Be Creative!
How will you ensure that virtual visitors are able to access all parts of the exhibit?
Sometimes, what works well for a physical viewer needs a creative touch for it to be explored as part of a VR experience.
Here are some examples
from our experience:
The May Massee
VR Experience
We wanted to combine photographs and text in a single hotspot. Which worked with the software; however, the text was tough to read. The solution was to use Photoshop to create a new image with both the photograph and the text on a solid background. This image was added to the hotspot. It looks great and is easy to read.
The Literary World
of William Allen White
In the physical exhibit, we used flat display cases to create a timeline of White's published books. It was difficult to look down into the cases while in the VR experience, and adding hotspots for each book -- 24! -- was not a good option. Our solution was to create an online timeline of the books using Timeline JS. This is a free resource that we've used for other projects. The program generates a link, which we inserted into an interactive hotspot; clicking on the icon opens the timeline, and visitors can access all of the intellectual and visual content available to physical visitors.
Circles of Influence:
William Allen White in
His World and Ours
How could we share a notebook of letters written by children's book authors? We used a free flipbook maker to duplicate the physical experience of turning pages in a binder. This creates a virtual experience similar to that of physical visitors.
Photographs - 360 and Still Images
Create and collect all of the photographic images you will need to create the VR experience.
360 Images
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Turn the camera on and set it in the space you are filming
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Be sure it is securely attached to the tripod
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The camera should be at the height from which you'd like the visitor to see the experience (eye level, ground, as if sitting, etc.)
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Face the camera toward the first thing visitors should see when entering the virtual room
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Is the camera level? (visually check this using the phone's view screen; there isn't a level on the camera)
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Access the Gear 360 app via the smart phone
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You'll see the camera's view
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Use the options on the phone to take multiple 360 photographs
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It's good practice to take more images than you'll need!
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Each photograph is ready in a few seconds.
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You can view the images using the phone.
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Make adjustments to the physical space if needed.
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You may want to experiment with putting the tripod in different places. Which perspective do you like best?
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Download the images from the camera to the phone. The multiple images created by the 360 camera will stitch together during this process, creating one 360 image.
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Download the images from the phone onto the desktop computer.
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Edit the photographs with ActionDirector, if desired.
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This step is optional. In our experience, the images did not need editing.
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Still Images
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Take photographs of display cases
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Sometimes it is difficult to view items in display cases closely. Still images of the contents can be added as hotspots, which gives the virtual viewer a better view of these items.
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Opening the display case doors or removing vitrines, when possible, helps reduce glare in the photographs.
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Take more photographs than you anticipate using! They often look different on the computer than they do on a camera screen.
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Take photographs of physical features to highlight during the virtual tour
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These images are good candidates for hotspots.
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Save information panels as .jpg.
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InstaVR doesn't offer a .pdf option when addingstill images as hotspots. An online pdf-to-jpg converter can be used to convert formats; there are free options available. Larger information panels may need to be photographed if the files are bigger than the conversion system allows.
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