Flexify 2 

Flaming Pear Software

What it does What it does

How to install Flexify is a plug-in filter for paint programs. It warps full-sphere photos --
those showing a full view of a scene in every direction -- into new shapes that
are more attractive or useful. It can also transform maps.
Quick start

Projections

Input

View

Retouching

Polyhedra

Other controls

Memory dots

Globemaking

Brick spheres How to install

Cube maps Illustrated installation instructions are online at www.flamingpear.com/

faq.html .

FAQ To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard
Photoshop 3.02 plugins.
Versions
Just put the plug-in filter into the folder where your paint program expects to
How to purchase find it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or
Photoshop:Plug-ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new
Questions plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->Flexify 2.
Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme.

If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in filter
into it, and then tell PSP to look there.

PSP 7:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... and choose the Plug-in
Filters tab. Use one of the "Browse" buttons to choose the folder that contains
the plug-in.

The plug-in is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From
the menus, choose Effects->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->Flexify 2.

PSP 8, 9, X, XI, and X2:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... In the dialog box that
appears, choose Plug-ins from the list. Click "Add." If you are using PSP 8 or 9,
click "Browse". Now choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plug-in is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From
the menus, choose Effects->Plugins->Flaming Pear->Flexify 2.

Quick start
When you invoke Flexify 2, a dialog box will appear.

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To get a quick idea of what Flexify does, load a full-
sphere panoramic image into your paint program
(there's a small example panorama here). If the
image is circular, the selection should graze the
edge of the circle.

Invoke Flexify, and tell it what kind of input image

you're using via the “Input” popup menu. Choose a
different projection from the Output popup. Click
the dice button a few times until you see a result selection should graze
you like; then click OK. the edge of the circle

Flexify's capabilities and controls are explained

below.

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Projections
A projection is a way of unwrapping and warping a spherical surface so that it
will lie down flat. It's like making a flat map of the Earth — you have to make a
choice about how to deform shapes.

Flexify can accept as input spherical panoramas in any of fifteen projections and
can output them in more than fifty. Some of the projections are practical; some
are weird and are meant to emphasize the bizarre, vertiginous nature of ultra-
wide-angle photography.

Flexify can output these projections:.

The panorama fits into a

rectangle. Meridians are
vertical, parallels are
horizontal, and the north
equirectangular
and poles are stretched out
a.k.a. cylindrical to lines at the top and
equidistant or bottom. Scanning panoramic
plate carrée cameras produce this kind of
image. Not the same as
Mercator.

The reflection seen in a

mirror ball
mirrored ball.

polar Angular distance from the

center of projection
a.k.a. azimuthal increases uniformly toward
equidistant the edge.

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 The image sphere as seen
orthographic
from the outside.

tetrahedron An unfolded 4-faced shape.

cube An unfolded 6-faced shape.

octahedron An unfolded 8-faced shape.

dodecahedron An unfolded 12-faced shape.

icosahedron An unfolded 20-faced shape.

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Hammer A 2:1 wide ellipse.

Werner A heart-shaped projection.

sinusoidal
A pointy shape.
a.k.a. Sanson-
Flamsteed

Like a regular view from a

normal lens. Straight lines
rectilinear stay straight. The FOV slider
controls the zoom, which can
a.k.a. gnomonic
go all the way to a 180° field
of view.

Produces views balancing

naturalness with vertigo. The
hyperbolic FOV slider controls the
zoom, which can go all the
way to a 360° field of view.

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Like hyperbolic but with less

distortion of scale and
stereographic
shape. The FOV slider
controls the zoom.

 
This is the format needed for
some panorama viewers,
including QuickTime VR. The
view is infinitely stretched
toward the top and bottom,
cylindrical
so the vertical view is
determined by the
rectangle's proportions.

An unusual projection with a

finite height and infinite
width. The FOV slider
Wetch
controls the zoom, which can
go all the way to a 360° field
of view.

pinwheel Polar with a swirl.

A wide diamond shape with a

lozenge
crease at the equator.

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 A square full of creases.
square Good for scenes containing
lots of straight lines.

Labrys-like shape with

limited distortion. It's the
curvy
central portion of a mirror
ball projection.

Goggle-shaped view which

presents the whole sphere in
goggles a style like the hyperbolic
projection, but with less
extreme size changes.

Weird projection with inside

and outside regions bounded
quasar
by a circular black-hole-like
discontinuity.

14 faces An unfolded cuboctahedron.

An unfolded deltoidal
24 faces a
icosatetrahedron.

