Skip the plane. Virtual tours take you across the world from the comfort of home.
An interactive virtual tour is a Web-based presentation that uses panoramic photography to make viewers feel as if they are in a location, experiencing it firsthand. Sometimes, presentations use sound effects and music to add a physical and emotional quality. Virtual tours are useful to real estate and travel professionals, college recruiters and teachers who want to immerse their classes in something new.
Instructions
1. Take photographs of the areas your wish to highlight. Make sure the camera is positioned on a tripod when taking the shots. You will need one shot with the camera centered. Next, take six to 18 shots while rotating the camera. Fifty percent overlap between the shots is recommended for stitching them together.
2. Make a plan for using your images. It's possible to add sounds such as ocean waves that become louder the closer you move your cursor to the ocean and softer when your move it away. Adding a soundtrack or narration can also enhance the feeling of the virtual tour. The addition of "hot spots" allows viewers to click on an image that signals another to load. For example, a viewer may click a doorway and then feel as though the door opens on another scene. The same technology can be used to signal music or a short video clip on a television to start playing.
3. Select appropriate stitching software and use it to create the tour. Several versions are available online for free download. Other versions are available for purchase at retail stores in the electronics department. Program features vary, so decide what you're going to include, then choose the best software for your needs.
4. Place your virtual tour online. Most stitching programs will create a file that is ready to be uploaded and viewed as is, especially if you are creating a website using a template or are uploading to sites such as YouTube and Vimeo that are made for video sharing. Alternatively, if you are creating the code for your own site, you may need to code for the deployment of a Java applet. Resources explaining do this are available at Oracle (see Resources).
