1 Chapter 1: What is 360 Video?
In this chapter, we’ll touch upon the history and evolution of immersive 360 visual experiences, look at how modern 360 video works and highlight some technical terms and concepts that are important to know as you move into shooting and producing immersive content.
What is 360 Video?
SOME HISTORY, KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
Before we dive into the how-to aspects of creating cool 360 videos, we should spend a little time getting familiar with this technology so that we’re all on the same page. There are several key terms and concepts specific to the realm of 360 content that we need to acquaint ourselves with, as well as important bits of history and context that will help us better understand the capabilities and opportunities of this emerging content form.
Essentially, 360-degree photos or videos are visuals in which the view in every direction is captured and presented simultaneously. You may think this is a recent innovation, but actually, people have been trying to capture and reproduce immersive 360 experiences for centuries.
During the days of the Roman Empire, painters would adorn the interiors of buildings and villas from floor to ceiling to depict scenes of natural landscapes, court life, cities or dramatizations of historical or mythological events, creating something of a 360 visual experience (fig. 1).
The concept of the panorama (essentially taking an ultra-wide horizontal perspective allowing you to see as much of the subject as possible) is as old as art itself, with many examples from many cultures over hundreds of years, like this example (fig. 2) from China’s Song Dynasty.
It would seem that people have always enjoyed images that make them feel part of the scene and artists have likewise consistently developed new techniques and presentation methods to help strengthen that feeling of immersion. During the late-18th century, painters and visual artists in Europe were especially developing intriguing new ways of showcasing their work, particularly for their panorama art.
While the concept of presenting ultra-wide scenes wasn’t new, English painter Robert Barker is largely credited for coining the term “panorama” inspired by the Greek words for “all” (pan) and “view” (horama) in 1792. Barker famously introduced the term when he developed a more interactive presentation experience to showcase his panoramic paintings of cities. He would wrap his work around giant cylindrical displays, allowing people to walk around and see an unbroken horizontal view of the scene. These “cycloramas”, as they were called, lead to a deeper sense of immersion and the effect of people feeling like they were almost walking through the scene itself.
This concept caught on and soon other artists began innovating panoramic exhibits. Travelling shows and purpose-built panorama theatres became wildly popular throughout the 19th century. These buildings popped up over Europe and North America, including one that was built in Toronto,