Making a Videorama (360 video)

[Ghanadian]

I'm trying to make a homemade 360 degree theater and need some help with the video editing side of things.

I want to end up with a single video with a resolution of 8160 X 768. In order to get there I want to stitch video from 4 different cameras together so theoretically each video could be 2040 X 768.

To make this happen I think I need a software that will allow me to
1. set the output ratio I want
2. Stitch videos together (i.e. I effectively want 4 different videos playing at the same time)

I'm very new to video editing and I'm not sure how best to make this happen. Any recommendations on software/techniques would be greatly appreciated.

[Ghanadian]

I should also mention, I have access to both Windows and OS X based computers if that makes a difference

[TreeTops]

And how are you going to display that 360 degree video?

[Cornucopia]

What's your budget?
What's your timeline?
What's the audience/how is it intended to work on playback?
What's your current equipment (recording/editing/playback)?
What's the framerate?
How long is the video?

Why the magic number 8160x768 or 2040x768? Both of these numbers are NON-STANDARD, making things much more difficult. Anything over 1920x1080 (in either dimension) is going to require MAJOR investment, as most consumer/prosumer (read inexpensive) methods top out at that number and anything above is $$$.

...MORE INFO PLEASE!

Scott

[Ghanadian]

Let me try and address some of the questions that were posed

@ TreeTops
1. We'll be displaying the video via a series of projectors running off 1 computer. I have 2 Metrox boxes, each allows me to split my DVI or VGA from my computer into 3 outputs. So it will probably be some sort of 6 projector setup.

@Cornucopia
1. Budget: Trying to do this as cheap as possible. If I need to spend a couple hundred (i.e. $200) on software that would be doable
2. Timeline: hoping for this to happen within the next 4 weeks
3. Audience: It's for a function at work. The idea is to give some visitors a '360' tour of the city. We would take footage from various parts of the city and put it all together. The physical layout would be to have the screens circluing around the outer part of the room.
4. Recording: A couple flip cameras, some cellphones... nothing fancy
Editing: nothing at the moment. I've been trying to find software that will help me get the end result I'm looking for. I just downloaded AVS Video Editor and Vegas Pro 11.0
5. length: no more than 5 minutes.

On the point about 8160x768 I got that resolution because it is the total resolution of the 6 outputs. each output is roughly 1360X760 and we'll have 6 of them tiled horizontally (by using the Matrox box) so the total resolution of my screen will be 8160X760

Forgive the ignorance but is this something a beginner could realistically make happen? Or am I dreaming too big?

Appreciate the help.

[TreeTops]

Have you seen the Disney Park 360 panorama screens? They use many projectors, 9 with 9 screens to get that rounded panorama look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle-Vision_360%C2%B0

[Cornucopia]

Matrox Box?

I assume you're talking about their TripleHead2Go Box (and using 2 of them). If so, it's NOT just the cost of the box ($299+ each, for a total of $600), but you have to have a H-E-F-T-Y PC to be able to handle the data rate of a video of that size (I'd suggest 3GHz i7 QuadCore, Win7Pro 8GB+ RAM, new nVidia GeForce GPU). That's all $$ as well, especially if you don't already have it.

I would say, quality-wise, your "flip cameras & cell phones" also aren't going to cut it. Plus, you would have to plan out having multiple cams on tripods (maybe in quadrants on a flatbed truck, etc). They'll also all need to be synced up - this alone is an onerous task. And to look half-way decent, you'd want matching image settings. That requires same/similar model cameras and the ability to tweak the settings into coordination with each other. More $$.

The "stitching" on the individual viewports into a "Master" ultrawide clip would not be done until the end, after editing (AVISynth/FFMPEG would be handy here).
Vegas 11. could probably also do this, though all it's stock encoders would probably baulk at sizes over 1920x1080.
Vegas - did you just DL it or are you actually buying it? That's another ~$600. That other app isn't up to the task!

Yes, there's the encoding: Not many codecs have good support (or any at all) for resolutions over 1920x1080. You'd want to use something fairly modern (like h.264), though that will task your GPU for decoding such large framesizes, but if the encoder & decoder that you have don't support it, it is a moot point. You'd have to test to see which ones can handle it. This may mean reverting back to a less-compressed codec. This will up the requirements for your disk subsystem! (Think $$ again).

So, if your budget is ~$200 and timeline ~4 weeks, and equipment what you said, I have to be honest and say you are dreaming too big!

Scott

[Ghanadian]

Scott - thanks for the detailed reply, and yes... I think you're right, I'm dreaming too big on this one.
Thanks again for all the help/advice.

Cheers