Click and drag to navigate, use shift and control to zoom in out out (scroll wheel zooms too but you’ll also scroll the page).
This is one of my finished illustrated dream panoramas. Others can be found HERE.
This is the web version of this project, the project is also on exhibition at the University of Cental Lancahsire, where it is interacted with via a Dreamcast controller.
Equirectangular images of the panoramas can be found on my Flickr.
This is a quick test to see various outcomes when outputting my panoramas.
The first image is how a 600dpi 7000x3500px jpeg appears in a flash panorama that has a cube face size of 856. Although the image is large and has a high dpi, when the flash panorama uses a low cube face size (tile size as its mentioned above) of 856 zooming in shows heavy loss of detail. This example was the fastest for performance but only by a bit.
The second image is the same 7000x3500px jpeg, however, it has a lower dpi of 150. This is how the image appears in a flash panorama, the panorama uses a much larger cube face size of 1750 and as a result when zooming the flash panorama retains alot of detail.
The third image is how the original Photoshop document of 600dpi 7000x3500px appears when zoomed in on.
I did a few tests to find the optimal image quality/flash settings and these three stand out for comparison.
The result is that when scanning my panoramas dpi means very little, however, the flash settings in particular cube face size are very important. Changes in cube face size make the flash panorama file size fluctuate between 200kb-1mb.
TweetIve not posted anything in a month, I have been quite busy though.
The first thing that has kept me from posting is that I now have an allotment. I waited 3 years to get one so I had to go and meet the man and sort all that out. So far I’ve done some digging, made a wooden compost bin and decided I want to dig a pond.
In addition to that I also had a talk to give for Uni about my work. That went quite well but required a few late nights in preparation.
Thirdly and probably most time demanding was that I got the opportunity to work on a brief with a design studio in Chester. This was very good as I got payed to draw for the first time (second if you count the time I got paid £40 to paint gold letters on a pet shop in Birkdale village).
Also, days before my seminar was due to happen, I decided to use a “power uninstaller” to remove loads of unused stuff from my PC. to cut a long story short I deleted more than just old files, part of my registry was deleted and I couldn’t log in. My brother in law managed to fix it days before I had to do my talk.
Since my last post I’ve also read Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban and goblet of fire. I’m currently up to chapter thirteen of order of the phoenix in my attempt to read all the books before the last film comes out. I’m sick of walking out of the cinema whilst everyone complains about how inaccurate the films are to the books and not being able to moan about it myself.
Lastly, Chrome has dethroned Opera as my browser of choice and I learnt my dog likes to ride in a wheelbarrow whilst Suzanne pushes him around.
PROJECT
My Illustrated panorama project is coming along slowly. I am at the stage where I’m drawing the final pieces which then need to be coloured. This is hampered by the fact that its very warm and sunny and I want to prance around in the grass outside. After they are coloured I’ll use Pano2vr to make them into interactive panormas, this is the plan Ive always had, however…
After having 2 “crossover tutorials” with different tutors, I have finally decided that I am not going to be making an arcade cabinet to house my final piece. I am now going to acquire a projector and hopefully a darkened room. The final outcome will be more immersive and hopefully have more of an impact. It will be interacted with through an XBOX360 controller placed on a plinth.
Above is an example of how I’ve been laying out the scenes I’m drawing in Photoshop, I use this as a reference whilst I draw on my A1 paper/grid setup. One of my tutors questioned why I’m drawing something rough in Photoshop then hand drawing it, only to take it back to Photoshop to colour, and why didn’t I just do it all in Photoshop? The answer is; I like hand drawn, I think it looks nicer than when I draw with a tablet.
I think the number of illustrated panoramas I’ll end up with will be around 10. I’m aiming for 10.
The absolute final day that everything must be left for assessment after which nothing can be altered is 31st may. I aim to get the drawing portion of this done by the end of next week.
To do:
Heres another work in progress, I find that if I post them one at a time they can be clicked for a larger view.
Like the previous post this image is a “framework” drawing for one of the panoramas I’m working on.
This week I’ve been using my Equirectangular grid to make some panoramic illustrations that I’ll go on to make panoramas out of.
Eurgh, what is that disgusting photo above? That is a photograph of one of the A1 sketches Ive done. The image is drawn in pencil and serves the purpose of being the “framework”. I’m currently adding the detail with fine-liner and when thats done it will be properly scanned and coloured. So for the moment a photograph that not even auto levels could fix will have to suffice to show what I’ve been doing. I’m not feeding that A1 monster through my A4 scanner, it will take me hours and my hands will bleed from paper cuts.
