Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: Nirgal May 6 2005, 01:21 PM

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 http://mitglied.lycos.de/user73289/misc/stranded.jpg


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 ...

Posted by: MahFL May 6 2005, 01:36 PM

Thats awesome.

Posted by: Tman May 6 2005, 02:11 PM

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

Posted by: Jeff7 May 6 2005, 03:48 PM

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.

Posted by: Nirgal May 11 2005, 07:45 PM

here is the full 360 degree pan in color:


http://mitglied.lycos.de/user73289/misc/oppy_p454.jpg

detail crop of the "dinosaur tail" dune:

Posted by: Vladimorka May 11 2005, 08:22 PM

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

Posted by: Nirgal May 11 2005, 11:39 PM

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-1P167864588EFF55DIP2409L257-2.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

Posted by: dilo May 12 2005, 06:47 PM

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!

Posted by: Nirgal May 12 2005, 10:43 PM

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 ...

Posted by: Nix May 12 2005, 10:49 PM

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

Posted by: dilo May 13 2005, 12:49 AM

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?

Posted by: CosmicRocker May 13 2005, 04:02 AM

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.

Posted by: CosmicRocker May 13 2005, 04:39 AM

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.

Posted by: CosmicRocker May 13 2005, 05:06 AM

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.

Posted by: dilo May 13 2005, 05:02 PM

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!

Posted by: Tman May 13 2005, 07:15 PM

Hi C.Rocker, great works with Autostitch. I wonder about the number of frames you are able to stitch with it.

Months ago I try attempts with it too. But I always had troubles since Autostitch stitched not all frames that I wished and I had to start several times for a correct result (by same settings!). I got no more as three raw Pancam frames together. With Navcam pics it was for me too incorrect so far.

The best result that I got once with three Pancam frames was "perfect" but rather chance: http://www.greuti.ch/oppy/oppy-sol414.jpg

One question: Now do you always stitch with the same settings or have you to thinker with it each time?

Posted by: alan May 13 2005, 07:26 PM

I have better luck using autostitch on images from Spirit than with Oppy. It seems to have trouble matching the dunes.

Posted by: CosmicRocker May 14 2005, 02:44 AM

Thank you, Dilo and Tman, but it was not so much a matter of skill, as it was of persistent experimenting. I have been enjoying the excellent work of the experts on this forum for so long that I decided to teach myself some of the skills so I could also contribute something. I spoke with slinted on irc and learned that the Orientation settings theta/phi/psi equate to pitch/roll/yaw. At first I tried to look at imagery from the location to try to guess what the pitch/roll/yaw were, but that only got me part way there.

Eventually, I resorted to many runs, saving the images so I could see if it improved the horizon or not. For that panorama I unchecked the autostraighten box and settled on theta=+1.0, phi=-4.5, and psi=0. I also set scale=100% in SIFT image matching. There is still room for improvement, but now that they have started moving Opportunity, those parameters will be changing.

I also agree with Alan that Sprit images generally work better than those from Opportunity. I think the many sharp features in the rocky terrain in Gusev give the image matching algorithms more to work with than the dunes on Meridiani.

Posted by: dilo May 14 2005, 07:11 AM

Thank you, C.Rocker!
Your experimental approach gave good results, but it seems to me very time consuming...
Due to apparent absence of a real help/tutarial on autostich, It would be interesting to continue the discussion on Autostich settings in the dedicated "Imagery & Tech Issues" subforum (for example, I have no idea of wath means "SIFT image matching").
For shure, many others partecipants would like to share knowledges on this powerful SW!
Bye.

Posted by: Jeff7 May 14 2005, 02:18 PM

Wow, that thing looks tall. I wonder if NASA will be kind enough to make mention of it, and its actual height. Could be interesting to go over and press on it with the RAT, just to maybe scoop some off the top.