The definitive collection of scripts and plugins for Adobe After Effects
pt_Panorama
Version: 2.4 Sign up to be notified by email when a new version is posted
This script converts a panoramic image into a 3D cylinder that can be used as a background in a 3D composition.
pt_Panorama was used in this Lexus Toyota Hybrid Drive Commercial:
Link to the 3-part tutorial that shows how this commercial was made including how it used pt_Panorama
How to use:
1. Drop a panoramic image into your main comp and select it. A test image maximus.jpg is included with the script if you want to try it out.
2. Run pt_Panorama and you’ll see you have some options:
Panorama Angle: If you have a full panorama leave this at 360. Maximus.jpg is only a 180 degree panorama, so in that case you’d set it to 180 to generate a half cyclinder.
Number Of Sides: A value between 10-20 should be fine for this. More sides means longer render times.
Side Overlap: The sides overlap outside the cylinder to prevent gaps when Motion Blur is on and the camera is moving fast. You can leave this at its default value unless you intend to see the cylinder from the outside, in which case set the value to 10. Or set the value to 500 and view the outside of the cylinder for a cool effect!
3. Click Apply and the 3D panorama will be generated and placed in a precomp. The layer is scaled to 10000% in order to simulate a distant background.
If you switch to a Custom View you may not see the cylinder as it is so big. Select the layer and choose View > Look At Selected Layers to reveal it. In Top View you’ll see a wireframe line that represents the cylinder’s center and diameter.
Video Copilot used pt_Panorama in this Oval Office Demo
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- pt_Panorama UI
Version History:
- 2.4 – Added controls for accepting lights/shadows. Default is off. – 12/2010
- 2.3 – Added CS5 compatibility – 05/2010
- 2.2 – 08/2009
- Uses new technique that avoids possible AE 3D render engine glitches when using large image files in previous versions. (An alternate mode is provided too… just in case).
- Now works correctly with non square pixel aspect ratios.
- The seam where the two sides of the 360 panorama meet now aligns correctly.
- Creates a new camera if there isn’t one already.
- 2.1 Initial release on aescripts.com 08/2009
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Paul,
I am a new in motion graphic, this is a amazing and so powerful scripts for me. But how can I download it? So sorry, I try many time but i still can’t download it. Can you show me how to download, or maybe anyone can teach me how to download?
Thanks
i like it!
thank you very much!
Is it normal that the camera does not react to changes of the position, only rotation?
The scale of the panorama layer is set very high (20000%) to simulate an environment that is far away, such as a sky/horizon. If you reduce the scale (select the pt_Panorama layer and press S to reveal the Scale property) it will react to camera position changes more.
To get an idea of the diameter of the cylinder, switch the comp to Top view and the line showing the panorama layer represents the diameter of the cylinder.
This is great.. and Thank you so much for sharing this.. I
this might be what I was looking to create a set of 3d scenes – hopefully this could be a time saver
Hi Paul,
What is the optimal height x width ratio of the jpeg for minimal distortion?
Pierre
Hi Pierre, sorry I missed your post. I couldn’t really say if there is an optimal height/width ratio, but I guess there must be a certain height limit due to the limitations of cylindrical projection. What are your own observations?
As a panoramic photographer, I’m just starting to learn After Effects and pt_Panorama saves me a lot of time because it makes creating movies from circular panoramas so easy. I’ve tried feeding it an equirectangular panorama as well, but that probably will only work in the next version
making Trapcode Horizon superfluous.
Pierre
Hey Paul,
Thanks for the script! Working great so far. Quick question, is the zoom option on the camera the only way (on the camera) to get the image larger? I’d prefer to actually push the camera forward in space to increase the size (instead of changing the lens size) but that doesn’t seem to be working for me. Any help would be hugely appreciated.
Cheers,
John
Well, the script sets the scale of the precomp layer very high (20000%) to ensure you can move the camera around without getting close to the edges of the panorama, as this is typically what you want for a panoramic background. You could set that scale value much smaller so the camera can get close to the edges of the panorama.
Hi Paul!
Thanks for great scripts!
I have a little problem, I have a image of a sky that I want to make 360 degrees, actually any picture that I try becomes the same. I run the script “360″ “20″ sides and so on.. But when I change my cameras Point of interest I can only get 90 degrees of the whole “rotation”. I can set my cameras point of interest to “999999999″ and it gets stuck at 90 degrees.