Even though its in the middle stage it still looks interesting in an interactive view:Interactive version currently resides here
NOTE: theres what appears to be a dimensional rift in this image, thats because its only a quick job to see how well it fits. The finished version will be much better aligned, Also, Watermarks wont be there as I’ll have paid for the software I’m using by then.
Make-shift Lightbox.
The Equirectangular grid I mentioned a few posts back… Here it is in use.
I don’t have an A1 sized light-box, I do have an A3 one which is far too small for my current project. So I decided to masking tape my grid to the largest window in the house and use the sun as a lightbox.
Why? My equirectangular grid shows all* the lines of perspective involved in a 360x180 2D image. If you stood in a room in which the floor, ceiling and all the walls had perfectly square grid lines painted on them then this equirectangular image is what you could see if every possible view point was layed out in a single 2d view. Its complicated to explain but its fairly simple to understand. This equirectangular grid was made by myself so that I could use it as a grid reference for hand drawing panoramas. Once Ive drawn a scene using this grid as a reference, when the finished scene is processed through panorama software the scene will have the correct perspective.
*There are more lines involved but they aren’t necessary for what I’m drawing.
Arcade Machine
Well Ive been thinking about this for a while now, since mid December 2010, and its not really in any finished state but Its worth documenting early for the noble cause of recording my development. I want to display my Illustrated Panoramas inside a handmade arcade machine. (The above are just two quick sketches I made for illustration purposes)
I was doing my dissertation about video game culture and had one of those experiences where you find yourself on Wikipedia reading about time travel or something when your trying to do something of actual use. I found myself watching videos on YouTube on how to make you own MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator) machine. the thought process went like this: Id like to make one of those, I will make one of those.
The more I thought about it though, the more I realised how well suited my final project would be to being displayed in my own handmade arcade machine. Not only is it interesting to look at when people walk past it but in theory should make my panoramas more interesting to control. I currently am focusing on getting the ACTUAL panoramas finished first but in terms of development for the arcade machine I have a good Idea about the following:
Useful links with layouts/blueprints/master plans:
http://www.arcadecab.com/Intro.htm
At the beginning of my second year of university, I proposed a project about my dreams. I became interested in keeping a dream journal and researched lucid dreaming and dream recollection. At the time my idea was to record my dreams in a journal and make work from them, the only problem was, because having dreams became so important, I stopped remembering them. The project eventually slithered on to be something completely different and awfully rubbish about drawing things in the dark and is a blemish on my career as an artist.
However since that time I have been much more successful in recording dreams and have been keeping notes and illustrations in whatever sketchbook or piece of paper was at hand, I have had some lovely dreams and others truly horrific.
*
This is now important because I feel (when I have managed to track down all my notes) I have a use for these dreams in an artistic sense. I am going to use these dreams as the theme for my panorama. I am also currently keeping a sketchbook and I will be compiling the dreams that I find and doing Illustrations from them which I will post here on my blog as concept art. Its important to mention I don’t have a wealth of dreams, Ive got around 10 that have been worth writing down in the last year or so but any new dreams I have I will also include and whilst this will make up the main bulk of my project theme, I may add other elements to the project.
I think dreams are interesting and I’m happy Ive found an interesting way of using them to produce some work. I have also got some very relevant research/references to post next.
* The image is purely fictional my actual dreams are written on various pieces of paper and require travelling from one house to another to find them all. I might compile them into an illustrated e-book after Ive finished this project, maybe I could do a series, or maybe I wont.
TweetWhilst I am in the mood for making diagrams, here is another diagram that shows how it would be possible to implement a game element that requires the viewer to know a password to access a hidden panorama.
Again, each coloured rectangle represents a panorama. After finding a hotspot in Panorama B, the viewer is then faced with a screen that looks like a console, they must then enter a code by clicking predetermined hotspots. Each hotspot is placed on top of the correct number and upon entering the correct number they can advance to the next part, each time they advance the number they just inputted will be visible on the display above where the code can be entered. Each incorrect number will take the viewer back to Panorama B. When they reach the end they can view a panorama that isn’t normally available unless this code method is used. The code could be scattered through the other panoramas in the form of clues, maths problems, sounds or drawings etc.
