Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An illustrated introduction to the groundbreaking interactive technology that's brought virtual reality to the massesQuickTime Virtual Reality, more commonly known as QuickTime VR, is a cross-platform technology developed by Apple. QuickTime allows viewers to explore a site in 3D, rotate objects, zoom in or out of a scene, or look around 360 degrees, all while at their desktop. The QuickTime VR Book provides an introduction to the process of creating QuickTime VR movies and larger QTVR-based projects.The concise information in The QuickTime VR Book shows readers how to add QuickTime VR content to their Web site or CD-ROM. It covers the basics of virtual-reality technology and such topics as planning your movie, viewing and creating panoramas and object movies, understanding and setting up hot spots, and linking large projects together. This book will serve as an indispensable resource for Web and multimedia producers (including game developers), photographers, and 3D artists.-- FirstQuickTime VR book on the market!-- A technology that cyberstores are increasingly using to make sales by displaying merchandise in virtual storefronts-- An affordable introductory book, appealing to higher-end audiences who want to add this technique to their repertoire of skills-- A book for those who produce Web sites and CDs, as well as those who create their content

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. xv)
• Read Me First (p. xvii)
• Part I Introduction (p. 1)
• 1 QuickTime VR--An Overview (p. 3)
• Actual Reality and Virtual Reality (p. 4)
• Linear and Nonlinear (p. 6)
• Many Uses of QuickTime VR (p. 7)
• Virtual Tours (p. 7)
• Prototyping (p. 8)
• Entertainment (p. 8)
• Sales (p. 9)
• Art (p. 9)
• Creating QuickTime VR--A Bird's Eye View (p. 10)
• Capture or Create Your Content (p. 10)
• Transform Content into QuickTime VR Movie (p. 10)
• Prepare for Delivery (p. 11)
• QuickTime VR Delivery--Stand-alone Movie, Web, Multimedia (p. 11)
• The Technology Behind QuickTime VR (p. 11)
• QuickTime and QuickTime VR: System-Level Software (p. 12)
• History of QuickTime VR (p. 13)
• Playing QTVR Movies (p. 14)
• 2 So What Is QuickTime VR? (p. 17)
• What Makes a QuickTime VR Movie? (p. 18)
• Panorama Movies (p. 18)
• Object Movies (p. 21)
• Hot Spots and Navigation (p. 26)
• More Advanced Features (p. 26)
• What Makes the QuickTime VR Process? (p. 28)
• Planning (p. 28)
• Collaboration (p. 30)
• Part II Creating QTVR Input (p. 31)
• 3 Panorama Overview (p. 33)
• Source Imagery (p. 35)
• Stitching and Warping (p. 35)
• Dicing (p. 38)
• 4 Panorama Content Creation (p. 39)
• Photographic Input (p. 40)
• Before the Shoot (p. 41)
• During the Shoot (p. 47)
• After the Shoot--From Camera to Digital Files (p. 52)
• 3D CGI Panoramic Input (p. 56)
• Applications That Do Panoramas (p. 56)
• If Your Application Doesn't Do Panoramas (p. 58)
• 5 Stitching and Constructing Panorama Movies (p. 59)
• Retouching Your Images (p. 60)
• Shadow and Detail (p. 60)
• Lens Flare (p. 61)
• Removing Lens Distortion (p. 61)
• Stitching Software (p. 61)
• Stitching Steps (p. 62)
• Spin Panorama (PictureWorks) (p. 63)
• PhotoVista (Live Picture) (p. 64)
• Nodester (Roundabout Logic) (p. 66)
• QuickTime VR Authoring Studio (Apple, Macintosh only) (p. 69)
• Retouching, Again (p. 73)
• Retouching After Stitching (p. 73)
• Sharpening the Image (p. 73)
• 3D Rendered Images into Panorama Movies (p. 74)
• From Panorama Image to QTVR Panorama Movie (p. 74)
• From Panorama Image to QTVR Panorama (Windows) (p. 76)
• 6 Object Movie Overview (p. 79)
• The Variety of Object Movies (p. 81)
• Object Movie Types (p. 82)
• Rotating Movies (p. 83)
• Absolute Movies (p. 84)
• View States (p. 85)
• Animation (p. 86)
• Designing Other Types of Object Movies (p. 88)
• 7 Capturing Images for Object Movies (p. 91)
• Photographic Input (p. 92)
• Equipment (p. 92)
• Camera (p. 96)
• Lighting (p. 97)
• Shooting Oversized Objects (p. 98)
• Alternate Shooting Strategies (p. 98)
• 3D Rendering Input (p. 99)
• 3D Capture of Object Movies (p. 99)
• QuickTime Render Output (p. 101)
• 8 Creating Object Movies (p. 103)
• QTVR Output (p. 104)
• Image Sources (p. 106)
• Image Tweaking (p. 106)
• Output Settings--Up, Down, Left, Right Reversal (p. 110)
• Object Movie-Creating Software (p. 111)
• Spin Object Maker (p. 111)
• Widgetizer (p. 112)
• QuickTime VR Authoring Studio (p. 114)
• Part III Preparing for Delivery (p. 117)
• 9 Hot Spots (p. 119)
• What Are Hot Spots? (p. 120)
• Beyond Portals (p. 120)
• Hot Spot Scenarios (p. 120)
• Behind the Scenes--How the Technology Works (p. 121)
• The Process of Creating Hot Spots (p. 123)
• Mark "Here" (p. 123)
• Tell Where "There" Is (p. 123)
• Tell What "There" Is (p. 123)
