Producer Tutorial

Quick Guide

This page contains instructions for producing and publishing 360° videos. Follow the steps below and/or watch the video tutorial at the bottom of the page.

 

Capturing videos with Ricoh Theta S

  1. On the side of the Ricoh Theta S, you’ll see three buttons aligned top to bottom.
    1. Press the top button to power on the camera (several blue lights should appear).
    2. Press the lowest of the three buttons to change between video and still-frame mode. For Youtube uploads, make sure it is on video mode. This is indicated by a blue light on the front of the camera displaying the image of a camcorder instead of a still camera.
  2. To begin filming, press the large circular button on the front of the camera. Make sure your frame is completely still for the best quality.
  3. Once you have captured what you want, you can stop filming by pressing the large circular button again. The video will be saved on the camera automatically. The camera holds 8 GB of footage, so it is possible to take multiple videos in one trip.

 

Stitching your video

  1. Plug in your Ricoh Theta to the Mac computer.
  2. Import your videos through the “Image Capture” program. Do not use the Macintosh “Photos” application that will appear. The Ricoh Theta is not compatible with Photos.
    1. You may want to create a separate folder for your videos.
  3. After the videos are imported, download and install the RICOH THETA application.
  4. Drag your unstitched videos into the RICOH THETA application. You can view your videos here, and stitch them together into a working 360° video.
    1. The RICOH THETA application will automatically save the stitched video into the folder the videos were originally imported to.

 

Adding metadata and uploading your video

When you are uploading a 360° video to Youtube. Youtube needs to have specific information (Metadata) within the code to know that your video is in 360°. To insert Metadata into your video. Use the Metadata Injector (clicking on this link to initiate download process).

Once you open the Metadata application:

  1. Click open.
  2. Find your stitched video and select it.
  3. “Inject Metadata” should now be selectable for your video. Press it and save to your desired folder.

You can now upload your 360° video to Youtube.

  1. Log onto your Google account that you want to upload the video to.
  2. Click “Upload” in the top right corner of the Youtube page. On the upload page, drag and drop your Metadata file into the uploader tool. Your video should start uploading and be published.
  3. Make sure to give Youtube some time to recognize your 360° video. Some videos take up to 48 hours to activate the 360° effect.

 

Video guide