Firstly we knew when using the Omni Importer we would need somewhere to save all the folders and the basic stitched files so we created a folder on the computer N drive so we could stay organised and keep everything on here:
Next we took all the micro SD cards out of the Omni Rig and plugged them into the 6 USB card readers. Then all these card readers got plugged into 7 port USB Hub so that we could access all the footage at the same time. Once this was all plugged in and ready to go we opened up the Omni Importer and gave it access to the SD Cards where it began automatically piecing together the videos and synching them etc. This then allowed us to preview our files as a very basic quick stitch. We named all the files so we also had a very clear idea of what shot was what. We also had to change the settings of each video to be correct (Stabilisation = None, Blending = Sharp, Flip = Standard, Colour Harmonisation = None, Render = 4k H.264) :
We the went through and previewed each video/ quick stitched so we could make a judgment on which ones we would actually use in the video and which videos weren't needed. This meant we then didn't have to process them all and instead would only process the ones we liked and were going to use:
Another useful thing we could do at this basic stage while still on the Omni Importer was to as you watched each shot mark an In and Out point for each shot. This means you can cut out any beginning and end footage that you don't actually want. For us we cut out the beginning and end of each clip because we were in shot still. This then means again it will only process the section of the video that you liked and marked rather than spending more time on stuff you won't need or want:
After this we decided we wanted to process 3 of the best butterfly shots which were the most active shots and also 2 shots of the garden just as back up incase we needed more footage.We had to wait about 2 hours for these 5 shots to process and save onto the folder so that we could then begin editing them:
Once processed we were then able to access the MP4 Equi Rectangular view on Quicktime or if we put it into the GO Pro VR Player we could watch our basic stitch as a 360 video. It also had produced Kava files for us which are what we needed to take into the Kolor AutoPano Video Software to edit from.
The next thing we did was to then make a rough cut on Adobe Premiere with all the Equi Rectangular MP4 files from the shots we had processed. Here is the basic rough cut I made:
We then began pulling each Kava shot file into Kolor and marking the In and Out points with the blue workspace bar and the red render bar so that we would only be effecting the section we wanted to use in our cut:
We knew we didn't have to Synchronise because the Omni Rig has done this for us. We didn't need to stitch either as we had already done this on the Omni Importer. We also knew we didn't need to stabilise the footage as we had taken all static shots. The first thing we knew we did need to do was colour. We clicked on the colour tab and set it to adjust the exposure and colour for us and harmonise it every 5 seconds meaning it will look a lot more fluid and blended across all cameras. Here are the settings:
Next we moved on to look at the blend mode and we made sure it was set to sharp as this is much better for static shots and also then gives us more control on masking and control points etc. Here are the settings we applied:
We didn't want to do anything in the stereo settings as we weren't going to use the sound from all the clips and cameras because we didn't pick much up. We instead moved on to focus on control points and masking which to do so we had to click the edit button under the preview to bring us into Kolor Giga which was more advanced. Here is what it looked like when we got it into Giga:
We started by adding the vertical lines meaning that it will straighten the image and the stitch for us. It was very effective, Here is what we did:
We began by looking at the RMS value and assessing how we could improve this. We began by trying to make the stitch better with the control points to bring down the RMS value. We clicked onto the control points option which shows us the RMS and link values before we edited it:
We then clicked on each specific link that was weak and began assessing which control points were needed. We deleted control points from the worst links and we deleted the worst RMS valued control points like so:
This then meant we needed to gain more control points so we then after getting rid of all bad RMS values clicked on the Optimise control points setting which then made the software figure out newer and better control points and we ended up with a much better RMS value than before:
We were much happier with this so we saved these changes. We then went back into Kolor to preview these changes. We then watched the Preview of the section we were working with through out so that we could begin to pick up on particular stitching issues when the butterflies were moving around the camera. We used the splice tool to cut the timeline up into section depending on where we wanted to fix:
We then while seated on the relevant spliced section went back into Giga through the edit button. Once back in Giga we went onto the masking tool/option and began placing markers around to try and move the stitch lines away from the action. We found it was a case of trial and error a lot of the time to find the best way it worked. Here are the markers we put down for this stitching problem:
We then saved and previewed this back in kolor so we could work out how effective it was. The main problem we were having is that when the butterflies came very close to the camera it was really hard to mask the stitch lines completely out the way. We had to just do our best to improve it and leave it at that. We didn't want to completely cut out the section of our video when the butterflies did come close despite the stitching errors because we really liked the images it gave us and the excitement it would give the audience.
Once we had spent a lot of time fixing and masking stitch lines on this video as best as we could using this process we then previewed it all the way through to make sure we were happy with it. Once we were we could render and export this shot. Here is the render settings we used:
We then moved on to repeat this same process for all 4 shots we wanted to use on our final cut. Here are some more screen shots of that process but we essentially just followed the same work flow we used for this first shot each time:
Fixing/improving control points
Fixing/improving control points
Masking stitch lines
Masking stitch lines
Masking stitch lines
Each clip took us at least an hour or two to edit as it is a precise and at time tedious process. However we eventually got through all the clips with this workflow and got all the new files exported/rendered and saved.
We then took these new MP4 Files we have created and imported them back into Premiere Pro so that we can make our final cut now. Here is the timeline of our final cut:
As you can see we have added sound and effects to our piece too. We firstly put traditions between each of our clips so that they cross fade from one to another for smoother watching experience. We then decided we didn't like the sound from our Go Pro files because it was too noisy and had a lot of messy background sounds so we went online and found royalty free sound effects. We used a Royalty free sound scape of a forest for the beginnings an then eased this into a Royalty free sound track we found on Youtube which we really liked and felt matched our piece as well and enhanced the viewing experience. I feel like the best change made was to the colour saturation because we wanted our piece to be vibrant to make the butterflies and out. Here is how it looked before:
and here is how it looked afterwards:
Overall I was really happy with our piece especially after the amount of time we had put into it learning all this new equipment and software. We then exported our final cut as a 4k H.264 file. We wanted to upload it onto youtube so I injected the MetaData needed for it to be viewed as 360 like so:
I then uploaded it and here is the final video:
I am proud of what we have achieved here and in such a quick turn around.
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