Do you know how I can prevent this from happening?
Thanks!
Hi Danne, Point of Interest is the XYZ co-ordinate in 3D space that the camera is looking at, not a rotation control. With the camera selected, press R to reveal the rotation properties and try changing the Y Rotation instead.
Hey Paul,
Thanks for a great script! I have just one small feature request. Would it be possible to add some 3D layer light properties to the panel? For instance, I’d like to just be able to hit a check box for whether or not the panorama layers will accept lights (I usually don’t want them to). The obvious work-around is to just go into the precomp, select all, and switch “Accepts Lights” to “off.” But having that in the script would be a time-saver!
Thanks again,
Nate
Thanks Nate, that’s a good suggestion. Expect an update soon.
Hi Paul, is this version compatible with AE 7, because my result is: this script requires AE3 or later…
Also PT multiplane is perfect.
Thanks!
Sorry but pt_Panorama requires CS3 or later. AE CS3 comes after AE7 and is in effect AE8.
Hey all!
Paul ..i must say that you’re the best!
bests scrips and aslo free …
you rock!
keep it on
thanks paul, it’s very useful to me
Can I apply the panoramic script to my footage, .mov?
Assuming your footage is a locked-off shot of a panorama, you could indeed use the script to “wrap” that into a cylinder. But it wouldn’t work if the footage consisted of you rotating the camera through 360 degrees to film a complete panorama (for that you would have to take selected frames and use stitching software to stitch them into a still panoramic image first).
maybe also update the Sticher Link to something else? thanks in advance, keep up the good work
can you suggest somethign other than Sticher for a panorama picture making, apparently it is no longer available when i click the link for it
I’m sure there are plenty of alternatives out there but can’t offer a specific recommendation. If you google “image stitching” you’ll find a wikipedia page which has a link to comparisons of stitching software.
Does anyone else have any suggestions for good/cheap stitching software?
Autopano Pro (http://www.autopano.net) and PTGui (http://www.ptgui.com) are the most used stitchers nowadays. Hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/download/) is a good open source alternative.
Hi Paul,
sorry for my hard words, I have to appologize…
The update you did send me didnt have any of the former problems! No stitching errors, no bowed lines! But during motion it seems to be a little bit more out of focus compared to your former versions. But maybe Ishould play around a little bit more with motion blur…
Would you add motion blur to your final movie, and if so, what parameters would you choose?
thanx a lot and best regards
gurazius
I’m glad it worked for you. I’ll get the update posted now I know it fixes the problem.
Nothing has changed that would alter the amount of motion blur. It should use the motion blur settings that you set in your main comp that contains the Panorama layer. The default setting of 180 Shutter Angle should be fine but try reducing it if it’s blurring more than you’d like. Then just leave the default Motion Blur: “On For Checked Layers” setting in the Render Settings.
Update posted.
That didnt help anyway. Still got bowed lines. Im using perfectly stitched Panoramas and I get movies with unaccaptable stitching errors and/or bowed lines. So my question is: Will your script ever be able to produce movies without that limitations. Please give me a honest answer, because I do not want to waste my time and Im not willing to accept timewasting, unsatisfying workarounds.
thanx in advance and best regards
gurazius
Did exactly what you told me. Got a little bit better, but straight lines arent really straight. So I think I wait for your update,-)
thanx and best regards
gurazius
That suggests you need to try increasing the Number of Sides, say 32 or 64. Part of my update plan is to do a video tutorial so all this is a bit more obvious.
Hi Paul,
thank you for your quick help!
Tried that (Minimum Number of Side is 10 not zero, by the way). This workaround makes it look a little bit better, but doesnt solve the problem at all. Do you think you can solve that?
thanx and best regards
gurazius
Sorry, I forgot about that limit. You can “set it to zero” by opening its precomp, selecting all layers and pressing the M key twice to reveal Mask Expansion properties and set them all to zero.
