Autodesk 551A1-05B111-1001 - Stitcher Unlimited 2009, Stitcher Unlimited 2009 User Manual
User Guide
Autodesk
®
Stitcher™ Unlimited 2009
© 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by Autodesk, Inc., this publication, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form, by any method, for
any purpose.
Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder.
Portions related to Jpeg6b are copyright ©1991-1998, Thomas G. Lane.
All Rights Res erved except as specified b elow. Permission is hereby granted to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software (or porti ons thereof ) for any purpose, without fee, subject to
these conditions: (1) If any part of the source code for this software is distributed, then this README file must be included, with this copyright and no-warranty notice unaltered; and
any additions, deletions, or changes to the original files must be clearly indicated in accompanying documentation. (2) If only executable code is distributed, then the accompanying
documentation must state that “this software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group”. (3) Permission for use of this software is granted only if the user accepts full
responsibility for any undesira ble consequences; the authors accept NO LIABILITY for damages of any kind. ansi2knr.c is included in this distribution by permission of L. Peter Deutsch,
sole proprietor of its copyright holder, Aladdin Enterprises of Menlo Park, CA. ansi2knr.c is NOT covered by the above copyright and conditions, but instead by the usual distribution
terms of the Free Software Foundation; principally, that you must include source code if you redistribute it. (See the file ansi2knr.c for full details.) However, since ansi2knr.c is not
needed as part of a ny program generated from the IJG cod e, this does not limit you more than the foregoing paragraphs do. The Unix conf iguration script “configure” was produced with
GNU Autoconf. It is copyright by the Free Software Foundation but is freely distributable. The same holds for its supporting scripts (config.guess, config.sub, ltconfig, ltmain.sh).
Another support script, install- sh, is copyright by M.I.T. but is also freely distributable. It appears that the arithmetic coding option of t he JPEG spec is c overed by patents owned by IBM,
AT&T, and Mitsubishi. Hence arithmetic coding cannot legally be used without obtaining one or more licenses. For this reason, support for arithmetic coding has been removed from
the free JPEG software. (Since arithmetic coding provides only a marginal gain over the unpatented
Huffman mode, it is unlikely that very many implementations will support it.) So far as we are aware, there are no patent restrictions on the remaining code. The IJG distribution
formerly included code to read and write GIF files. To avoid entanglement with the Unisys LZW patent, GIF reading support has been removed altogether, and the GIF writer has been
simplified to produce “uncompressed GIFs”. This technique does not use the LZW algorithm; the resulting GIF files are larger than usual, but are readable by all standard GIF decoders.
We are required to state that “The Graphics Interchange Format © is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Ser vice Mark property of CompuServe
Incorporated”.
Portions related to Libtiff are Copyright ©1988-1997 Sam Leffler. Copyright ©1991-1997 Silicon Graphics, Inc. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that (i) the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related
documentation, and (ii) the names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific, prior written
permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE,
INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR
SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFT WARE.
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any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that the copyright notice and this permission notice and
warranty disclaimer appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of AT&T, Bell Laboratories, Lucent or Bellcore or any of their entities not be used in advertising or
publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. AT&T, Lucent and Bellcore disclaim all warranties with regard to this software, including
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THIS PUBLICATION AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS MADE AVAILABLE BY AUTODESK, INC. “AS IS.” AUTODESK, INC. DISCLAIMS ALL
WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE REGARDING THESE MATERIALS.
