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Autodesk 551A1-05B111-1001 - Stitcher Unlimited 2009, User Manual

The Autodesk 551A1-05B111-1001 - Stitcher Unlimited 2009 is a powerful software that seamlessly stitches together images to create stunning panoramic photos. To help you get started, we provide a comprehensive and free Getting Started Manual that you can download from our website. Explore the endless possibilities of panoramic photography with ease.

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Chapter 3
User Guide

80

Loading HDR images

Stitcher

 

can load high-dynamic range (HDR) images in the OpenEXR (.exr) and 

Radiance (.hdr) file formats. 

HDR images are created in a software such as Photomatix

®

 from several photographs 

with various exposures, for example, one shot with dark light intensity, one with 
medium light intensity, and another with high light intensity. You can then import the 
image into Stitcher. 

Depending on the display mode (see 

Preferences > HDR

), the images are displayed as 

a tone-mapped version (8 bits) or a full 32-bit image. The thumbnails are always 
displayed as a tone-mapped image.

NOTE

 An icon 

 appears in the bottom right corner indicating that the images are HDR 

images.

Loading HDR image (.hdr or .exr) is the same as for another format image. The image 
displayed is at an intermediate exposure. You can increase or decrease the exposure 
with 

Shift+PageUp

 or 

PageDown

. The step is defined in the 

Preferences > HDR

 page.

Loading fisheye images

When you load fisheye images, if you have checked in the preferences 

Read focal from 

EXIF data

, the software tries automatically to calibrate the images and asks if you want 

to keep the setting or not. 

The 

Properties

 dialog opens and you can then calibrate the fisheye image with the red 

circle (see “Fisheye images” on page 101).

Summary of Contents for 551A1-05B111-1001 - Stitcher Unlimited 2009

Page 1: ...User Guide Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 ...

Page 2: ...ILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL INCIDENTAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE DATA OR PROFITS WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE Portions related to F2c are Copyright 1990 1997 by AT T Lucent Technolog...

Page 3: ...ct Information 9 To view product information 9 Update Your Serial Number 10 To update your serial number 10 Register and Activate Stitcher 11 Online Registration and Activation 11 To activate Stitcher 11 Offline Registration and Activation 11 To register Stitcher offline 12 Chapter 2 Quick Start to Stitcher Projects 13 The Stitcher Interface 15 The 5 phase Stitcher Workflow 16 Phase 1 Loading imag...

Page 4: ...ur panorama 35 Saving your project 36 Stitcher Command shortcuts 37 Essential shortcuts 37 General Stitcher Operational shortcuts 39 Customizing keyboard shortcuts 41 Chapter 3 User Guide 43 Shooting photographs 45 Recommended equipment 45 Planning your shots 45 Photograph overlap 49 Shooting the panorama 50 Camera settings 51 Tips for taking shots 51 Stitcher projects 53 The Stitcher workflow 54 ...

Page 5: ... 65 Managing memory 66 Setting the Cache Size 67 Managing the Undo Buffer 67 Setting the Manual Stitch Magnifier 68 Setting the GPU preferences 68 The interface 71 The Main Menu 72 The Toolbar 72 The Stitching Window 72 Thumbnail View 73 Status Indicators 73 General Information 74 The Live Preview 75 The Image Strip 76 Preparing images for stitching 77 Loading images 77 Loading HDR images 80 Loadi...

Page 6: ... images to the Stitching Window 95 Working in the Stitching Window 96 Improving redraw performance 96 Selecting images in the Stitching Window 96 Aligning images in the Stitching Window 97 Rotating images in the Stitching Window 98 Centering images in the Stitching Window 99 Setting the camera orientation 100 Bookmarking the current viewpoint 100 Fisheye images 101 Why use a fisheye lens 101 Types...

Page 7: ...ading a camera profile 123 Render preview 124 The Quick Preview 124 The Live Preview 124 Stencils 126 Creating a stencil polygon 126 Selecting duplicating and moving stencil polygons 129 Selecting stencil polygons 129 Moving stencil polygons 129 Copying stencil polygons 129 Changing the shape of stencil polygons 129 Deleting stencil polygons 129 Blending polygons 130 Creating a PSD stencil 130 Vie...

Page 8: ...ots 143 Deleting hotspots 143 Linking hotspots 144 Setting QuickTime movie options 145 Viewing hotspots 145 Hotspots and panorama conversion 146 Render Area 147 Rendering Your Project 149 Choosing projection types 151 Snapshot projection 151 Cubical projection 151 Understanding the naming of cubical images 153 Cylindrical projection 154 Spherical projection 154 Cylindrical and Cubic QTVR projectio...

Page 9: ...ool 173 Defining the camera path 174 Checking the animation 175 Editing key frames 175 Setting the frame gap 177 Publishing HTML KML 178 Publishing your panorama 178 Setting the html options 179 Setting the kml options 181 Sharing your panorama 182 Creating an html template 183 Panorama conversion 184 Loading a panorama 184 Conversion possibilities 186 Aligning the panorama 187 Creating hotspots d...

Page 10: ...Contents x Saving a project as a template 190 Opening a template 191 Troubleshooting 193 Stitching problems 196 Glossary 198 ...

Page 11: ...1 Introduction ...

Page 12: ......

Page 13: ...ou can drag thumbnail images into the work area and stitch them manually or using the default workflow Stitcher automatically stitches the loaded images together and then displays them in the display area If the automatic process fails you can do semi automatic stitching by placing the images in an overlapping position to match features in each of the images Stitcher calibrates the camera focal le...

Page 14: ...d type For example press Ctrl Z Windows or Command Z Mac For a complete list of keyboard combinations see Stitcher Command shortcuts on page 37 Click means to click the left mouse button and right click means to click the right mouse button Windows only Words referring to items within Stitcher menus and pop up menus are shown with the symbol indicating the path to a menu item For example when you ...

Page 15: ...NOTE Apple QuickTime 7 is also required Hardware Stitcher Unlimited 2009 requires a system with the following hardware Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor 1GHz or faster Macintosh Intel based Macintosh computers 512 RAM for Windows XP 1 GIG RAM for Windows Vista 2GB recommended 200 MB free hard drive space for installation 2 GB recommended Ethernet adapter Qualified hardware accelerated OpenGL...

Page 16: ...llation instructions Uninstalling Stitcher Select Programs Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited Uninstall Stitcher Select Settings Control Panel and do the following 1 Double click Add Remove Programs 2 From the list of programs select Stitcher 3 Click Change Remove 4 At the prompt click Yes to confirm the removal of the application The program removes the program files folders shortcuts and registry entri...

Page 17: ... you register the product When you register Stitcher you receive an activation code If you register online your activation code is automatically retrieved from Autodesk and Stitcher starts If you register offline you request an activation code from Autodesk Upon receipt you manually enter the activation code in the Product Activation wizard The Product Activation wizard is displayed every time you...

Page 18: ...rchased commercially Not for Resale A license for a product that is not sold commercially Educational EDU Institution A license designed specifically for educational institutions Student Portfolio A License for students who are using an Autodesk product as part of their curriculum License behaviors Trial A license that allows individuals to try the product in trial mode for a specified number of d...

Page 19: ...Information You can view detailed information about Stitcher and your product license such as the license usage type and the license behavior To view product information 1 Launch Stitcher 2 From the Help menu click About Stitcher 3 In the About Stitcher window view details about your product and product license 4 In the About Stitcher window click OK ...

Page 20: ...mber only the first product you register and activate displays the updated serial number For other products to display the serial number you need to update them from the Help menu NOTE In order for the updated serial number to display you need to be logged into the system with Administrator rights To update your serial number 1 Launch Stitcher 2 Select Help Activate 3 In the Stitcher Activation wi...

Page 21: ...counts that can be accessed when activating any Autodesk product s To activate Stitcher 1 Launch Stitcher 2 Select Help Activate 3 In the Stitcher Activation dialog box enter your user account information and click Next 4 Onscreen instructions will inform you of registration and activation status Click Close 5 Restart Stitcher for the activation to take effect Offline Registration and Activation I...

Page 22: ...er your personalization data on the Customer Information page and choose how you d like to receive your activation code email fax or postal mail Click Next 4 Review your personalization data on the Customer Information page and choose the method you ll use to submit your request Your request can be sent by email fax or phone If you choose Send My Request by Email an email message will display for ...

Page 23: ...2 Quick Start to Stitcher Projects ...

Page 24: ......

