blender tutorials.

== The result ==

Finally, here is the
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRW2PgGDAGw completed animation] as
a very low quality YouTube video (the full 640x480 file is 9.9MB
should anyone want to host it).

A single frame shows the effect of motion blur:

[[image:Blender-motion-blur.jpg|Motion blurred animation frame]]

[[Category:Tutorial:Specialised]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:23, 28 April 2008
Line 82:		Line 82:

	[[image:Blender-motion-blur.jpg\|Motion blurred animation frame]]		[[image:Blender-motion-blur.jpg\|Motion blurred animation frame]]
		+
		+	=== About this panorama ===
		+
		+	This panorama itself is of The Dock at [http://www.robin-hoods-bay.co.uk/ Robin Hood's Bay],
		+	a former fishing village in North Yorkshire. The Bay Hotel pub is the destination
		+	of Alfred Wainwright's [http://www.wainwright.org.uk/coast_to_coast/ Coast to Coast walk].

	[[Category:Tutorial:Specialised]]		[[Category:Tutorial:Specialised]]

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 In the ''Buttons window'', pick ''Shading -> Texture buttons''
-Then create a new texture: ''World -> Texture -> Add New -> Texture
+Then create a new texture: ''World -> Texture -> Add New -> Texture Type -> Image'' and give it a name: 'robinhoodsbay'.
 Type -> Image'' and give it a name: 'robinhoodsbay'.
 Then: ''Image -> Load'', and browse for our 360° fisheye
 lightprobe image.  For some reason, Blender downsamples the image by default, in
-''Map Image -> Filter'', change the value from from '1.000' to '0.300'.
+''Map Image -> Filter'', change the value from '1.000' to '0.300'.
 == Create the environment ==

Animating panoramas in Blender - Revision history

Bruno: Some untechnical info

Bruno: typos

Bruno: new tutorial