3D Modelling/Create 3D Models/Hugin

Create an spherical image for 360^o-Panorama Image. The underlying image must represent a special geometry of a spherical 360^o-Panorama. The software Hugin will help you in creating such a panorama.

• (Final Hugin Result) See the final Hugin result based on the set [Hugin Sample Set of Images on Github] integrated in A-Frame

Hugin Software for 360 Degree Image in Aframe

Hugin Result in Aframe - Link to interactive Aframe Website

Market Place called Saumarkt in Karlsruhe-Durlach, Germany

• (Panorama Image Stitching) Explore the collection of images in HuginSample GitHub repository with the Hugin Sample Images ZIP to learn about semiautomated creation of spherical projections of multiple camera images, stiched together by Hugin into a single Panorama image in AFrame.
• (Hugin Tutorial Video) Youtube Video by Brian Cluff about Hugin - 2017/02/07

Basic Workflow

Basic workflow with the wizzard.

• Angle of view for cameras: The workflow is to use a standard camera with multiple images and you concat multiple images into one equirectangular image representing a 360 degree view of scenery. For the process of creating an equirectangular image the angle of view of cameras will be helpful to understand with workflow in Hugin.
• Set the export format to JPEG to Hugin/Settings/Stitching/Output Format (default is TIFF with compression LZA - good quality but very large files)
• Load Images in Hugin with Assistant/Wizzard.
• Selected Object Type: equirectangular (spherical)
• Save Project
• Align Images (press "Align"-Button in Assistant)
• Create Panorama (press "Create Panorama"-Button in Assistant)
• Panorama JPG is created in Image Folder - explore JSON3D4Aframe to use the spherical image in AFrame (see "AFrame Settings").
• Optional: Upload your 360-Degree panorama to WikiMedia Commons

Learning Tasks

• (Equirectangular Projection) Learn about the basic principles of equirectangular projections.
• (Create Equirectangular Image) Create the equirectangular image with Hugin (see Hugin Video Tutorial (2017) by Brian Cluff).
  • The image contains areas in the sky that are not covered by the images.
  • Load the Hugin output in OpenSource software GIMP and use the Clone Tool (Youtube Video).
  • Missing ground in the image. Append a white rectangle at the bottom so that the perspective distortion is corrected (see sample image from GitHub HuginSample).
  • Fill the ground (inserted white rectangle at the bottom) with the GIMP Clone Tool - Youtube Video).

Create Sequence of Images with a Standard Camera

Indoor 360 degree images with small tripod

Larger tripod for outdoor use for taking images for a 360 degree image in AFrame

There are a few recommendations for taking the images (see Video of Image Shooting Techniques by Florian Knorn (2011) on Youtube.

• Image you are standing inside a sphere (centre) and you want cover the whole inner surface with snapshots.
• Use a camera with good image quality,
• Use a Tripod for taking the images,
• Use 25% percent overlap between images, so that Hugin can stich the images together.
• Use characteristical unique areas as overlap regions of the images, that allows automatic image stiching with Hugin without to much extra manual work of marking matching points between images.
• avoid repeating patterns in overlap area of images (e.g. similar windows of high rise building or a monotonous pavement as overlap region)
• Avoid moving objects in your images (if that happens you can mask those object in Hugin)
• Do not mix landscape and portrait format of the images.
• switch off automatic camera settings
• Filename Pattern: rename images to the following pattern by
  • middle01.jpg, middle02.jpg, ... for images in a horizontal direction 360 degree.
  • upper01.jpg, upper02.jpg, ... for images in a upper region above horizontal direction (e.g. part of sky, top floors of the building, ...)
  • lower01.jpg, lower02.jpg, ... for images in a lower region above horizontal direction
  • top.jpg vertical image into the sky
  • button.jpg, ... vertical images (e.g. floor, remove tripod and take a snapshot from the ground)

When you cover the whole 360 degrees including sky and floor you can stich those images together with Hugin.

Final Result

Equirectangular Image from Wikiversity used for Aframe 360 Degree Image (see Hugin)

• Final Hugin Result for the HuginSample Files on Github,
• Aldara Parks 360 Degree Image in Aframe with an already uploaded equirectangular image in WikiMedia Commons by U.Bardins

External Resources

• HuginSample Github repository with sample images of the Durlacher Saumarkt, Karlsruhe Durlach, Germany
• Hugin Download: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
• Link to interactive Aframe Website of Durlach Saumarkt - Look around on the square by dragging the image with the mouse.
• 3D Tour with AFrame (by Viktor Aigenseer 2018 on Github)

See also

• Image Maps as more simple options to create a visual representation of Learning Resources in Wikiversity
• Equirectangular projection