In an age of ever-evolving computing technology, even your everyday smartphone owner can now create high-definition movies with the touch of a button. However, when it comes to producing virtual reality content, things start to get much more technical and cumbersome.
For starters, creating a realistic VR environment requires the use of specialized equipment such as cameras that can record VR-ready photos and video as well as editing tools that are capable of processing voluminous amounts of digital data.
Enter Google’s new VR180 creator tool that has been designed to work with Google’s native VR180 footage format.
An In-Depth Look at the Technology
When looked at closely, we can see that Google’s VR180 has been designed to assist content creators with capturing VR photos and videos in a way such they can easily be rendered into a standard 2D perspective as well. As a result of this, users can deploy any VR headset to look around what they’ve shot, or browse through the photos and videos present on a PC or phone screen without them appearing to be distorted or modified in any way.
Additionally, the VR180 Creator is compatible with Mac and Linux based devices and also allows users to convert their captured footage into a standard format so that the data can then be edited through the use of popular tools such as Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro.
Once the end product is ready to be rolled out, VR180 Creator allows users to re-add pertinent metadata so that it can then be directly uploaded onto platforms such as YouTube or Google Photos for VR or 2D viewing.
Final Take
While the technology at hand is certainly appealing and comes with its fair share of advantages, for VR180 to really take off, Google first needs to find an economical way so as to make VR capturing accessible for the everyday smartphone user.
With that being said, launching a tool that streamlines VR and 2D footage editing is a smart move, especially since it opens up this nascent market a little more.
