Virtual House Tour

[Morox]

It's been mentioned already, but a Tokina and a steadicam is key. I actually own a business revolving around video tours of homes. I was recently flown out to Mexico to shoot a tour of a medical facility. Depending where you live, it can be GREAT business.

[HVXguy]

I can't believe that agents still prefer the old quicktime VR 360 panoramas to a well produced walkthrough with music. It is so 1995. The whole point was that it didn't require much bandwidth, but it was always an archaic experience to the viewer and horribly distorted. With ubiquitous YouTube access, even on phones, I would think that a straight up walk through video/slide show would be the preferred method now.

Yes the old 1995 QT VR did suck.
These are not your fathers panoramas.
Most of the panorama work I do is for larger entities.
http://izonemedia.com/360.html
http://wwww.izonemedia.com/PANO_DEMO...ANO/zeiss.html

Most real estate agents are cheap and most of them
take their own photos.

But one of my biggest clients now prefer these types of shows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLLqqc01mw0&feature=plcp

[Morox]

Yes the old 1995 QT VR did suck.
These are not your fathers panoramas.
Most of the panorama work I do is for larger entities.
http://izonemedia.com/360.html
http://wwww.izonemedia.com/PANO_DEMO...ANO/zeiss.html

Most real estate agents are cheap and most of them
take their own photos.

But one of my biggest clients now prefer these types of shows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLLqqc01mw0&feature=plcp

Real estate agents are definite penny pinchers. The best success is to contact home builders. They build a home and market it. What's the best way besides a video tour? This is where my success lies.

[HVXguy]

Real estate agents are definite penny pinchers. The best success is to contact home builders. They build a home and market it. What's the best way besides a video tour? This is where my success lies.

Yes, I do a lot of work for apartment complex's. The marketing in that industry is fierce.
We usually do photos, videos and 360 tours....

[DDirector]

Here is my workflow:

I use Photo Matrix Pro
http://www.hdrsoft.com/
or HDR Efex Pro 2
http://www.niksoftware.com/hdrefexpr...o%2Fmain.shtml
to process the HDR….

With my 7 processed photos (we don't use the down shot yet)
I use PT Gui to stitch the photos into a panorama.
http://www.ptgui.com/

Now with my HDR Panorama I use Pano2VR
http://gardengnomesoftware.com/pano2vr.php
to extract the bottom cube and then use Photoshop to
blend that and my bottom photo I shot.
Yes this is hard and very painstaking……

Then with the Panorama complete I use Pano2vr again to make 6 cube faces.

I then turn to Flash Panorama Player to create the web tour.
http://flashpanoramas.com/player/

However - I use XML programming to create custom tours….

krpano Panorama Viewer
http://krpano.com/
is another panorama player you can look at.

Okay, So I am wondering about the software, if this is all correct.

For HDR, I will try to see if I can get HDR Efex Pro 2.
Then to stitch the HDR images, I will should use PT Gui.

I don't need to extract the bottom of the panorama. I wont shoot vertically down. only up. So there will be a small spot you wont see. Which is fine.

So, after I stitch the photos using PT Gui, I need to create a video?

To create the web tour, I should use one of these?:
-Pano2VR
-Flash Panorama Player
-krpano Panorama Viewer

Looking at the descriptions of them, they all seem to do the same thing. Make a video of the panorama picture.
Which would be the best to use then?

So, after i created the video (probably a flash?), now how do I put it up on the website as a virtual tour?

[HVXguy]

You can create cube faces in PT Gui go to TOOLS/Convert to QTVR /Cubic

You can only create a one pano web page using PT Gui using TOOLS/Publish to Website - but their method is heavy on memory usage
and only having the ability to show one pano - is pretty much useless.

Here is a comparision -
This is one pano using PT Gui - Publish to Website
http://izonemedia.com/ptgui_test/CLUB_ROOM_FINAL.htm

Here I am using Flash Panorama Player and XML programming.
I am working on an iPad/IPhone version of this tour now.
http://izonemedia.com/PANO_DEMO/THE_..._PANO/ebv.html

[DDirector]

Here I am using Flash Panorama Player and XML programming.
I am working on an iPad/IPhone version of this tour now.
http://izonemedia.com/PANO_DEMO/THE_..._PANO/ebv.html

Yeah, thats basically what I want. So, I should use the Flash Panorama Player to make it a flash video.
So, say I am the realtor and I want to upload this virtual tour panorama onto my website. How do I do that upload it? Do I need to access the websites codes?

[austinmartifilms]

I can't believe that agents still prefer the old quicktime VR 360 panoramas to a well produced walkthrough with music. It is so 1995. The whole point was that it didn't require much bandwidth, but it was always an archaic experience to the viewer and horribly distorted. With ubiquitous YouTube access, even on phones, I would think that a straight up walk through video/slide show would be the preferred method now.

This is precisely what I am doing for my job.

[DDirector]

This is precisely what I am doing for my job.

I must say, that is a LOT simpler than the virtual tour panorama stuff. However, MAYBE its just this video - I havent even seen other videos yet, but for me, I got lost a few times. I was confused about the location, and it didnt really show most of the room at times.
The jump cuts to fast forward movement was okay at times, but sometimes it confused me.

Is that how all walk through videos would be done?

I have not done the virtual tour for the realtor. Because of last minute planning, he nor I wanted to go with this. Especially since it would be super rushed and my first time at it. Id rather practice on my own house, get it right, then start doing them.
But, Id rather do a walk through, IF it can be done very well.