Kolor: Image-stitching & virtual tour solutions

Kolor 360° video solutions | 2nd solution: Autopano Video, the new 360° video stitcher by Kolor (version 1.0 beta 1)

Rami — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:56:34 +0000

The team of Kolor is proud to release today a first beta version of Autopano Video, the new 360° video stitching software!

Autopano Video lets you assemble several videos into a single one covering up to 360 x 180 degrees. The user interface is designed to ease your workflow: drag and drop your source videos, choose a stitching template (including GoPro template) or launch a detection from scratch, use Autopano Pro or Giga to adjust your reference panoramas and click on Render.

Autopano Pro or Autopano Giga are required to use Autopano Video properly.

Download Autopano Video
& request a free registration key for the beta

Watch the video: My first 360° video with Autopano Video

The change log

Main changes

This changelog is the first introduction of Autopano Video, a video stitcher that helps you create amazing 360° videos ( or partial ).

Autopano Video / Autopano Video Pro is the easiest way to stitch and create 360-degree immersive videos

Offer an incredible new experience to your clients or friends. Autopano Video is the new video-stitching software application developed by Kolor. It lets you assemble several videos into a single one covering up to 360 x 180 degrees. The user interface is designed to ease your workflow: drag and drop your source videos, choose a stitching template (including GoPro template) or launch a detection from scratch, use Autopano Pro or Giga to adjust your reference panoramas and click on Render.

We had 3 main goals when making these products

Quality first : The world’s best image-stitching technology is behind Autopano Video. Quality workflow, quality results.

No limitation : We were always determined to bring you cross-platform support as well as cross-hardware support. And that, without any limit in the number of video stream sources nor in the output size.

Affordable, accessible : Both in terms of usage and price, Autopano Video gives nearly everyone the chance to create amazing 360° videos.

Using Autopano Video during the beta stage

We want you to test it, fully, without any limit, even without watermark, for free. So we decided to let you use the full software for free until the end of June 2013. Get a temporary license for free and remove to remove the watermark: http://www.kolor.com/360-video/autopano-video-360-video-stitcher.html.

We believe in our community and in our customers that have been supporting us since a long time now. The quality of a software application doesn’t only come from the quality of the developer ( come on, still a bit ), but from the quality of the communication between you and us.

For this piece of software too, we’ve opened a dedicated forum to let you discuss with us about the product. It is always at the same location: http://www.kolor.com/forum/. Go there to find support, report bugs, post results, etc.

Roadmap to the release

We expect that you’ll find bugs, for sure. And we already have some bugs opened in our database. Here’s a short list of what is still under work here.

QuickTime codec support with Mac version in 64bits. We support QuickTime Codec in 32bits but not yet in 64bits.
Mac version can be really slow when having source viewers activated. We advise you to enable them only if needed (untick the boxes "Seek on timeline update").
Render dialog box UI. We are not totally satisfied with the current layout. If you don’t understand how to use it, we’ll make some changes there.
Autopano Video Pro only: GPU rendering is working great and super fast on Windows but not on Mac where graphics drivers are complicated to handle well.

Changelog since the latest private beta :

- 0001815: [UI] KAVA icons – resolved

- 0001948: [UI] Main slider drag – resolved

- 0001821: [I/O] 48 fps support – resolved

- 0001906: [UI] add quick pano edition – resolved

- 0001929: [UI] Resizable zone in the UI – resolved

- 0001894: [Benchmark] kic allocation too small for big frame – resolved

- 0001944: [I/O] H264 4k support – resolved

Tutorial – How to make an HDR panorama with PhotoEngine (Oloneo) & Autopano Giga (Kolor)

philippe — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:02:20 +0000

“HDR” is the acronym in reference to “High Dynamic Range”, a digital photography technique whereby multiple exposures of the same scene are layered and merged using image editing software which will allow you to create photos with gorgeous detail and clarity.

How to make an HDR panorama?

In this tutorial you are going to learn how to create an HDR panorama according to the following workflow:

Create a panorama for each bracketed exposure (one for all the photos at -2EV, one for 0EV, one for +2EV)
Stitch the three or more images to build the final HDR panorama in PhotoEngine
Use the Tone Map and edit the final result

To begin the tutorial you need three tools namely: Autopano Giga 3, PhotoEngine and a pack of images.