Page 25: ...functions in the Main Menu Toolbar The Toolbar contains a set of contextual toolbars for working through the Stitcher five phase workflow Stitching Window The Stitching Window is the 3D environment that you use to build your panoramic view The size of the sphere is determined by the focal length of the camera used to shoot your images Stitching Window Main Menu Toolbar ...

Page 26: ...fore the auto stitch command was executed 4 Equalize the brightness of your panorama Stitcher can compensate for contrast in the lighting between the stitched images and automatically make the lighting in the panorama more uniform 5 Render your panorama into a variety of formats for external publication Phase 1 Load images into the project for detailed information see The interface on page 71 Phas...

Page 27: ...al length Stitcher reads any EXIF data in the images and displays the information for you to keep or edit the edited values are only used by Stitcher the EXIF data in the images remains the same To load your images 1 Click Load Images The Load Images browser opens 2 Select one or more image files to load 3 Click Open to load the images in the Stitcher Thumbnail View ...

Page 28: ...ndow 4 Stitcher reads the EXIF information in the images and asks whether you want to keep the settings Click Yes to keep the EXIF data settings Click No to open the EXIF data properties box and edit the settings TIP Select Edit Properties to change your data settings such as the focal length at any time after loading the images into your project ...

Page 29: ... left or right arrows to move to the right or left end of the thumbnail list TIP Click an image in the Thumbnail View and drag it to the left or right to scroll quickly your loaded images Indicators in the thumbnails display the status of the corresponding image in the Stitching Window showing whether the images are stitched not stitched or manually stitched Working in the Stitching Window The Sti...

Page 30: ... panorama as you place images in the Stitching Window and stitch them together You can also set the camera orientation precisely with numerical values To select an image click the image The selected image is highlighted Press Ctrl click Windows or Shift click Mac to add images to the selection ...

Page 31: ...e to overlap and align it with another so that you can stitch them together Rotate the selected image by pressing Shift right click Windows or Shift Ctrl click Mac in the Stitching Window to designate the pivot point Center the selected image by selecting View Look At or pressing ...

Page 32: ... each shot You can also shuffle each stack to change the exposure that is displayed on top or if you have no images selected you can change a panorama s whole exposure value 1 Load your images see Phase 1 Loading images 2 To determine how your exposures are stacked do one of the following Select HDR Stack exposure by and choose the number of exposures brackets you have for your shots ...

Page 33: ...xposures you want to stack together then right mouse click one of the thumbnails and choose Stack exposure by Selection from the context menu 3 To change the display image for a stack select the stack right mouse click it and select HDR menu then select one of the following Exposure UP Exposure DOWN Exposure RESET TIP To unstack images either right mouse click directly on the current thumbnail and...

Page 34: ...titcher can load 32 bit images EXR and HDR format generated by external software and it can render the panorama either as a 32 bit image or a tone mapped image For more information about 32 bit or tone mapped images see Displaying HDR images on page 64 ...

Page 35: ... stitch your images click Stitcherassembles all images in the Stitching Window Semi automatic stitching 1 After you load images you drag them into the Stitching Window 2 Move and rotate images so that they are aoverlapping and aligned with each other For best results ensure that 15 of each image is overlapping with the image next to it 3 When you are satisfied with the alignment of the images eith...

Page 36: ...omatically align the panorama do one of the following Select Tools Auto Align Panorama Click The alignment command is best used on a single row of at least three or four images You can view your panorama upside down or correct your panorama s rotation by selecting Tools Flip Panorama Use the navigation controls in the Render Preview window to select a viewpoint for QVTR renders ...

Page 37: ...tomake the image lighting more uniform for the panorama To automatically equalize the brightness setting in the panorama do one of the following SelectRender Equalize All Images Click NOTE You can undo an equalization command adjust the equalization level settings and run the command again See Equalizing images on page 139 for more detailed information ...

Page 38: ...o Stitcher Projects 28 Modifying exposure To change the exposure of the panorama make sure no image is selected and select HDR menu then select one of the following Exposure UP Exposure DOWN Exposure RESET Exposure example 1 ...

Page 39: ...ide 29 TIP You can also change the exposure of the panorama by right mouse clicking anywhere in the Stitching Window and selecting Exposure UP DOWN or RESET Exposure example 2 after changing the panorama s exposure value ...

Page 40: ...apshot projection renders a flat map without deforming it making the panoram look similar to a photograph This type of render is useful for creating images for the Web and for print Be aware that what you see in the Stitching Window is what is rendered So to adjust the content of your snapshot render reposition the image view in the Stitching Window Snapshot projections work best for a maximum of ...

Page 41: ...iginal image This projection is ideal for print or for creating Internet banners Be sure to reposition your view in the Stitching Window if you want to adjust the center of the cylindrical panorama Zoom in or out to adjust the height of the images in the projection To choose a cylindrical projection select Cylindrical Image from the Type list in the Render Parameters dialog box ...

Page 42: ...ing this type of projection your panorama will look as if it is being projected onto the inside surfaces of a cube Cubical renderings are particularly good for rendering backgrounds in 3D scenes and for producing Cubic QTVR movies that you will edit in external graphics applications To choose a cubical projection select Cubical Image from the Type list in the Render Parameters dialog box ...

Page 43: ... a single image Choose spherical projection to create printed panoramas environment maps for 3D packages JPG files to be used by Java spherical viewers on the Web cubic QTVR movies that need to be modified as one image To choose a spherical projection select Spherical Image from the Type list in the Render Parameters dialog box ...

Page 44: ...pes render cylindrical and cubical movies respectively which can be viewed in QuickTime These projections are useful for publishing your panoramas on the Web or inclusion on a CD ROM To choose cylindrical QTVR or cubic QTVR projections select Cylindrical QTVR or Cubical QTVR from the Type list in the Render Parameters dialog box ...

Page 45: ...the directory to which you want to save your rendered projection a filename avoid special characters From the type list select the projection type a file type see Snapshot projection on page 30 Cylindrical projection on page 31 Cubical projection on page 32 Spherical projection on page 33 and Cylindrical and Cubic QTVR projection on page 34 Set the image resolution in pixels by adjusting Width and...

Page 46: ...files Saving your project To save a project 1 Select File Save As from the main menu The Save As dialog box opens 2 Enter a file name select the destination directory for your project and click Save NOTE To revert to the last saved version of your project Select File Revert TIP After you have saved your project once click to re save it ...

Page 47: ...he Toolbar contains icons for working through the Stitcher five phase workflow See The 5 phase Stitcher Workflow on page 16 for details Keyboard shortcuts The keyboard shortcuts are shown next to the main menu commands or actions Essential shortcuts There are several shortcuts to help when you are using Stitcher The following table lists Stitcher project actions and their keyboard shortcuts Action...

Page 48: ... Preview Ctrl P Windows Command P Mac Properties Alt Enter Windows Command I Mac Render Ctrl R Windows Command R Mac Rotate image Shift right click Windows Shift Ctrl click Mac Save Ctrl S Windows Command Shift S Mac Save As Ctrl Shift S Windows Command S Mac Stitch image Enter Zoom Alt Ctrl click Windows or keys Command click Mac Action Shortcut ...

Page 49: ... D Mac Exit StitcherTM Alt F4 Windows Command Q Mac Flip panorama F Focal length decrease Shift Focal length increase Shift Full Screen Ctrl Shift F Windows Command Shift F Mac Select Bookmark B Windows or Command B Mac Help Contents F1 Windows Command Mac Live Preview Shift L Manipulate Click New Project Ctrl N Windows Command N Mac Open Project Ctrl O Windows Command O Mac ...

Page 50: ... the exposure Shift Home Related menu Right click Windows Ctrl click Mac Roll panorama Alt right click Windows Ctrl Alt click Mac Select All Ctrl A Windows Command A Mac Set Bookmark Ctrl B Windows Shift Command B Mac Show Hide Display Grid G Windows or Command G Mac Show hide image information Shift I Undo the last action Ctrl Z Windows Command Z Mac Unstitch image Shift Enter Action Shortcut ...

Page 51: ...ey combination is shown in the Current information field no shortcut will be displayed if the action has not yet had one assigned to it 3 If you want to change the shortcut click in the text field and enter your shortcut Onscreen instructions will inform you about whether your chosen shortcut is free to use or not Click Assign to activate the shortcut 4 Click Delete to clear the text field You can...

Page 52: ...Chapter 2 Quick Start to Stitcher Projects 42 ...

Page 53: ...3 User Guide ...