Stitcher
User Guide
Chapter 1 Introduction............................................................................................... 1
What is Autodesk®StitcherTM? .............................................................................................. 3
About this guide ......................................................................................................................... 4
Minimum system requirements ............................................................................................ 5
Software .........................................................................................................................................5
Hardware ........................................................................................................................................ 5
Installing Stitcher ........................................................................................................................ 6
Uninstalling Stitcher .................................................................................................................. 6
Autodesk Stand-Alone Licensing.......................................................................................... 7
Manage Your Stand-Alone License .................................................................................... 8
Check Product Information ..................................................................................................... 8
License usage types ...........................................................................................................8
License behaviors ................................................................................................................8
View Product Information ........................................................................................................ 9
To view product information ..........................................................................................9
Update Your Serial Number ..................................................................................................10
To update your serial number ......................................................................................10
Register and Activate Stitcher ..............................................................................................11
Online Registration and Activation ....................................................................................11
To activate Stitcher ...........................................................................................................11
Offline Registration and Activation ....................................................................................11
To register Stitcher offline ..............................................................................................12
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Chapter 2 Quick Start to Stitcher Projects ..............................................................13
The Stitcher Interface ..............................................................................................................15
The 5-phase Stitcher Workflow............................................................................................16
Phase 1: Loading images ........................................................................................................17
Phase 2: Automatic and Semi-Automatic Stitching .....................................................25
Working with thumbnails ..............................................................................................19
Working in the Stitching Window ...............................................................................19
Create and Organize Stacks ...........................................................................................22
Contentsiv
Automatic stitching ......................................................................................................... 25
Semi-automatic stitching .............................................................................................. 25
Phase 3: Alignment ..................................................................................................................26
Phase 4: Lighting equalization .............................................................................................27
Modifying exposure ........................................................................................................ 28
Phase 5: Projection Types and Rendering ........................................................................30
Snapshot projection ........................................................................................................ 30
Cylindrical projection ...................................................................................................... 31
Cubical projection ............................................................................................................ 32
Spherical projection ........................................................................................................ 33
Cylindrical and Cubic QTVR projection .................................................................... 34
Rendering your panorama ............................................................................................ 35
Saving your project ......................................................................................................... 36
Stitcher Command shortcuts ...............................................................................................37
Essential shortcuts ....................................................................................................................37
General Stitcher Operational shortcuts ............................................................................39
Customizing keyboard shortcuts ........................................................................................41
Chapter 3 User Guide................................................................................................43
Shooting photographs ...........................................................................................................45
Recommended equipment ...................................................................................................45
Planning your shots .................................................................................................................45
Photograph overlap ........................................................................................................ 49
Shooting the panorama ......................................................................................................... 50
Camera settings ................................................................................................................51
Tips for taking shots ................................................................................................................. 51
Stitcher projects ........................................................................................................................53
The Stitcher workflow .............................................................................................................54
Preferences .................................................................................................................................55
Setting the temporary files directory ................................................................................56
To set the temporary files directory: ......................................................................... 56
Setting the blending application ........................................................................................57
Stitcher
User Guide
Editing in an external application .......................................................................................57
Modifying the display of images .........................................................................................58
Changing the frame color ..............................................................................................58
Moving images as a frame .............................................................................................59
Changing the texture size ..............................................................................................61
Changing the Stitching Window background color .............................................62
Adjusting the transparency of images ......................................................................63
Displaying HDR images ..........................................................................................................64
Changing the exposure ..................................................................................................64
Displaying the Live Preview ..................................................................................................65
Managing memory ..................................................................................................................66
Setting the Cache Size .....................................................................................................67
Managing the Undo Buffer ............................................................................................67
Setting the Manual Stitch Magnifier ..................................................................................68
Setting the GPU preferences ................................................................................................68
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The interface ...............................................................................................................................71
The Main Menu ..........................................................................................................................72
The Toolbar .................................................................................................................................72
The Stitching Window ............................................................................................................. 72
Thumbnail View .................................................................................................................73
