QuickTime VR of objects - anyone know how to do this cheaply?

[Carol Haynes]

Take a look at http://www.vrworx.co.uk/vr_worx_examples_02.htm and click drag on the image of the glass.

Does anyone know of anyway to do this cheaply (or preferably for free!).

All the software I have found for QuickTime VR is either for panoramic shots or else they cost a fortune (or both).

I am doing some work producing educational materials for my local museum website (no money to spend) and would like to include 3D images of some artefacts.

[tsaint]

Can't speak for the quality of the output, but here's stuff Ive come across:
http://www.duckware.com/goround/index.html ($29)
http://www.picturecloud.com/index.php

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks Tony - I guessed you might pop up with something

I had already looked at the duckware stuff - it looks very complex and for organisation it is licensed per "panorama/object" which will get very silly pricewise.

I'll check out picturecloud (thanks).

The other one I have found that looks neat is: Pano2QTVR It's is free or only $29.95 for personal use of the Pro version, and reasonably priced for commercial use. Looks quite impressive too. Only drawback is very limited documentation.

[tsaint]

Carol, this sorta looks promising:
http://www.actionscripts.org/tutorials/advanced/Object_VR_In_Flash_MX/index.shtml

QuickTime. What a cool idea for internet media delivery. Movies and Object VR are two of the best features of this great package from Apple. Great, that is, until you need to download QuickTime to view media. For the PC this means 5.8 to 11Mb for QuickTime version 6.4. And the codecs (the actual movie compression and decompression programs) can vary from PC to Mac. What about AVI format for Windows Media Player? No ? same problem, and no Object VR. What is a developer to do?

http://www.honeylocust.com/vr/ has a free java applet - example at http://www.menet.umn.edu/FreedomVR/vrchia.html - don't know if its just me, but it seems slow to load.

[Carol Haynes]

Yeah I looked at the Java stuff but decided I didn't want the hassle. I don't have access to the web server I will be working on (just a VERY simple front end webpage) and so it will be difficult to write HTML files for uploading, and once I am no longer involved no one will be able to maintain them (the office I am doing this for are not that computer literate). Same problem with Flash files.

It is much simpler if I can just upload a movie file for people to view.

[Carol Haynes]

I have been experimenting with Pano2QTVR and here is my first attempt ... there are some caveats though!

1) I shot 21 frames very quickly adjusting the position of the backcan by hand between shots (I didn't have a turntable)
2) I need a high contrast background (the black box was useless)
3) It was only meant as a rough and ready test!

Having said that it took me less than 5 minutes to resize all my images and build the movie.

It is a quicktime movie - just hold and drag your mouse left or right on the image.

Unfortunately I can't upload .mov files so I have zipped it.

[mouser]

cool, works great.

[nudone]

looks nice (though, a bit dark) - if you want me to be picky i'd say position the object so that it appears to be spinning around it's central tube that's at the top - that way i think it would look like a smooth spin.

[Carol Haynes]

looks nice (though, a bit dark) - if you want me to be picky i'd say position the object so that it appears to be spinning around it's central tube that's at the top - that way i think it would look like a smooth spin.

Yes I agree about the lighting - the museum had a black corner 'open box' for shooting pictures but I think I need to line it with a light/contrasting background cloth but I didn't have anything available at the time.

For turning I am getting a turntable but it was really difficult to judge turning without one.

[Carol Haynes]

Went back and reshot the photos and then ran all 16 through Photoshop. Here is the revised version ...

[nudone]

looks a lot better 

[Carol Haynes]

Here's another - a lump of galena (lead ore). Lead mining in my local area is one of the projects about which I am producing materials for schools.