Page 54: ......

Page 55: ...u need to capture your images in rows That is in addition to capturing images in a 360 circle as you normally would to make a panorama you also need to capture rows of images with the camera tilted up and down Here is an outline of the procedure Top Row Tilt the camera up 45 and capture an image Rotate the pan head by 30 and capture another image Continue capturing images at 30º increments until t...

Page 56: ...e bottom row is captured with the camera tilted down at 45 pitch This creates a total of 36 images Figure A side view shows three rows of images captured at 45 0 45 pitch and figure B top view shows 12 images per row captured at 30 increments The number of images rows and spacing needed to capture a panorama depends on the FOV of the lens being used ...

Page 57: ...ocal length Image FOV Images required 15 mm 14 Image layout One image at 90 pitch six images every 60 at 30 pitch six images every 60 at 30 pitch one image at 90 pitch Focal length Image FOV Images required 20 mm 26 Image layout One image at 90 pitch eight images every 45 at 60 pitch eight images every 45 at 0 pitch eight images every 45 at 60 pitch one image at 90 pitch Focal length Image FOV Ima...

Page 58: ...ges required 24 mm 29 Image layout One image at 90 pitch nine images every 40 at 50 pitch nine images every 40 at 0 pitch nine images every 40 at 50 pitch one image at 90 pitch Focal length Image FOV Images required 28 mm 32 Image layout One image at 90 pitch ten images every 36 at 45 pitch ten images every 36 at 0 pitch ten images every 36 at 45 pitch one image at 90 pitch ...

Page 59: ...pturing spherical panoramas because they reduce the total number of images required Focal length Image FOV Images required 35 mm 50 Image layout One image at 90 pitch 12 images every 30 at 60 pitch 12 images every 30 at 20 pitch 12 images every 30 at 20 pitch 12 images every 30 at 60 one image at 90 pitch Focal length Image FOV Images required 8 or 10 5 mm fisheye lens 3 8 depending on the camera ...

Page 60: ...hed together just like all the other images in your panorama If the tripod is visible in some of your shots you can remove it using the Stencil Tool see Stencils on page 126 Figures A and B demonstrate the technique for capturing straight up and down images In figure A capture a shot straight up to make sure you get complete coverage of the scene in figure B take a handheld shot straight down with...

Page 61: ...the camera around your body this will cause parallax between images Figure B shows the correct position Keep the camera in the same place and pivot your body around the camera Camera settings To achieve optimal results all images in your panorama should be shot consistently Set your camera to manual exposure and manual focus and make sure the white balance setting is not on automatic mode This is ...

Page 62: ...e walls and ceiling incr ease the overlap to have he more textures in common Also interior panoramas could have stark lighting natural lighting contrast between the backs of rooms and windows In this situation it is best to try to shoot HDR images see Loading HDR images on page 80 ...

Page 63: ...t 1 Do one of the following Select File Open Click 2 Select the project that you want to open 3 Click Open NOTE Select File Recent Files and choose from the four last saved files Windows To save a project 1 Select File Save As The Save As browser opens 2 Enter a file name select the destination directory for your project and click Save TIP When you have saved your project once click to re save it ...

Page 64: ...ges that contain artifacts see Stencils on page 126 Drag images and stitch them together using automatic stitching see Automatic stitching on page 105 Adjust the camera regularly see Evaluating focal length on page 117 Close the panorama see Closing the first row of a panorama on page 120 Run the luminosity correction tool see Equalizing images on page 139 Define hotspots see Hotspots on page 141 ...

Page 65: ...splay page you can define the thumbnail and maximum texture size To show the Preferences dialog select Edit Preferences or press P Changes in the Preferences settings are automatically saved in an initialization file in the local settings folder If you are running Stitcherfrom a network drive and you do not have permission to write on that drive you will be prompted for a location to save the pref...

Page 66: ...set the temporary files directory 3 Browse to the directory and click OK Stitcherwill automatically add a RzTempFiles folder to your selected directory 4 Select Default to return to the default temporary file directory NOTE When you render a PSD or multi tiff file and you do not specify a temporary file directory Stitchercreates these files in the same directory as your rendered files Otherwise yo...

Page 67: ...l blending editor only Enblend XBlend and Smartblend are supported 4 Click Open The external application is set Editing in an external application You can edit your images in an external application before rendering by following a similar process as for blending To set the external image editor 1 Select Edit Preferences 2 Click the External Links tab 3 Click Image Editor to set the image editor di...

Page 68: ...ture which reduces the amount of processing power required to redraw You can also adjust the transparency of images to be able to see through them to better overlap and align them NOTE All of these modifications affect only the display of the images not the images themselves Changing the frame color To change the frame color of a selected or stitched image 1 Select Edit Preferences 2 In the Colors...

Page 69: ...temporarily removes the content of the images to speed up the redrawing process as you move images or pan zoom or roll your view NOTE To retain the content of images but reduce the drain on processor performance change the texture size see Changing the texture size on page 61 ...

Page 70: ...Chapter 3 User Guide 60 To move images as a frame 1 Select Edit Preferences 2 In the Display tab click Move As Frame 3 Click OK ...

Page 71: ...quired to redraw the image NOTE Reducing the texture size affects only the display and not the quality of the stitching or the rendered panorama To change the texture size 1 Select Edit Preferences 2 In the Display tab select an option from the Max Texture Size drop down list NOTE Max Texture Size defines the image definition display quality as stored in the buffer of your video card A low value g...

Page 72: ...1 Select Edit Preferences The Preferences dialog appears 2 Select Colors 3 Click the Stitching Window box to show the Color dialog NOTE If you want to change the color of the Stitching Window in either the Hotspot Close Panorama or Align Panorama modes click the Interactive Modes box 4 Pick a new color then click OK 5 Click OK to close the Preferences dialog ...

Page 73: ...images to be able to see through them A value of 1 gives an opaque image To reduce the opacity of the image reduce the value in this field To adjust the transparency of images 1 Select Edit Preferences 2 Select Display and then enter a value between 0 and 1 in the Blending field 3 Click OK ...

Page 74: ...namic image i e an 8 bit image which can be displayed on any monitor WARNING If you want to display a 32 bit image make sure that your video card is able to do so You need at least 128 Mb of video memory You can change the display type in Preferences HDR with the Display 32 bit images option Changing the exposure You can change the exposure of one or several selected HDR images or all HDR images i...

Page 75: ...f the Live Preview as either a flat cubic cylindrical or spherical panorama and the size of the preview window as small normal or large You can switch on the different modes cubical spherical cylindrical snapshot by right clicking in the Live Preview and choosing the mode You can resize the Live Preview by dragging the small arrows at the bottom left of the Live Preview A double click on the small...

Page 76: ...pter 3 User Guide 66 Managing memory After installing Stitcher you should set the Stitchermemory management preferences Settings in the Memory page of the Preferences dialog determine the memory management ...

Page 77: ...ou are an advanced user Stitcherreserves some memory for its own internal use This slider takes this internal memory into account Managing the Undo Buffer In Stitcher Select Edit Undo or Edit Redo to undo or redo the last action performed The Undo Buffer holds data required to undo redo actions However the number of actions is unlimited and the Undo Buffer can take up a large proportion of your sy...

Page 78: ...The GPU can do real time blending of the stitched images in the Stitching Window and in the Live Preview if the Real Time Linear Blending is checked NOTE To see the real time blending no image should be selected To unselect all the images press Shift D The Render GPU Tile Size option allows you to define the size of the tiles you want processed by your GPU Images will be broken down into tiles so ...

Page 79: ...StitcherTM User Guide 69 The following image shows stitched images in the Stitching Window without GPU Real Time Linear Blending ...

Page 80: ...inear Blending A appears at the bottom right of the Stitching window if your graphics card includes a powerful enough GPU The icon appears crossed if the GPU Real Time Linear Blending option is disabled Preferences GPU your graphics card s GPU is not powerful enough also if you have one or more images selected ...

Page 81: ... The Stitcherinterface is composed of the following elements NOTE Toggle Full Screen mode by going to Windows Full Screen or press CTRL Shift F Stitching Window Status Indicators Main Menu Toolbar Thumbnails Live Preview General Information ...

Page 82: ...ions are available directly through toolbar icons The Toolbar The Toolbar contains a set of contextual toolbars for working through the Stitcher five phase workflow see The Stitcher workflow on page 54 The Stitching Window The Stitching Window comprises the entire Stitcherinterface The Stitching Window is the environment that you use to build your panoramic view The size of the sphere is determine...