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 An unfolded pentagonal
24 faces b
icosatetrahedron.

An unfolded small
26 faces
rhombicuboctahedron.

An unfolded rhombic
30 faces
tricontahedron

An unfolded truncated
soccer ball
icosahedron.

An unfolded
32 faces
icosidodecahedron.

38 faces An unfolded snub cube.

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 An unfolded deltoidal
60 faces
hexecontehedron.

An unfolded small
62 faces
rhombicosidodecahedron.

A compromise whole-earth
Winkel Tripel projection often used by the
National Geographic Society.

gores: 12 A shape for globemaking.

gores: 24 A shape for globemaking.

A shape for globemaking.

The FOV slider lets you
gores:multi
choose anything from 3 to
36 gores.

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 A shape for globemaking.
gores: 6/12
Shows only half the sphere.

The scene repeats endlessly

loop
toward the horns of the loop.

Each half of the scene gets it

two circles
own hyperbolic projection.

A popular origami pattern.

balloon Read “Flexify Origami” for
folding instructions.

An obscure origami pattern.

Read “Flexify Origami” for
folding instructions. Fun to
paperlock
write letters on the reverse
and fold them into
concealment.

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 The format of Omnimax
Omnimax
70mm film frames.

A tetrahedron 5-compound,
and Flexify's most difficult-
to-construct polyhedron. It
prints out as ten sawtooth
shapes. Each sawtooth folds
up into a pair of peaks, and
spikeball you assemble them all to get
the finished shape.

Because the shape is so

complex, you should start
with a very bold, simple
picture.

The image sphere built from

Lego® bricks. Flexify can
create builiding plans for
brick preview
these spheres. It's explained
in the brick sphere part of
this guide.

A 2:1 wide ellipse with

Mollweide
parallel lines of latitude.

An icosahedron unfolded in a
way suitable for planetary
icomap
maps in some role-playing
games.

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star 3 A polar-Werner hybrid.

Another polar-Werner
star 5
hybrid.

A polar projection
magnipolar
emphasizing the center.

Rectilinear in the center,

swoop blending to hyperbolic at the
left and right sides.

An unfolded
dodo
dodecadodecahedron.

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 An unfolded great
GID
icosidodecahedron.

Rectilinear in the center,

oculus blending to hyperbolic at the
top and bottom.

Three 120° rectilinear views

triptych side by side. Great for scenes
with lots of straight lines.

Three 90° rectilinear views

side by side. Suitable for
tetraptych
presenting rectangular
rooms.

A ring shape. The FOV slider

annulus
controls the size of the hole.

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 Rectilinear with a vertical
offset controlled by the
Latitude slider. Good for
shift lens
looking up at tall buildings
while keeping the building's
edges parallel.

For making maps with

straight loxodromes.
Mercator
Not the same as
equirectangular.

An 8-gore shape suitable for

making custom umbrellas.
umbrella
The FOV slider sets the
length of the petals.

A tetrahedron unfolded to
tetra tile
repeat endlessly.

The panorama bent to

hyper double
appear twice in one picture.

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 The panorama bent to
hyper triple appear three times in one
picture.

Mercator cross A repeating cross pattern.

A repeating six-pointed star

Mercator star
pattern.

A conformal projection in a
Lagrange
circle.

The image sphere

unwrapped like the peel from
rind 1 an apple. The central ribbon
makes one pass around the
sphere.

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 A rind with two passes
rind 2
around the sphere.

A rind with three passes

rind 3
around the sphere.

Creates twelve gores for an

ellipsoidal globe. The FOV
slider controls the ellipsoid's
proportions.

tunable ellipsoid 0 = 0.5:1 skinny ellipsoid.

90 = 1:1 sphere. 180 = 2:1
fat ellipsoid.

Or: aspect ratio = 2 ( ( FOV /

90)-1) .

Like the tunable ellipsoid,

tunable egg except the result is egg-
shaped.

Four rectilinear views, rolled

at random angles, looking
4 views
along a uniformly distributed
set of directions.

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12 views Twelve rectilinear views.

Twenty-four rectilinear
24 views
views.

60 views Sixty rectilinear views.

Seventy-two rectilinear
72 views
views.

Robinson A modern map projection.

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 An equirectangular view
stretched to fill the whole
equi tall image. This is the way
equirectangulars worked in
Flexify 1.

Midway between rectilinear

semistereo
and sterographic.

A cube unfolded, then

thorn
warped.

A conformal projection
Lagrange 3/4 intermediate between
stereographic and Lagrange.

