Arial 360-degree panorama, visiting over holidays

[john_housser]

Hello,

Here's my first contribution to the Abaco community. I will be visiting Treasure Cay with my family over the holidays, from Dec 26-29th, staying at the hotel resort & marina.

In anticipation of our visit, I've been crawling the internet, browing photos, and spying on the island in Google Earth.

I look forward to my visit, and creating many more REAL panoramic photos of the island. I would love to hear any comments, questions, ideas for the photos.

Looking forward to joining everyone down there for a few days over the break.

John

[Banana Bender]

Wow! That is fantastic, well done! How you do dat? It's magic, eh?
Hope that you enjoy your visit, to TC and please tell me how to get rid of that nasty big cloud that is right over my house here...............in Google Earth.. I only have the free version.
Tank, Mon!

[john_housser]

Hi Banana Bender, thanks for the comments.

I created the photo by taking multiple screen shots from Google Earth, and stitching them together with special photographic stitching software. I created the sky using a terrain generating program called Terragen.

There is an excellent tutorial online that a researcher at the University College London has prepared and posted online. I would love to share the tutorial with you, but I will have to wait to hear back from the moderators as to whether I can post this link or not, this forum's policy seems to be somewhat restrictive about links to external sites so I will wait to hear back from them first.

As for the cloud over your place, not much I can do about that! Not sure how often they update their information for the area.

All the best,
John

[Banana Bender]

Thank you, too much, I'm sure that your expertize could be utilized by realtors/ potential developers and just plain nosy folks, like me......

[john_housser]

There are definitely a lot of people out there who could benefit from VR photography, and a lot of people who overestimate the complexity of creating things like this.

I would love to share more information about creating panoramic photos, the software and tutorials that exist today make it very accessible for anyone to create their own images. I personally find it a great way to take snapshots while on holiday, where instead of just a brief window into a location I can share with people the complete environment.

If you see me while we're down give me a shout and I'll give you a demonstration!

John

[Moderator117]

Website URL was to a site that solicited contract services. That makes it a commercial post. Welcome to repost picture URL.

[Motuiti]

Every post complements Johns panoramic photo. Yes I see no link to it.
Curious bout dat.

John, you mention "I created the photo by taking multiple screen shots from Google Earth, and stitching them together with special photographic stitching software."

Was it anything like this http://www.motuiti.com/AbacoSatelliteView.html

Please sent me a link, you've got my curiosity up

Sandy

[john_housser]

Hi Motuiti and others.

I originally posted the link, and it was removed by moderators, because another page on another section on my web site mentions that I offer to share my services with others. I am currently discussing the issue with the moderators and hope to be able to share the photo with you in the future.

The image you link to is something I have done also, stitched a large flat high resolution image, but this is something different. I have created a 3D virtual reality environment where you are floating 100m above the island, and can interact with the photo to look all around you, as well as up and down. I will private message you the link, and anyone else who is interested is welcome to private message me and I will send you the link. There are also online tutorials as to how you can create these sorts of images yourself, for free, and very easily, that I hope to be able to post links to in the future.

John

[john_housser]

Well we've worked it out with the moderators, so here's the links to the images:

I recently found a tutorial for creating panoramic photos out of Google Earth, so I thought I'd try it out for myself. Here is a panorama created with snapshot images out of Google Earth, and a sky I created myself using a 3D graphics program called Terragen:
http://housser.ca/?content=view_vr&id=154

The tutorial that gave me the idea is online at:
http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/200...rama-from.html (http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-to-create-aerial-panorama-from.html)

I have since been in touch with Andy, the creator of the tutorial, and he has featured the image I created as well as some info about the island in a recent online post he made on his blog here:
http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/200...o-bahamas.html (http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2006/12/100m-above-treasure-cay-abaco-bahamas.html)

And Terragen is the terrain program I used to generate the sky, and you can download it for free at:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/

If you're interested in any of the techniques, programs, or just have any questions about making panoramas please let me know, I love to help people learn how to do this themselves. It's easier than you think, and a great way to take snapshots!

I look forward to my visit, and creating many more REAL panoramic photos of the island. I would love to hear any comments, questions, ideas for the photos.

Looking forward to joining everyone down there for a few days over the break. If you see me down there grab me and I'll give you a demonstration!

Happy Holidays,

John