The name OBJECT MOVIE is a fine name, and is descriptive of how most people use the technology . . . to enable rotation of objects. But OBJECT MOVIE is a bit of a misnomer. What’s really going on in a QTVR object movie is the playback of a stop action animation using Quicktime VR to call up individual frames on the fly in reaction to cursor movements.

An easy to understand visual representation of the process can be quickly sketched out on graph paper.

- A SINGLE ROW 360º OBJECT can be represented on graph paper by hiliting one row of 36 blocks. Because it’s only a single row of blocks, your navigation in the resulting object movie is limited to forward and backward.

- A SIX ROW 360º OBJECT can be represented on graph paper by hiliting six rows of blocks, 36 blocks to a row. By seeing it on graph paper, you can see the “grid” it forms . . . a grid you can navigate thru . . . up and down, left and right. Again, QuickTime calls up still frames on the fly as you navigate through the grid.

OK, so we’ve established that a QuickTime VR Object Movie is nothing but a very responsive stop action animation that you can play back interactively. So, what CAN you do with VR object movies besides rotate objects? I’m going to show you three ideas to get you started . . . then you’ll think of other creative things to do with them to fit your own creative need.

Here are my three:

1. “Cave Diver”
I created this object movie as a somewhat realistic way to share the experience of scuba diving in a dark underwater cavern. Launch the following object movie and experience what it’s like to be in a dark cavern . . . just you and your flashlight. Look at the warning sign placed in the entrance to a dangerous underwater cave system.

I took this photo at Ginnie Springs in High Springs Florida. You are looking at the Devil’s Eye entrance to the Devil’s Cave System. In decades past, many people died in the Florida caves because they didn’t realize the dangers and got lost soon after wondering into the caves. Today, you cannot enter the caves unless you take highly technical training classes and pass difficult certification tests. Even so, extreme care is called for. This sign has been posted at all main cave entrances at Ginnie Springs. This cave entrance is about fifty feet deep in the back of a cavern. (By definition a cavern has a clear way out . . . if you can see daylight, it’s a cavern . . . if you cannot see daylight, it’s a cave). This object movie is even more effective with the sounds of a diver breathing in through his regulator and breathing out bubbles. I omitted the audio here to keep the file to a reasonable size. If anyone wants the version with audio, email me and I’ll direct you to it.

HOW IS THE FLASHLIGHT effect done?

I started with the full frame still photo I called “CaveDive”,

I expanded the canvas adding a thick black border all around the full frame image, and added Photoshop guides to break the image up into a grid pattern. The size of the grid pattern, and the number of steps in my object movie were determined by trial & error. I ultimately settled on seven rows of nine frames to give me a 63 frame object movie.

For each step of the object movie, I replicated the full frame image and created a soft edge circular layer mask to emulate a flashlight beam. I created a circular selection four blocks tall and four blocks wide and feathered it 55 pixels (again, trial and error). I created a Photoshop action to speed the process along, then created a 63 layer P-Shop document that encompassed the seven rows of nine images.

Although the layer mask is created from a selection 4 blocks wide and 4 blocks tall, each frame is only one block distant from each of the frames on all sides of it. This facilitates a lot of overlap from image to image and smoothes out the animation. Here is what one of the 63 frames in this object movie looks like -

Remember my suggestion above to map out a “grid” on graph paper to illustrate the concept of a multi-row object? Following is a grid made up from the 63 frames of this particular object movie -

2. “Bryce Canyon Sunrise” . . . simple, but effective.
This is the most straightforward of my three examples . . . it’s a straight-up time lapse of a beautiful sunrise at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, USA. I shot a frame every five minutes over a 90 minute time period. I then edited the resulting frames based on visual differences instead of time-based intervals. Authoring a single row object was straightforward as well. I have since taken the frames into After Effects and created a slow, rolling dissolve QT movie that emulates an actual sunrise.

3. “Fisher-Price Main Street”
This is a more complex animation than the Bryce Canyon Sunrise, but is still basic, yet effective. This is also a single row animation. When viewing this sample, let your thoughts turn to things like industrial processes, or assembly (and disassembly) of equipment or systems.

What next in object movies?

• I look for the fully interactive object movie to evolve soon: Picture buying a camera that comes with a QT interactive quick start piece with object movies linked to other object movies via LiveStagePro, or whatever evolves next. You’ll examine your new camera using an object movie interface, then click on a feature of the camera and zoom to an effective vantage point to view another object movie that shows how that particular feature works, etc . . . then back to the main object to select another feature to examine.

• Think of fully interactive objects that guide field repair technicians in performing various maintenance tasks, or fully interactive objects that enable equipment training programs using distance learning techniques, thus saving the corporate training department a small fortune in travel expenses.

In my opinion, we haven’t even scratched the surface of the potential of object movies . . .the best is definitely yet to come!

[Ed Note: Pat St. Clair at 2006 VR Summit in Lisbon]
Pat St. Clair will be one of the speakers at the 2006 VR Summit in Lisbon this October. One of his always-popular sessions will be an advanced studio lighting class on object VRs, where he'll demonstrate how to photograph highly reflective objects and give a step by step studio demonstration showing how he created the following object movie:

This is one of the hardest challenges in studio photography and you won't find info like this, or a thorough and patient teacher such as Pat, anywhere else. Pat will also be available for consultation throughout the week of the conference to help others establish a lighting workflow for their objects. This opportunity alone is worth the price of admission!

About the author:
Pat St. Clair has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Miami University (O), 1971, and a bachelor’s degree in professional photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology, 1979; he has been photographing commercially since 1978. St. Clair serves a corporate clientele that includes agencies of all sizes as well as direct corporate clients such as Eastman Kodak Company, Palm, Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, 3Com, DaimlerChrysler, ExxonMobil, Microwave Data Systems and more. He was an early adopter of digital technology and has worked with Eastman Kodak Company on digital capture projects and digital image quality issues for the last eleven years. He has worked with QuickTime VR since 1994, is a charter member of the IQTVRA (now the IVRPA), and was a speaker at the first four VR Summits in Boulder, CO, Washington, DC, Sedona, AZ and Savannah, GA. He is onboard to speak again at the 2006 VR Summit.

He owns and operates St. Clair Photo-Imaging in Rochester, NY. More about Pat St. Clair and his work can be found at St. Clair Photoimaging
Comments? Email Pat St. Clair: pat[at]stclairphoto-imaging[dot]com