Process

Filming of the video

Filming the area that I needed for my 360 video allowed me to use 360 camera that filmed the front 180 degrees and the rear 180 degrees separately but at the same time. This meant that when the footage to imported into After Effects, the two video streams can be pieced together to make the 360 degree video.

Importing the video and stitching

After filming, I imported the footage into After Effects and “stitched” the 2 halves together. Stitching is where you have 2 videos of 180 degrees and to piece them together there has to be a very subtle stitching line where it is possible to see the separation of the 2 videos. This is usually done by lining up the stitch with an unimportant area within the video and/or along a natural, real life line (such as a notice board on the wall.

Pasting the designs

Next, I transferred the Photoshop designs from the previous semester and brief. Due to the original files being 2 dimensional designs, I had to apply a 3D effect to them. This allowed me to be able to scale and move as I would have been able to normally but this also includes along the Z axis. Usually when an image is moved around, it is just being moved around on the X and Y axis. The Z axis, however, allows the user to give an item depth by moving it backwards within the video.

Orientation

Getting the orientation was tricky, I had to make sure that the designs looked as realistic as possible within the environment. The first design that I placed was the University of Worcester design. This turned out to be the easiest design to move around and get me used to moving elements in 3 dimensions because I was able to match up the corners of the design to the corners of the window.

Cutouts

To make the designs look as realistic as possible, I needed to cutout the parts of the banister and window that would not have the designs on. To do this, I used masking. Masking is done by using the pen tool to map out a shape and then I can apply a different effect for what I want the mask to do. In this situation, I used the subtract feature as I drew around the areas that were not glass because having the design on surfaces that were not transparent wouldn’t be necessary because those areas wouldn’t have projected the design onto the wall, either way. I also lowered the opacity on the designs, to give the illusion that they were applied to a window or glass but were still letting light in.

Duplicating and enlarging

For the projection effect, I duplicated the designs and moved them along the X axis. Due to the 3 dimensional aspect, this meant that the design ended up flipping and being the “correct” way round on the wall. It was key that I duplicated the exact layer that I had been working on, masks and all. This is because any parts that light couldn’t get through would cause a shadow on the projection. I then enlarged the projection as the projection would be bigger that the transfer. Creating this video allowed me to think in a realistic way, not just in a design aspect because when a light source shines through an opaque item or design, the projection is larger than the original. After lowering the opacity again on the projection, I then made sure that they complied with the structure of the wall as there are small pillars and indents that would make the projection fall differently.

Optical illusions attempt

My optical illusion design was originally to be made within the 360 video but, although it was possible to place, the illusion would not have been seen so it would have just looked like 2D images pasted in the environment. The reason that this design didn’t work in 360 degree videos is because, to fully see the illusion, the user needs to stand in front of the design to be able to see what it says and then step to the side to see how much of the design can no longer be read and how it would just look like patterns and lines. This is not possible in a stationary format, such as 360 degree video.

How to make the optical illusion work

Had we been making a movable virtual reality experience and not a stationary video, the optical illusion would have worked. A virtual reality experience can range from a simple video, to a full game. The virtual reality experience that would work with this optical illusion would be the type where the user can walk around a little bit, within a small area as that would allow for the user to see the words on the wall and window and then take a step to the left or right and then be unable to read the words but see the pieces of them.