Flexify

What it does

Flexify is a plug-in filter for paint programs. It warps full-sphere photos -- those showing a full view of a scene in every direction -- into new shapes that are more attractive or useful.

How to install

To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard Photoshop 3.0 plugins.

Just put the plug-in filter into the folder where your paint program expects to find it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or Photoshop:Plug-ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->Flexify.

Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme.

If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in filter into it, and then tell PSP to look there. In PSP 5 or PSP 6: choose the menu File-> Preferences->General Program Preferences... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab. In PSP 7: choose the menu File-> Preferences->File Locations... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab.

Use one of the "Browse" buttons to choose the folder mentioned above.

From PSP's menus, choose the plugin. For example, choose Image->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->Flexify. If you have PSP 7, look in Effects->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->Flexify.

Quick start

When you invoke Flexify, a dialog box will appear:

To get a quick idea of what Flexify does, load a full-sphere panoramic image into your paint program (there's a small example panorama here). If the image is circular, the edge of the selection should just graze the edge of the circle. Invoke Flexify, and tell it what kind of input image you're using via the "Input" popup menu. Choose a different projection from the Output popup. Click the dice button a few times until you see a result you like; then click OK. Flexify's capabilites and controls are explained below.		selection should graze edge of circle for mirror-ball, polar, and orthographic images

1. Projections
A projection is a way of unwrapping and warping a spherical surface so that it will lie down flat. It's like making a flat map of the Earth; you have to make a choice about how to deform shapes. Flexify can accept as input spherical panoramas in any of five projections and can output them in more than thirty. Some of the projections are practical, and some are weird and meant to emphasize the bizarre and vertiginous quality of ultra-wide-angle photography. Flexify can output these projections:

name		remarks
equirectangular a.k.a. cylindrical equidistant or plate carée		The panorama fits into a rectangle. Meridians are vertical, parallels are horizontal, and the north and poles are stretched out to lines at the top and bottom. Scanning panoramic cameras produce this kind of image.
mirror ball		The reflection seen in a mirrored ball
polar a.k.a. azimuthal equidistant		Angular distance from the center of projection increases uniformly toward the edge.
orthographic		The image sphere as seen from the outside
tetrahedron		An unfolded 4-faced shape
cube		An unfolded 6-faced shape
octohedron		An unfolded 8-faced shape
dodecahedron		An unfolded 12-faced shape
icosahedron		An unfolded 20-faced shape
Hammer		A 2:1 wide ellipse
Werner		A heart-shaped projection
sinusoidal a.k.a. Sanson-Flamsteed		A pointy shape
rectilinear a.k.a. gnomonic		Like a regular view from a normal lens. Straight lines stay straight. The FOV slider controls the zoom, which can go all the way to a 180° field of view.
hyperbolic a.k.a. stereographic		Produces views balancing naturalness with vertigo. The FOV slider controls the zoom, which can go all the way to a 360° field of view.
cylindrical		This is the format needed for some panorama viewers, including QuickTime VR. The view is infinitely stretched toward the top and bottom, so the vertical view is determined by the rectangle's proportions.
Wetch		An unusual projection with a finite height and infinite width. The FOV slider controls the zoom, which can go all the way to a 360° field of view.
pinwheel		Polar with a swirl.
lozenge		A wide diamond shape with a crease at the equator.
square		A square full of creases. Good for scenes containing lots of straight lines.
curvy		Labrys-like shape with limited distortion. It's the central portion of a mirror ball projection.
goggles		Goggle-shaped view which presents the whole sphere in a style like the hyperbolic projection, but with less extreme size changes.
quasar		Weird projection with inside and outside regions bounded by a circular black-hole-like discontinuity.
14 faces		An unfolded cuboctahedron.
24 faces		An unfolded deltoidal icosatetrahedron.
26 faces		An unfolded small rhombicuboctahedron.
30 faces		An unfolded rhombic tricontahedron
soccer ball		An unfolded truncated icosahedron.
32 faces		An unfolded icosidodecahedron.
38 faces		An unfolded snub cube.
60 faces		An unfolded deltoidal hexecontahedron.
62 faces		An unfolded small rhombicosidodecahedron.

2. View
You can change the center of projection -- the point in the input image that winds up at the center of the output. Latitude moves the center of projection north and south. Longitude moves the center of projection east and west. Spin spins the view around the center of projection.   Flexify can also set the center of projection automatically in three ways:		an off-center hyperbolic view

The reset button sets latitude, longitude, and spin to zero. This gets you back to the "normal" view. The axis button sets latitude, longitude, and spin to multiples of 90°. This usually gives views that are symmetrical-looking. The dice button generates totally random views. Click it as much as you want to see different effects.

reset axis dice

2. Polyhedra
Flexify has fourteen projections that you can print, cut out, fold, and glue together to make a three-dimensional printout of your panorama. If you use a map of Earth as your input image, you can make a crude globe. Tabs sets the width of "glue tabs" that make the polyhedron easier to glue together. The Tab color button sets the color of the tabs. The Poly faces checkbox shows each face of the polyhedron in a single color, to make it clearer how the shape should be folded together.		color button

