Making Scenes in QuickTimeVR Authoring Studio

If you created your panorama in QTVRAS originally, proceed to Part II.

1.1 Find the .jpg (JPEG) file you created when you built your panorama for Assignment 1. Open it in Adobe Photoshop. This may involve moving to one of the Macintoshes in the Graphics Lab. When your JPEG file is open, go to the Image menu and select Image Size. Change the image size until both height and width are evenly divisible by 4. To get the numbers to come out, you may need to un-check the Preserve Proportions option. Or you could set the width to some workable number, then use Canvas Size under the Image menu to trim a few pixels off the height. When you have resized your image so that both dimensions are divisible by 4, save the image under a new name (for example, panToScene.jpg) and be sure this file is saved to your Zip disk. Do not save as anything other than JPEG.

1.2 Transfer your file to one of the Macintoshes in the Hypermedia Room. (All but the iMac have Zip drives; you may move files to the iMac via the Calvin file server.) Create a directory on the main drive or the desktop under your last name. Copy your edited JPEG file (panToScene.jpg) into this directory.

1.3 Launch QuickTimeVR Authoring Studio (hereafter QTVRAS). It should be an option on the Apple menu. On the New menu find Panorama Maker. An active window will open. Drag into that window your JPEG file. If your JPEG is rotated (taller than it is wide), use the rotation tools to correct. Be sure you have your image rightside up. Click the Make Pano button.

1.4 Close the pano and Panorama Maker windows. Do not quit QTVRAS.

Part II: Making a Scene with QTVRAS

2.1 If you're beginning at this point, launch QTVRAS. If you're continuing from Part I, you already have the program active. Go to the New menu again and select Scene Maker.

2.2 Find the .pano file in your directory. (If you began with Part II, set up a directory containing all the files you created for Assignment 1.) Drag your .pano file into the active Scene Maker window. A new icon should appear: a cylinder inside a thickly bordered circle. This is your panorama node.

2.3 Double-click on the new icon to launch your pano movie. Fly around in the movie and identify at least 5 features or locations that will serve as hot spots or link cues. When each spot is in the center of the window, write down the value that appears in the pan window in the upper right portion of the interface. Save these pan readings -- you'll need them in a later step. When you've located at least 5 hot spots, close the pano window.

2.4 Find the Create Nodes section of the Scene Maker window. Click on the URL button (planet Earth). Click once in a blank section of the active window. A new icon should appear with the name Untitled. Click on the title portion of the icon to rename it. The name could be anything, such as location01 for instance. Click again in a blank portion of the active window to lock in the name change.

2.5 Double-click directly on the earth icon. The URL entry box should appear. Enter yourLastName01.html as the value here (substituting your actual last name, of course). Click OK.

2.6 Repeat Step 2.5 until you have created at least 5 URL nodes.

2.7 Click ONCE on the panorama node (the cylinder icon). Move to the Set Links tool and click once there. Drag from your panorama node to one of your URL nodes; then click in a blank portion of the active window.

2.8 Repeat Step 2.7 until you have set up at least 5 links.

2.9 Click once on your panorama node (cylinder icon). Go to the Scene menu and select Edit Hot Spots. Two new windows will open.

2.10 In the image window, scroll until you can see one of the features or regions you selected as a hot spot.

2.11 Move your cursor to the Hot Spot Editor window. Click on the opaque rectangle tool -- the third tool from the left. Move into the pano window and drag to position a translucent rectangle over the feature or region you selected as a hot spot. If you wish to undo this step, select Undo from the Edit menu or hit the Delete key.

2.12 Click on the next location listed in the Hot Spot Editor window and then repeat Step 2.11. Continue until you have defined at least one hot spot for each URL you created in Step 2.6. (You may map more than one hot spot to a single URL.)

2.13 Close the pano window, which will close the Hot Spot Editor window as well. SAVE YOUR WORK AT THIS POINT. (In fact you should have saved several times already.)

2.14 Click the Make Scene button. When the scene has been created, fly around the panorama and test for the presence of hot spots by checking for cursor changes as you mouse over relevant areas.

2.15 Close the Scene Maker window, save changes to your Scene file, and quit QTVRAS. Copy all files to your Zip disk. On your Zip, duplicate the .scene file (command-D, or Copy and then Paste from the Edit menu). Rename the copied file with the extension .mov.

Part III: Deploying Your Files in HTML

3.1 On the computer of your choice (you may switch back to Windows if you like), open some text editor such as HomeSite or BBEdit. Create a series of Web pages based on the TEMPLATE FILE given in Assignment 1.

3.2 Create at least five pages (one for each of your hot spots) based on the template file. Name each page so that it corresponds with one of the URL values you set up in Steps 2.5 and 2.6. You may want to create an index.html page as well.

3.3 Modify the template file so that it refers to the .mov file you created in Step 2.15. For each successive page, set the PAN= attribute to one of the pan values you recorded in Step 2.3. If you wish to include an index page, set its pan value to 0.

3.4 Launch a Web browser equipped with the Apple QuickTime plugin. If you don't have the plugin, go to http://www.apple.come/quicktime, download and install. (All computers in the Hypermedia Room already have the plugin.) Navigate to one of the pages you created in Steps 3.2 and 3.3. You may open the files locally. In each case you should see a Web page containing your QTVR movie and some text. The entry point for your movie should correspond to a mapped hot spot. Fly through the pano until you come to another hot spot. Click on it and you should be transported to the corresponding page.

3.5 To submit the assignment, use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to move all your .html files and your scene movie (Step 2.15) to cow.ubalt.edu. (See the FTP instructions for details.)