Good for de-emphasizing

squoculus
the sky.

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 A left-handed version of
thorn levo
thorn.

Good for improving fisheye

pictures of people or
architecture. Straightens
unFish verticals and makes
distortion less objectionable
over about a 180° field of
view.

A Lagrange projection that

Lagrange plus shows more than 360°
horizontally.

A conformal mapping of the

Adams I
whole sphere to a square.

A conformal mapping of the

Adams II
whole sphere to a square.

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trecunx A variant of Peirce quincunx.

quadracunx A variant of Peirce quincunx.

A conformal mapping of the

whole sphere to a square.

Peirce quincunx If your input is a world map,

set Longitude to 90° to get
the standard Peirce map
layout.

sexacunx A variant of Peirce quincunx.

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septecunx A variant of Peirce quincunx.

5-star A polygon.

pentagon A polygon.

Guyou A 2:1 conformal rectangle

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 An awkward hexagon;
3-star actually a star based on a
triangle.

triangle A polygon.

Each hemisphere in a
rhombus 1
triangle.

Another way to present each

rhombus 2
hemisphere in a triangle.

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6-star A snowflake or star of David.

hexagon A polygon.

A less-warped triangular
Lee tetrahedric
layout.

Lee tetrahedric dissected

rectangular tet
into a rectangle.

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 A two-lobed shape; two
2-clover
stereographic hemispheres.

3-clover A three-lobed shape.

4-clover A four-lobed shape.

5-clover A five-lobed shape.

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6-clover A six-lobed shape.

pentalene A polygon.

naphthalene A polygon.

phenathene A polygon.

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shuriken A four-armed shape.

cross A conformal shape.

double Guyou A 4:1conformal rectangle.

wide rect A 2:1conformal rectangle.

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semicircle A conformal shape.

ellipse A conformal shape.

One conformal Reuleaux

Reuleaux 1
triangle.

Two conformal Reuleaux

Reuleaux 2
triangles.

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 Four conformal Reuleaux
Reuleaux 4
triangles.

Eight conformal Reuleaux

Reuleaux 8 triangles. Compare
Leonardo's mappamundi.

Eight stereographic
octreleaux
segments.

zigzag A conformal cube unfolding.

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chevron A conformal shape.

monozag A conformal shape.

3-malta A conformal shape.

4-malta A conformal shape.

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5-malta A conformal shape.

6-malta A conformal shape.

The world warped so

Gilbert everything appears on one
side of a sphere.

Two copies of a
stereo twice
stereographic view.

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 Three copies of a
stereo thrice
stereographic view.

The image sphere in two

Adams diamonds
squares.

An equal-area projection.
Depending on the
proportions, this can be
Lambert (3.141:1), Behrmann
equal-area
(2.356:1), Edwards
cylinder
37°24' (1.983:1), Hobo-Dyer
(1.977:1), Gall-Peters
(1.571:1), or Edwards 50°52
(1.251:1).

quick globe A shaded 3D globe.

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 A Peirce quincuncial map
equal squarea warped into an equal-area
version.

A square fisheye with strong

square fish 1
peripheral distortion.

A square fisheye with less

square fish 2 peripheral distortion and
straighter verticals.

The world warped so

everything appears on one
Gilbert globe
side of a sphere; with 3D
shading.

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pointy A conformal shape.

shuriken star A conformal shape.

calyx 3 A conformal shape.

calyx 4 A conformal shape.

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calyx 5 A conformal shape.

calyx 6 A conformal shape.

waffle A conformal shape.

trident A conformal shape.

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astercurve 5 A conformal shape.

astercurve 7 A conformal shape.

astercurve 8 A conformal shape.

trizag A conformal shape.

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shark 3 A conformal shape.

shark 4 A conformal shape.

sunburst A conformal shape.

The shape formed by the

2 cylinders intersection of two cylinders.
A Steinmetz solid.

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 The shape formed by the
3 cylinders intersection of three
cylinders. A Steinmetz solid.

Isle of Man A rind with three arms.

shard A conformal shape.

A conformal shape related to

starburst
sunburst.

38
3-incurvate A conformal shape.

4-incurvate A conformal shape.

phenyl cross A conformal shape.

anthracene A conformal shape.

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conformal A regular dodecahedron with
dodecahedron a conformal graticule.

tattoo 1 A sphere dissection.

tattoo 2 A sphere dissection.

Top and bottom cube faces.

Good for hand-retouching
the poles of a spherical
zenith & nadir
panorama. Later, you can re-
import your changes with the
zenith-nadir input mode.