Status Indicators ................................................................................................................73
General Information .........................................................................................................74
The Live Preview ........................................................................................................................ 75
The Image Strip .........................................................................................................................76
Preparing images for stitching.............................................................................................77
Loading images .........................................................................................................................77
Loading HDR images .......................................................................................................80
Loading fisheye images ..................................................................................................80
Setting the camera parameters ...........................................................................................81
Image resolution .......................................................................................................................82
Relationship between image property values ...............................................................82
Rectilinear lens properties .....................................................................................................83
Contentsvi
Film back values ................................................................................................................ 83
Focal length ....................................................................................................................... 83
Sensor shift values .......................................................................................................... 85
Distortion values ..............................................................................................................85
Fisheye lens properties ...........................................................................................................87
Flat stitch properties ................................................................................................................88
Manipulating images .............................................................................................................. 89
About thumbnail lines and markers .......................................................................... 89
Indicator markers ............................................................................................................. 89
Indicator lines .................................................................................................................... 92
Filtering thumbnails ........................................................................................................ 93
Deleting thumbnails ....................................................................................................... 93
Modifying the display of thumbnails ........................................................................ 94
Displaying thumbnail information ............................................................................ 95
Moving images to the Stitching Window ........................................................................95
Working in the Stitching Window .......................................................................................96
Improving redraw performance ................................................................................. 96
Selecting images in the Stitching Window .............................................................96
Aligning images in the Stitching Window ............................................................... 97
Rotating images in the Stitching Window .............................................................. 98
Centering images in the Stitching Window ............................................................ 99
Setting the camera orientation ......................................................................................... 100
Bookmarking the current viewpoint .............................................................................. 100
Fisheye images ....................................................................................................................... 101
Why use a fisheye lens? ....................................................................................................... 101
Types of fisheye images ....................................................................................................... 101
Calibrating fisheye images ................................................................................................. 102
Stitching images .................................................................................................................... 105
Automatic stitching ............................................................................................................... 105
Semi-automatic stitching .................................................................................................... 106
Manual stitching ..................................................................................................................... 110
Force-stitching Images ........................................................................................................ 113
Stitcher
User Guide
Unstitching, detaching, and deleting images ............................................................. 114
Unstitching images ........................................................................................................114
Detaching images .......................................................................................................... 114
Deleting images .............................................................................................................. 115
Tips for stitching images ..................................................................................................... 115
Overlapping and aligning images ...........................................................................115
Stitching highly distorted images ................................................................................... 116
Evaluating focal length ................................................................................................117
Calibrating the Camera Response Curve ...............................................................118
Closing the first row of a panorama ........................................................................120
Camera Profiles .......................................................................................................................123
Saving a camera profile ................................................................................................123
Loading a camera profile .............................................................................................123
Render preview ...................................................................................................................... 124
The Quick Preview .........................................................................................................124
The Live Preview .............................................................................................................124
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Stencils....................................................................................................................................... 126
Creating a stencil polygon .................................................................................................. 126
Selecting, duplicating, and moving stencil polygons .............................................. 129
Selecting stencil polygons ..........................................................................................129
Moving stencil polygons .............................................................................................129
Copying stencil polygons ............................................................................................129
Changing the shape of stencil polygons ...............................................................129
Deleting stencil polygons ...................................................................................................129
Blending polygons ................................................................................................................ 130
Creating a PSD stencil .......................................................................................................... 130
Viewing stencils ...................................................................................................................... 132
Aligning the panorama........................................................................................................ 133
Setting the horizon in the Align Panorama mode ..................................................... 133
Panning relative to the horizon .................................................................................135
Re-aligning the panorama with the horizon ........................................................135
Centering a panorama ......................................................................................................... 135
Contentsviii
Aligning the panorama using the Display Grid .......................................................... 136
To change the Display Grid .........................................................................................138
To change the color of the Display Grid: ................................................................138
Equalizing images ................................................................................................................. 139
To equalize images: .......................................................................................................139
Hotspots.................................................................................................................................... 141
Creating hotspots .................................................................................................................. 141
