Flash in Skins

[Hopki]

Hi
I thought I would start a new thread concerning this as it seems to be a skin thing.
Following on from Erik’s fantastic work with .swf files embedded in pano’s I have made an adjustment to one of my old panos.
Click on the information button and you will now see a slide show as well as the info.
How cool is that!

Click here to open.

Hopki

[erik leeman]

Very nice!

But I see you really need a non-rotating nadir image stuck to those floors!
I just knew there was a good use for them somewhere!
: D

(tiny detail: the 'Close' button doesn't work with my Firefox browser)

Cheers!

Erik

[smooth]

But I see you really need a non-rotating nadir image stuck to those floors!
I just knew there was a good use for them somewhere!
: D

They are a place to advertise, or in Hopki's case a way to hide his tripod .
Speaking of which, what is that mess you are using Hopki? Looks like you have your panohead on top of a three way head? Very big and ugly!

Regards, Smooth

[Hopki]

Speaking of which, what is that mess you are using Hopki? Looks like you have your panohead on top of a three way head? Very big and ugly!
Regards, Smooth

Hi Smooth
Quite right, this is one of the very first set of pictures I took.
I had never made a panorama or even taken a good photo before this, back in November 2007.

I did not know what gear I needed and only after a lot of trial and error I finally started to get it right, but even now I am still trying to get my pictures sharper, spotted a thread on this so now I output from PT GUI a 8000 x 4000 and use Pano2QTVR to convert to cubes, from there over to Pano 2VR and the skin editor, face size 2000 px, the pictures seem to be much sharper then just putting the 8000 x 4000 straight into Pano 2VR.

Making Panos started after I had an accident and ended up with my right leg amputated above the knee back in 2004. I needed to get my teeth into something challenging, and boy did I pick a subject.

Before all this I use to teach engineering and colour theory in the office printing trade, made my own training CD-ROMs hence being able to package the panos in applications for downloads, see my website for more info.

Now I use a ball head and a Nodal Ninja 3 I also use the “tilt the camera up a bit” technique using a sigma 8mm fisheye, after four shots the top is already in, I then take a floor shot, no more tripods for me.

I am looking at photography courses to try and improve, but hay, I am not that far behind some of the others doing Panos.

I don’t really get to much work but the R&D keeps me busy

Hopki

[smooth]

Hello Hopki,

You made very good progress in a very short time.
Yes, you sure know how to pick something to learn!

Luckily for you this world had progressed quite a fair bit before you joined us.
It wasn't that long ago we all hand coded with PTViewer (Java) with our huge 3000x1500 images from our Coolpix cameras and stitched without auto blenders.
We then displayed them in HUGE 400 - maybe 500 pixel viewer window. Flash? LOL that wasn't even on the pano horizon.

I only noticed your "ugly" set up when one time one of your tripod caps failed to load.

Regards, Smooth

[Hopki]

Had a little play with some flash.

Check out the Hopki Media Logo top right side. I made it fade out but its still active. If I use the Quit FS Command the Pano disapears as well.

Click Here.

[erik leeman]

Ehhh, sorry Martin (is it?), I can't find your logo anywhere.
Did you remove it already?

Erik

[Hopki]

Hi Erik
Just had a look, its there, top right hand side.
It plays a short animation then disappears.
Regards Martin aka Hopki

[erik leeman]

Ahhh, now I saw it! Clever!
I clicked on the link to open in a new tab, and didn't see the pano load and start, that's why I missed it : )

Erik

[Hopki]

What is interesting, the slide show in the information box and CPU usage?
When the box is hidden the CPU usage goes down and when visible goes up. I would have thought that it would have been the same as it’s there but just hidden. Good though.

What would be really cool is if I could put a command in the external swf to quit after it has played. So I could have a big logo and when played and ends, disappear so the area is not active and the mouse can rotate the pano.
Or even the external swf file having a way of performing one of Pano2VR actions, “Hide Element”.

Flash buttons with roll over effects work well. I had a skull button I made for a website for a local band, on mouse over the eyes turn yellow and the jaw moves up and down and on click eyes turn red and the jaw opens.

Sounds from an external swf echo and are not that good in the pano, I was trying to make sound effects on buttons and hotspots, mouse over, mouse click etc.

Any of you clever people got any ideas ?

Hopki