Creating Panoramic Images with AgileVR - Page 3

Taking the Picture

There are two main parts to every agileVR:

First, you need a picture.
I've found that the quickest, easiest way to make the image that you'll need is with a good digital camera. With this type of camera, you won't have to worry about developing film, which can quickly become quite expensive. You don't need the high priced, professional quality model to get good pictures. Any fairly new megapixel camera will do.

Once you've got a decent camera, get a tripod. You'll be taking somewhere between 12 and 20 shots for each VR that you do. No matter how steady you think your hands are, there isn't a person on earth that can make his 20th picture line up vertically with his first without a little help. As with the camera, if you don't have a tripod already, don't spend a lot on one. Just find one that is compatible with your camera (most will be) and make sure that you can lock the tilt mechanism so that the camera can't tip forward and back.

Once you've got a series of pictures, you can use one of many 360° photo-stitching programs out there to turn them into one. My favorite is Ulead Cool 360, but you can use whichever one you like. Just make sure to balance the colors between each shot and especially between the first and last shots. Once you're done stitching, export your image as a lossless bitmap or PNG. Flash compresses images when it exports and if your image has already been compressed, the final product will look terrible (kind of like the first VR I ever did).