This guide will help you capture, edit and share 360° video content using equipment available in the VR Lab. Your content can be viewed both on traditional devices and in VR (Virtual Reality) headsets. Any 360° content has a wide range of teaching and learning applications through immersive digital storytelling. Some examples include virtual field schools, historical site tours, broadcast journalism, interior design exhibits, and museum tours. 

360° Camera Models

The primary 360° cameras being used in this guide are the GoPro Fusion & Ricoh Theta. These are both available for checkout from the VR Lab. For more details about each of the cameras review the Beginners Guide° to 360 Cameras guide, the GoPro Fusion Guide or the Ricoh Theta Guide.

Using the 360° Cameras

Below are some basic functions of the GoPro and the Ricoh Theta V cameras. There are also more detialed guides for the GoPro Fusion and the Ricoh Theta V available. 

Processing 360° Content

Editing 360° Videos

For this guide, we will use Adobe’s video editing suite, Premiere Pro. This software is available for use in the VR Lab and on designated computers in the computer commons. 

Importing 

1. The first step is to create a Premiere Pro project. The default settings are appropriate, leave them as is. 
2. To bring your files into the project, drag them from their imported folder to the bin in Premiere Pro. 
3. Once the files have been imported into the bin drag your first clip to the blank timeline. This will ask if you would like to allow it to change in the sequence settings; select yes. 

Viewing 

1. To view your video in a 360° viewport, toggle the VR Video Display; a 1:1 square in which you can move the view.
2. To widen this viewport and reflect most headsets and the YouTube Viewer.
   1. Open the settings
   2. Open VR settings 
   3. Change the settings to 170°

Editing

1. With the video now imported you can edit the video as you would normally. Note, cutting works as intended, the text will be placed on a sphere and some transitions will not work.
2. In some situations, you might want to change the default VR view, this can be done by setting the default positions with the VR Rotate Sphere effect. If you have large amounts of text the VR Plane to Sphere effect can be used to flatten it. 

Exporting 

1. Select the sequence in the bin, then navigate to File > Export > Media. This will open a dialogue box.
2. Choose appropriate settings for your project, the default for YouTube are listed.
   1. Export Settings
      i) H.264
      ii) Match source - High bitrate
   2. Bitrate Settings 
      i) Target bitrate - 45 Mbps for 4k
      ii) Quality - Good
   3. VR video
      i) This video is VR
      ii) Frame Layout - Monoscopic 

Viewing 360° Video

Once you have your final 360° video you have the option to share it through YouTube or locally on headsets.

Local Viewing 

1. Connect your headset to the computer, the headset will appear as a drive. On a Mac, you will need to install Android File Transfer.
2. Put on the headset and ‘Allow access to data’ by selecting OK.
3. Drag your selected 360° to the devices folder VR-Headset>Internal Shared Storage>Movies.
4. Your imported photo and videos will appear in the Gallery tab on the headset.

Youtube Account

1. If you want to share your video and access it on multiple devices, YouTube allows you to upload 360 videos. You will need a Gmail account for this. You can:
   1. Use your pre-existing Gmail account. All Gmail accounts are YouTube accounts.
   2. Create a Gmail account, either by creating a new email address or using a pre-existing one from another provider.
2. Upload your video to YouTube. This will take a while as the video needs to be processed after uploading it. If you wish to keep the video private set it to Unlisted. This will still give you a link to share.
3. After the video is processed, confirm it is VR by ensuring that you can drag the view.

Viewing

1. Open the video on YouTube. On a phone, laptop or desktop you can watch as a flat video and pan around with your fingers or mouse. 
2. For a more immersive experience, use a Google Cardboard viewer by placing your phone into the cardboard. 
3. For the most immersive experience, view in a VR headset. Open the URL in a VR browser on your headset. Popular browsers are the Viveport Browser or the Oculus browser. Navigate to your video hosted on Youtube. This will play the video in a 360 viewer or take you to the YouTube app for your headset depending on the model.