The QuickTime VR Book : Creating Immersive Imaging on Your Desktop [Paperback]

Susan A. Kitchens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

QuickTime Virtual Reality, more commonly known as QuickTime VR, is a cross-platform technology developed by Apple. QuickTime allows viewers to explore a site in 3D, rotate objects, zoom in or out of a scene, or look around 360 degrees, all while at their desktop. Millions of people are downloading QuickTime VR to become part of a new multimedia experience--from Ferrari's home page, where they can "fly" around a car or "sit in" the driverA 's seat and look around, to virtual tours of travel destinations--The Louvre museum, even Mars! The QuickTime VR Book provides an introduction to the process of creating QuickTime VR movies and larger QTVR-based projects. The concise information in The QuickTime VR Book shows readers how to add QuickTime VR content to their Web site or CD-ROM. It covers the basics of virtual-reality technology and such topics as planning your movie, viewing and creating panoramas and object movies, understanding and setting up hot spots, and linking large projects together. This book will serve as an indispensable resource for Web and multimedia producers (including game developers), photographers, and 3D artists.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Susan A. Kitchens teaches beginners how to use QuickTime VR (QTVR) to plan, create, and deliver virtual worlds. Kitchens first provides an overview of QTVR, explaining the uses of the technology and describing the technology behind and the process of producing movies. You also learn about the elements of QTVR: panorama movies, object movies, hot spots, navigation, and the importance of planning and collaboration.

The second part of the book details how to create QTVR input. Kitchens teaches you how to make panorama movies and object movies from start to finish. She also shows you how to add hot spots and deliver your QTVR output for the Web or multimedia. The book includes information on the QTVR API and a gallery of real-world QTVR projects, including some on the Web. Throughout the book, you get lots of help on using extra software tools for Macintosh and Windows and on exploring various hardware options to help you achieve your results. An appendix lists resources for software and hardware companies selling related products, professional associations, and mailing lists. A second appendix introduces you to other immersive imaging technologies. The cross-platform CD-ROM features a variety of QTVR demos. --Kathleen Caster

From Library Journal

QuickTime VR (QTVR) software was originally developed by Apple on and for the Mac, but with the latest release the software operates cross-platform for either a Mac or Windows. Kitchens covers creating QTVR panoramas, preparing hot spots for mouse clicks, compression for playback, and delivery via the web or CD-ROM. This is a good book for designers new to QTVR but not for design novices.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201696843
• ISBN-13: 978-0201696844
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,814,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of information, but lacking some key points., August 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The QuickTime VR Book : Creating Immersive Imaging on Your Desktop (Paperback)

Quicktime VR expands on the user manual that comes with Quicktime Authoring Studio, and explains a lot of information that isn't clearly explained in the manual. For that reason, it is worth buying. I would have liked to have had more explanation about Quicktime VR and less about other programs that aren't Quicktime VR. I was also disappointed it didn't explain anything about resolution.. how to make high and low resolution QTVRs. The writer seemed to assume I knew how and mentioned that high resolution movies are larger... It also didn't explain what to do when you get that "tiling error" when you're asked to resize your image. All in all, the best book around for Quicktime VR (oh yeah, as far as I know, it's the only one).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good start, March 12, 2000

By 

Raymond Mak,CCIE,CISSP - See all my reviews

This review is from: The QuickTime VR Book : Creating Immersive Imaging on Your Desktop (Paperback)

It is a comprehensive book for QuickTime VR. It can explains every details about QuickTime VR. From the paranomic movie to object movie, you can get what you need to know, such as the operation of these movies, and also fundamental things about QuickTime VR. This book also introduces some software for making these movies. However, you should not expect too much on this book will teach you how to use these software. Anyway, it is a good start for learning QuickTime VR.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A short and general introduction to the topic, March 26, 2002

By 

byrner (The South) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The QuickTime VR Book : Creating Immersive Imaging on Your Desktop (Paperback)

This book is nicely designed and has some interesting examples in it. It may be useful to those looking for some possible applications of QTVR, but the book is very light on the "how to" aspect of the software itself. If you're expecting in-depth coverage of Apple's QTVR Authoring Studio software, you will probably be disapointed. On the other hand, there are few (if any) other books available about QTVR, so in that regard, this book is worth having for what information it does provide.