Autodesk has announced two “new” products, Stitcher Unlimited 2009 and ImageModeler 2009. Stitcher Unlimited (US$350, Windows and Mac) is for patching photographs to generate panoramic images that can be used in rendering and other virtual-world applications. ImageModeler ($US995, Windows only) generates 3D models from 2D images. Both products are carry-overs from Autodesk’s purchase of REALVIZ.
Neither product is released yet; both are scheduled for October. Autodesk claims a wide range of enhancements for the 2009 releases, but if you’re desperate there’s nothing to stop you ordering the current releases on-line from the REALVIZ site right now. I have seen neither product in the flesh. These are first-release Autodesk products, so the usual caveats apply. The products may or may not be stable, may or may not play nicely with other Autodesk products and they may or may not even have a future beyond a release or two. However, they were established products before Autodesk bought them, Autodesk obviously thinks they were worth investing in, and they do look interesting.
The best photostitching software I have ever used is the one that comes free with Canon cameras: PhotoStitcher. It works well in automatic mode, and has a manual override. (I’ve tried demo versions of a half-dozen other products, but none is as easy to use.)
My best-ever effort was a 13-photo stitch job of the tower in downtown Auckland New Zealand.
The catch: being able to print long stitch images on A-size printers. HP provides no documentation at all, but I finally figured out how to do this on their PhotoSmart P1100 — it involves getting banner paper, and then manually adjusting the print parameters in Canon’s Viewer software (the one that comes with the PhotoStitch software).
I wonder if Autodesk’s “new” stitching software makes it easy to print long prints on A-size printers?