Page 83: ...t of the Thumbnail View indicate the status of how you re working with your image files and your panorama the symbols are not displayed at all unless they re relevant to what you re doing The shows whether you re using your computer s GPU for processing see Setting the GPU preferences on page 68 for more information and the shows whether you ve aligned your panorama and locked your vertical and ho...

Page 84: ...age information right in the 3D working area Stitching Window To display or hide the general information box do one of the following Select View Display General Info From the Live Preview click the white plus symbol to display General Info or click the white cross symbol to hide General Info ...

Page 85: ...nal panorama in real time The Live Preview is a real time visualization of your working area according to the projection chosen Use the shortcut Shift L to switch on switch off the Live Preview You can switch on the different modes cubical spherical cylindrical snapshot by right clicking in the Live Preview and choosing the right mode You can resize the Live Preview by dragging the small arrows at...

Page 86: ...he most information in the overlap area between the images To rearrange thumbnails in the Image Strip see Modifying the display of thumbnails on page 94 To close the Image Strip click Close in the left corner of the Image Strip Windows or the right corner Mac Toggle the Image Strip display by selecting Window Image Strip from the menu Double click the left side bar of the Image Strip to undock it ...

Page 87: ...ports 8 bit and 16 bit images n a not applicable Import formats Extension Cineon cin JPEG jpg jpeg Maya Image Files iff tdi OpenEXR exr Photoshop psd Portable Network Graphics png Portable Pixelmap ppm pgm pnm Radiance hdr SGITM Image Files sgi rgb Softimage Picture Files pic Tagged Image File Format tiff tif Truevision Targa tga Windows Bitmap bmp ...

Page 88: ...op down list of the Files of type Windows or Show Mac field to show only the image files of the type that you want to load or select All Files to view all the files in the folder 3 Select an image to load it or select more than one image file to load by doing one of the following To load more than one image click one image file you want to load then Ctrl click Windows or Shift click Mac the other ...

Page 89: ...xplorer Windows or Finder Mac directly into the Stitching Window NOTE The time taken to load images depends on the size of the images If you want to stop loading images click Cancel in the Loading Images dialog When loading finishes Stitcher displays the images in the Thumbnail View and in the Image Strip If Stitcher can read the EXIF data a popup appears asking you if the automatic choice is sati...

Page 90: ... The thumbnails are always displayed as a tone mapped image NOTE An icon appears in the bottom right corner indicating that the images are HDR images Loading HDR image hdr or exr is the same as for another format image The image displayed is at an intermediate exposure You can increase or decrease the exposure with Shift PageUp or PageDown The step is defined in the Preferences HDR page Loading fi...

Page 91: ...ich you took your images You need to choose the lens type that you used to take the shots rectilinear or fisheye circular or fisheye full frame or sunex Rectilinear is the default value see Fisheye images on page 101 for information on full frame and circular images The Viewing Camera page allows you to modify your on screen display You can rotate and magnify your images The Hotspot page allows yo...

Page 92: ...ationship between image property values Field of view FOV is determined by the focal length of the lens and the size of the film back For instance a 25 mm lens for a 24 36 camera would be exactly equivalent to a 50 mm for a 48 72 camera The same lens produces a different FOV for different film back values For example the figure below shows the default film back and focal length values In the next ...

Page 93: ...rfilm back height and width values are 24 mm and 36 mm respectively You can change these values according to your project NOTE Modifing these values is not recommended unless you are an advanced user Focal length The focal length is the distance from the lens to the film back When you load an image Stitcherassigns the focal length defined in the Preferences dialog The focal length value has a dire...

Page 94: ...gth and the angle are proportional Stitcherautomatically computes the values in the text field degrees and adjusts your images NOTE If you prefer to work with the Viewing Angle you can modify this value directly The focal length in millimeter will be calculated automatically by Stitcher The default focal length is set in the Preferences dialog If camera information is available for the images you ...

Page 95: ...from one panorama to another the adjustment is specific to each project Distortion values Lens distortion causes straight lines in images to appear curved If a picture is taken of a square that almost fills the film area the edges of the box are rarely perfectly straight and the center of each side of the image will bow slightly inward or outward Zoom lenses may typically exhibit a positive linear...

Page 96: ...e images are displayed with their own distortion and the values are shown in the Properties dialog Even without changing these values you can display the images without any distortion 1 Select Edit Preferences The Preferences dialog appears with the Display tab shown 2 Uncheck the View Distorted Images option to display images without distortion NOTE If you choose fisheye lens in the drop down men...

Page 97: ...1 Click on an image and Select Edit Properties to open the Properties dialog The Camera page represents the properties relevant to the camera with which you took your images 2 The default setting in the Camera Lens Type drop down list is Rectilinear Change the option to either Fisheye Full Frame Fisheye Circular or Sunex The Circular Radius Angle and Distortion values are updated accordingly NOTE ...

Page 98: ...kflow is the same as for stitching images not taken on the same plane However before stitching any images you should set the Focal Length status in the Properties dialog to Flat Stitch This option is not available for fisheye lens NOTE You can only render flat images as a snapshot projection The Adjust Camera Parameters Close Panorama Align Panorama and Hotspot Creation Mode options are disabled T...

Page 99: ... precisely with numerical values About thumbnail lines and markers As you work with images colored frames lines and markers show the status of images and the relationship between them Indicator markers Indicator markers in the thumbnails display the status of the corresponding image in the Stitching Window 16 bit image unstitched stitched or manual stitched image with stencil polygon image with ps...

Page 100: ...select in the Stitching Window have a red indicator marker until you stitch the image then the marker changes to green Manually stitched images Manually stitched images have a yellow indicator marker in the corresponding thumbnails see Manual stitching on page 110 Force stitched images Force stitched images have an orange indicator marker in the corresponding thumbnails see Manual stitching on pag...

Page 101: ...dicator marker appears in the top right corner of the thumbnails of images containing stencil removal polygons see Stencils on page 126 psd masks Images containing a stencil in the psd file format have an indicator marker see Stencils on page 126 ...

Page 102: ...orner of the corresponding thumbnail Indicator lines As you stitch images in the Stitching Window indicator lines appear between the images in the Thumbnail View and in the Image Strip indicating that the images are stitched the color of the line between images corresponds to the way the images have been stitched ...

Page 103: ...ages 3 To remove a thumbnails from the selection Ctrl click Windows or Shift click Mac the selected image s you want to deselect To select all thumbnails do one of the following Press Ctrl A Windows or Command A Mac Select Edit Select All Right click Windows or Ctrl click Mac in the Thumbnail View or the Image Strip then select Select All from the contextual menu Deleting thumbnails You can remove...

Page 104: ...xample you can rotate images to change the orientation from landscape to portrait Images are rotated in relation to the original image That is the original image as you shot it has a rotation of 0 To rotate thumbnails 1 Select the image s you want to rotate see To select thumbnail s on page 93 2 Right click Windows or Ctrl click Mac then select Rotate and choose the degree by which you want to rot...

Page 105: ...bnail View Moving images to the Stitching Window To move images to the Stitching Window so that you can stitch them drag the corresponding thumbnails one at time into the Stitching Window By default the first image you put into the Stitching Window is centered and stitched in place As you place and stitch more images in the Stitching Window colored markers and lines in the thumbnails show you the ...

Page 106: ...hing Window Do the following to improve performance Decrease the maximum texture size see Changing the texture size on page 61 Set Stitcherto show only the frame of images as you navigate to significantly speed up the display see Moving images as a frame on page 59 Selecting images in the Stitching Window Select one some or all images in the Stitching Window To select an image click the image and ...

Page 107: ... them to overlap and align them so that you can stitch them together To move an image 1 Select the image see Selecting images in the Stitching Window on page 96 2 Drag the image to the position you want You can also adjust the position of the image with the keyboard arrows and Shift arrows to rotate it ...

Page 108: ...swings To rotate an image 1 Select the image see Selecting images in the Stitching Window on page 96 2 Press Shift right click Windows or Shift Ctrl click Mac in the Stitching Window to designate the pivot point You can also adjust the position of the image with the keyboard arrows and Shift arrows to rotate it NOTE If you have not defined a pivot point the image rotates around the center of the i...

Page 109: ...es in the Stitching Window The first image you place in the Stitching Window is centered You can quickly center any selected image and you can set Stitcherso that it automatically centers an image This saves you from having to pan after stitching an image To center a selected image 1 Select the image see Selecting images in the Stitching Window on page 96 2 Do one of the following Select View Look...

