ultra-wide video in Panini perspective

[tksharpless]

It is two years since the Pannini projection was introduced in several panorama stitchers. Now the same angular compression technique can be applied to video, shot with ultra-wide and fish-eye lenses, to produce a natural looking perspective. I have yesterday posted on YouTube the world's first HD Pannini video clip, made from a 174-degree fish-eye sequence (Sigma 8mm on Canon EOS 7D) with my new program Panini-Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKVZ7pJdCvw shows both the original and the transformed sequences. Although a bit rough, this comparison I think shows that the Panini projection may open a new range of hyper-wide-angle video that "looks right", as it has done for flat panoramas.

Panini-Video is implemented as a video filter for FFmpeg, so it can process any video that FFmpeg can transcode. It uses a very slightly modified FFmpeg main program, that I call PVmpeg, purely for convenience of building and packaging. PVmpeg is functionally identical to FFmpeg,
but when asked for the 'panni' video filter, it presents a GUI with interactive controls for the perspective and processing. It will soon be on sourceforge.net under project name 'paniniperspective', for Windows, OS X and Linux/Unix. Although open-source and free for all noncommercial uses, Panini-Video will require a paid license for any commercial use.

To learn more about the Pannini projection, visit http://vedutismo.net/Pannini/.

Stay tuned...
-- Tom

[tksharpless]

A new Panini-Video demo clip compares fisheye, rectilinear and Panini
views of a pan around a local railroad station, taken with a 10mm
fisheye on an EOS 7D. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlK075yE6g4

-- Tom

[Germain]

Merci TK ,cette projection intégrée pour la vidéo, est tout simplement géniale et révolutionaire.
Les conséquences esthétiques et artistiques seront considérables.
Dès que le logiciel sera disponible, j'essaierais d'en faire la promotion pour le tournage des courts-métrages

[Phil]

Hi Tom,

You've done an incredible job !
This could be perfect for my project (panos with video inside) and i will be glad if my work can help promote yours.

Best regards