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 Cube faces in horizontal-
cross form. Good for
retouching. Later, you can
re-import your changes with
horizontal cross
the horizontal cross input
mode. For best results, use
the PSD export and choose
4x3 image proportions.

Cube faces in vertical-cross

form. Good for retouching.
Later, you can re-import
your changes with the
vertical cross
vertical cross input mode.
For best results, use the PSD
export and choose 4x3
image proportions.

A roughly spherical
thirtysphere polyhedron with vertices
every 30°.

A developable shape made of

devtet
ruled surfaces.

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 A developable shape made of
conictet
four cones.

Flexify can make several

kinds of Class I geodesic
spheres. In the output menu,
geodesic spheres are named
like this:

Geodesic 4|2 is based on a

tetrahedron; frequency 2.

geodesic spheres Geodesic 8|3 is based on an

octahedron; frequency 3.

Flexify has all the Class I

geodesic spheres from 4|2
up to 12|5. Plain Platonic
solids like 4|1 appear
elsewhere in the menu.

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 Sphericons are developable
3D shapes created by
making a regular polygon
into a surface of revolution,
then twisting one half
relative to the other.

In Flexify's output menu, the

sphericons are named like
this:

Sphericon 6/0 is based on a

6-sided polygon; 0 steps of
rotation between the halves;
even number of lanes.

sphericons Sphericon 6/0+ is like 6/0,

but with an odd number of
lanes.

Sphericon 6/0/H is hybrid

built from half 6/0 and half
6/0+.

Flexify can create all the

distinct sphericons from 3/0
up to 11/5. Where two
sphericons are chirally
equivalent, like 6/1 and 6/5,
Flexify offers only the first
one.

quatretat A curly conformal projection.

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 A developable shape. After
twistless rind work by D M Swart and
Sebastien Perez-Duarte.

A developable shape. After

curvy cube work by D M Swart and
Sebastien Perez-Duarte.

A developable shape. After

baseball work by D M Swart and
Sebastien Perez-Duarte.

Input
Flexify can accept some of the above projections as input: equirectangular,
mirror ball, polar, orthographic, cylindrical, ellipsoid, stereographic, Mollweide,
gores:12, Robinson, Mercator, Lagrange, Hammer, Winkel Tripel, equal-area
cylinder, gores:6, zenith & nadir, horizontal cross, vertical cross, and soccer.
Some more projections are for input only:

A frontal view of a security

ellipsoid mirror. The major axis to
minor axis ratio is 1.18:1.

44
 A circular image showing a
circular fisheye
180° field of view across its
180°
diameter.

A rectangular image
showing a 180° field of view
fullframe fisheye
across its diagonal. The
180°
rectangle may have any
proportions.

A square showing a 90°

one cube face
rectilinear view.

One cube face with all

edges alike and
symmetrical so that six tiles
tiling cube face can seamlessly cover a
sphere. You can make these
with MakeCubeTile or
MakeIsoCubeTile.

45
 The left or right half of an
equirectangular image. If
your input image is too big
half-equi
for Flexify, you can use this
mode to process it in
halves.

A Nicolosi projection, a
popular globular form
Nicolosi
found in antique world
maps.

One-fourth the width of an

quarter-equi
equirectangular image.

The reflection in a silver

mylar balloon. The major axis to
minor axis ratio is 1.55:1.

Twelve half-gores, a form

gores: 12 radial sometimes used by the US
Geological Survey.

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View
You can change the center of projection -- the
point in the input image that winds up at the
center of the output.

Latitude moves the center of projection north

and south.

Longitude moves the center of projection east

and west.
an off-center hyperbolic
Spin spins the view around the center of
view
projection.

Flexify can set the center of projection

automatically in three ways.

The reset button sets latitude, longitude, and

spin to zero. This gets you back to the normal
reset
view.

The axis button sets latitude, longitude, and

spin to multiples of 90°. This usually gives axis
symmetrical-looking views.

The dice button generates totally random views.

dice
Click it as much as you want to see different
effects

Retouching panoramas
Panoramas often need to be retouched by hand -- the tripod needs to be
painted out, or moving clouds need to be fixed -- but it's hard to paint properly
on an equirectangular panorama.

Flexify can help. You can export, retouch, and then re-import panoramas. Three
projections have matching output & input modes designed just for this task so
you can round-trip an image.

47
 Top and bottom cube faces.
Good for hand-retouching
the poles of a spherical
zenith & nadir
panorama. Later, you can re-
import your changes with the
zenith-nadir input mode.

