Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

It comes in two editions:
■ Stitcher Express
■ Stitcher Unlimited
Chapter 24 ■ Panorama Software: Photo Stitching and Virtual Tours 271
Stitcher Express has many of the features of the more expensive Stitcher Unlimited,
including automatic stitching of photos of any resolution, a full 3D interface with dragand-drop
operation, vignette removal, light equalization, and real-time preview. It is
aimed at the hobbyist, but professional photographers will find this is a good package
with which to start.
When you get serious about panoramas it is time to move up to Stitcher Unlimited with
16-bit support, which produces output ready to be printed on professional printers. It
will also package 360-degree panoramas for virtual tour businesses.
With Stitcher Unlimited you move beyond QuickTime VR to publishing for Java-based
and Shockwave-based viewers. This is the package for businesses that produce a lot of
high-quality panoramic images and provide specialist virtual tours with hot spots
(embedded information).
Comments
Stitcher Unlimited won a maximum six stars from James Rigg, who specializes in reviewing
and explaining panoramic technology on his Panoguide Website (www.panoguide.com).
In fact, it is hard to think of anything that is obviously missing in this top-of-the-range
package. Its core features are shared by the other, cheaper editions, but if you want support
for fisheye lenses, cubic image output, and publishing facilities for ImmerVision’s
Java-based PURE Players, you need Unlimited.
Belgian photographer Tito Dupret has used (what is now called) Autodesk Stitcher to
great effect since 2001, as is demonstrated in his shots of the 80 new World Heritage
sites depicted on WHTour.org (www.world-heritage-tour.org).
Autodesk, the world leader in 2D and 3D design software, acquired REALVIZ in 2008
with the objective of adding the French company’s technology to Autodesk’s modeling,
visual effects, and animation products. As a result, the Stitcher line has been rationalized
to the two products described here. An intermediate Pro version has been dropped,
as has a Student version, but an Education version is still available at the time of writing.
Version: Stitcher Express 2.5, Unlimited 5.7 (2008)
OS: Windows XP; Mac OS X 10.4
RAM: 256MB (512MB recommended)
Supported file formats: Inputs Cineon, JPEG, Maya, PNG, Portable Pixelmap, SGI, Softimage,
TIFF, TGA, and BMP; outputs PSD, Maya, PNG, Portable Pixelmap, SGI, QuickTime, TIFF,
TGA, Shockwave, and VRML