Multiple large jpegs, stitch, zoom and move

Support Compositing and Post Processing
#1

I want to do an animation for a cruise we went on as to where the ship went. It will zoom in at the stops and out as it crosses the ocean etc. I am downloading satellite images for as it leaves Brisbane (these will be zoomed right in) and then images zoomed out as it crosses the ocean.

So I was thinking of using the video editing section in blender to stitch the images into the correct places and zoom, move etc. Basically I want an image that is zoomed right out as the background, and then I will place zoomed in images over the top where the camera will be close. When the camera moves out, all images will need to scale at the same rate and move with the main image as the camera moves across. Any ideas on the best way to achieve that? I was going to use a plane, but then have to deal with lighting etc. Can I do it as a video edit in blender without needing any 3d functions?

#2

Stitching images is best done in an external app like Hugin or Photoshop. If you use Hugin, you can maybe make a texture that is finally Equirectangular maybe(?) and use it in the Environment Texture as HDRI? I am not sure about all this, but I do not think you will get easy stitching of the images in Blender with the pixels matching correctly.

I hope you get a better answer than that, good luck on your effort.

#3

That won’t work, to make an image of that resolution would be about 20,000,000 x 20,000,000 resolution! When zoomed in, will need to be about a px every 10cm, or even less… When zoomed out, will be about 2000KM across! There has to be a way!

#4

You could probably pull this off in MS paint. There are all kinds of programs that do this though. Autopano is one and ofc Photoshop or gimp.

#5

As in make the video or stitch it? As above, stitching wont work because of the massive zoom in and out required!

#6

Sorry, I was not fully understanding what you require.

#7

Using satellite images, I want to move a camera from being zoomed right in to the docks at brisbane, to being zoomed out following where the ship went across the pacific ocean. If I were to make it all one large image, without a massive resolution, it would be blury when I try zoom in on the docks, or it would only cover the docks and a bit more, I wouldnt be able to have it cover the ocean. I want to layer jpegs on top of each other, so that when zoomed out it can use low res ones, when zoomed in it uses high res ones that just cover that area. Kind of how google maps works.

#8

google earth allows you to record tours. I think there is a way to remove all the onscreen bs they have but I never could figure out how. I guess you could just crop that crap out. Why not use a massive image? You make it sound like you flew over the ocean all the while hanging your head out the window taking pictures.

#9

In tv programs I have needed to make this in the past, I would just mix to different res images during the zoom. I often cheated the transition with some clouds. The hard part is the transition from space to high altitude flight, there are often no photos at this height so you must zoom the satellite image more than you want (breaking the resolution boundary making the picture blurry). If you opt for staged zooms at different heights, you could achieve this in 3d view, as the VSE doesn’t have straightforward scale and translate tools. Also if your zoom out is quick you could hide transitions with motion blur.

In the 3d view I would set up a number of planes with overlapping images of the same location at different scales. Set the camera to orthographic and animate the scale of the camera. As you pass each plane’s boundary fade out the old plane, either by animating the texture transparency or by placing them on different layers and mixing in the compositor.

Using the camera means you will be able to easily create a flight path interactively. Not so easy in the compositor and almost impossible in the VSE, as it crops oversized images at the project dimensions.

#10

Something like this? I made this very quickly a while back with google earth and After effects. But I’m sure it could have been done in Blender too.

[video=facebook;10201259907363811]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201259907363811&set=vb.1355656399&ty pe=3&theater[/video]

In case that video doesn’t load in this forum here is a link

#11

Neither of those videos worked (embedded or on facebook). As far as the zoom with clouds etc goes, not exactly what Im looking for. I have been mucking around in after effects, and have it doing what I want it to. Just VERY resource intensive!

Once I have the video of satellite images, I just need to put the dotted line of where the ship went. Still not too sure how I will do that, but may do it all in after effects. If I could take the camera data from after effects and put it in blender onto a plane that would rock, but from what I can tell blender -> ae is easy, ae -> still not possible.

#12

Try them now. I forgot they were set to only be viewable to some ppl.

#13

The link works now. It’s not really what I was thinking. Im starting up close at the docks, and then putting a dotted line where the ship will go. The camera will zoom out while its crossing large areas (like the pacific ocean) and zoom back in when it gets to its next stop. There is no 3d involved for the satellite image part, it is all done on a flat plane with the camera moving in and out.

I’ve been mucking around in photoshop, after effects and satellite images from google maps and bing (where google maps has clouds or no high res versions). Some of the places we visited were very remote which is a pain as they still haven’t been shot by googles satellites! But after mucking around a bit, Im learning some tricks and getting it done, may post it here when I get it done.