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Written by Eric Rougier Wednesday 28 July
The stars in the light (it's hard make a good picture ! Fishs are always moving, moving...) The mini How-To for the panorama (softwares, bla bla, etc)
The little story (with my so perfect english)
I was dreaming to make a 360/180° panorama in an aquarium. I don't remember where and who but someone did it before (Thanks to Mael, the forgoten link is: http://japanos.xii.jp/qtvr300/full_VR/goldfish/goldfish01.html). The story was simple: a fish tank, two fish, a cat looking the fish. After a lot of tests and explanation with my cat he didn't want to help me for this pano (sad!). The next idea was… just me, looking the fish.
A waterproof camera is a bit expensive just for one panorama. And it was difficult to explain to my daughter why her father was putting a camera, a pano head and a lot of strange things in the water with her fish, in her aquarium. Well, the final project is an empty 360/180° VR and a 3D aquarium and two 3D fish.
What ? Hard and Software
- A camera: Nikon D90 / D700
- A fish eye: Nikon 10.5mm
- A pano head: 360Precision Adjuste
- A very, very small "homemade tripod" to use the pano head on the table
- PTGUI to stitch the panorama and the Cinema 4D output
- A 3D software ? ...my ex- 3D softwares in the UN*X, MS-DOS & Windows worlds was POV, 3DS (not Max), Softimage and Maya. A Mac OS X friend told me: Cinema 4D is the best. Why not. (I have found a lot of informations there: http://frenchcinema4d.fr. Thanks to the forum people !)
- a cat
- and Photoshop
1 - Taking pictures for the empty panorama
Alone it's easy if you have three hands...or an IR remote control.
2 - Stitching pictures with PTGUI
The most easy part.
3 - Full panorama rendering
'look stupid and a big nose...I know :-)
4 - Creating a 3D aquarium with Cinema 4D
It's an easy to use software and a lot of textures and models are available on the net.
5 - Integrating in the real world
scale, level... or something like that :-)
6 - Mapping the 360x180° panorama in Cinema 4D
I use the "sky sphere". I don't know if an other solution is better.
7 - Making a render and stitcking in PTGUI
Well the 3D fish are... ugly. The next idea was to take pictures of my daugther's fish. They have a more real look. (Is it possible to output an equirectangular image from Cinema 4D ?)
8 - Taking pictures of Flower and Flow (the two fish)
You can't imagine how taking fish pictures is hard and boring. They are still moving, moving ! Difficult to have a sharp picture : 500 / f11 or less. Perhaps one or two hours in the freezer before can be a good idea to stop them. Someone ?
No ?
9 - Real fishs are better than 3D fish
It's better, isn't it ?! realistic
10 -Last adjustements in Cinema 4D
Lights, shadows, stones, bla bla bla. I forget a small Eiffel tower in the aquarium bottom ! next time
11 - Et voilà !
It's not perfect but it's funny, I made it myself-with-my-little-hands and it's a good way/test to learn a cool new software : Cinema 4D. You can see the final spherical image here (with the outstanding moving bubbles!)
I hope this mini How-To will help you for something.
Have fun !
Special thanks for : the frenchcinema4d.fr forum, Klaus from KRpano, not the cat.
