GoPro HD Hero cameras: 360 Degree Videos Made Easy

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Created on Monday, 04 July 2011 02:48

How did the world record University of Alberta Dodgeball Marathon Video got to over 650,000 views on over such a short period of time? What makes this 360-degree video different?

Ryan Jackson, used the 4 GoPro HD Hero cameras 1280×960 mode mounted vertically to achieve a full 360-degree wide angled imaging video. Acheiving 30 frames per second, you'll get 30 picture automatically to achieve a panorama.He then got still images from the videos and stitched them together as panoramas then turned the panoramas into videos.

People say, "He's crazy for putting your cameras in a dodgeball game like that!" but ryan said, "It’s not about the camera. It’s about the end result. A camera is a tool like a hammer. If your hammer breaks, you get it fixed. Never let your camera get in the way of a good photo."

He got the first 60-seconds of the game intentionally, plunked it to Final Cut Pro. He purposely lined up the cameras in a way that they overlap each other. It took him two hours to successfully render the videos and converting them to .flv. He actually was able to provide the public with the  world record Dodggeball 360-degree video before any media did! 

He aslo used the KrPano to play fullscreen spherical panorama videos real time. The video will be loaded and controlled by the krpano videoplayer plugin and then projected as pano by the krpano viewer. You can get the KrPano here.

When asked why did Ryan prefer this type of tool than the $6000 Ladybug Cameras and avoid the hassle, he answered simply, "It saved me a lot of money."

• Four GoPro HD’s would be 4 x $300 = $1,200
• Final Cut Pro is $1,000
• Quicktime Pro is $30
• Photo Mechanic is $150
• PTgui Pro is $210
• Adobe Flash is $700
• KrPano is $150

Reference: http://punkoryan.com/2011/02/08/shooting-360-degree-video-with-four-gopro-hd-hero-cameras