"fighting The Surf" Panorama In Color, Save Oppy's Soul in the sand sea Options

[Nirgal]

As Steve said: "get used to the current scenery ..."

so I decided to make the best out of it
Especially the latest dune-panorama posted by dilo inspired me to the
following hand-colorization:



Links to the higher resolution version


It's a pity that the pancam-parts are only downsampled EDRs ...
OTH, if we remain stuck, I'm sure we'll get more than enough high-res
views of that place :-/

P.S.: I'm also working on a color version of the
whole 360degree panorama ...

[MahFL]

Thats awesome.

[Tman]

It's a pity that the pancam-parts are only downsampled EDRs ...
OTH, if we remain stuck, I'm sure we'll get more than enough high-res
views of that place :-/

If so, you have enough time to hand-colorization every blueberry separately at place.

[Jeff7]

This picture does a good job of showing some dimension in the dunes - they just seem to look pretty flat in a lot of the monochrome images.

[Nirgal]

here is the full 360 degree pan in color:


full resolution panorama (1MB)

detail crop of the "dinosaur tail" dune:

[Vladimorka]

Someone to make 3d of the "dinosaur tail" image? Looks like the way ahead is getting extremely wavy...

[Nirgal]

it's getting definitely more wavy ...
However, note that the height of the dunes is somewhat exaggerated in the images (vertical stretch for a higher aspect ratio to better fit the extreme 360 degree view )

One remark regarding the colors:
The shades of red might look nice but quite "unrealistic". However, I tried to colorize according closely to some impressions from "real" i.e. multi-filter composite images taken of the same area, for example this beautiful one (posted on the other forum) http://www.lipfordm.com/wtsi/p-1P167864588...P2409L257-2.png
At least, as long as we don't have the exact radiance calibrated images yet, we certainly have some degree of freedom in chosing the color hues

[dilo]

Nirgal, incredibly, I discovered this thread only now!
When I posted my PanCam mosaic, suggesting you to colorize it, I didn't imagined this superb result! I'm deeply deliced and I want deeply thank you for citation!
...One day, I hope, you will illustrate in detail your technique to us .
Regards!

[Nirgal]

Nirgal, incredibly, I discovered this thread only now!     
When I posted my PanCam mosaic, suggesting you to colorize it, I didn't imagined this superb result! I'm deeply deliced and I want deeply thank you for citation!
...One day, I hope, you will illustrate in detail your technique to us  .
Regards!

Thanks for the kind words, dilo

I'm still working on the perfection of the colorizing techniques ...
It's a mixture of (pseudo-)intelligent colorizing algorithms
(hard-coded in plain C language
and a lot of brush hand-work in the details & fine tuning ...
Each individual b/w picture is a difficult challange to obtain "realistically looking"
color results without additional filter informations ...

Often enough, I'm not very satisfied with results (many tries with hundreds of different color hues and shades until it feels to look "right"...

For getting my overall "inspirations" for the general look&feel of the Martian colors
I'm often looking at the beautiful real/multi-filter color images posted
by other experts and color Wizards like djellison, Horton or on Daniel Crotty's (slinted) great site.
Also the many fantastic navcam-panoramas posted here (Tman, dilo and others) are often rewarding invitations to add the colors to them

Still, some images succeed more than others ... it often depends on the nature of the original b/w image: your panorama, for example with the fine contrast-rich dune patterns,
was one of those where I immediately thought would be a good target for
colorization ...

BTW.:My latest attempt is to bring color to some Microscopic Imager views
(methuselah and jib close-ups look promising

Long term goal would be to publish some kind of "coffee-table"-book with the best color images of the Mars missions (more "artistically oriented" than the usual
kind of space-book, less text, more images) ... but I'm afraid it won't be easy to find publishers for such a project ...

[Nix]

Nice work Nirgal. I made the pan myself but it sure looks top of the bill after your colorization process!
Nico

[dilo]

I'm still working on the perfection of the colorizing techniques ...
It's a mixture of (pseudo-)intelligent colorizing algorithms (hard-coded in plain C language  and  a lot of brush hand-work in the details & fine tuning ...
[.....]
Long term goal would be to publish some kind of "coffee-table"-book with the best color images of  the Mars missions (more "artistically oriented" than the usual
kind of space-book, less text, more images) ... but I'm afraid it won't be easy to find publishers for such a project ...

Your work is a mixture of automatized and hand-made technique! This is amazing, and I think that there is also a strong artistic component in it!
The idea to make a "space-book" is exciting, do you consider idea to make this gallery on a a dedicated internet site?

[CosmicRocker]

I have been experimenting with Autostitch, trying to force the horizon to flatten. This is my best result so far with a 360 degree panorama from the L1 images of sol 454. It would have been nicer if we had L7s of this sequence, and nicer still if they were full frame, but it's an interesting view nonetheless.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[CosmicRocker]

I have also been struggling with a 360 degree anaglyph, using the L1 and R2 images from sol 454. There are some small differences between the the way Autostich assembled the L1 panorama versus the R2 panorama. I am having a hard time adjusting for those differences across the entire 360 degree field in order to make a nice anaglyph of it.

But I have been able to make decent anaglyphs of two of the more intersting parts. This one is a view looking back at the previous tracks. One can clearly see that Opportunity climbed onto a higher bank of dunes when the turn-around on Sol 439 occurred. It appears that there was an even earlier step-change in elevation prior to sol 439. Opportunity entered a transition zone between the previous plains and the etched terrain after it left Viking/Voyager. Perhaps that is what we are seeing.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[CosmicRocker]

I hesitate to post this, but Vladimorka asked for a 3D view of the Dinosaur Tail. You might have to work a bit harder to make this one pop into 3D view, but this drift is the most impressive one in the vicinity, and worth the effort.

While these 3D views are quite interesting, I'd really like to concentrate on the view toward the south. I am convinced Oppy will extricate itself, and we'll be back on the road again, before too long.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[dilo]

Good results, CosmicRocker! I planned to make a "flat horizon" panorama, but never found enough time ...
How do you managed in order to flatten horizon? This was quite obvious with PTGui, but Autostitch seems so damn/lovely automated...
I imagine answer is in the "orientation settings" portion of Option window, but I do not know exactly how to do... Thanks!