Page 110: ...nd in the Rotation fields enter numerical values for the X Y and Z axes 3 If needed set the Viewing angle in degrees Type a number between 1 and 179 Bookmarking the current viewpoint You can bookmark a viewpoint modify the viewpoint and revert back to the bookmarked viewpoint To bookmark the current viewpoint select View Set Bookmark from the main menu To Select the bookmarked viewpoint select Vie...

Page 111: ...e a fisheye lens Fisheye lenses are used to create wide angle perspectively corrected image Fisheye lenses are designed to capture a very wide field of view A wide field of view reduces the total number of images you must take to complete the panorama allowing you to shoot a panorama faster and easier Types of fisheye images Stitchersupports both circular including sunex and full frame fisheye ima...

Page 112: ...in black borders Calibrating fisheye images Normally if you have selected Read EXIF data in the Preferences dialog Stitcherwill try to automatically calibrate your fisheye lens But in some cases for example when the EXIF data are missing or when the images do not contain enough information you will need to calibrate your fisheye lens manually 1 Click Calibrate Fisheye Lens in the Properties dialog...

Page 113: ...when placing the circle in the center two crosses define the center of the circle red and the center of the image blue The two crosses are not necessarily in the same position 2 Adjust the circle as required Zoom in and out of the image Pan in the image You must zoom in before you can pan Drag the border of the circle to increase or decrease the diameter of the circle Holding down the Shift key wh...

Page 114: ...validate the settings A pop up dialog asks you to confirm that you want to re initialize the working area Click Cancel to revert to the default settings NOTE Each time you modify the calibration by adjusting the circle Stitcher re initialize the entire project and clear your working area You should calibrate your lens before stitching your images or any other operation Now you can stitch your imag...

Page 115: ...all or a selection of images If necessary calibrate the high distortion before stitching To automatically stitch all loaded images click Stitcher assembles all images in the Stitching Window To automatically stitch a selection of images select the thumbnails see To select thumbnail s on page 93 and click Stitcher assembles and stitches the selected images in the Stitching Window NOTE Automatic sti...

Page 116: ...es 5 Repeat the steps above to stitch all images together 6 Close the panorama After you have stitched images together you render the panorama see Rendering Your Project on page 149 When you have placed at least two images in the Stitching Window and moved and rotated them so that features are aligned you can stitch them together For better results stitch a complete row 360 of images together firs...

Page 117: ...the reasons for it see Overlapping and aligning images on page 115 2 When the images are aligned approximately do one of the following Click Stitch Stitch Image or click the Stitch icon Right click Windows or Ctrl click Mac the selected image then select Semi Automatic Stitch Press Enter If a green by default border appears around the image the image is stitched and you can begin to stitch another...

Page 118: ...photo or if you want to stitch the image manually TIP After stitching two images to see if they are well stitched you can select one of the images and press the Tab button This toggles the selection of the image and the adjacent image and shows the differences between the stitched images Examples of when you might want to re adjust a stitch are when images lack areas of overlap ...

Page 119: ...ust place the image precisely To do so you can do the following Nudge pixel by pixel using the arrow keys Rotate pixel by pixel around the pivot point by pressing Shift arrow keys TIP You can try to improve the quality of the stitch by unstitching and restitching the images denoted by a marker in the top right corner of the thumbnail in the Stitching Window ...

Page 120: ... could fail and you will need to manually tell Stitcherhow to stitch images 1 Select two images with at least one already stitched in the Stitching Window For information the first image in the Stitching Window is always stitched 2 Click Manual Stitch icon or right click and select Manual Stitch from the contextual menu to open the Manual Stitch window 3 Click to add a marker in the first image Th...

Page 121: ...and Mac while moving the cursor hides the Magnifier in the other image You can configure the Magnifier in the Miscellaneous tab of the Preferences dialog see Setting the Manual Stitch Magnifier on page 68 When clicking a point and holding the mouse button down you can change the zoom ratio with the scroll wheel If you click Shift at the same time you can change the Magnifier window size ...

Page 122: ...kers and exit Manual Stitch mode 7 If you are not satisfied with the stitch you can reopen the manual stitch dialog by selecting both images and repeating steps 3 to 7 The points you placed already are preserved The stitched image is defined in the Thumbnail View and Image Strip by a colored thumbnail marker linked by a colored indicator line see Indicator lines on page 92 The color is yellow by d...

Page 123: ...o be stitched and place them in the Stitching Window precisely as you want them to be stitched together 2 Do one of the following Select Stitch Force Stitch Image Right click in the Stitching Window and select Force Stitch Image from the contextual menu Press Ctrl Enter The stitched image is defined in the thumbnails and in the Image Strip by a colored border and a small colored square You can edi...

Page 124: ...ching Window on page 96 2 Do one of the following Select Stitch Unstitch Image Click Right click Windows or Ctrl click Mac anywhere in the Stitching Window and select Unstitch Image from the contextual menu Detaching images Detaching images removes them from the stitch but the thumbnails remain in the Stitching Window the Thumbnail View or the Image Strip 1 Select the image s you want to detach se...

Page 125: ...m so that they overlap by approximately 15 and have enough texture information to be stitched In the following example the image on the left has at least a 15 overlap with both the images in the middle You can stitch these images together The image on the right does not have at least a 15 overlap with any of the other images so you cannot stitch it Though the two images in the middle do overlap ea...

Page 126: ...ple images with a focal length of 24 mm or less allowing you to create panoramas from them To calibrate highly distorted images 1 Place the first image in the Stitching Window 2 Place the second image in the Stitching Window align it approximately with the first image but do not stitch it 3 Select Tools High Distortion Calibrate to calibrate the highly distorted lens After the calibration is done ...

Page 127: ...tion After stitching three or four image in your first row you should recalculate the focal length Recalculating the focal length sensor shift and distortion for each image reduces the possibility of stitching errors Recalculate the focal length regularly every five shots and recalculate again before rendering When four images are stitched the sensor shift is calculated automatically To adjust ima...

Page 128: ...ing the Camera Response Curve To render HDR images 32 bit images or tone mapped images from a bracketed set of images a stack of exposures Stitcher must be able to calibrate a camera response curve over the largest stack the stack being used for calibration of the curve must contain at least 3 images NOTE To render an image in a single exposure no stacks not an HDR tone mapped image Stitcher doesn...

Page 129: ...e 119 TIP If you know the Exposure Value check EV and enter the value Otherwise enter the ISO Aperture and Speed values you used during your photo shoot Click OK 2 Select HDR Camera Response Calibrate Camera Response Curve ...

Page 130: ...n the Camera page of the Preferences dialog to increase the space between the first and last images in the Stitching Window TIP Press Shift to quickly increase the focal length and Shift to quickly decrease it NOTE When stitching the last image in the row of your panorama it is preferable that the first image does not overlap it If so increase the focal length To close a panorama 1 Stitch the last...

Page 131: ...itcherTM User Guide 121 The Stitching Window background changes 3 Drag the last stitched image and roughly align it with the first image 4 Do one of the following Select Stitch Semi Automatic Stitch Click ...

Page 132: ...ser Guide 122 Press Enter to stitch the image Stitchercloses the first row of the panorama NOTE To change the color of the Stitching Window background see Changing the Stitching Window background color on page 62 ...

Page 133: ...le lens NOTE As well as the camera distortion the camera profile contains the focal length camera response curve and sensor shift parameters found by Stitcher For fisheye images the radius angle and distortion values are saved Loading a camera profile Select Tools High Distortion Load Camera Profile to load the XML camera profile When you start a new project you can select the Automatic Load Camer...

Page 134: ...r Progress dialog opens allowing you to follow the progress of the proof render Once the process has finished the Preview window opens showing a preview of the panorama NOTE If the results are unsatisfactory in the Quick Preview try adjusting the images and proof preview it again If the results are still not as you want then you may need to unstitch and restitch the image NOTE When making a Quick ...

Page 135: ...StitcherTM User Guide 125 Cylindrical preview Spherical preview Cubical preview ...

Page 136: ...on in the Stitching Window see Creating a stencil polygon on page 126 A polygon stencil in an external image editor such as Photoshop or Paintshop Pro see Creating a PSD stencil on page 130 and import it into Stitcher You can create both PSD masks and stencil polygons in the same image Creating a stencil polygon To create a stencil polygon 1 Select an image in the Stitching Window by clicking on i...

