How to create 360 degree games
The latest buzz in the world of technology is virtual reality (VR). If you haven’t experienced VR, you’ll probably wonder how it works. The short answer is that with Oculus technology and VR headsets, you’ll only be pushed into a different environment at the touch of a button.
One of Primacy’s technology developers, Justin Lutz, wrote a post showing a range of VR headsets and technology. Read it if you’re interested in learning more about the technology page.
In this post, I’m going to cover how to design and record an immersive video fed into the VR experience. Realistic worlds created with a 3D computer are nothing new, video games have been doing it for years. But shooting 360° video from the right places is a brand new ball game – with new rules and instruments.
Devices
At 360 camera heroes Primacy, we have a few special 3D printed camera devices with 6 or 10 GoPro Hero4 cameras in spherical form. Each camera is installed at a specific angle, so the camera’s field of view overlaps with parts of the field of view of the surrounding cameras. This overlap removes the gaps in the recordings and allows the seams to be more flexible. When all GoPros record, they record video at the same time covering the entire 360° 180° range.
There are different ways to hold a camera device. It all depends on the needs of shots. A pedestal or one leg is the most common, but you can hang it, hold it, drone it and more. Recording a video 360° is not like recording a regular video. It has its own rules and considerations.
To make things simple, I use the term “camera” to describe the hardware for GoPro cameras described above. Now the first thing to remember is that 360° means that everything is in camera view and will be in the picture. This also applies to you, your crew, all lights, microphones, equipment, every crack in the roof and dirty footprints on the floor. This kind of shooting limits and gives the instructor freedom at the same time. You may need to be in the picture, so be creative, don’t take it for granted – mix with the scene – or hide behind/under/objects on site. When asking for places, take the whole place into consideration. Imagine what happens, how this activity interacts with the camera? And make sure that the available lighting is suitable or creativity using camera placement.
Camera Location
Placing a camera in a scene is important and important for storytelling. To record activity in a scene, consider the role of the person wearing the VR headset. Are they participants or observers? So should the camera be placed in a strange position suspended from the ceiling or low to the ground? Or installed 1.5 meters from the floor, which corresponds to the average person’s height? In both cases, the camera must be located in or around the operations centre. This allows the viewer to explore the scene as they wish and will have something interesting in all directions.
The last thing to consider is the movement of the camera. To achieve action, it must be a driving force like a drone, car, track or person. Remember what controls the movement is in the video. For example, if you hang a camera from a drone or helicopter, these vehicles will appear in the end result. There are ways to delete or hide smaller objects in record production, but it is a long process. Since the video is an immersive experience, any kind of movement must be calculated and intentional, otherwise it can cause nausea or it may interrupt the viewer from the experience.
