This is the technical area of the Virtual Gallery web site. Its purpose is to list the tools we used in creating the Virtual Gallery, describe the process by which we scanned the pictures in 360 degrees and colored them, and to provide instruction if you wish to try it on your own.



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Equipment:

No Microsoft products were used in the production of this project! We are firm believers in The Macintosh Way and this site is evidence of what is possible with a Macintosh computer from Apple. Eric used the following items for all aspects of the project:

Hardware:

• Apple Power Macintosh and PowerBook computers
• Kodak DC240 (for digital photography)
• Kaidan Quickpan tripod (for vr photography)
• Polaroid SprintScan 35 (for slide scanning)


Software:

• Apple Quicktime VR Authoring Studio (for vr assembly)
• Adobe Photoshop 5.0.2 (for all photo editing and painting)
• Adobe GoLive 4.0 (for all gui-based web development)
• Media Cleaner Pro 3 (for image compression)
• BBEdit 4.5.3 (for all text-based web development and editing)
• Anarchie Pro 3.5 (for all uploading and downloading)
• Snapz Pro 2 (for documentation screenshots)


Facilities:

• HELL (for Photoshop, Quicktime VR and web work)

Eric's Powerbook
Judith working on wounded warrior
Steve after a Photoshop session


• Classics Department Seminar Room (for VR photography)
• Wertz Art & Architecture Library (for sculpture/color research)

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Process (painting):

Judith's Guide to painting ancient sculpture with Photoshop.

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Process (VR):

We did all the VR photography on this site using a Kodak digital camera, Power Macintosh computers and Apple's Quicktime VR Authoring Studio software. Occassionally we touched up the resulting photos with Photoshop.

First, we devised a way of measuring degrees around a spinning stool, on which we placed the objects we photographed:

Second, we angled our camera at the object on the stool, making sure the object fit inside the camera's viewfinder in each of its positions as it rotated.

Third, we took the pictures. We experimented heavily with the number of degrees to rotate the object between each shot, as that number determines the smoothness of the resulting vr object movie. After seeing 10, 20 and 30 degree-based movies, we settled on 10 degrees, as it produced (by far) the smoothest movies.

Next, we imported the pictures (usually around 40 per object) into Apple's Quicktime VR Authoring Studio. After setting the software to output our desired resolutions and rotating directions, we let it do its thing...

That's it! It really was that simple!

Judith and Guy do have elaborate plans for QTVR though... They are working on producing object movies of the statue of George Washington in Miami's Alumni Hall, as well as one of the "For Kepler." Another project they are considering is coloring each frame of the Nike qtvr movie, so one could spin it all the way around and see it in full color... :-)

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Contributing Links:

Though many people helped us directly with this project, we also used many web resources for help with the more technical aspects of this site and especially the Quicktime content. To see some of these helpful sites for yourself, follow the links you are interested in:

• Matt's Script Archive

-TextCounter
-Guestbook


• Claire Siskin's Quicktime Tutorials | Claire's Home Page

• Dreamhost's FAQ

• GoLive HQ

• The Server Side Includes Tutorial

• UNIXHelp for Users

• The Onion

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