Selecting, duplicating, and moving hotspots .............................................................. 142
Selecting hotspots .........................................................................................................142
Duplicating hotspots .................................................................................................... 143
Moving hotspots ............................................................................................................ 143
Changing the shape of hotspots ..............................................................................143
Deleting hotspots .................................................................................................................. 143
Linking hotspots .................................................................................................................... 144
Setting QuickTime movie options ...................................................................................145
Viewing hotspots ................................................................................................................... 145
Hotspots and panorama conversion .............................................................................. 146
Render Area ............................................................................................................................. 147
Rendering Your Project ....................................................................................................... 149
Choosing projection types .................................................................................................151
Snapshot projection ...................................................................................................... 151
Cubical projection .......................................................................................................... 151
Understanding the naming of cubical images ....................................................153
Cylindrical projection ....................................................................................................154
Spherical projection ...................................................................................................... 154
Cylindrical and Cubic QTVR projection ..................................................................154
Setting QTVR output options .....................................................................................155
VRML projection .............................................................................................................155
HDR and Tone Mapping ...................................................................................................... 156
Add EXIF Data ..................................................................................................................156
Calibrating the Camera Response Curve ...............................................................157
Render options ....................................................................................................................... 158
Stitcher
User Guide
Tips for rendering .................................................................................................................. 164
Understanding width and height value constraints ......................................... 165
Understanding interpolation .....................................................................................165
QuickTime output setup ..................................................................................................... 167
Compression Settings ...................................................................................................168
Rendering Quality .......................................................................................................... 168
Tiling (for Cubic QTVR only) ........................................................................................168
Preview ...............................................................................................................................168
Annotations... ...................................................................................................................169
Authoring Tool ................................................................................................................ 170
QuickTime scripting ......................................................................................................172
Movies........................................................................................................................................ 173
Launching the animation tool .......................................................................................... 173
Defining the camera path ................................................................................................... 174
Checking the animation ...................................................................................................... 175
Editing key frames ................................................................................................................ 175
Setting the frame gap ..........................................................................................................177
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Publishing HTML/KML.......................................................................................................... 178
Publishing your panorama ................................................................................................. 178
Setting the html options ..................................................................................................... 179
Setting the kml options ....................................................................................................... 181
Sharing your panorama ....................................................................................................... 182
Creating an *.html template .............................................................................................. 183
Panorama conversion .......................................................................................................... 184
Loading a panorama .............................................................................................................184
Conversion possibilities .......................................................................................................186
Aligning the panorama ........................................................................................................ 187
Creating hotspots during a conversion ......................................................................... 188
Saving and loading hotspots ............................................................................................. 189
Rendering a converted panorama ................................................................................... 189
Choosing a Quicktime panorama viewpoint ............................................................... 189
Templates ................................................................................................................................. 190
Contentsx
Saving a project as a template .......................................................................................... 190
Opening a template .............................................................................................................. 191
Troubleshooting .................................................................................................................... 193
Stitching problems ................................................................................................................ 196
Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... 198
1
Introduction
TM
Stitcher
User Guide
What is Autodesk®StitcherTM?
Using Autodesk Stitcher, you can build high-quality panoramas for the Web, film, print, and 3D animations.
With advanced features, such as the automatic stitching engine, automatic color-matching, and real-time
previewing, Stitcher gives photographers and artists the power to deliver the most impressive panoramas in all
the popular formats. Stitcher
horizontally and vertically overlapping photos. You can create new image sets from the panorama using a
virtual camera that is equipped with zoom, pan, and roll motion. Your panorama can be rendered as a cube,
plane, cylinder, spherical projection, and in QuickTime
ImmerVision
®
Pure Player, Java, and HTML (version dependent). This means that you can create panoramic
images for definition mattes, environment maps, 3D models, high-impact Web pages including publishing in
Google
TM
Earth.
Images that are loaded into Stitcher are displayed as thumbail images. You can drag
thumbnail images into the work area and stitch them manually, or, using the default
workflow, Stitcher automatically stitches the loaded images together and then displays
them in the display area.
quickly creates wide-angle, high-resolution 360° × 180° panoramic images from
®
(Cylindrical QTVR and Cubic QTVR), VRML,
3
If the automatic process fails you can do semi-automatic stitching by placing the
images in an overlapping position to match features in each of the images.
Stitcher calibrates the camera focal length and distortion parameters from original
images. No information is required about the camera or the scale of the scene.
However, an approximate value for the camera’s focal length improves the panorama.
Results are accurate to within one pixel.
Stitcher automatically blends colors along the edges of each image to provide color
consistency throughout your panorama. In addition, the application wraps each image
to exactly match all adjacent images and to remove distortion. These processes are
rapid with precise, high-quality results.
Your high-quality panoramas can then be quickly produced and rendered to various
formats (such as QuickTime VR) for web viewing or to animation software format for
use as matte paintings (which can be used as backgrounds), or occlusions. Entire
panoramas can also be environment mapped onto animated objects. You can use the
4
Chapter 1
Introduction
resulting panoramas to create new image sets by filming in the image using a virtual
camera.
