Tuesday, May 28, 2019
EDITING VR VIDEOS?
What editor do you use to process VR videos?
I use Adobe Premiere Pro (PP).
(+) It is super powerful and super versatile with special VR tools. And it keeps getting more and more VR friendly.
(+) PP will automatically add the necessary meta-data for YouTube and other VR hosting sites (when you export the video "correctly").
(-) Unfortunately, as of today, it does not stitch, and (except for not stitching) it is so powerful and versatile that most of what it does is irrelevant (it was built for old-fashioned 2D framed video); and, for me, it's confusing (and often counter-intuitive and very particular about your workflow).
(+) I find that for the specific tasks I need, there are YouTube videos that explain just what I need.
There are surprisingly few books about PP, and none perfect for the VR editor. One book that seems helpful is "The Cool Stuff in Premiere Pro". Unfortunately, it is 1221 pages long (yes, PP has many features); it is also slightly out of date (even though it has a 2017 copyright), as PP keeps improving its VR features.
There is also a "user guide" from PP at
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/user-guide.html ;
a "reference manual" pdf at
https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/premiere_pro_reference.pdf ;
and a guide to VR editing at
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/VRSupport.html .
There is no perfect editor for VR. Ideal features would include an intuitive UI plus (simple! or automatic!!)...
(a) stitching, stabilizing
(b) balancing light from different cameras
(c) ambisonic sound; syncing sound & video
(d) easy importing to easy layers
(f) tracking of items; removal of items
(g) color correction, masking
(h) 3D spatial titles, captions, lettering, with animations
(i) ability to import, process, and export large (for the future - 32 K per eye; 90 fps, high bitrate, feature length) videos
(j) ability to handle various formats (360, 180, anything in-between; 3D - up/down, side by side; equirectangular, cubemap; mp4, webm; h264, h265; etc)
(k) ability to handle volumetric video
(l) and of course basic editing features of cutting and joining clips
(m) easy to view and edit from within a VR HMD
(n) etc
Labels: "The Cool Stuff in Premiere Pro", Adobe, editing, editing videos, Premiere Pro, VIDEOS, Virtual Reality, VR, VR videos, YOUTUBE
