Add 2D people to a VR stereo 360 pano

[JulioCayetano]

Hey,

Due to client´s request, I´m wondering how to deal with the issue of adding cutout people to our VR 360 panos. Is it just technically possible to add 2D cutouts to a Stereo 360 pano? Not in my head, but I was trying to be 100% sure...
I´m trying to do it in PS, just to give it a try, but as expected, it just looks bad in my Oculus Rift VR device, no matter how carefully I place them, trying to follow the perspective and left/right eye "shift". 2D elements in post look wrongly placed, like penetrating the floor and/or other surfaces.

Just wanted to be sure that the only way possible is to go the "3D people" way.

thanks in advance

Julio

[TomG]

Could be tricky but possible - be sure to be using Cubemaps rather than a spherical mapping, that way you won't have to try and create the "distortion" that matches the spherical projection. Then you can place them in the "same place" on the left and right eye versions (maybe finding a pixel for a feature you can line them up to).

You could also try placing them as cut outs in the 3D scene, if you don't want to go full 3D people. In the end though, full 3D people might be the easiest and less fiddly :)

[JulioCayetano]

Thanks for your info.
I haven´t tried the cubemap option yet, just spherical pano, that is the format that my client requests. Is it possible to convert from cubemap to spherical after post? inside PS or with any specific app?

However, placing cutouts in the same place in both eyes, finding a pixel for a feature as you suggest, is what I could try yesterday in an old spherical pano, but the results where not good, even with cutouts placed many meters from camera, they look like "pinching" the floor and the background walls.

It seems that going full 3D with people is what I will finally have to do.

[romullus]

I haven´t tried the cubemap option yet, just spherical pano, that is the format that my client requests. Is it possible to convert from cubemap to spherical after post? inside PS or with any specific app?

Yes, that is perfectly possible with almost any panoramic stitching software. Hugin is free, so you can try it out. There's also free plugin for photoshop, that converts spherical to cubical and back, but i can't recall its name.

Other solution would be to get back to your scene in 3ds Max, place people in the scene (cutouts or 3D, it doesn't matter), then select them and render selected with the same camera and same resolution. That way you should have perfectly matching people rendered and ready to overlay onto your main render.

[Ink Visual]

It's possible and fairly easy on spherical maps to be honest.
Here's an example of our work with people added in post:
https://theviewer.co/share/hello@inkvisual.co/927bac78-bf21-4b1f-a7db-0b1a5d7bcf63?linkType=ShareLink

In Photoshop just go to 3D--->Spherical Panorama--->New Panorama from selected layers
It will then change your viewport in a way you can see parts of panorama as in normal perspective. Add your people in this mode and convert back to spherical mode.
Use smart objects to do it all non destructively.

[JulioCayetano]

Thank you all very much for your support, you´re very kind, as always.

Cexec:

It's possible and fairly easy on spherical maps to be honest.
Here's an example of our work with people added in post:

Maybe I´m wrong, but you´re talking about adding 2D people onto a MONO 360 pano, right? (following your link I can only see a mono pano, it does not enter a VR mode, right?) We have already done mono panos with 2D people on the past, and it wasn´t a problem, as you comment. The big issue is to have those cutout people in a STEREO 360 pano for Oculus Rift or other VR devices.

[Ink Visual]

Oh I see, yes you're correct, I was referring to mono panoramas.
Sorry I didn't read your post carefully enough!

[JulioCayetano]

Cexec: Thank you anyway for your help. The 3D mode in Photoshop trick is something I wasn´t using at all for this and may be of help in many cases.