Jobs

The Job Window

When you first open PhotoWarp, you will be presented with a new, empty Job window:

Parts of the Job window

Jobs are the documents PhotoWarp works with. You can save and open PhotoWarp Jobs just like text documents. This can be useful to save all the settings you used for a set of panoramas for later reference, or to make corrections and adjustments later on.

• The main pane is used to display the active image or settings being manipulated.
• The tray displays icons and information that represents content in the main pane.
• The pane switcher is used to switch between the Source, Format and Output panes of the Job window.
• The Unwarp button causes PhotoWarp to process the job by unwarping source images into output files.

The Job window is switched between three major display panes using the pane switcher. The source pane is used to display source images and manipulate the settings used on the image. The format pane determines the kinds of files generated by PhotoWarp and the settings that control them. After unwarping the job, the output pane shows the output files created by PhotoWarp.

Source Pane

The source pane displays the currently selected source image in the job. Here, you set up an image for unwarping.

Source images are added to a job in one of two ways. You can use the "Source → Add Source..." menu item to select image files in a standard open dialog. Alternately, you can simply drag image file icons onto the job window. Here, a single image file has been dragged onto the Job window:

Source pane with an image

The Tray displays the name of the source and its type. Here, the input image has been determined to be a 360 One VR image. You can change this easily by selecting a different source template from the popup menu. You can choose between one-shot formats, cylindrical or spherical images. QuickTime VR cylinders can also be used as a source, and are automatically recognized by PhotoWarp.

PhotoWarp also displays a proxy for the current image file on the left of the pane switcher. You can drag this icon to another application to open the image, where you can modify it if necessary. If you right-click on the proxy, a contextual menu will allow you to reveal the original file, or choose an application to open the file (Mac OS X only).

You can manually change settings for the source by using the Source Settings pane. Click the Settings... button in the tray to reveal the settings pane. You can customize the constraints for display, adjust some additional source type settings, and add notes for sources that can be reflected in web scripts.

Source settings panel

PhotoWarp supports batch processing. This allows you to add several source image files to the job at once. When unwarping the job, all the source files will be unwarped. To use batch processing, just drag several files (all at once or in groups) onto the job window. When two or more sources are connected to the job, the source list will open (you can also manually open the source list from the Source → Show List menu):

Source list for a batch job

You can switch to a particular source by clicking its name in the source list. The image will appear in the source pane and you can adjust the mirror position or source settings as necessary. You can also switch between sources using the next/previous arrows above the Unwarp button.

The name of the source is used as the base of the output files PhotoWarp generates when unwarping that source. By default source are named based on the file name of the image. You can rename sources to your liking. Double-click on a name in the source list to edit. The filename associated with the source will not be changed. You can also change the name of the current source from the source tray.

Usually images taken with a digital camera have unattractive names like DSCxxxx.JPG. If you have a batch of source files like this, you can rename them all at once by clicking the Rename All... button in the source drawer (or by selecting the Source → Rename All... menu). The Rename Sources panel will appear:

Rename sources panel

You can choose a meaningful base name for all the images (e.g. Vacation). A serial number will be added after this name. You can force a certain number of leading zeroes on names (e.g. Vacation 001) to make sorting easier. Also, you can preserve the number in the original file name for convenience. Click Rename to rename all the sources.

Two columns of status indicators appear next to the names of sources. These icons allow you to view at a glance the result of target detection or unwarping for that source.

The Mirror Detection column shows an icon indicating the confidence in finding the mirror in each source. You will see the following icons if target detection is being used:

• - Mirror was detected with high confidence
• - Mirror detection may have given an incorrect result. Check and correct if necessary.
• - Mirror detection failed or performed poorly. Manually locate the mirror to fix.

The Unwarp Status column shows icons indicating the result of unwarping the given source. Nothing will appear here until the first time you unwarp a job. The following icons are used:

• - The source and all its formats were unwarped successfully.
• - An error occurred while unwarping this source. Check the log file for a description of the problem and how to fix it.

Format Pane

A PhotoWarp job (when unwarped) will create files for each output format from each source in the job. Each different viewer or image has its own output format. QuickTime VR, Zoom Viewer, and thumbnail image are examples of output formats.

The Format Pane shows the output formats that are applied to the job. The Tray displays icons for each output format. Clicking an icon in the tray will display options for that format in the main pane:

Format pane

Tabs will appear in the main pane with various options that apply to the format:

• General — Settings that apply to any image output. This includes the resolution (a percentage of the source) and filename prefix and suffix.
• Compression - The compression codec (e.g. JPEG, TIFF), quality and target file size to use when compressing the output.
• Image - Options to adjust or enhance unwarped images.
• Web Script - Settings to generate a custom HTML web page that embeds the panorama created from the source.
• QTVR - Settings specific to QuickTime VR movies, such as fast start previews.

The name of each format (displayed below its icon) can be edited by double-clicking.

You can change the formats for a given job using the format tray. To add a new format, select an item from the Format → Add Format menu. A new format will be created based on your selection. You can remove a format by selecting it in the tray and choosing Format → Remove Format, or by pressing Delete.

Unwarping

Once you have added the sources and formats you want for your job, you can begin processing by clicking the Unwarp button. If you have a single source in your job, you will be prompted for a file name. This name will be the base for the output files generated. For example, if you saved "My Panorama", you might see output files called My Panorama.mov, My Panorama.html, or My Panorama-thumb.jpg). Enter a name and click Save. If you have multiple sources, you are asked to choose a folder to save unwarped files. Navigate to the folder you want for your output files, and click Choose.

If any files in the destination folder conflict with files that PhotoWarp will generate, a panel will be presented listing each of the files that may be replaced:

Replace files warning dialog

You can choose to move all the affected files to a new sub-folder (called Moved Files), or just replace the listed files. If you want to choose a different unwarp folder, or rename your sources to avoid the conflict, choose Cancel and fix the problem yourself.

PhotoWarp will display a progress bar while it unwarps the source images, along with an animated display of the current output file as it is generated. You will also see an estimate of the time remaining to unwarp the job.

Job unwarping

You can cancel the job at any time if you see a problem with the results. Just click Cancel, and go back to make changes to correct the problem. After clicking Unwarp, the job will continue near where it left off.

Output Pane

When the job has been completely unwarped, the progress bar and animated unwarp display will disappear, and the output pane will be shown.

Output pane showing web page

The tray will show each of the files created for the selected source. Click on any of these icons to see the resulting file. You can double-click on a file icon to open it in an appropriate application (such as QuickTime Player for .mov files, or your web browser for .html files).

You can drag the file icons in the tray just like icons in the Finder or Windows Explorer. You might drag a JPEG file onto Photoshop for some touch-up work, drag an HTML file onto BBEdit to manipulate the web page generated by PhotoWarp, or drag a movie into an email message to send it to someone.