Page 137: ...ed image is highlighted and the other images in the Stitching Window are transparent 3 Double click in the viewport to define the starting point of the polygon 4 Click to add vertices The stencil follows the distortion of the image polygon vertices ...

Page 138: ...utside only includes the part of the currently selected image inside the polygon in the final render Preserve Inside the part of the image inside the polygon of the currently selected image is preserved for the final render Preserve Outside the parts of the image exterior of the polygon of the currently selected image is preserved for the final render TIP You can quickly delete a tripod from your ...

Page 139: ...e polygon and select Copy from the contextual menu or press Ctrl C Windows or Command C Mac Select another image right click again and select Paste from the contextual menu or press Ctrl V Windows or Command V Mac Changing the shape of stencil polygons To change the shape of a polygon do one of the following in the Stencil mode Select a vertex or vertices of the polygon and drag it or them to a ne...

Page 140: ...xels of the project s polygons that you want to combine with the background image Enter a value in pixels in the Stencil Blending text field Creating a PSD stencil In an external image editor you can create stencils stored as grayscale channels that let you isolate areas of an image as you apply effects to the rest of the image When you select part of an image the area that is not selected is mask...

Page 141: ...tching Window and select Stencil from PSD from the contextual menu Stitchercreates a copy of the image in the PSD format and automatically adds a stencil The image opens in the external image editor 2 Modify the stencil using the image editor s tools For example you can use the lasso tool to create non linear shapes or the opacity tool to adjust the transparency of an area of your image ...

Page 142: ... contains a marker defining the image as containing a PSD stencil Now then you move the image over another image in the Stitching Window the area where you added a stencil is transparent Viewing stencils When you come out of the Stencil mode select View Display Stencils to display the both stencils and PSD masks in the Stitching Window NOTE You cannot edit stencils unless you enter the Stencil mod...

Page 143: ...ing horizontal and vertical lines that define the horizon Note that the Align Panorama mode is not available when stitching images taken on the same plane see Setting the horizon in the Align Panorama mode on page 133 Centering the panorama in the Stitching Window by pressing see Centering a panorama on page 135 Using the grid see Aligning the panorama using the Display Grid on page 136 Using the ...

Page 144: ...u can draw as many vertical lines as you want When you release the mouse pointer the stitched images align according to the horizontals and verticals in the panorama 3 If the results are unsatisfactory re adjust the line s by clicking and dragging the small squares at its ends 4 Exit by selecting Tools Align Panorama or pressing Esc or Enter to toggle off the mode Once the horizon is set Stitcher ...

Page 145: ...a to the previous horizon by doing one of the following Select Tools Go Back to Defined Horizon Press the H key Windows or Command H Mac Stitcherre aligns the current viewpoint to the last calculated alignment If the horizon was not calculated previously Stitcher takes the equator Centering a panorama You can also set the horizon in relation to any image in the panorama Select any image you want t...

Page 146: ...int that you can position over a feature in the image To show the Display Grid in the Stitching Window 1 Select Edit Preferences 2 Select Display 3 Check the Display Grid box to show the grid 4 Click OK The Display Grid appears in the Stitching Window to help you align the panorama along the grid s horizontal and vertical lines ...

Page 147: ...StitcherTM User Guide 137 TIP Press G Windows or Command G Mac to toggle the grid ...

Page 148: ...rid Step text field A greater value gives a finer grid 3 Click Apply To change the color of the Display Grid 1 Select Edit Preferences 2 Select Colors 3 Click the Grid Tools color box and change the color 4 Pick a new color then click OK to close the Color dialog 5 Click OK to close the Preferences dialog ...

Page 149: ...e photographs will have different levels of light If the brightness is perfectly balanced you don t need to equalize Stitcher blends the different images to give a smooth progression from one image to the next Equalization does not have to look perfect in the Stitching Window to achieve good results NOTE Equalization is a global process Re applying equalization with the same parameters does not ch...

Page 150: ... is a matter of preference and you may need to readjust the number later in this process 4 Click OK 5 Select Render Equalize All Images from the main menu or click 6 If you are satisfied with the effect of the equalization you can render the project If equalization has produced little effect or if images are too bright or too dark click Render Reset equalization to reset the images to the original...

Page 151: ...y export hotspots to QuickTime VR Virtual tours produced by Stitcherare not suitable for viewing directly in the QuickTime player and can only be viewed on the Web through the QuickTime plug in You cannot use hotspots in an HDR project Creating hotspots You can create hotspots as polygons in the Hotspot Creation Mode To create a hotspot 1 Enter the Hotspot mode do one of the following Select Tools...

Page 152: ...ndow while in the Hotspot mode see Changing the Stitching Window background color on page 62 Selecting duplicating and moving hotspots Selecting hotspots You can select a hotspot or a vertex of a hotspot by clicking it To select multiple hotspots or multiple vertices of a hotspots do one of the following Select Edit Select All to select all hotspots Press Ctrl click Windows or Shift click Mac hots...

Page 153: ...ots To change the shape of a hotspot do one of the following Select a vertex or vertices of the hotspot and drag it or them to a new location Move the pointer over the edge of a hotspot The pointer changes shape Double click to add a new vertex and drag it to a new location Deleting hotspots To delete a hotspot or a vertex or vertices of a hotspot select it and do one of the following Select Edit ...

Page 154: ...server as your panorama select local and type the relative path Remember to put the panoramas in the same directory or type the relative path or 4 Enter an address URL or email in the URL Link text field 5 Name the hotspot in the Description text field The hotspot s name will be displayed by the controller bar QuickTime plug in when you drag the pointer over the hotspot 6 From the in drop down lis...

Page 155: ...ption for virtual tours New QT Player to open the target movie in a new player window 4 Set the Pan value to a number between 180 and 180 to define the default pan setting when you open the QuickTime movie 5 Set the Tilt value to a number between 90 and 90 to define the default tilt setting when you open the QuickTime movie Set the field of view FOV value to a number between 5 and 180 Use 0 to kee...

Page 156: ... edit hotspots unless you are in the Hotspot Creation Mode see Creating hotspots on page 141 Hotspots and panorama conversion When you load a panorama you can add hotspots in the same way as for images see Creating hotspots on page 141 You can also save the hotspots by right clicking and selecting Save hotspots from the contextual menu and load them later ...

Page 157: ...Right click in the Live Preview and select Live Preview Set Render Area Select Render Render Area Set Render Area 2 Draw a rectangle around the area you want to render and press ESC to set the area you have selected 3 Check Use Defined Viewport in the File section of the Render Dialog and Stitcher will render the panorama using the selected viewpoint ...

Page 158: ...pter 3 User Guide 148 For a cubical render all faces are rendered by default but by clicking each of the faces you choose which ones you want to render If you do not select any faces all faces are rendered ...

Page 159: ...render directly to different projection types You can render the Stitcherproject in the following file formats Rendering formats Extension JPEG jpg QuickTime mov Tagged Image File Format tiff Rendering formats Extension Maya Image Files iff Adobe Photoshop psd Portable Network Graphics png Portable Pixelmap ppm SGI Image Files sgi Softimage Pictures Files pic Truevision Targa tga ...

Page 160: ... completely stitched and that you have adjusted the focal length see Semi automatic stitching on page 106 2 Align the panorama 3 Equalize the images if you need to balance the level of brightness across the panorama 4 Set the render area and the viewpoint 5 Determine which format you want to use 6 Set options that are specific to the type and format you have chosen 7 Render the panorama Rendering ...

Page 161: ...lat map similar to a basic photograph What you see in the Stitching Window is what is rendered so reposition your view in the Stitching Window to adjust the content of your snapshot render see Aligning images in the Stitching Window on page 97 Cubical projection Cubical projection creates six images that correspond to the six sides of a cube front back right left top and bottom It is as if your pa...

Page 162: ...Chapter 3 User Guide 152 snapshot cylindrical spherical cubical ...

Page 163: ...ith cubical projection a suffix is added to the filename either a letter or number depending on your choice to differentiate the images Some applications for example QuickTime required either numbered or lettered suffixes so if you know you need to output images for a specific package ensure you know which option it requires File names look similar to this Letter myPanorama_a jpg myPanorama_b jpg ...

Page 164: ...n shows an entire 360 180º panorama but spherical projection shows it in a single image Choose spherical projection to create Printed panoramas Environment maps for 3D packages JPG files to be used by Java spherical viewers on the Web Cubic QTVR movies that need to be modified as one image in external graphics applications see Cylindrical and Cubic QTVR projection on page 154 How a spherical proje...

