Hey Guys, it’s Gaba VR, and this time I’m gonna show you how to straighten your 360 footage,
and how to make your horizon constantly straight during your whole video.
Looking at these videos, maybe everything seems fine, until you start panning around.
Then you can feel that they behave a little bit strange.
You cannot look around as easy as you want, because something is wrong with them.
But here you can see the problem, right after switching to flat view.
As you can see, the stabilization itself is quite okay, but the horizon line is a little bit twisted.
That’s why the whole video behaves weird in 360, as the main directions are shifted.
If you want to look right, you will turn the video right but it’s not the real direction in the virtual space…
… I hope you know what I mean.
You won’t see such things in my 360 videos on this channel,
but unfortunately I meet this problem a lot of times in several Facebook groups,
when people just upload their raw footages, shot with Mi Sphere, Theta or GoPro Fusion.
And I think it ruins the whole VR experience,
because you can’t look around perfectly. Even more, it’s quite disturbing.
Anyway, if you are interested about this content I create check out my 360 travel vlog.
Now I have a series about Lisbon, you find in the right top corner.
Previously I published my videos with English subtitles but now I create English speaking versions, too
I dub the whole videos.
So sometimes when I’m talking to the camera, like this time, you can hear the original audio in the background
overdubbed in English, but the narrative parts are totally replaced.
So if you are interested about my 360 contents, check out my Portugal vlog in English,
or this playlist with all of my 360 videos in various topics.
But now, let’s jump into it, and let’s see how to straighten 360 videos on a computer.
It doesn't matter if it's a PC or Mac, because I’m working with Adobe Premiere.
In one of my previous tutorials I showed you how to insert titles into the 360 space
using one of the VR plugins come with the latest Premiere CC version.
And now, we’re gonna use another one.
And this time I show you this workflow with a Madv footage.
So starting at the beginning I stitch my video.
I use the latest Mi Sphere Camera software,
because somehow it does a better job than the Madventure 360.
Madventure 360 creates such a weird “stitchline” in the middle of the front lens,
but Mi Sphere Camera app doesn’t.
Each time I make sure that “Gyro calibration” is on, and that’s all.
This basic stitching “workflow” makes the footage smooth
but the funny part is that none of the videos are aligned well. I don’t know how.
Let me show you a funny example.
In this video you can see one of the simplest situations you could imagine.
I just put the camera on a horizontal surface. It’s actually a couch.
I press the record button before putting the camera down, and it confuses the whole system.
The horizon line is changing all the time, during the video, even when the camera is not moving at all.
It seems like an extreme situation, but in fact it’s quite the same with a moving camera, too,
but it’s harder to see then.
So I have the footage with stabilization but the horizon is not perfect
Even more, it’s changing during the video.
First I import it into Premiere, and search for “VR” plugins.
This time I will use the one called “VR projection”.
To straighten the footage I have two options.
Once I can set up the middle of it, and I can correct the twist of the image, too.
Unfortunately it’s always depending on the footage, there are no rules, how to start.
But there are some tricks I found out and I can show you them.
First, you may know that there’s an overlay in Premier, called “Safe margins”.
When you turn it on, it helps you editing commercials or any other videos you create for television.
Normally you can be sure, that your titles and your important graphic parts are in the safe zone.
But I use it with 360 videos, too.
These lines, especially the short ones on the middle can help me to set up the horizon
and in many times, the other ones are great during setting up the edge of the buildings.
If you don’t have this icon, click on the plus button and add it to your toolbar.
Of course, you can create a psd file with a grid and drag it over the 360 video,
but in my projects there are so many layers in the end, that it would disturb me.
So I use these shorter middle lines, to set up horizon.
As you can see, it helps a lot to make the video really straight.
Even more I can switch to 360 preview.
Actually I hate that this preview window is so small, but this way I can check out these things very well,
because these frames and lines remain visible even in this view.
Of course, I can try looking around to feel how natural it is.(Sometimes it needs more correction.)
When it seems and feels perfect, I switch back to the flat view.
And here comes the part, why I showed you that weird moving horizon video in the beginning:
because the horizon line is moving in many cases, and we have further things to do.
I create key frames at that point where I was editing so far, and check out another frame.
Fortunately, in many cases it only needs a small correction.
And of course, I won’t use the whole footage.
First I always cut the beginning and the end, when I actually put the camera in position and stop recording.
Then I check out the final cut to see where to put the key frames.
The less key frames are the better.
I think it looks more natural, when you create an arc to it.
Of course, it depends on the footage,
but I like to make it as smooth as possible, with continuous changes
instead of strong steps from frame to frame.
And finally you can see how it looks before and after
And how this weird footage looks before and after.
It’s in flat view...
...and in 360.
And finally there’s one more thing.
As you can see, we have a third option with this VR plugin, I haven’t used yet.
I use it to set up a starting view-point and match the further videos to it during cutting.
You know, in a 360 or VR space it’s very important to be consistent in directions.
I think the most important thing is to set up the first frame, because that’s what the viewers can’t control.
After that it doesn’t matter what’s in the “middle” or on the sides,
the point is to keep the scenes consistent during camera moves and setting up directions.
I think the easiest way to do this, is to create a fade.
In the middle of the fade you can see both images upon each other.
So when your opening scene is okay, you can match the next one to it, and so on…
That’s how I go through the whole video to match all the scenes.
And that’s all. I have straight horizons all over the video, and all the scenes are matching.
I hope you like this method, and if you do, please thumbs up!
And if you are interested about further 360 shooting and editing techniques,
press that subscribe button and don’t forget to check out my 360 videos on the right top corner!
See you soon guys!