QTVR - object movie of a virtual oak tree - the file size is about 5 mb so it might take some time to load. If you move the cursor inside the movie area, it will become a "hand". You can then click and drag to view the object from any direction. The tree was created in Maya with PaintFx and then converted to polygons to optimize render time. A camera was created with a "pan" and "tilt" node which was animated to rotate around the object in 15 degree increments per frame - it then tilts 15 degrees and does another 360 degree pan. Each row and column use 24 frames for a 360 degree view, so the total number of frames to create this object was 576 (24x24). Ideally, if more frames are used to photograph the object then the interection will be less choppy - For example, I could have animated the camera to rotate 10 degrees and use 36 frames to photograph each 360 degree view, but the total frames needed to create the object would then be 1296 (36x36). I rendered image sequence with Maya/MentalRay and then used VRWorks to create the QTVR object movie.
This was just a test to make sure the camera was animated correctly so it could be used as a reliable template for future experiments with animated objects. I used this technique to display some of the student 3d work at a Showcase we have each Spring in the Animation department at NYU. Rather than just watching 360 degree model rotations, people could examine the models interactively at a kiosk with a simple web menu interface. A few years ago, I actually created stereoscopic (interlaced and anaglyph) QTVR object movies for a website which was really interesting because the object appears to hover in front of the screen. |
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