Page 165: ...rical or cubic QTVR you can set additional options that further define how the movie is processed and how it will appear once rendered For a guidelines on setting these options see QuickTime output setup on page 167 VRML projection The VRML export format renders a cubical projection that can be viewed in the VRML viewer For a description of cubical projection see Cubical projection on page 151 If ...

Page 166: ...onse curve Stitcher reads the EXIF data of the stack of images to know how the shots have been taken Add EXIF Data If your images did not have EXIF information in them when you loaded them in Stitcher you can add this information which Stitcher must have in order to be able to calibrate a camera response curve manually 1 To select the images to which you want to add EXIF data do one of the followi...

Page 167: ... want to apply the same EV to all shots in the selected stacks 4 If you selected more than one image and need to enter different EXIF data for each image navigate between images by Use the double left arrows to switch between images in the same stack Use the double right arrows to switch between selected stacks 5 Click OK Calibrating the Camera Response Curve 1 Make sure you have at least one stac...

Page 168: ...lick OK Windows or Choose Mac From the Type drop down list select a projection type If you select snapshot cubical spherical cylindrical or VRML select a file format from the Format drop down menu If you plan to eventually create a QTVR or VRML movie but need to make modifications first choose either spherical or cubical then choose a lossless format such as TIF see Cylindrical and Cubic QTVR proj...

Page 169: ...n check Use defined viewport To increase or decrease the resolution of the rendered image move the sliding bar to the right or the left or enter a value in the Width text field The slider lets you choose a maximum width of 10 000 To increase the width up to 1 000 000 type the value in the text field For details on width and height constraints see Understanding width and height value constraints on...

Page 170: ...art blending function to automatically find the image containing the most information in the overlap area between the images Morph Wraps the images and try to match corresponding points in the overlap between two images Linear Do not use Linear unless the stitching didn t work and you know the geometry of the shots that were taken is wrong for example there is parallax and you know the geometry of...

Page 171: ...icubic Mitchell Lanczos3 Lanczos4 and Lanczos5 Nearest gives the fastest render time but the poorest quality image and Lanczos5 gives the slowest render time but the highest quality image For more information on interpolation see Understanding interpolation on page 165 Choose either letters or numbers for the cubic render filename suffix see Understanding the naming of cubical images on page 153 T...

Page 172: ...ates an alpha layer that corresponds to the image 5 Save your settings in Settings Management by clicking on the corresponding tab at the top of the window or leave the default settings Previously saved render sets appear in the left pane To use the render parameters from a previous project click a Stitcher project in the left pane and click Load Selection All the render parameters of the project ...

Page 173: ...the Stitching Window To render the current project click Render The Rendering dialog opens and indicates the progress of the rendering process Click Cancel to cancel your settings and close the Render dialog Click Close to exit the Render dialog For a cubical render all faces are rendered by default but by clicking each of the faces you choose which ones you want to render If you do not unselect a...

Page 174: ...ojection so that you can open the file in the external graphics application Choose cubical if you want to make edits to six different files that correspond to the sides of a cube Choose spherical if you want to make edit to only one image Choose cylindrical if you want to eventually produce a Cylindrical QTVR movie NOTE A cubical projection has the disadvantage of being composed of six different i...

Page 175: ...width and height of the image in the Stitching Window Cubical The width and the height of the rendered image have the same value Spherical The height of the rendered image is twice that of the width Cylindrical The width height 360º viewing angle in degrees Width and height in the Render File window are driven by the following constraints Cylindrical QTVR Height is a multiple of 4 and width a mult...

Page 176: ...d uses the values from the four surrounding pixels that is above below right and left of the spot where the new pixel is to be created The new pixel value is determined by calculating a weighted average of the four closest pixels a 2 2 array based on distance This method tends to make an image softer that is the contrast is reduced because of averaging neighboring values together Bicubic and Miche...

Page 177: ...urate results than the bicubic method but takes a little longer to compute The larger the matrix size the longer the method will be QuickTime output setup During the rendering process see Render options on page 158 you may set some of the additional output options If you choose to output to Cylindrical QTVR or Cubic QTVR you can set the following options in the QuickTime Output Setup tab ...

Page 178: ...ne the tiling method that is used to show the QTVR movie in stages as it streams into the plug in This is what your users see as they wait for the movie to load completely Each cube face is split into tiles that appear one at a time onscreen NOTE The more tiles you specify the less efficient compression is Tiles will load as they download so they are very good for large images Tile Size Select the...

Page 179: ... as a preview image When you specify a file to import Stitcher tries to find the six cube faces that match the name of the file you provide If it cannot Stitcher assumes that the file you specified is a spherical export and converts it to cube faces Compression Settings Define the compression used to create the preview For more information on these options see Compression Settings on page 168 Gene...

Page 180: ...cher window These constraints can be used for QTVR PurePlayer and Spi V renders 1 Select Tool Authoring Controls to toggle the view over to the movie settings control and preview mode 2 In the Stitching Window navigate to the position you want 3 To lock this position click the radio boxes in the Authoring section of the General Information box ...

Page 181: ... in pixels Pan Set how far your user can pan back and forth in the movie This type of constraint is particularly useful if you do not provide a full 360 view it prevents your users from seeing black space Tilt Set how far your user can tilt their view in the movie This type of constraint is particularly useful if you do not provide a full 360 view it prevents your users from seeing black space FOV...

Page 182: ...when the movie starts Autopan Reset resets the automatic pan when you click the mouse button Autopan click stops the automatic pan when you click the mouse button Set the End Date to disable the film at a specified time and enter an End Message to appear once the film is disabled After the specified date the QTVR will display a blank page displaying the End Message text NOTE The time limit is depe...

Page 183: ...t one image in the Stitching Window Stitcher allows you to make a movie of your panorama Launching the animation tool To define a camera path you place key frames i e the camera position orientation and focal length The final movie path will be a spline interpolation of the key frames Click Render Movie The Movie Navigation Bar opens at the bottom of the interface Current time Total time Time poin...

Page 184: ...when defining a camera path is to set a viewpoint then place a key change the viewpoint set a key etc You can zoom rotate and move the scene as you require to find the camera viewpoint that you require for the animation 1 Position the panorama in the Stitching Window using the navigation tools You can zoom rotate and move the scene as you require ...

Page 185: ...ion To play the movie and check the animation select Play from the contextual menu or click in the Movie Navigation Bar The movie loops according to the position of the panorama at the designated key points To stop the movie select Stop Movie from the contextual menu or click in the Movie Navigation Bar Editing key frames If necessary edit and refine the animation by clicking and dragging the keys...

Page 186: ... Pointer on a key in the Movie Navigation Bar change the viewpoint slightly and select Insert Key from the contextual menu to replace key K with the new viewpoint To change the position of a key click and drag it to a new position on the Movie Navigation Bar To delete a key click on it and select Delete Key from the contextual menu To reset the position of a key select Reset Keys from the contextu...

Page 187: ...er Guide 177 Setting the frame gap The frame gap corresponds to a default value greater than 0 1 seconds when you add a key The total time changes according to the Key Frame Gap defined the Preferences Movie dialog ...

Page 188: ...ned template for Web generation and or A kml file for adding your panorama to GoogleEarth http earth google com which comprises maps and satellite images for complex or pinpointed regional searches You can map your panorama to a specific geographical location Publishing your panorama You can publish your panorama in the following formats Publishing Formats Extension JPEG jpg QuickTime mov Pure Pla...

Page 189: ...ion by clicking on the browse button in the Export to field and browsing to your directory The output file will either be an html file or a kml file depending on the publishing option that you select 4 Check either or both the Export html and Export kml checkboxes to export the project as an html file for Web generation and or a kml file for adding your panorama to GoogleEarth Setting the html opt...

Page 190: ...ter a new description The description will be used as the description for the html page 3 Autodesk supplies several html templates to create your panorama gallery quickly and easily The template are found by default in the Stitcher installation directory You can set the template directory by clicking Set Template Folder ...

Page 191: ... creates a jar file that contains the ImmerVision Pure Player viewer If you publish a Spi V panorama Stitcher creates a dcr file in a dswmedia folder which is the Spi V viewer 4 Click Publish to publish your panorama as an html file Stitcher generates an html file and a folder containing the selected template Setting the kml options If you select Export kml click KML Options to open the setting pa...