About this guide
This guide uses type conventions to help you quickly find and understand information.
Key combinations are capitalized with bold type. For example, press Ctrl+Z
(Windows®) or Command+Z (Mac®).
For a complete list of keyboard combinations, see “Stitcher Command shortcuts” on
page 37.
“Click” means to click the left mouse button and “right-click” means to click the right
mouse button (Windows only).
Words referring to items within Stitcher menus and pop-up menus are shown with
the symbol > indicating the path to a menu item. For example, when you see
Edit > Properties, Select the Edit menu and select Properties.
Minimum system requirements
Software
Autodesk® Stitcher™ Unlimited 2009 is supported on the following operating systems:
Microsoft® Windows XP Professional, (SP2 or higher) 32-bit operating system
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Business, (SP1) 32-bit operating system
Apple® Mac OS® X 10.4.11 and 10.5.2 (Intel version only) operating system
NOTE Apple QuickTime® 7 is also required.
Hardware
Stitcher Unlimited 2009 requires a system with the following hardware:
Stitcher
User Guide
5
TM
Intel® Pentium® 4 (or equivalent) processor, 1GHz or faster
Macintosh®: Intel®-based Macintosh® computers
512 RAM for Windows XP / 1 GIG RAM for Windows Vista (2GB recommended)
200 MB free hard drive space (for installation) – 2 GB recommended
Ethernet adapter
Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL® 1.2 professional graphics card with latest
graphics driver available from vendor’s site.
Two-button mouse with mouse driver software
DVD-ROM drive
6
Chapter 1
Introduction
Installing Stitcher
Autodesk recommends that you uninstall previous or evaluation versions of Stitcher
before installing Stitcher Unlimited 2009 (see
you are installing an upgrade.
1 Close all open applications.
2 Follow the onscreen installation instructions.
Uninstalling Stitcher
Select Programs > Autodesk > Stitcher Unlimited> Uninstall Stitcher.
Select Settings > Control Panel and do the following:
1 Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
“Uninstalling Stitcher” on page 6), unless
2 From the list of programs, select Stitcher.
3 Click Change/Remove.
4 At the prompt, click Ye s to confirm the removal of the application. The program
removes the program files, folders, shortcuts, and registry entries.
5 When the files are removed, the Uninstall program indicates the completion of the
process. Click OK.
Autodesk Stand-Alone Licensing
This guide provides information and instructions for managing an Autodesk standalone license on a single-user workstation.
A stand-alone license allows you to run Stitcher on a single workstation. To obtain a
license, you register your product.
You can use Stitcher in trial mode for a given number of days from the first time you
launch the product. The number of days that a trial mode is active differs between
Autodesk products. You can register your license at any time before the trial period
expires. After the trial period expires, you cannot run Stitcher until you register the
product.
When you register Stitcher, you receive an activation code. If you register online, your
activation code is automatically retrieved from Autodesk and Stitcher starts. If you
register offline, you request an activation code from Autodesk. Upon receipt, you
manually enter the activation code in the Product Activation wizard. The Product
Activation wizard is displayed every time you launch a product that has not been
registered.
Stitcher
User Guide
7
TM
NOTE If you are installing and using Stitcher on both operating systems of a dual-boot
operating system, you must obtain a separate activation code for each operating system.
The license file stays on your workstation when you uninstall Stitcher. If you reinstall
Stitcher on the same workstation, the license information is still valid. You do not have
to reactivate Stitcher.
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Chapter 1
Introduction
Manage Your Stand-Alone License
This section provides information about advanced stand-alone licensing tasks such as
license types and behaviors, viewing product information, saving your license file as a
text file, updating your serial number, registering and activating Stitcher, and moving a
license.
Check Product Information
You can view detailed information about Stitcher and your license (such as the license
usage type and the license behavior).
License usage types
Commercial A license for a product that was purchased commercially.
Not for Resale A license for a product that is not sold commercially.
Educational (EDU)/Institution A license designed specifically for educational
institutions.
Student Portfolio A License for students who are using an Autodesk product as part of
their curriculum.
