Hypermedia Production, Fall 1998
Stitching Panoramas with QuicktimeVR Authoring Studio

  1. Shoot between 8 and 24 images describing 360 degrees of arc. Be sure to keep the camera flat when you shoot. Move the camera only in rotation: leave the tripod in the same place for all shots. If you don't use a tripod, use a table or other flat, stable platform. Do not vary lens settings, f-stop, or focal length among shots -- if you have an automatic or autofocus camera, switch it to manual.

  2. Develop your photographs and scan them. 72 dpi resolution will probably do, especially if your camera is not of the highest quality. Do not exceed 300 dpi resolution. If you scan at a resolution higher than 72 dpi, re-size your images so that the maximum dimension is less than 650 pixels. This will keep file sizes reasonable.

  3. Save the scans as JPEGs. It is not necessary to add compression at this stage. If the total of your images (not individual image size!) exceeds 20 MB, you should reduce scanner resolution or image dimensions.

  4. Save your JPEG files to a Zip disk or other appropriate storage device. Give the files names containing a numbered sequence, e.g.: Image01, Image02, Image03... Be sure that your naming system corresponds to the sequence of your images.

  5. Launch QuicktimeVR Authoring Studio. This program is available on two machines: Hank in the Graphics Lab and Olive Oyl (the PowerMac 8600) in the Hypermedia Room. You may need to schedule lab time to use Hank. Please cooperate with your classmates. Remember that you may work on this assignment in pairs. You have been given the relevant chapter from the QTVR Authoring Studio reference manual. The manual contains a longer and more complicated version of the instructions you are reading here.

  6. From the File menu in the Authoring Studio, select New and on the submenu select Panorama Stitcher. Save your Stitcher file to some appropriate directory. Remember the location of this directory. All component files will end up there.

  7. Open the directory or disk that contains your source images. Select the images, either one by one or all at once, drag them over the QTVR Authoring Studio window, and release the mouse button. In a few seconds you will see representations of all your source images. If these images are not rightside-up, use the Rotate arrow tools (left side of screen) to correct them.

  8. Click on the Image Alignment button and fill in the number of degrees between each shot in your sequence (e.g., 36 degrees for a sequence of 10 images).

  9. Click on the triangular icon between the first and second images in your sequence. This will open the Pair Alignment window. In that window, find the size reading which in most cases will say 100%. To the left of this indicator are two icons showing stylized mountain ranges. They control display scale. The icon furthest to the left reduces scale. Click this icon until your scale is set to 50% (or 25% if your images are very large).

  10. You should see two translucent, overlapping images. You can drag either image to reposition it. Drag the image on the right down and to the right until you can separate it clearly from the image on the left. Find some feature in the righthand image that also appears in the lefthand image. Reposition the righthand image sothe two versions of this feature overlap as closely as possible. You may not be able to achieve a perfect match. Try to average out discrepancies. A certain amount of blurring is unavoidable; some if not all will be removed by the software. When you are ready for fine adjustments, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the righthand image one pixel at a time.

  11. Once the two images are properly positioned, click the button labeled Zero immediately above the image window. This tells QTVR to accept the current pair alignment. If you don't do this, QTVR will try to align your images based on its own readings. You won't like the results.

  12. Click the Next button in the lower lefthand portion of the window to proceed to the next image pair. Repeat the alignment step for all pairs (i.e., stop when you come back to Image01/Image02 again).

  13. When you have completed your last pair, click the OK button in the lower righthand corner of the Pair Alignment window. Now click the Stitch Pano button at the upper right of the main QTVR Authoring Studio window. The rest of the process is automatic, though it involves several steps and may take several minutes, depending on the number of images in your panorama, their size and resolution, and the speed of the machine. On a 200 MHz Mac, a 20-shot panorama using 640x480 images at 72 dpi takes between 5 and 10 minutes to stitch. Your times may vary considerably.

  14. Once the stitching is complete, your panorama will open in a Quicktime window. Fly around to check it out. Zoom out for the most complete view.

  15. Save all your files to your Zip disk or other removable. Note that QTVR creates several intermediate files -- a PICT file and a tile movie as well as a panorama. Only the third of these (the .pano file) is required to play back your panorama, but you will need the PICT file if you want to edit it. Save everything.