360 Panoramic Photography

[anthony cortez]

Hi all,

 

I started this new project which involves compositing in a new bridge design that spans over a 3 mile river. There were photos that were taken previously based on a pedestrian point of view. However, after trying to stitch the photos together and trying to do a camera match in Max, I realized that these photos were not taken properly with a tripod rig for nodal point rotation. So I will need to go back to the site and retake these photos soon, at least before the end of the month.

 

Anyone seen Eric Hanson's Digital Sets 4: 3d image-based terrain DVD from Gnomon? I'm planning on using this workflow for the project.

 

I understand you have to take a series of shots based on your camera's lens to generate the 360 panoramic. You can then take a DEM of the terrain and camera map the photo to the model.

 

So now it's about pulling together the right gear. My question(s) is to whover has taken this type of photography, What's the difference with using an 8mm lens as opposed to a mirrored ball? I know that the price difference is huge, but is the distorted image the same?

 

I'll probably have more questions later....

 

Thanks!

[chris erskine]

I've watched that dvd. I have a panoramic rig with a 10.5mm fisheye + nikon D70.

 

the mirror ball won't give you a full sphereical image. and it won't give you images that will look good for camera matching. though they will be good enough for lighting.

 

if you want to camera match into a high quality image you'll need to go the expenisve way. though i haven't taken it to this stage yet. though i'd like to.

[anthony cortez]

Thanks Chris,

 

I figured that was the use of the mirror ball option (lighting & reflections)...

 

I do need to use the 360 pano to recreate the scene in 3D. Here's a list of Hardware/Software I'm planning on getting:

 

Canon 350D

Sigma 8mm Lens

Kaidan Hot Shoe Bubble Level

Manfrotto Quick Release 3299 Base

Manfrotto 303SPH Pan-Head

Velbon QHD-61D Ball Head w/ Bubble Levels & Quick Release Base

Manfrotto 3021N Tripod

Manfrotto Anti Twist Plate

RealViz Stitcher Unlimited 5.5

 

Have you seen the other Gnomon DVD about spherical panoramics environments by Gregg Downing?

[chris erskine]

my setup is

D70 (though i did some HDR stuff with a D200 for a while)

10.5mm fisheye

manfrotto tripod (i think its the 550pro)

303sph head

338 (i think thats right) leveling base. ( i've got the screw one)

hot show bubble

 

I also made a grid that i could sit on a second tripod to find the nodal point. if your going to be using just the one camera and lens setup, and you want to be taking a lot of qtvr then i'd look into a different pano head that has the nodal point setup for you.

 

other than the 303sph is pretty good, though it takes a while to learn how to use it. and i wasn't getting good results until i got the hotshoe bubble level and a levelbase. which i got later due to the cost.

 

from watching the dvd's you use the spherical photo to project the texture onto the dem.

 

I'd like to hear how you go with this becouse i'd like to try the same thing.