The Near-Life platform enables you to create interactive videos from 360-degree, 180-degree and VR footage.
In this article, team member Ellie gives an overview of the different types of media you might use in an interactive 360-degree or interactive VR video, a walk-through of making her own first 360 interactive video, and a demonstration of an AI generated Space Station Tour.
This blog post and the 360-degree video have been updated as of August 2024 to showcase our recent updates to how you can create 360/180-degree and VR videos, and how you can utilise AI to help make interactive content even more easily. You can learn more about these new capabilities at the bottom of the page.
What’s the difference between 360 video and VR?
You can create 360-degree videos, also known as immersive or spherical videos, using a special type of camera. The omnidirectional camera, or multiple cameras, record a view in every direction at the same time. This will leave you with a 360-degree video. You can then scroll through it to see the shot from any direction, using a compatible device or app to view it on.
Virtual reality, however, is different to 360-degree content. It takes the user into a digital or ‘virtual’ world, so the photography or virtual space is created digitally. The user can normally ‘walk around’ or explore the virtual world. With 360 video they are limited to the filmmaker’s movements or standpoint. 360-degree video is real film taken of the real world, so it is not the same as VR.
An amazing way to take the immersion of 360-degree content even deeper is through interactive video. Not only are you engaging the user visually, but when they also are making choices or answering questions, you are engaging their brain too.
Here is an example of a 360-degree interactive video
Here is an example of an AI-generated VR Space Station Tour
What equipment is needed to make a 360 interactive video?
The equipment you’ll need to make your video will vary slightly depending on the type of 360 video you’re making. If you’re planning to film your own content,, one key piece of equipment is a camera that can film in 360 degrees. I used an Insta 360 X2 which costs around £400 (or $500). If you don’t have equipment like this, you can opt for an AI generated tour. In our example, we used Skybox AI to generate imagery for a space station tour. You can select the style and give detailed prompts to generate the images you want.
The first 360-degree video I made was a virtual tour of the Exeter Science Park. The user can select which places they want to view from a selection of buttons. This will take them to that place when they click the corresponding button. Once there, they can scroll around the screen to see a 360-degree view of the area.
Because of this, the only equipment I needed was the camera and a tripod. I also installed the app Insta360 for the camera to connect to. However, you may choose to use a selfie stick if your plan is to be in the video too. Some cameras (like the Insta 360 range) can even remove the selfie stick from the footage. You may also wish to use a VR headset if you want to take your immersion to an even higher level.
Besides that, all you’ll need is any necessary software to edit your media before going into Near-Life to put your scenario together. We used Insta360 to connect to our 360-degree camera, however we pretty much used the footage as is – only trimming the beginning and end of each clip where necessary.
What are the benefits of 360 interactive video?
360-degree interactive videos are pretty much the most impactful, engaging and effective way to teach or test viewers about how to handle real-life situations.
The interactive aspect shows the direct consequences or benefits of their actions depending on the choices they’ve made. Paired with the deep immersion of 360 or VR, this makes the experience feel not only more engaging but more real too. When you really engage with a situation and it feels more real, you’re infinitely more likely to remember the information you’ve learned.
Because of this, training for things like becoming a fireman or learning CPR are the kind of things that interactive 360-degree content can really support. It removes all risk from the situation. However, they keep the experience as realistic as it could feel without putting the viewer through any real trauma.
Another valuable use is showing off places – like a venue, building, house, location and so on. This means people can experience them without actually being there. This has enormous potential for real-estate, holidays and so on. By using your footage within Near-Life, you can create a fully self-contained interactive experience.
How can you make 360 content?
Regardless of whether you’re filming your content or using existing/AI generated clips, you’ll want to make a plan or flowchart of how you want the 360 video to look. We recommend using Near-Life’s storyboard feature, which allows you to build a map of your video in a flowchart style that you can later drop your media into.
If you’re generating your media using AI, you’ll need to consider what platform works best for you. We used Skybox AI for ours, and downloaded the files as PNGs. This AI 360-degree photo generator can create high quality imagery, however, this isn’t always ideal. Such high quality images can take a while to render. We recommend reducing quality/file size to around 6MB for optimum loading time – the images will still look great.