Read Autopano Giga 3 user manual

Read PhotoEngine user manual

Kolor 360° video solutions | 1st solution: Kolor Eyes, the free 360° video player for iPad (new version)

Rami — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:46:37 +0000

Kolor has just released version 1.1 of Kolor Eyes, the free 360° video player for iPad. It allows you to play and interact with your 360° videos directly on your iPad. Turn at 360 degrees, zoom in and out, look at what is taking place all around you, use the gyroscope to navigate within the video. Play the embedded demo videos or download your own 360° videos. All for free.

Kolor Eyes is part of the Kolor 360° Video Solutions. Stay tunned! Something huge is coming next week!

Discover and download Kolor Eyes

Interested in 360° videos?
Receive the latest information about Kolor’s 360° video solutions

New York 360 with Panotour Pro, by Nuno Madeira

yannL — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:24:39 +0000

Nuno Madeira, a Portuguese Photographer, invites us to visit New York. He has just published a virtual tour that integrates multiple panoramas! You can though look over all famous places like Time Square, Soho, Central Park, the Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, West Village and so on.

He discovered New York in 2010, and got a love at first sight. Today he wants to share his love for the city through his work.

Technically speaking, he used a Canon 1000D and a 10-17 Tokina lens, without a tripod. Each panorama is composed of 9 to 15 photos. This project required 3 years of work and has been relayed on National Geographic Portugal and Petapixel.

The virtual tour has been made with Panotour Pro 1.8. Nuno created his own themes and brought his personal touch so that the virtual tour looks like no other.

Nuno is 33 year old 360 photographer/Architect/Web-designer, you can look his work on his personal and professional website.

Don’t forget that Panotour 2 will be available soon, go there for the latest news!

10 pictures that break pixel number records

philippe — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:09:46 +0000

Tom’s Guide, online magazine in IT field, underlines that with the advent of hi-tech digital cameras and professional gear (such as Gigapan Epic Pro), powerful lenses, ultra powered computers and advanced image processing technologies, now it’s possible for professional photographers to shoot pictures in great detail.

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama shot with Gigapan Epic Pro

A Gigapixel image is a digital image bitmap composed of one billion pixels, more than 200 times better than my mobile phone’s 5 MP camera! Here are some pictures stitched by Kolor Autopano Giga:

Paris 26 Gigapixels

London 320 Gigapixels

Budapest 70 Gigapixels

Have a look on 7 other gigapixels images on Tom’s Guide website (in French). We recommend you to use Firefox internet browser to visit the website.

Get more information about Autopano Giga

Kolor Panotour Pro 2.0: Prepare for the next-generation virtual tours

Rami — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:21:12 +0000

Get ready!

Kolor is developing the next major version of Panotour Pro. While the development is underway, subscribe to receive the latest updates about this new version.

Subscribe to get the latest news about Panotour Pro 2.0

The first public presentation of Kolor Panotour Pro 2.0 will occur on June 13, during the Iceland 2013 IVRPA Conference.

> Join the Kolor team at the IVRPA annual conference
> Discover the current version: Panotour Pro 1.8

Discover Marseille 50 Gigapixels by Guillaume Roumestan & Kolor

philippe — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:23:14 +0000

Discover Marseille 50 Gigapixels presented by Guillaume Roumestan through Gigapixel Tour (France’s leading website in gigapixel photography creation, managed by G. Roumestan) and Kolor company (the global leader in image-stitching technologies).

Marseille is one of the most beautiful city of the French mediterranean coast and also the largest. Its architectural heritage makes this image very interesting.

To establish this panorama, 5160 photos were taken from the catholic Basilica “Notre-Dame de la Garde” stitched with Autopano Giga software. Due to its height and closeness to the coast, the hill became an important stronghold and observation and lookout point. Thanks to Marseille 50 Gigapixels, you can discover the city & its several monuments, buildings, churches, fishing port, and other details…

Hardware:

- Motorized head: Gigapan Epic Pro

- Camera: Nikon D5100 ( APS-C 16 Mpxl)

- Lens: Sigma 50-500mm f4,5-6,3 DG APO OS

- Memory card: Transcend SDHC 32 Gb

Software:

- Autopano Giga

- Panotour Pro

Shooting:

- 5160 photos

- Lens: 500mm

- Shutter: 1/2500 sec

- Aperture: f16

- Iso: 1600

More about Guillaume Roumestan

Discover other projects led by Guillaume such as: Cannes 65 Gigapixels, Nice 52 Gigapixels, Barcelona 16 Gigapixels & Monaco 5 Gigapixels.