Page 192: ... panorama as a Web page you should have An html file A folder containing the associated template Your panorama If required a jar file or a dswmedia folder if you want to publish your panorama using a Pure Player or Spi V viewer Upload all the files to your personal Internet site and share the URL of the html file If you want to reference your panorama on GoogleEarth you should have A kml file Your...

Page 193: ...tml page required by Stitcher using a text editor ST_TITLE tag replaces the title of the project by a title that you specify ST_DESC_TXT tag replaces the description of the project by a description that you specify ST_EMBED tag replaces your panorama and uses the width and height parameters that you specify Be careful to use the correct notations otherwise Stitcher will be unable to replace correc...

Page 194: ...a to image files Transform a PSD panorama For example transforming a Photoshop panorama to a cubic panorama produces image files that allow you to work with the different faces of the panorama while keeping the layer information of the PSD panorama Add hotspots to an already created panorama that launch some actions such as opening a URL or linking your project to another panorama to create a virt...

Page 195: ...with filters or effects are not accepted Depending on your output format you will need a composite image in your PSD file A composite image is a preview of your flattened layers inserted at the end of the file Stitcher does not create this composite image when creating a PSD file If you need one open your file in any external editor that can load PSD and resave your file This will ensure that you ...

Page 196: ...own in the table below by an x Import Export Spherical image Cubical image Cylind image Spherical PSD Cubical PSD Cylind QTVR Cubical QTVR Spherical image x x x Cubical image x x x Cylind image x Spherical PSD x Cubical PSD x Cylind QTVR x Cubical QTVR x x x x x VRML x x x x x Movies Quicktime MOV orAVI files x x x x x x x Ivp Spi V x x x x x x x ...

Page 197: ... Stitching Window at the time you render the panorama You can align the panorama by Using the grid see Aligning the panorama using the Display Grid on page 136 Selecting Tools Align Panorama and drawing horizontal and vertical lines that define the horizon see Aligning the panorama on page 133 Using the navigation controls in the Stitching window to select a viewpoint for QVTR renders ...

Page 198: ...it them and add hotspots See Hotspots on page 141 for complete details on creating hotspots Hotspots are drawn directly in the Stitching Window in the Hotspot mode You can link hotspots to any URL and define pan tilt and zoom parameters for a target panorama Using the right mouse button you can save the hotspots and reload them from a previously saved file NOTE You can only export hotspots to Quic...

Page 199: ...a hotspot s right click Windows or Ctrl click Mac and select Load Hotspots from file from the contextual menu Rendering a converted panorama When all the adjustments have been made select Render Render from the main menu or click The procedure is described in detail in Render options on page 158 Choosing a Quicktime panorama viewpoint For more information about choosing a Quicktime panorama viewpo...

Page 200: ...cannot use templates for projects that have differing shot parameters and row setups In this case you must load and stitch images the usual way Saving a project as a template Saving a project as a template is the only way to create a template To save a project as a template at least one stitched image must exist in the project NOTE When you create and work with projects without a template you may ...

Page 201: ... where you want to save the template file 5 Click Save Opening a template When you open a template a new project with a perfectly stitched image is created When a template is created the of the images determines where they are placed in the panorama So to apply a template to a project you must know name and location of the first image in a complete list of ordered images If you select the wrong im...

Page 202: ...ental list of images then click Open 4 Click beside the Project field to browse to where you want to place the project that will be created then click Save 5 If you are sure of the placement of your images you can uncheck the Stitch box to render images as is 6 If you want to balance the level of brightness between all the images check the equalize box 7 If you want to render the file as soon as t...

Page 203: ...titcher file format is designed for cross platform sharing much like a Web page so that you can share your Stitcher files with users on any platform Another possibility is that you have moved the files after creating a new project You can either move the files back to the original location or edit the project file with a text editor and specify the correct directory Problem When a QTVR is rendered...

Page 204: ...e panning in the Stitching Window Stitcher slows down SOLUTION You should reduce the size of the textures in the Preferences so that the graphic board will be less loaded If the live preview is displayed into the stitching window you should remove it by selecting Preferences Preview and uncheck the Display Live preview option Problem In the QTVR player the hotspots do not have the right geometry S...

Page 205: ...d or some distortion in your images Try recalibrating the images Problem I am trying to load a PSD file but I can only see a black image SOLUTION A PSD file contains several layers information and only the creator can understand all of it The PSD file should also have a composite image i e a flattened image of your PSD file inserted in the PSD file Stitcher uses the composite image and if it does ...

Page 206: ...add the RzTempFiles folder Now Spotlight will work on your entire disk except on this Stitcher temporary folder and the PSD render will work Stitching problems Problem I cannot stitch the final image into the cylindrical panorama SOLUTION If you cannot stitch one of the final images into a panorama cylinder to stitch it to the other images increase the focal length by pressing Shift This widens th...

Page 207: ...pe and quality of your graphics card images may take some time to redraw as you navigate in the Stitching Window and move and rotate images To improve redraw performance see Improving redraw performance on page 96 Problem I have black borders around my images SOLUTION Black borders appear in your images when you try to stitch your images taken with a lens that is not calibrated correctly In Stitch...

Page 208: ...film is exposed Focal lengths greater than 50mm create a more narrow angle of view focal lengths less than 50mm create a wider angle of view FOV Field of view GPU Graphics processing unit is a processor http www webopedia com TERM G GPU html located in your graphic board that frees the CPU from mathematically intensive tasks It accelerates the redraw of the stitching windows the generation of the ...

Page 209: ... respectively ready to be viewed in the QuickTime Player Rendering The process of creating a high resolution panorama from the photos you have stitched Roll Rotates the camera along the line of sight SGI Image file format Snapshot Projection that creates a flat map perpendicular to the center image Spherical Projection that creates a sphere and represents an entire 360 180º panorama in a single im...

Page 210: ...Chapter 3 User Guide 200 ...

Page 211: ...ons 130 blending application 57 blurred images during equalization 140 bookmarking go to viewpoint 25 100 the current viewpoint 25 100 C calibrating highly distorted images 116 camera importing data 84 orientation setting 100 parameters setting 81 position when shooting the panorama 50 profiles loading and saving 123 camera path 174 camera path defining 174 camera profile 123 Camera Response Curve...

Page 212: ...rojection 34 154 D deleting artifacts 129 hotspots 143 thumbnails from the Image Strip 93 detaching images 114 display HDR images 64 Display Grid setting the color of 138 setting the step 136 showing 138 displaying artifact polygons 132 hotspots 145 pivot points 99 distortion cancelling a high distortion calibration 117 of lenses 85 stitching images with 116 duplicating hotspots 143 polygons 143 E...

Page 213: ...spots changing the shape of 143 deleting 143 displaying 145 duplicating one or multiple 143 linking 144 loading 189 moving one or multiple 143 panorama conversion 146 rendering 189 saving 189 selecting one or multiple 142 I image information 95 resolution 82 Image Strip changing the color of 76 description 76 images adjusting the focal length of 117 adjusting transparency 63 deleting 115 detaching...

Page 214: ...ots 146 panorama conversion possibilities 186 panoramas centering 136 closing 120 converting 184 problems stitching cylindrical 196 realigning with the horizon 135 rendering 149 shooting 50 Parallax 198 parallax preventing 51 permanent image info 95 photographs overlapping 49 planning shots 45 recommended equipment 45 taking handheld shots 50 pivot point changing the position of 99 displaying 99 r...

Page 215: ...ntation 100 setting the camera parameters 81 setting the focal length 83 publishing a panorama 178 Pure Player exports 153 181 182 186 Q QTVR movie options 145 output options 155 viewpoint 189 Quick Preview 124 QuickTime scripting 172 QuickTime filename suffix requirements 153 output setup 167 R recent files opening 53 redoing the last action 67 Render 158 Render Preview 26 rendering changing the ...

Page 216: ... images in the Stitching Window 115 improving performance during 96 manual 110 performance improving 61 Stitching Window 19 aligning images in 97 centering images in 99 changing color of 62 description 72 focal length and 83 rotating images in 98 selecting images in 96 working in 96 T template creating html 183 templates opening 191 saving a project as 190 texture size changing 61 thumbnail image ...

Page 217: ...ng a panorama 121 fixing stitching problems 117 poor quality stitching 196 redrawing images 197 stitching images 196 U Undo Buffer 67 undoing the last action 67 unstack images 23 V viewing distorted images 86 VRML projection 155 W workflow overview 54 rendering 150 X XML 123 Z zenith preventing hole at 50 ...

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