Making a Scene in VR Worx

About Hot Spots

As mentioned earlier, hot spots are regions on QTVR movies that do something when clicked on or rolled over. There are actually three different types of hot spots for different kinds of uses. Here we will be using link hot spots, which are used in QTVR scenes to traverse from one node (QTVR movie) in the scene to another. There are also url hot spots designed for QTVR movies included on web pages and which launch web pages when clicked on. URL hot spots can actually store URL data inside them, so that the hot spot "knows" what web page to launch when clicked on. The third type of hot spot is usually called a blob hot spot. It is a "miscellaneous" hot spot capable of functioning in a variety of ways, depending on how the QTVR movie is used. Blob hot spots may be used, for instance, to simply label a feature in a QTVR movie, or it may be used by multimedia programs like Director to trigger events outside of the QTVR movie.

In this project I make use of link hot spots when we create our QTVR scene.

And Now for the Scene

A QTVR scene is two or more QTVR object movies and/or panoramas connected via hot spots in a standalone QTVR movie. In this workshop I encouraged the teams to take an object along with them to include in their panoramas. The same object would be used to create their QTVR object movie. In this section, we will combine the two into a QTVR scene. Make sure you have your QTVR panorama and object movies available on the computer before proceeding. If you wish, you can download the QTVR movies created in the prior steps for use with the VR Worx Demo software here: SourceMovies.sit

Launch VR Worx 2.0. Select Scene under Select Document type in the Welcome window and click on "OK."

The Setup step appears. Here you define different aspects of your QTVR scene. It is important that all of the component QTVR movies have the same window dimensions. Here we accept the default of 320 X 240 pixels as our Master Size and Playback Size. Give the scene an appropriate Name and click on Nodes to go to the next step.

At the Nodes step you will start by laying out a number of icons representing the QTVR movies in your scene on the grid. If we were making a very complex scene, like a tour using 25 panoramas, we might consider scanning a map or floorplan of our tour and adding it on top of the grid at the Background step, to help us organize our work. With a scene of only two nodes, that is hardly necessary. (Node is the term for an individual QTVR movie within a QTVR scene.) Begin adding your QTVR movies by clicking on the "Add..." button.

By default, the first node you select will be the QTVR movie that first opens in your scene. In this case you should select your QTVR movie to be the first node. Navigate to the folder with your QTVR pano, select it and click on "Add. Bring up the Add Node Media window again by clicking on "Add..." at the Nodes step and select your QTVR object movie and add it.

You can drag the icons around on the grid so they make spacial sense to you. Next you will auto-create hot spots on the movies by drawing link lines between them. The auto-created hot spots will be preprogramed to "know" their proper action when clicked on, but you will have to place them and name them manually. You will want a hot spot on the panorama that takes you to the object and a hot spot on the object to take you back to the panorama. To auto-create these back and forth hot spots, select the double-headed arrow tool in the Tools area and draw a line between your two movies.
Next, you need to bring up the Node Browser window where you will name and position your hot spots. Click on the selection arrow (the one on the left) in the Tools area, then double-click on your panorama's icon.

The Node Browser window appears. Click on the Hot Spots tab of the Node Browser to access the functions that allow you to position and name your hot spots, in this case the hot spot for your QTVR panorama. On the right of the window you will see a flat picture version of your panorama. Scroll the picture to find the auto hot spot that was created when you drew the link lines between your nodes in step 5. It will be green. Click on it an move it over the object you have placed in your panorama. The hot spot turns red, indicting it is a manual hot spot, now. Resize the hot spot so it covers the object in your panorama by dragging the white squares in the corners of the hot spot. If your object is small, it is better to make the hot spot oversized , making it easier to locate the normally invisible hot spot in the finished QTVR scene. The white text box over the hot spot is the name of the hot spot, and the text in that box will appear in the controller bar of the QTVR scene when the mouse cursor rolls over it. To change the automatically generated name, double-click on the hot spot.