If you’re filming your own content, you’ll need to plan the video out carefully beforehand. Consider timings – you or the person filming may not want to be in sight in the footage. In which case, it’s important you take into account the amount of time it will take you to remove yourself from the shot. If you record a 30-second video and it takes 10 seconds to leave the shot and 10 to return to the camera, you’ll only be left with 10 seconds of usable footage. You should also have the camera pointing in the direction you want the user to be facing when they first start viewing that clip. From there they can scroll around to get other views.
After you’ve recorded your footage, you’ll need to trim it to your desired length. This can sometimes be done just using your phone and an app paired with the camera. Though you may wish to do it on a bigger screen. You should clip each different scene of your video. That way you can go into Near-Life and place each one in the right place.
One thing I learnt – don’t make your clips too short!
After making my 360-degree video, I realised that the user should have more time in each area. This would give them enough time to explore the 360-degree scope before having to choose the next place to go. However, because all of my media was around 15 seconds long, this wasn’t possible. Because of this, I recommend you start with recordings that are around a minute long. This will make sure your user will have enough time to look around. If this ends up being too long, you can always go back and trim the media to be shorter.
How do you choose the right settings on Near-Life?
Once your media is sorted, you should go onto Near-Life and:
- Create and name your project and a new scenario.
- Decide the countdown you wish to have (how long each scene of your video will be on screen for) as well as whether you wish to give feedback at the end relating to the users’ choices.
- You can choose to have scoring and/or inventory if there will be right and wrong answers in your video.
- You can also decide the colour you want the buttons and the colour they’ll show when the user hovers over them. I chose for my buttons to be in a middle and centre alignment. This was to make sure they would show in the middle of the screen wherever the user is facing.
- If you are unsure, don’t worry, you will be able to alter most of the settings you decide here later while you’re making the video.
On the first node on your screen, you may wish to have a first title page. You should make sure this first title page is also set to a 360 format, to make sure your video can work fully with a VR headset.
How to use Near-Life to make the 360 interactive video
- Upload your media and select the right clip for your first scene.
- For ‘video format’ in properties, you should select ‘360 mono’, assuming you recorded the footage using just one camera.
- For 360-degree and VR content you’ll want to use buttons provided by the Near-Life platform. So, click the ‘add button group’ option. This will put a button in the centre of the screen, which you can label, name and set to jump to a new node.
- You should then add another button. However, it’s important not to add a whole new button group. There will be an option to add a new button within the group you’ve already made. If you create a new button group for each button, they will appear on top of each other no matter how far apart you move them in your node. This is because NL automatically places the buttons in the optimal location for VR headset users, to facilitate button selection using gaze input.So, add your other buttons and set them to jump to different nodes. Work through your map carefully, referring back to your plan to keep it in check.
- Be sure to preview it while you’re making it too.
- Creating the rest of your map should be pretty straightforward – it was way less complicated than I expected.
Final thoughts – making a 360-degree video
Before making thesevideos, I had never used a 360-degree camera or worked with VR at all, so it all felt a little daunting. But it was much more straightforward than I imagined.
Once I had the right footage, making the 360/VR interactive videos on Near-Life was essentially the same core process I have used to create all my other videos, with the slight exception of different settings and the buttons working a bit differently.
I’m really looking forward to making more 360 interactive videos and encourage you to have a go too.
Latest features:
VR Editing and Position Controls
We now allow you to edit in VR mode, making interactive overlay placement more intuitive. We’ve also added more position controls to improve precision, making it easy to see exactly how and where your overlays will appear. You can rotate overlays, move them up, down left or right, and tilt if necessary, to ensure they will look their best in the 180/360 environment.
2D and Video Overlays
You can also now add 2D image and video overlays to your 180/360 environments. This is great if you want to give end users a bit more context or information. For example, in an office building tour, you can give the end users a video to explain more about what each room is used for.
Triggers
We’ve also introduced triggers. This means you can use an overlay to trigger another one to appear. For example, you could use a hotspot overlay to trigger a video or image overlay.
Icons
Icons are an easy shorthand for allowing your end-user to navigate the interactive video. These are simple icons such as arrows, a home button, play button and many more that can be added to your video with just the click of a button. You can see examples of these in the VR Space Station Tour.
Make your first interactive 360-degree or VR video on Near-Life – free trial!
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