If that doesn’t make it look better it could be something else. If you can send me a sceenshot of the problem and a reduced project with just these comps/layers I will look into it. Send to paul.tuersley@btinternet.com
Hi Paul,
for the first time I was able to produce really smooth movies from my 360 Pans. But there are always really bad stitching mistakes in the final movie. Tha Pan I used has no stitching mistake at all. Tried to make a project with up to 33 samples > get stitching errors all the time…
thanx and best regards
gurazius
I’m working on an update to solve these problems. In the meantime there are two things you can try:
1. Ensure the pixel aspect ratio of your main comp and panoramic image is set to square pixels at the point where you use the script to make the panorama.
2. To workaround limitations with AE’s 3D engine when big layers intersect, put two copies of the panoramic image in your comp and use the script on each, leaving Side Overlap at 50 on one, but set it to 0 for the other. Then change the scale of the one with 0 Side Overlap so it is slightly smaller (say 19,500% instead of 20,000%).
Hope this helps.
sorry,i not found the download link ~who can help me ? Where is the link of pt_panorama?
@xy
I really appreciated that you shared such a good thing
Hi Paul,
I am testing your script with some of my panoramas. It works, but the seams don’t quite align. They appear to be right at the center of the picture, but get progressively out of alignment toward the top and bottom of the image. I’ve tried a number of different settings, as well as converting the image to a number of different formats. Is this something that you’ve seen before?
thanks for help
-bruce
Hi Bruce,
I’m not sure what could be going wrong. If you can send me a screenshot of what you’re seeing, along with the project, I’ll look into it. Send to paul.tuersley@btinternet.com
Hi Paul,
You are not only knowledgable but also very generous and helpful. I may visit UK to see a few of my friends. I just wonder if it is possible for us to schedule a meeting. Thanks.
hi
i composite the panoramic 3d of maya to aftereffect or shake for comp.if you can send me pt_panorama.
thanks.
imankhorrami@gmail.com
thanks paul…u r great !!. where else can i get all other plug ins..?
it will be great if u let me know.
thanks again.
Hi Angshu,
You need to click the “Add to cart” button at the top of this page first. If you don’t want to pay anything you can change the amount to 0, then click the ‘Update Cart’ button. After that you can click ‘Checkout’ to get a download link for the script.
hi, Paul
i am not getting to download it..do i need to pay for download it from tis site?
will u pls tell me how to download it from this site.
thanks.
The pt_panorama layer in your main comp has its scale set to 10,000% to simulate a distant backdrop, but you can always change the scale to something like 100% to get a much smaller cylinder.
Paul, thanks for your detailed and very useful comments. It was one of my computers to blame for the less desirable result. Since AE is really new to me, I just wonder if the radius of the 3D cylinder can be adjusted. Thanks again.
Hi Warfy,
I don’t know why it isn’t working correctly for you. If your comp preview setting is set to OpenGL you could try turning that off to see if it makes a difference. And have a look in the “pt_Panorama:” precomp to see if anything looks odd. If you send me a project showing the result you get using the maximus image I’ll see if I can figure it out. Send to paul.tuersley@btinternet.com
Hi Paul,
I don’t get it. As I apply the preset, my panorama image (maximus or videocopilot white house to try) is divided in 16 and dispayed in 180. But details are repeating from one sub-image to another so that I have clones.
Can you tell me what’s wrong ?
Hi David,
I thought the camera move in that Oval Office demo was pretty smooth. But yes, you can create really smooth camera moves in AE. In general you would apply eases to your keyframed animation (select keys and choose Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Ease Ease), then refine the results in the Graph Editor. And you’ll need motion blur turned on to prevent strobing during fast moves.
Thanks for your nice work, Paul.
AE is really new to me. I looked at Video Copilot’s use of pt_Panorama in his Oval Office Demo. I just wonder if it is possible to produce really smooth camera move with AE in that Oval Office Demo ? Thanks !
Thank you very much indeed.
It definitely helped.
All the best.
Jan
Hi Jan,
The panaroma is intended for use as a background in a 3D composition. So you need to create a camera, then rotate the camera around to view the panorama. You’ll need to keyframe the camera’s position and rotation to create your camera move. I hope that helps.
Hi
I found the instructions incomplete.
When I drop the panorama script, I see the image blown up but the question is how do we actually see the panoramic viiew and how do we export it? Do we have to key fame anything to see the panoamic view of a camera moving fromleft to right?
Will appreciate some hints because at the moment I don’t see anything other thana blown up image and don’t know what do next.
thanks
Fantastic! Great job totally useful.