Learn how to easily create little planet and rabbit hole photos and videos using the Vuze XR 360 Camera and mobile app
The Vuze XR gives you a 360 and VR180 camera in one device but it can also make creative 2D videos and photos.
360 cameras major strength is that it captures everything going on around the camera. This is great as it lets a viewer explore everything going on. However, from a creative director’s standpoint you have no control over what people are looking at. If they are looking the wrong way, they may miss what you wanted to show them entirely. The other issue of course is that a 360 video really needs to be viewed in a virtual reality headset for it to shine. Pan/tilt with your phone or dragging the video around with your mouse isn’t as good and is more suited for 360 still images where you can take your time to look around. But what if we could have the best of both worlds? The power of 360 capturing everything at once and the creative control to show people what you want them to see in a 2D video can be done with the Vuze XR and Directors Cut in the Vuze XR phone app.
1. First step - Capturing in 360° mode
Capture either videos, photos or both, try different locations and light settings
Photo:
Or Video:
2. Direct File transfer
First power up your camera, turn on the camera WIFI by pressing the WIFI button over the camera power button. Now connect to the Vuze XR with the Vuze XR app, once you are connected back out of the live screen by tapping the 3 dots in the upper left. From here click on Gallery and it will show any videos you have moved over onto your phone. The clip you want to work with needs to be on your phone to use Directors Cut. If the clip you want to work with isn’t on your phone yet it’s easy to move it over. (If the clip is already on your phone you can skip to the next paragraph) From the Gallery tap Camera and it will show all the clips on your phone, click the clip(s) you want to download, you will see a download icon in the lower right of the screen, tap that, and then tap copy to download the clip to your phone. Once the clip has downloaded and you are back to clip preview of the clips on your camera. Tap the back button on the upper left to get back out to the gallery view and click Phone so you are looking at the clips on your phone and click the clip you want to work with.
3. Editing
Once you have the clip on your phone open click edit on the upper right. From here you can get to different options for adjusting your shot using different filters and effects, but for now tap Directors Cut.
In the Directors Cut screen the timeline at the bottom can be dragged back and forth to access any point on the clip. You can drag the image sphere around with one finger. Pinching the screen shows more and more of the image sphere until you can get to a tiny planet view, spreading your fingers zooms into the image. The workflow is dragging the timeline to where you want to start, drag, pinch, spread the image to where you want the shot to start and tap set start.
Next move the timeline to where you want the next transition to be drag, pinch, spread the image to where you want the shot to be looking and tap look here. Repeat this process until you get to where you want the clip to end and tap set end. You can tap the screen to preview the transitions to make sure you are happy. Before we finish there are 3 other controls, flip in case you needed shot upside down and need to correct that and crop that will set the ratio of the final video, and reset all if you need to start over from scratch.
Share to Social - Disrupt your feed
Assuming you are happy with the sequence tap finish, and select the 2D as your render type, tap continue and render and the render will start. It may take a few second to get started and may take a while depending on the length of your clip and how powerful your phone is. Once the render is complete hit share to share your 2D video on social media. The clip can also be found in the phone gallery. While this reads as a long process it’s fast once you get the hang of it, especially with a short clip. You also don’t have to make a bunch of complicated “look here” transition points. As an example, for a quick tiny planet, get the timeline where you want it, pinch to a little planet, set start, timeline to where you want to end, set end, render and done. Hopefully this will get you thinking about 360 video in a new way and give you a new creative way to work with it.