TweetThis title is a work in progress, It will be changed as soon as possible, when I develop my ideas further.
I started a new semester at university on the 10th of January 2011, this was the beginning of the last project I will do for the course I’m studying. Picking up where I left off, my last project dimensions was focused on learning how to use the software in order for me to create illustrated panoramas. One of the main areas that was thoroughly undeveloped though, was the theme, what were these panoramas going to be about? I started my panoramas with the idea that I wanted to illustrate a shop in which I would be sat behind a counter, in this shop I would draw as many things as I could think of that defined me. Objects that were references to movies I watched when I was growing up, like the hover-board from back to the future and every video game console Ive ever owned amongst them. I like this idea but it wasn’t working as a project, it was and still is something I am interested in doing but I dont think its a good starting point for this project.
So then I thought about what the aims were for this new project. I had experimented with linking panoramas together in the context of a virtual tour and thought about ways in which I could incorporate this. I want to make a series of panoramas that are linked together and can be navigated by clicking around, for example: clicking a door would take you to another panorama perhaps of an outdoor scene. With this in mind and the theme from the Shop panorama still plaguing my thought, I wondered if it was possible to make something that wasn’t dissimilar to a video game.
Above is a quick mock up of a layout for the panoramas to follow. Each coloured rectangle represents a panorama, within each panorama is at least one “hotspot”, when clicked the view is changed to another panorama, multiple paths can be used leading to the feel of a maze. This with the added idea of including clues in each panorama that leads the viewer to clicking the correct “hotspot” and in turn get to a goal is very similair to a game.
At this point I don’t know if I will include A strong narrative such as “get to the end to escape” or something similar. I do know that whatever I do I want it to be laid out as above. It may be that my final set of linked panoramas can be clicked through for eternity, looping with no end. It could be that clicking through them and enjoying each one is the “game” and not so much about trying to get to the “end”.
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Dimensions is the title of my most recent body of work, it was completed before Christmas 2010. The project was very much a research and development project where the outcome was more a series of tests to prepare me for my next project.
This project was mainly concerned with learning how to use software that would enable me to create interactive panoramas. Although I did make a few crude looking photographic panoramas without the use of either a tripod or a fish-eye lens, the goal I was aiming for was to make illustrated panoramas. This led me to understand how an interactive photographic panorama works and what I needed to produce to make an illustrated version.
I discovered how at the heart of any good interactive panorama is a single flat image that shows the viewing angle from a single point (360 x 180), this is an equirectangular image.
Above is an example of the first illustrated equirectangular image I created. This image is of a sort of second hand shop where the items for sale are references to various geek media and films etc, that are so prominent in my everyday life now and as I was growing up, also there are other references to people and possessions I own. For now though the theme this image shows is unimportant, Ill come back to that later. The projects main aim was to get this sort of image to behave as the example here shows. I initially used a program called Pano2QTVR by Garden Gnome Software, newer tests have been produced using Pano2vr, a later improved version of this program.
Also in the Dimensions project I produced a series of 3D anaglyph illustrations that needed to be viewed using red/cyan 3D glasses. Once I got this set of technically laborious Illustrations out of my system I felt better with the notion that I would never attempt anything similar again. The end result was pleasing but honestly wasn’t worth the effort. Heres one below, others can be found on my website.
I also used another piece of Garden Gnome Software, Object2VR. This was integral to me being able to create a rotating model of a subject. But before I began with the software side of things this process was followed…
This process gave me 12 images that I could draw from, and when I put the illustrations through Object2VR (unpaid trial version) I was left with an interactive “3D” illustrated object. Its easier to look here for a few examples. This is maybe something ill pick up on in the future but not now, for now I am done with that.
I call the Dimensions project a success. It wasn’t a success in producing a massive volume of physical work, but in terms of learning and understanding it was an invaluable journey. I will be continuing my work with interactive Illustrated Panoramas in my current project that is so far imaginatively titled “Dimensions 2.0”. This is absolutely a working title and will be changed as soon as I think of a better name.
-Mark
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Hello, My name is Mark and I'm an Illustrator from the UK. I work at a company that produces short animated videos for apps and websites. This is my blog of personal work, everything I post here was made by my own two hands and my computer (I post to an inspiration blog with a friend if you're looking for reblogs).
Please find below some links to various other internet places I dwell.
