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The views are still from the fixed spots the camera sat at. So apart from the stitching for panning, there is no 3D and no slight side movement to see "around" something. You are still looking at fixed images, just like in a photo spread.
"Not quite there?" Perhaps it's not at the pinnacle Yet, but this is already Light Years ahead of where we are - you had might as well be telling me the Kadee #5 is "Great, but not quite there," while still using the Mantua loop or the X2F as the status quo!!
As for the "3D," my eyes do the correction themselves, thanks to years of looking as 2D images of 3D subjects, I don't need the 10% extra 3D provides...no, I think the hobby press has significant ground to cover before your proposed pinnacle is even considered.
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Tue, 2013-02-12 12:46 —
joefTo get in the door with pano-camera accessories starts about $500 and can go to $5000 quickly if you want a more automated result. Then the software to assemble a virtual tour starts at about $300 and also can go up to $2000 in short order.
Doing this kind of photography takes specialized skill and equipment, so we would have to fly in our staff to do the layout tour media work - there's another $1000 or more, along with many days out of the office not producing the next magazine.
A less gee-whiz approach would be to position the camera in a half-dozen strategic locations in the layout room and simply rotate the camera on the tripod to get a panoramic sequence. Then on the layout plan, you could click a special panoramic sequence icon and you could display the panoramic sequence from that spot.
This camera and software are intended to provide close to a full 360 view for real estate selling purposes. I don't think anyone would care that much to look at the layout room ceiling or floor - so just a simple table-level 360 around the room is sufficient and a lot cheaper.
I'm hesitant to get all worked up about creating a total virtual tour because then mere mortals won't want us to visit their layout. and mere mortals can't shoot the layout media.
But this does serve as a good reminder to get more panoramic views into our layout tours. We've done a few of those in the past, and they're not that hard to do - just have to remember to do them.
That said, keep in mind this isn't so much a layout tour format as it is a layout room presentation format. I say that because this is way overkill for layouts under 200 sq feet in size.
Imagine a panoramic view of a 4x8 layout (stationary camera, move the 4x8 past you - more a look at the room containing the 4x8, not that interesting and not what many would even want). Pretty silly. Better is just a simple video walkaround, with no special equipment needed. Rotating the 4x8 ala 3D-click-n-spin style would be cool, but to do that you either need full 360 access around the layout or you need the ability to put the layout onto a large rotating table so you can shoot the images. Cool, but generally next to impossible to shoot.
So the challenge is there to provide more walk around and (for larger layouts) some room panoramas. But again, we have a hard enough time just getting people to submit layout articles using text and a few still camera photos. Raise the bar too high and you can forget about seeing much of anything around layout tours in the magazine.
Yes, Joe, its does have a good Gee-Whiz Factor, just like "Click and Spin" has a good Gee-Whiz factor - indeed, I thought that was one of the opening premise of MRH: to explore all those modern Gee Whiiz factors the "print" competition seems reluctant to develop.
What I am hearing you say is, "In order to model this railroad right, we have to have top of the line brass, which is too expensive, so we can't or shouldn't model it." Obviously we want the Cadillac, but let's face the truth: a Ford or a Honda will do just fine while we save up Towards that Cadillac! SO perhaps the first couple iterations are "low quality," but the more we do it, the better we'll get at doing it! And I say we, because the Process itself will be the same regardless of who is running the camera, and there are a number of people here who are Already capable of running the camera to do this sort of thing themselves!
We gotta develop the process!
Video is a Suitable Substitute? Are you kidding? I Hate Video - for one, I have to wait for the video to load, and then it takes ten minutes for me to see the railroad and I only see it as someone else intended me to see it. I want to see these layouts AS THEY ARE, As they Appear! yes, I want to see the floor, the ceiling, the walls - maybe even a couple areas where I can see an important detail under the benchwork by navigating to that space?
Yes, maybe a bunch of the mere mortals will not want to share their railroad, but then not every layout tour would need to do this. Further, if we saw more layouts where significant parts aren't yet built, maybe that will get more people sharing their layouts earlier on as opposed to waiting until the layout is "done" before showing it off. Even Google suggests people clean up their spaces a bit [but it's only a suggestion] before the cameras go through - did you notice there's a clerk redoing a Display Right in the Middle of the Google Maps Presentation?? It doesn't have to be THAT "Polish Perfect" to be effective!
Mere mortals take the pictures that appear in MRH - though perhaps you have weeded out the mere mortals? Either way, If something like this is to ever work, it will be by the work of mere mortals taking the effort to go forth and creating the media.
There is no layout that would NOT benefit from this approach - even a "small" layout of 200 square feet would look GREAT with this sort of tour attached to it - one where you or I could pan over the layout at our own rate, looking as we wish to see it, zooming in as far as the picture resolution will allow - yes, if we "turned around," on such a layout we'd be staring off into space or at a white wall where nothing exists, but theres no reason to cut off the nose in spite of the face...move the camera around the layout, stitch the pictures together, click and spin the layout!
Walk through the Trainworld store again, and imagine that is Tom Patterson's layout, or Rob Spangler's layout, or Jack Burgess's layout. Perhaps it is your own layout, or Charlie's layout! Every one of these massive complex layouts would benefit from this sort of tour!
Step one, we list out the equipment, step two, those who can do it, do it, step three, we figure out the software, individually or collectively: end result, you have layout tours, regardless of quality, because NOBODY ELSE DOES THIS! By the time everybody else does do it, well, while they are developing their own process, you'd be in the refinement stages!
The technology is not That high in the sky - it's just a matter of spreading information - and we haven't had a lot of practice - and as we do it more, we'll all get better at doing it. If it ultimately leads to MRH taking on a couple regional hitmen who are ultimately skilled through repetition and practice [an hour to shoot the pictures, a couple hours stitching it together with software], well, my understanding is that this is how the larger magazines operate any ways, they have staff who cover regions.
Anyhow...I for one need a better tripod!