3. Other controls
The Flip checkbox flips the input picture left-for right. If you are starting with a mirror-ball photo, this will correct backward text. The Better preview checkbox improves the appearance of the preview at the expense of speed. The Background color button lets you choose a background color. Plus, % and minus buttons: If the selected image area is larger than the preview are, these buttons will let you zoom in and out. You can also reposition the preview by dragging it around; your cursor will turn into a hand. Auto Preview When this box is checked, the preview automatically updates whenever you move any control. Turn it off if you want to save time. Load preset Flexify comes with some presets, which are files containing settings. To load one, click this button and browse for a preset file. Save preset When you make an effect you like, click this button to save the settings in a file.  Undo backs up one step. Glue lets you combine the result image with the original, instead of replacing it. Three more buttons: OK  Applies the effect to your image. Cancel  Dismisses the filter, and leaves the image unchanged. Register Allows you to type in a registration code and remove the time limit from the demo.		load preset (top) and save preset undo

Frequently Asked Questions   I want to make maps and globes with Flexify. Where can I find suitable input maps? Here are some places to start looking: Virtual Terrain project links to many map sources NASA Jet Propulsion Lab maps of most Solar System bodies Ars Technica earth map Living Earth maps of Earth, Moon , and Mars LunarCell synthetic worlds You can use Flexify's polyhedron modes to make cut-and fold globes.   How do I make a spherical photo without expensive special equipment? Get a plain silver spherical Christmas-tree ornament and photograph it.   How do I improve photos of ornaments? Panoramas made with the mirrored-ball technique always have a flaw at the point opposite the camera. You can either paint this out, or you can photograph the ball twice from two locations about 90° apart around the ball's equator. Unwrap both reflections; their flaws will be in two different places. Use the good part of one image to replace the flaw in the other. Since the reflection in the ball contains the whole scene, the sun or another light source will probably appear in it, and this can cause your camera's auto-exposure to darken the whole picture. To avoid this use a manual exposure setting appropriate for a typical part of the scene. There are other, larger mirrors you can use besides ornaments that will produce better image quality: Gazing balls. These are garden decorations originally popular in Victorian England, and they can be found at some garden-supply stores. Safety/security mirrors. These are the dome-shaped mirrors sometimes seen at busy corridor intersections at airports and warehouses. Hemispherical mirrors from "whole sky cameras." These are hard to find since meteorologists now use fisheye lenses for sky photography. Large steel or copper mixing bowls don't give sharp reflections, but they are inexpensive and can produce soft, tinted views with streaky blurs around the highlights. Using a mirrored ball you can make a wide horizontal view panorama with no flaw. Place the ball on the ground and photograph it from directly above; or hang it from something and shoot it from below. Use a zoom or telephoto lens to get far from the mirror and minimize the size of the camera in the picture. To enable a telephoto lens to focus closer, use it together with a close-up lens. That this will reduce depth of field, making focussing trickier. For higher resolution, zoom in all the way and take four photos of the mirror -- one for each quadrant -- then stitch them together with your stitching software.   How do I make a cylindrical QuickTime VR panorama? Make an cylindrical projection, turn it sideways so that the bottom is on the right. Convert it with QTVR Make Panorama 2(Mac) or VRMakePano (Windows). You can find more detailed instructions here.   How do I make a cubic QuickTime VR panorama? Make an equirectangular projection that's exactly twice as wide as it is tall, then drag-and drop it on MakeCubic PPC.   What other panorama viewers are there? Many; click here for a list.   How else can I (ab)use Flexify? Straighten out the horizon in panos shot off-level. Use it on non-panoramic photos to make them weird. Distort the same image twice or more in a row to make it weird. Photograph safety mirrors and security-camera bubbles in public places; de-warp the reflections to see what they see. Extract a normal (rectilinear) view from the input. Take a photo of a spherical object like an orange or the Earth and see what it would look like from a different point of view. Use orthographic input and orthographic input.   What are some panoramic photo resources on the net? Panoguide.com – info for beginner to semi-pro panoramic photographers Panorama Tools – software to view, create, edit and remap panoramic Images International Association of Panoramic Photographers Panoramic Network – galleries & info Panoscan – high-end scanning cameras Apple's QuickTime VR developer tools

Version History Version 1.2 June 2001 Adds the 30 faces polyhedron shape; adds two new input modes, cylindrical and orthographic; and fixes a bug where some polyhedra would not display correctly. Version 1.1 June 2001 Adds eight new polyhedron shapes. Version 1.0 May 2001 The first public release.

How to Purchase

You can place an order online here. A secure server for transactions is available.

Questions

Answers to common technical questions appear on the support page, and free upgrades appear periodically on the download page.

Trouble with your order? Orders are handled by Kagi; please contact them at admin@kagi.com .

For bug reports and technical questions about the software, please write to support@flamingpear.com .