Convert Spherical Render into 360 YouTube Video
Melissa Conway
Posts: 590
Software: DAZ Studio, Pinnacle Studio 2.0, YouTube Metadata script
I’m sure there are other methods, but the following is the workflow I devised after much searching for information on how to do this.
Spherical Render: Create a scene in DAZ Studio. Click Create, choose New Camera, name it and choose Accept. In the Scene pane, select the new camera. In the Parameters pane, change X and Z Translate to zero, change X, Y, and Z Rotate to zero. Set Y Translate to your character’s eye-view (approximately 170) or higher/lower depending on what viewpoint you need. Click on Lens, under Lens Distortion Type, choose spherical.
In the Render Settings pane, click General. With Constrain Proportions (Global) On, set Pixel Size (Global) to 7680 x 3840. Render your image or animation, name and save.
Convert to 360 Video: In Pinnacle Studio, Click on the Edit workspace. In the Navigation pane, click on the file symbol and navigate to your saved render. Drag and drop it into the Navigation pane, and then drag and drop it into the Timeline pane, AV Track 1. If your saved render was an image file, right click on the thumbnail in the timeline and choose Adjust Duration, and then in the popup, type in the amount of time you’d like your video to run (in my test, I chose 30 seconds). In the timeline toolbar, click on the settings icon (looks like a gear). Click on the Aspect button and change to 3D Video (2:1). Change Size to HD 3840 x 1920, and Framerate to 60 (60p), and then click Apply.
Click on the Export menu tab. In the Settings pane, check the Same as Timeline box. Click Start Export, and name your file.
YouTube Metadata and Upload: For your 360 video to work in YouTube, you must use the 360 Video Metadata app to inject metadata into your video file. I won’t post the link to the app here, but you can google “Upload 360 degree video YouTube” to find the official YouTube Help page, and follow the instructions for Step 2: Prepare for Upload and Step 3: Upload the File. (It’s easier than it sounds.)
Black line fix: if after uploading you see a black line when panning your video, go back into Pinnacle Studio, and in the Timeline, double-click your clip to open the media editor. At the top of the pane, click on Effects. Under Properties, Size, change horizontal and vertical to 100.1. Re-export your file and follow the metadata instruction to re-upload. If the black line is still visible, try 100.2, etc. until the line is gone.
Link to my example: https://youtu.be/8ss9XidpLLk
I hope this was useful.
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Comments
This.... Is.... Exactly what I need to accomplish.. You are amazing....
Glad it was helpful! For the record, Pinnacle Studio 2.0 has some limitations that hindered me from moving forward with my project, so I bit the bullet and subscribed to Adobe Premiere Pro, which makes the entire process a bit easier...
i don't see an option for lens distortion type.What syle and or workspace is this in?
The lens parameters only show up with Iray as the render engine, but how to use them? Can't make it do anything special...
Click on Create, New Camera. Name it if you like, choose any options you'd like, click Accept. Make sure the camera is selected in the Scene tab. Click on the Cameras tab. Click on Lens. Under Lens Distortion Type, choose Spherical. You will only see the distortion if you are viewing your scene with NVIDIA Iray Drawstyle, or if you render the scene. Hope that helps.
Huh. Tried that at first, didn't do anything, but now it works perfectly. Must have been something in the scene I had loaded. Thanks.
Necro-thread somewhat, but I'm trying to create a youtube video from my 360 render and the problem is the App.
I'm up to this part:
Create a 360-enabled file with an app
When I start the app (windows 7 64 bit) I get the black prompt window to open for a split second and then it closes and never opens and starts and allows me to select a video to inject.
Any ideas?
It says windows 64 bit, which we are running.
Why doesn't the app start? Argghhhhh
Check your antivirus. Norton flags the program as suspicous and will automatically remove it. Others may do as well. (Norton does this with many, many programs especially those from small developers and even ones I write for myself. I constantly find their Insight feature turned on even after I've turned it off. It doesn't actually find a virus, it just says it has"indicators" that look suspicious.)
I'm now starting over with Ricoh Theta. Trying that,
Didn't work. This is the worst uphill battle.
I've downloaded about 6 different apps so far.
All promising to inject meta-data for youtube.
I can get the 360 to work on FaceBook and their native hosts, but nothing seems to get me past that YouTube barrier.