Who?
People who need to show others a space or an object and who want to give the viewer the power to choose where they go and how long they stay there.

What?
There are two fundamentally different types of QuickTime Virtual Reality [abbreviated to QTVR] Movies. Panoramas put the viewer in the centre of the scene, looking outwards. When photographed, the camera moves and the scene stays still. Object Movies put the viewer on the outside of the scene, looking in. The viewpoint is stationary and the object spins around its axis.

When?
Panoramic photography has been around for many years, but QTVR was released in 1995. Since then many thousands of people have shot many more thousands of pictures.

Where?
If you can get a camera to the location, then you can make a panorama. This can range from the smallest scene taken with a macro lens to the sweeping grandeur of a panorama from the top of Mt Everest. With object movies, the scale can range from microscopic insects to giant man-made structures like the Golden Gate Bridge.

How?
With both types of QTVR, the original images can come from photography of real-world objects or from an artificial source, usually a render from a 3D drawing or design program.

Why?

Interactivity, immersion, choice, richness, elucidation.

this page last updated December 27, 2010