360° Panoramic Painting: Case Study

http://www.yogjoshi.com/360-panoramic-painting/

Notes:

• Everything painted in Photoshop, as a flat image.
• Panopainter, program used to create 360 image, works with PSD files. Each time Photoshop file saves it will update in Panopainter, means you can keep workflow open in 3D to constantly check image is working.

Artist Example (Flat image, painted in Photoshop):

Artist Example (Using a grid, found on Panopainter, as guide):

Grid used (below) set layer to multiply:

Notes (Cont.):

• To make left and right edges mesh together use offset (filter>other>offset)
• "For the horizontal value, enter half the size of the width. In this case the width of my painting was 4096 pixels, so half the value would be 2048."
• Offset has to be applied individually to all layers

My attempt:

Sketched out a simple desert environment to test out this technique of panoramic painting myself, I didn't want to waste time doing a complex drawing for a test in case this didn't work out. I used the program panopainter above. Luckily you can have a document open in panopainter and photoshop at the same time so you can draw in photoshop and it will update in real time in panopainter.

To get the drawing to loop continuously without a seam, I used the offset too in Photoshop to ensure the edges met up:

You have to apply this offset to all the layers for it to work, as you can see, you end up with the middle of the painting so you can work on makng the image seamless. When you are finished you can remove the offset to return the drawing to its normal state - but now the edges will match up.

See Below:

When the image was completed, I exported it as an image file and used a program called Exiftool to change the file types so it will show up as a panoramic file when uploaded on facebook - a platform which supports 360 degree images.

For the image to be supported as a panoramic photograph on facebook it must have the following information:

Make: RICOH
Model: RICOH THETA S
Projection Type: equirectangular

This is the 360 image uploaded to facebook:

I do think this works really well. It has the possibility for making concepts clearer as the image can be viewed in the round. It's really quite immersive and lets the viewer feel like they are inside the image, its also quite fun being able to turn it around and look at an image from different perspectives. The experience being interactive is novel as the viewer feels more involved with the world in the artwork.