How to Bring a Panoramic Photo to Life

08/01 2026

How the Video Editor animates a 360° photo so it starts moving on open - and quietly shows viewers they can drag and zoom the scene themselves.

Anton Konstantinov

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I'd like to share my own experience of using True Virtual Tours. A few days ago I had a small personal revelation. When I first started using the site, I completely overlooked the option to animate a 360° photo. I was only uploading panoramas and generating links so other people could open and view them. That was it.

Then one day, browsing through the latest work of the site's long-timers, I came across a panorama that, as soon as I opened it in full screen, immediately began rotating the camera around the viewer's position. null

That surprised me - I hadn't seen an option like that anywhere in the site's feature set. So I went looking, and it turned out I had actually seen the feature right at the start; I had simply misread what it was for. It's called the Video Editor, and it is currently marked "(beta)" in the options. null

The name never made me think of a still photograph, even a 360° one. Somehow I had assumed from the beginning that the option was meant for panoramic video - footage from a camera that shoots a full 360° view and stitches it on the fly in hardware for playback. I took it for granted that Video Editor (beta) existed for that kind of video.

Once I finally tried the feature on my own renders, I found it makes a real difference to how a panorama presents itself.

What I mean by that is the appeal of what your end client or partner actually sees when they open the work you sent them. The first time somebody opens your link to a panoramic photo, they usually don't yet know the image is "clickable" - that it can be moved with the mouse. Their first assumption is that it's a static photograph with a camera-drift effect added: the view shifts slightly from one angle to another, but the shot is fundamentally two-dimensional.

They don't yet know that what they've opened has a kind of half-depth to it, an endlessness - that they can keep moving their view and never reach an edge. It's precisely to convey that sense of space, and at the same time to nudge the viewer into realising they can control the image themselves, that I use the Video Editor. null

By adding a focus move - closer, then further away - I can indirectly hint to the viewer that they can do more than click and drag from side to side: they can use the scroll wheel too.

Animation from the Video Editor loops by default. The transitions between points keep repeating until the viewer takes control - that is, until the first time they click into the panorama and start dragging, or turn the scroll wheel.

My own figures suggest that most people uploading panoramas have never used this animation feature. To make the Video Editor easier for everyone else to get to know, I put together a short video.

08/02 2026

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John Smith

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06/02 2024
Elina Tereza Sapiega

Добрый.
А как регулировать скорость поворота? Он носиться как угорелый по кругу. А надо плавно :-)
11/23 2022
Artin777

Hello, can you make a 360 video for YouTube?
Translated from Russian
01/17 2022
Юрий Спасенников

During trial work in the video editor (beta), three wishes arose for its quality use.
1. Is it possible to increase the time of one scene from 3 (today's) seconds to at least 5. The scenes will not be so torn and convulsive.
2. The cardinal wish is to be able to change the duration of the scenes yourself (within reasonable limits, of course).
3. When editing, be able to change scenes (left, right, up, down, zoom in, zoom out) at a constant speed, that is, with buttons, not with the mouse.
Is it possible?
Translated from Russian
06/06 2021
Roman Grinev

Victor, there is no such possibility yet. The ability to create a virtual tour video and then export it to AVI is one of the priority things that are planned to be implemented.
Translated from Russian
06/06 2021
Виктор Макаркин

Is it possible to create a video panorama or a video tour here to place where it is not possible to place in the usual format?
Translated from Russian
06/02 2021
Krecer75

Hello. Tell me how to add buttons for transition between panoramas or arrows.
Translated from Russian
06/26 2020
Anton Konstantinov

Yes, indeed, at present, the movement is launched only in a separately open panorama. The tour remains a bunch of "static" panoramas. The developers have yet to work on this.
Translated from Russian
06/25 2020
Astrakhan 360

I realized that this applies only to a separate panorama, the tour is not reproduced in motion.
Translated from Russian
06/25 2020
Astrakhan 360

Super! Everything is simple and clear! You must definitely edit the Tours!
Translated from Russian