The Hot Spot Properties window appears. Change the hot spot name in the Name field to one that is more appropriate. Usually you want a name that accurately labels the feature it is covering or one that will indicate the action that will take place when the hot spot is clicked. Click on "OK."

When you return to the Node Browser you will see the name of the hot spot has changed. Now check out how it works by clicking on the Preview tab of the node browser. You will see a version of the QTVR scene in its current state of development on the right. Scroll the panorama to your hot spot and position the mouse cursor over it. The cursor will change it's shape to an upward-pointing arrow and the name of the hot spot will appear in the controller bar. Click on the hot spot to trigger its action, which will bring up the object movie the hot spot links to. With your QTVR object movie showing in the Preview section of the Node Browser, click on the Hot Spots tab so that your can position and name the object movie hot spots.

There is a big difference between QTVR panoramas and QTVR objects with respect to hot spots, due to the underlying structure of these media types. QTVR panoramas are based on a single stitched picture, so that you only need to create one hot spot to cover a feature on it. QTVR objects though, are based on a strip or matrix of separate images, so if you want to associate a hot spot with a feature on the object, you should copy, resize and position that hot spot on each frame in which the feature appears, within reason. This can be quite tedious and detailed work. In this particular project, our hot spot does not cover a feature on the object, but exists to give the user the ability to return to the panorama node. You will want to copy the hot spot to all the frames of the object movie so that the user can find in without having to be on a particular frame.
Drag your hot spot to a place in the QTVR object movie where it will not interfere with user interaction with the object. I like to place this kind of hot spot above or below the object, and I like to make it fairly large so that is easy to find. Position and size your hot spot in a similar way, then double-click on it to bring up the Hot Spot Properties window.

Put some appropriate text in the Name field. This time the hot spot will not be labeling a feature on the QTVR movie, so the text should indicate the action that will occur when the hot spot is clicked. Click "OK" to return to the Node Browser.

Now that all the properties of your hot spot are set, including its action and name, you will want to copy it so you can paste it to the other frames of the QTVR object movie. Click once on the hot spot to make sure it is selected, then copy it by selecting "Copy" from the "Edit" menu or pressing Cmd-C (Control-C in the Windows version. On the Macintosh computer, the Cmd or Command key is the one with the Apple on it next to the space bar.)
Now you will paste the hot spot on all of the frames of your object movie. Since this hot spot will not be moved and resized to follow a feature on the object, it will be a relatively easy task, especially if you use the key stroke for pasting, Cmd-V (Control-C in Windows). Click on the right arrow button under the View section of the Node Browser to move to the object movie to the next frame and then press Cmd-V to paste the hot spot. Repeat this step for each frame of your object movie. You will see what frame you are on under Row, Column in the View section. For your single-row, 36 column object movie, the Row, Column numbers will go from 0, 0 to 0, 35.

After you have pasted your hot spot on all of the frames of your object movie, you may want to go to the Preview section of the Node Browser to check it out. When you are finsihed, close the Node Browser window by clicking on the close box in the upper left corner of the window. Then click on the Compose tab to go to the next step.

Click on the "Compose" button to create your QTVR scene. Then click on the Playback tab to go to the next step.

The Playback step should appear with your panorama as the opening node of the QTVR scene. If needed, you can change the opening node by navigating to it and clicking on the Initial "Set" button in the Node Info section. You may also wish to add your own annotations before exporting the movie. Try out your finished QTVR scene, and if it meets your specifications, be sure to save the Worx document before exporting. Select "Save" from the "File" menu.

Worx suggests the same name you used in the Setup step for the Worx project document. You can change this if you wish. Then navigate to the folder you want to save to and click on "Save." Finally, export your QTVR scene by clicking on the "Export" button in the Playback step.

Worx suggests a file name based on the the name of the Worx project document. You can change this if you wish, but be sure to retain the .mov extension. Navigate to the folder you wish to save to and click on "Export."

Here is how the finished QTVR scene looks on a web page.

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