License behaviors
Tria l A license that allows individuals to try the product in trial mode for a specified
number of days. The trial period starts the first time you launch your product. When
the trial period expires, the product must be registered and activated in order to
continue use.
Permanent Allows permanent use of an Autodesk product.
Ter m E x te nd abl e Allows access to an Autodesk product for a limited period of time.
The term can be extended at any time.
TM
Stitcher
User Guide
Term Non-Extendable Allows access to an Autodesk product for a limited period of
time. The term cannot be extended.
View Product Information
You can view detailed information about Stitcher and your product license, such as the
license usage type and the license behavior.
To view product information
1 Launch Stitcher.
2 From the Help menu, click About Stitcher.
3 In the About Stitcher window, view details about your product and product license.
4 In the About Stitcher window, click OK.
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Chapter 1
Introduction
Update Your Serial Number
If you installed Stitcher with the trial serial number (000-00000000), you should update
that trial serial number with a valid serial number. Your valid serial number is located
in the Autodesk Upgrade and Licensing Information email you received when you
purchased or upgraded Stitcher online.
When you register and activate Stitcher, you are asked for the product serial number, which
gets automatically updated upon completion of the activation process.
If you have a multi-product bundle of software that uses a single serial number, only
the first product you register and activate displays the updated serial number. For other
products to display the serial number, you need to update them from the Help menu.
NOTE In order for the updated serial number to display, you need to be logged into the
system with Administrator rights.
To update your serial number
1 Launch Stitcher.
2 Select Help > Activate.
3 In the Stitcher Activation window, enter your product serial number.
4 Click Activate.
NOTE If you have lost your serial number, contact the Autodesk Business Center (ABC) at
800-538-6401 for assistance.
5 Click Close.
6 Exit Stitcher and restart for the updated activation to take effect.
NOTE To see the updated serial number in Vista, exit the product, right-click the product
icon, and click Run as an Administrator.
TM
Stitcher
User Guide
Register and Activate Stitcher
Before you can activate the license for Stitcher, you need to go through the registration
process. Once registered, the activation process is greatly simplified. You can register
and activate Stitcher either when you start the program or while you are running
Stitcher.
There are two ways to register and activate Stitcher: Online and Offline.
Online Registration and Activation
Online registration and activation requires that you have Internet access. This process
allows you to create one or more password protected user accounts that can be accessed
when activating any Autodesk product(s).
To activate Stitcher
1 Launch Stitcher
11
2 Select Help > Activate
3 In the Stitcher Activation dialog box, enter your user account information and
click Next.
4 Onscreen instructions will inform you of registration and activation status. Click
Close.
5 Restart Stitcher for the activation to take effect.
Offline Registration and Activation
If online registration and activation is not possible, you can still register and activate
Stitcher offline. Your registration data can be submitted by email, fax, or phone
(Americas only). Within two business days, your activation code is sent back to you by
email or fax.
Offline registration and activation is necessary under the following conditions:
An online request has timed out
12
Chapter 1
Introduction
A processing error occurred such as an invalid serial number
To register Stitcher offline
1 If you are unable to register online, the Register Today’s Connect to the Internet
page indicates the reason why online registration and activation failed. Click the
Use Another Method link.
2 On the Product Registration page, specify the following:
Whether Stitcher will be registered to a company or individual.
The country or region where Stitcher will be used.
Whether the product is an upgrade. If it is, you also need the previous Stitcher serial
number.
Click Next.
3 Enter your personalization data on the Customer Information page and choose how
you’d like to receive your activation code - email, fax, or postal mail. Click Next.
4 Review your personalization data on the Customer Information page and choose
the method you’ll use to submit your request. Your request can be sent by email, fax
or phone.
If you choose Send My Request by Email, an email message will display for you to
complete. If you choose to forward your request by fax or phone, the Contact
Autodesk page will display with pertinent contact information.
You will be sent your activation code by the method you specified on the Customer
Information page.
5 If you want to print a copy of your registration information, select the Select Open
Activation Request Form. When you are finished, click Close.
