360-degree videos create an illusion in the viewer of being in the place where the video was taken, of being able to handle the images as if they were in the same place where the camera is and feel surrounded by a complete sphere of video. , where you can look in all directions while the video plays and not lose detail of the environment in which it was recorded, fixing your gaze on the main attraction of the video, if there is one, or focus on other aspects such as the landscape, secondary actors or simply turn the camera as if it were his own neck in the place of the action.
These videos are becoming more frequent and the future of the industry is moving towards these new perspectives, both 360 and virtual reality, which are called to be the technologies of the future in terms of entertainment. These 360 interaction video that we can see on our mobile, our computer or with the help of virtual reality glasses for greater immersion, surprise us because we are not yet used to this type of narration, but there are more and more options and tools that are made available to ordinary users so that they can make this type of video and share it.
Types of 360 degree videos
There are two types of 360-degree videos that are presented in the vast majority of situations.
Monoscopic
This is the more common system of the two. Not in vain is the one that uses, for example, the well-known Google Street View. It is characterized by representing flat images without depth. It is a video that is watched with a 360-degree image, but it does not have volume. No matter where you move the image, it remains in that type of image for the entire time, that is, the one that, despite being seen in 360, does not have any kind of reality. It looks like a continuous sequence of photos.
Stereoscopic
It is much more accomplished than the previous one and is much more sophisticated in the whole process. This takes virtual reality to another type of content with a series of frames that are different for each eye, in order to give the user a much more complete image and vividness. These videos can be seen in a virtual reality viewer, where we can have the sensation of a three-dimensional vision, thanks to having depth along with the 360-degree experience. In other words, we can watch wherever we want, which will give us the same feeling of full video in all areas.
Ways to shoot 360 videos
There are different ways to record this type of 360-degree interaction video and also to watch it, either on the computer, using the mouse to change our point of view, from the mobile by moving the device to change the area we are looking at or with a virtual reality equipment with which, by turning the head or moving the eyes up and down, we will change the perspective, the latter being the most realistic experience of this type of interaction video.
How to create a 360 video with the mobile
Your smartphone can be used to create a 360-degree interaction video , but in reality it is a little trick, since what we are going to create is a photo, that is, it will not be a video itself but an image created with that sensation of sphericity that we are going to later transform into video. There are some smartphones that already have this type of 360 captures, but if your mobile doesn’t have it, there are many applications that will help you create these 360-degree images, either by joining many photos or helping you in the capture process.
Google street view
Perhaps the best known and perhaps the simplest. We will have to download the app, open it and, at the bottom right, press the camera icon that will take us to the Create menu. There we will repeat the same step and click on the camera again, to use the one that is built into our device. Take some photos following the instructions that you will see on the screen, when you have finished press done, and the application will mount our 360 photo that will be saved in the Private tab of the application and in our device, if we have selected that option.