• Software for Creating Hot Spots (p. 124)
• Nodester and Widgetizer (p. 124)
• VRL (QTVR Version 1.0) (p. 126)
• PanoMAGIC (p. 127)
• QuickTime VR Authoring Studio (p. 128)
• Multinode Scenes (p. 129)
• Hot Spots--The Big Picture (p. 129)
• 10 Compression for Playback (p. 131)
• The Joys of Playing Movies on Computers (p. 132)
• Playback 101 (p. 132)
• Hardware 101 (p. 132)
• Data Structure and Tradeoffs (p. 135)
• Compression (p. 136)
• Panoramas and Tiling (p. 139)
• Tiling (p. 140)
• Tiles and Codecs (p. 142)
• Basic Tile Dimension in Four-Part Harmony (p. 143)
• Double Size (p. 143)
• Object Movies (p. 144)
• Cleanup and Efficiency (p. 145)
• 11 Managing QTVR Projects (p. 147)
• It All Comes Back to Planning (p. 148)
• In the Shop of the Pros from eVox (p. 148)
• The Blueprint (p. 149)
• External Reference (p. 149)
• Inventory of Resources (p. 150)
• Planning Issues and Decisions to Make for QTVR (p. 152)
• Software Tools (p. 154)
• Documenting Your Position Aerially (p. 154)
• Documenting the Resources in a List (p. 155)
• QuickTime VR Authoring Studio's Project Management (p. 156)
• Part IV Delivering QTVR Output (p. 159)
• 12 Delivery to the Web (p. 161)
• Needed Software (p. 162)
• What Plug-ins Do (p. 162)
• What the QuickTime 2 Plug-in Does (p. 163)
• URL Chasing (p. 164)
• Reference Movies (p. 166)
• Streaming (p. 169)
• HTML Embedding Commands (p. 172)
• Essential Tags (p. 172)
• Optional Tags (p. 174)
• Non-QTVR Tags (p. 180)
• Sound (p. 180)
• Standard HTML Tags (p. 181)
• JavaScript (p. 181)
• Movie Conversion and Preparation (p. 181)
• Movie Size (p. 181)
• The Web Equivalent of a Multinode Movie (p. 183)
• Converting Movies from QTVR 1 to 2 (or Back) (p. 184)
• Software (p. 184)
• PanoMAGIC (p. 185)
• VRL (for 1.0-Based Movies) (p. 186)
• QuickTime VR Authoring Studio (p. 186)
• Nodester and Widgetizer (p. 187)
• Try It Yourself! (p. 188)
• 13 Delivery to Multimedia (p. 189)
• The Nature of the Dialog (p. 191)
• Navigation Links (p. 192)
• What Can QTVR Do in a Multimedia Presentation? (p. 192)
• Status Reading (p. 192)
• Interaction (p. 193)
• Navigation Processes (p. 194)
• Playback Parameters (p. 195)
• Embedding QuickTime Media (p. 196)
• Supporting Authoring Applications (p. 197)
• mFactory's mTropolis (p. 198)
• Macromedia QT3 Asset Xtra (p. 198)
• XCMD (External Command) (p. 199)
• Other Applications (p. 199)
• More Custom Than an Application (p. 200)
• 14 The QuickTime VR API (p. 201)
• System-Level Software (p. 202)
• What Can Be Done Using the API (p. 202)
• Create Authoring Tools (p. 202)
• Create Custom Media and Games (p. 204)
• What Is in the API (p. 204)
• Basic Playback and Status (p. 204)
• Hooks (p. 205)
• Movie Controller (p. 205)
• Displaying Custom Cursors (p. 205)
• QTVR File Format and QuickTime Movie Format (p. 206)
• Embedding Media--Buffer Matters (p. 206)
• Sound, Movies, and Images (p. 207)
• Toward the Future QTVR (p. 208)
• VR Script (p. 208)
• The Future Is in the API (p. 208)
• Other Possibilities (p. 209)
• 15 A Gallery of Samples (p. 211)
• Panoramas (p. 212)
• Shooting Panoramas: Breaking out of the Box (p. 212)
• Panorama Shooting: Exposure Adjustments (p. 212)
• Panorama Retouching Magic (p. 213)
• Panoramas as Flat Images (p. 214)
• Panorama Surprise (p. 214)
• Painted VR (p. 214)
• Panorama Collage (p. 215)
• High Resolution (p. 216)
• Undersea Panoramas (p. 217)
• Panorama Animation (p. 217)
• Compositing and VR Clip Art (p. 218)
• Object Movies (p. 219)
• The Cube (p. 219)
• Fully Two-Axis--eVox's Guitar and Hands (p. 219)
• Walk and Chew Gum (p. 220)
• Virtual Science Experiment (p. 221)
• An Array of Choices--Tim Petros and the Swimsuit (p. 221)
• Gesundheit! (p. 221)
• Web: Games and Exploration (p. 222)
• 3D Web-based Game: The Forgotten (p. 222)
• Journey to Tikal (p. 223)
• Multiple Panorama Fun (p. 223)
• VR View (p. 224)
• Documentary (p. 225)
• Italian Earthquake (p. 225)
• Witness (p. 226)
• ... One Large Panorama for Humankind (p. 227)
• Navigation Tools (p. 228)
• Greg O'Loughlin's Object Movie as Navigation (p. 228)
• Plain Graphic Panorama (p. 228)
• 3D QTVR (p. 229)
• Visualizing Architecture (p. 229)
• Fantastic Worlds (p. 229)
• Appendixes
• A QuickTime VR Resources (p. 233)
• B Other Immersive Imaging Technologies (p. 243)
• Index (p. 251)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

QuickTime VR (QTVR) software was originally developed by Apple on and for the Mac, but with the latest release the software operates cross-platform for either a Mac or Windows. Kitchens covers creating QTVR panoramas, preparing hot spots for mouse clicks, compression for playback, and delivery via the web or CD-ROM. This is a good book for designers new to QTVR but not for design novices. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.