Panobook 2013: The entry period is now closed. What is the next step?

philippe — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:55:54 +0000

The entry period for the Kolor Panobook 2013 contest is now closed. We received more than 1400 great panoramas: many thanks to all who joined the contest this year! You can watch all images submitted thanks to the gallery.

The next step is the vote of the jury. It will be carried out by 3 professional photographers really fond of the panoramic format as the jury members this year: Thomas Bredenfeld, Nicolas Mériau and Henry Stuart. The voting process is carried out in 3 phases:

The first phase is carried out by Kolor directly, consisting of removing images which do not comply with participation conditions, technical, rules or composition restrictions.

The second phase is carried out by the jury to select the 150 top panoramas from all remaining submissions.

The third phase is also carried out by the jury, consisting of determining the 3 winning images from the selected panoramas.

Then the layout, the cover of the book and finally the printing…

Stay connected with us on Facebook to receive news about the contest, 1 panorama every day & also to have some surprises…

Interview: Jerzy Pajor, Kolor Best Panoramic Photographer 2012

philippe — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:12:17 +0000

Jerzy Pajor won the title of Kolor best panoramic photographer 2012. Let us get to know with this talented photographer.

Jerzy, last year you won the title of Kolor best panoramic photographer 2012 with the panorama “Bazylika Mariacka (Krakow)”. What did this victory mean to you?

I was very happy. My friends and family were proud of my prize. The priest of the Bazylika also enjoyed & congratulated me a lot. He bought 10 Panobooks!

Could you remind us some details about the shot & the image “Bazylika Mariacka (Krakow)”?

The Bazylika Mariacka is one of the most beautiful churches in Poland. It was very interesting experience. I started to shot panorama at 6 am to avoid crowd and took 7 hours, because there was low light. I used exposure time 1/30 – 10 seconds, Canon EOS 5 MarkII + Canon EF 50mm f/1,4 + Nodal Ninja 5, 71 images + 30 images HDR, Autopano Giga, Photoshop, Panotour Pro.

After your prize, did you lead other projets?

I won an excellent panoramic motorized head and I create many wonderful gigapixel projects such as the valuable gothic stained glass – excellent example about how to correct geometry in Autopano!

I also made the 5 gigapixels photography The Veit Stoss altar, a virtual tour of Lausanne, the Schweizer National-Circus KNIE and many more. I love this job! In all projects I use my Panogear, Autopano Giga and Panotour Pro.

We have already received more than 1 000 panoramas but I did not see your name in the list of contributors. What are you ploting ?

I will send my panorama soon because this week I have a session in a very interesting place…

Do you think that this year, you will finish in the top 5?

I’m not thinking about winning, I prefer to be surprised again.

Follow Jerzy on Facebook
Have a look on his several projects

Discover Autopano Giga, Panotour Pro & Panogear.

An exclusive 360° view of the high drama of an operation on a six-month-old baby. All’s well that ends well..

philippe — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:09:31 +0000

On its website, Blick.ch tells us a nice story… A six-month-old baby’s heart has stopped. As Dr Michael Hubler (right) and his team repair a hole in Fabrizio’s heart, the boy is kept alive in the 90-minute procedure by the heart-lung machine behind the surgeon at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich pumping blood into his body.

An operation on a six-month-old baby

Dominik Baumann worked since last fall to get a permission for doing this panoramashooting. He had to wear clothes like the doctor to be sterile and was not allowed to come closer than 1 meter to the surgery table. Thanks to Panotour Pro, Dominik added hotspots to explain important steps & functions of each person during a heart surgery. This tour was published in Blick.ch’s website as well on the iPad App of Blick.

Each person has a crucial job

Happily, the operation has been a great success. A week after this picture was taken, Fabrizio was able to leave hospital with his mother. All’s well that ends well…

Doctor's delight for his patient next day

If you want to read the full story, visit Blick.ch

Learn more about Panotour Pro (virtual tour software)