2
Quick Start to Stitcher Projects
The Stitcher Interface
Stitching Window
Main Menu
To o lb a r
The Stitcher interface is composed of the following elements:
Stitcher
User Guide
15
TM
Main Menu: If a shortcut is available, it is shown next to the functions in the Main
Menu.
To o lb a r : The To ol b a r contains a set of contextual toolbars for working through the
Stitcher five-phase workflow.
Stitching Window: The Stitching Window is the 3D environment that you use to
build your panoramic view.
The size of the sphere is determined by the focal length of the camera used to shoot
your images.
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Phase 1. Load images into the project
(for detailed information, see “The
interface” on page 71).
Phase 2. Automatically stitch the images
(see “Stitching images” on page 105).
Phase 3. Automatically align the viewing
horizon (see “Setting the horizon in the
Align Panorama mode” on page 133).
Phase 4. Equalize the lighting or
brightness (see “Equalizing images” on
page 139).
Phase 5. Render and export the final
panorama (see “Rendering Your Project”
on page 149).
Chapter 2
Quick Start to Stitcher Projects
The 5-phase Stitcher Workflow
1 Load your image files (see “Phase 1: Loading images” on page 17 for the complete
list of the supported file formats).
2 Stitch your images using the automatic stitch function. If there are inconsistencies in
your shots for which you will need to compensate, you can manually stitch or forcestitch your images.
3 Align the viewing horizon. Sticher can center the panorama automatically, or flip it
upside down (or the right way up, depending on how your images were loaded
before the auto-stitch command was executed).
4 Equalize the brightness of your panorama. Stitcher can compensate for contrast in
the lighting between the stitched images and automatically make the lighting in the
panorama more uniform.
5 Render your panorama into a variety of formats for external publication.
TM
Stitcher
User Guide
Phase 1: Loading images
All images used in a panorama must be the same size in pixels (height and depth), and
they must be shot with the same focal length. Stitcher reads any EXIF data in the
images and displays the information for you to keep or edit (the edited values are only
used by Stitcher - the EXIF data in the images remains the same).
To load your images:
1 Click Load Images . The Load Images browser opens.
17
2 Select one or more image files to load.
3 Click Open to load the images in the Stitcher Thumbnail View.
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Chapter 2
Quick Start to Stitcher Projects
TIP Alternatively, drag the images directly from Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) into the
Stitching Window.
4 Stitcher reads the EXIF information in the images and asks whether you want to
keep the settings.
Click Ye s to keep the EXIF data settings.
Click No to open the EXIF data properties box and edit the settings.
TIP Select Edit > Properties to change your data settings (such as the focal length) at any
time after loading the images into your project.
TM
Stitcher
User Guide
Working with thumbnails
When you first load images into your project, they appear in the Thumbnail View. In
the Thumbnail View you can select an image, modify its rotation, and view
information about it.
You can zoom in and out of the thumbnails by moving the vertical slider at the top of
the Thumbnail View - when you move the cursor over the top of the Thumbnail View,
it changes to arrows and you can drag the view to the size you prefer.
If you have a large number of images loaded into your project, a horizontal slider
appears below the thumbnails to allow you to scroll through them. You can also click
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the left
TIP Click an image in the Thumbnail View and drag it to the left or right to scroll quickly
your loaded images.
or right arrows to move to the right or left end of the thumbnail list.
Indicators in the thumbnails display the status of the corresponding image in the
Stitching Window (showing whether the images are stitched, not stitched, or manually
stitched).
Working in the Stitching Window
The Stitching Window is the sphere in which your panorama is created. To begin
stitching your images together, drag each image from the Thumbnail View into the
Stitching Window.
By default, the first image you put into the Stitching Window is centered and stitched
in place. As you place and stitch more images in the Stitching Window, colored
markers and lines in the thumbnails show you the status of images and the relationship
between them.
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Chapter 2
Quick Start to Stitcher Projects
Using the navigation controls, you can view your panorama as you place images in the
Stitching Window and stitch them together. You can also set the camera orientation
precisely with numerical values.
To select an image, click the image. The selected image is highlighted.
Press Ctrl+click (Windows) or Shift+click (Mac) to add images to the selection.
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