**Vanity** HELP! My boss wants me to MAKE Virtual Tours!!!

my desk | 11-05-01 | sweet diane

[sweet_diane]

I hope ya'll don't mind me asking here... I'm really at my wits end.

I update the website for and take digital pictures for a rental management company on the Gulf Coast. I take pictures of the inside of condos so those renting them can view them before hand. My qualifications for this job were, I had once taken a photography class and I like playing around on the computer.(and I'd work for cheap as I LOVE taking pictures and computers) When they first mentioned wanting me to make virtual tours I thought "cool! I'll learn something new!".

Well, it's not like anyone is going to train me. All I've been told a need a Bogen tripod and head and some Adobe software. I see nothing about Virtual Tours on the Adobe software I have and am having no luck asking our 'computer guy'.

Help anyone??? Maybe just point me in the right direction? Internet searches I've done come up empty.

[sweet_diane]

The bosses recently went on a training trip to Atlanta... and came back rather cranky, so this is a "we want it yesterday kinda thing". If I sound panicy... I am! lol

Many thanks ahead of time... :)

PS... Please feel free to post here or FReepmail me.

[sweet_diane]

Hey blam... You know anything about this stuff??

[sweet_diane]

Bumping my own post...

[sweet_diane]

Plleeassee someone who knows about this stuff see it...

[AppyPappy]

I think Virtual Tours is a software package or run through a provider. Go to a real estate site that uses it and see where the link goes.

[cd jones]

ipix.com

not a guru, but I found this

[Blagden Alley]

I know of two possibilities:

Take a bunch of (digital) pictures as you are walking through wherever. Go to the animation portion of your software, learn it real fast, and try that. Then complain that you need a read new, fast pc with lots of memory. And try again.

In a high end drafting package, put the geometry in and do a "fly through". That's architectural stuff, and probably not what you're after. But you could still get a good computer upgrade from your boss.

[Reelect President Dubya]

There is nothing magic about a "virtual tour." It is just a name for the way you are presenting the pictures. A virtual tour could be as simple as an HTML page with a description of the the house and links to pictures of the different rooms. You could even embed the links in the description. No big deal. Basic HTML skills are all you would need. Get out of panic mode and let that little noodle of yours do its job.

[ikka]

Check out something called "QTVR" which means Quicktime Virtual Reality. Basically you take a number of photos which overlap slightly to form a 360 degree view. Then using QTVR software you stitch them together to make one continuous image, then save as a QTVR file. When a user loads the QTVR file, they can rotate their view and thus look around a room.

[frozenlogger]

Ipix will work. You may want to try Photo Stitching software. You can create 1 panaramic image using 2 or more images as the source.

[Bikers4Bush]

www.virtual-web-tours.com

www.panoguide.com/publish.virtualtour.html

The second looks more informational. The first is a company that will do it for you so it probably isn't helpfull.

[Doctor Freeze]

When I put my house on the market earlier this year, my agent used IPIX for a 360 degree "virtual tour" of a few of the rooms in my house. It was cool. You need a special camera I think that can take the 360 degree IPIX picture.

[martin_fierro]

Check out the FREE surround software for doing virtual tours at www.pixaround.com.

See some of the uses I've made of it here.

Or I can e-mail you a copy of the software.

[wheezer]

Very well explained and very sound advice.

Plus, when a lot of people go for for the real over the top heavy load animated 3D presentation, the end products can very often be a browser-buster or will force the average user on a regular dial up connection to abandon the site due to slowness relative to means of presentation.

As a web designer, more times than not I find myself recommending the K.I.S.S. principle to prospective clients.

[Ramius]

Check out www.ipix.com

That might be a good way to do that...

[Ramius]

OK... so I'm a little slow on the switch this morning... need coffee.

[poindexter]

K.I.S.S. How about taking a number of pix of each property, and putting them in a PowerPoint presentation?
One presentation for each property. Quick(?) and dirty.

[sweet_diane]

yes... that IS a light at the end of the tunnel!!

I should have come here first... you guys and gals ARE the best!

[sweet_diane]

"Basic HTML skills are all you would need. Get out of panic mode and let that little noodle of yours do its job."

I like your idea... yet boss man wants folks to be able to look around the room at their leisure.

[CTGOPPER]

I use a program called Visual Tour Version 4.0. Their website is www.visualtour.com. I think it would be perfect for you. It is not a virtual tour (360 degrees) but I prefer the still shots since not everyone has high speed connections. If you want to create actual virtual tours, there are companies available. (www.ipix.com for one) I just got back from the National Realtors Convention and there was a new camera featured that will allow you to take the photos to create your own virtual tours. Feel free to email me as I picked up the info.