Equirectangular (LatLong) Rotation and Compositing

[Alexander Mitchell]

Hi,

I am interested in being able to create a rotation in my equirectangular projection - like this example:

http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/3734273#index.html

I would like to be able to have control over the rotation amount- (so not just y=+1 sort of thing)- is this something doable in PTGui?

Further more- I am interested in compositing GreenScreen material into an equirectangular projection.  (so both images are equirectangular - flat).

Anyone have any ideas/ or thoughts?   I am a bit stumped on this.  Even if the solution isn't PTGui- PTGui will be part of my workflow for mapping multiple fisheye images into the said panorama.

Cheers,

Alex

[Erik Krause]

Am 13.05.2015 um 08:46 schrieb Alexander Mitchell:
> I am interested in being able to create a rotation in my equirectangular
> projection - like this example:
> http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/3734273#index.html
> I would like to be able to have control over the rotation amount- (so
> not just y=+1 sort of thing)- is this something doable in PTGui?

The animation is done using javascript on client side. You can't animate
in PTGui but of course you can rotate an equirectangular image to any
arbitrary angle. Play with Numerical Transform (the 123-button) in
panorama editor. Rotation like in the example is achieved by modifying
Pitch (and pressing Apply).

> Further more- I am interested in compositing GreenScreen material into
> an equirectangular projection. (so both images are equirectangular - flat).

You would need to convert the greenscreen to transparency in (f.e.)
photoshop. Then save as TIFF with transparency as alpha channel and
import into PTGui. Check individual lens parameters for those images and
set correct lens type etc. You can modify size by changing focal length
(on Image Parameters tab) and drag around images in panorama editor
using Edit Individual Images mode. Best use a ready stitched panorama as
background. Create as separate layers.

Read the FAQ: http://www.ptgui.com/support.html

If you face problems ask more specific questions here.

--
Erik Krause
http://www.erik-krause.de

[Alexander Mitchell]

Thanks Erik,

I have been able to write my own plugin to be able to do this for FCPX (which is what I am using right now for video editing).

Its able to rotate Lat/Long or CubicMaps in any manner - and spit out the rotated cubic map.  

As anyone that has done green-screen work knows- compositing is key- and being able to 'pan' in 360º space isn't natural.  

At this point the only commercially available package that can achieve this is Nuke, which is fantastic, but more geared to high end production houses.

Hopefully I will be able to work out a good workflow for the project using PTGui.

On a side note: I believe that cubic map may be better for project storage than Equirectangular- as cubic map doesn't do strange things to the poles.  Also possibly better for getting an idea of the panorama as well!

Cheers,

Alex 

[Erik Krause]

Am 15.05.2015 um 01:19 schrieb Alexander Mitchell:
> On a side note: I believe that cubic map may be better for project storage
> than Equirectangular- as cubic map doesn't do strange things to the poles.
> Also possibly better for getting an idea of the panorama as well!

Well, cubic in a single image wastes half of the pixels (and hence of
the file size if uncompressed). Editing is very complicated due to the
many seams and global sharpening etc. is almost impossible since this
would change the pixels near the seams making them visible. Even
resizing is dangerous, since interpolation might do weird things to the
seams as well.
With equirect there is only one seam inside the image and the poles are
stretched, which means that no information is lost.

--
Erik Krause