Cube faces in horizontal-

cross form. Good for
retouching. Later, you can
re-import your changes with
horizontal cross
the horizontal cross input
mode. For best results, use
the PSD export and choose
4x3 image proportions.

Cube faces in vertical-cross

form. Good for retouching.
Later, you can re-import
your changes with the
vertical cross
vertical cross input mode.
For best results, use the PSD
export and choose 4x3
image proportions.

When you re-import a zenith & nadir image, Flexify

automatically feathers the edges a little so you get
better blending.

zenith & nadir re-

imported

48
Polyhedra
Flexify has some projections that you can print, cut
out, fold, and glue together to make a three-
dimensional printout of your panorama.

If you use a map of Earth as your input image, you can

make a crude globe.

Tabs sets the width of "glue tabs" that make the

polyhedron easier to glue together.
color
The Tab color button sets the color of the tabs.
button

The Faces checkbox shows each face of the

polyhedron in a single color, to make it clearer how the
shape should be folded together.
export
The Export Faces button offers three ways to export a faces
polyhedron.

First, you can write a multi-layer Photoshop document

with one face of the current polyhedron on each layer.
Extra tabs will be added to each face so that everything
can be glued properly.

Second, you can export 3D models in OBJ and STL

format.

Third, you can export an equirectangular map of all

polyhedron faces.

If your image is 32 bits per channel, then each face will

be written to a separate document. If you export an
OBJ model, its JPEG texture map will still be 8 bits per
channel.

Pepakura Designer is handy for editing cut-and-fold

paper models.

Other controls
The Flip checkbox flips the input picture left-for right. If you’re starting with a
mirror-ball photo, this will correct backward text.

The Sharpen slider makes the image crisper. Sharpening is done in the output
image space, so you get the right result even where the picture is strongly
warped.

49
The Background color button lets you choose a background color. If your color
doesn't show up, turn off Transparent Gaps.

The Preview menu improves the appearance of the preview at the expense of
speed.

The Grid menu places a latitude-longitude graticule over the output.

The Transparent gaps checkbox tells Flexify what to do with undefined regions
of the input. When this is checked, such areas appear transparent (or black if
you're working in the background layer). When it's unchecked, they get a solid
color halfway between the background and tab colors. Transparent gaps also
makes the border, if any, around the result transparent.

The Indicatrix checkbox draws shapes which, on the image sphere, would be
circles. It's good for checking how distorted the output is.

The Anamorph checkbox produces a special distortion. Ordinarily the image

sphere is meant to be viewed by an observer at its center; you could build globe
with the image printed on the inside, and it would appear in correct perspective
to an observer at the globe's center. When checked, Anamorph moves the
viewpoint to the surface of the sphere. You could then build a globe whose inner
picture appears correct when viewed through a hole cut in its surface. This
viewing point appears as a pinched singularity in Flexify's output.

The Edges checkbox draws a black outline around each region of the result. It's
good for clarifying the fold lines for polyhedra

The De-halo checkbox guarantees that halos don't appear along contrasty
edges, but this comes at the cost of making the whole image slightly softer. It's
useful in HDR images where bad halos can appear at the edge of the sun or other
bright lights.

Plus, % and minus buttons: if the selected image area is bigger than the
preview, these buttons let you zoom in and out. You can move the preview by
dragging it around; your cursor will turn into a hand.

Auto Preview:: When this box is checked, the preview

automatically updates whenever you move any control.
Turn it off if you want to save time.

Load preset: Flexify comes with some presets, which load

are files containing settings. To load one, click this preset

button and browse for a preset file.

save
Save preset: When you make an effect you like, click preset
this button to save the settings in a file.

Undo backs up one step. undo

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Brick button shows settings for the brick sphere, brick
explained below.

Glue lets you combine the result image with the next
original, instead of replacing it. The next-glue button glue
advances to the next glue mode.
photo
Send to photo manager sends the result to iPhoto (on manager
Macintosh).
export
Export to PSD renders the result to a a .psd image file,
to PSD
which can have custom dimensions.

Little Planet quickly gives you the settings that make a little
little planet image. planet

Info briefly explains of the controls. info

Three more buttons:

OK Applies the effect to your image.

Cancel Dismisses the plug-in, and leaves the image

unchanged.

Register Allows you to type in a registration code and

remove the time limit from the demo.

Memory dots
Although you can save your settings permanently to
files, you can also stash settings in memory dots.

Click an empty dot to stash the current settings in it.

Click a full dot to retrieve its settings.

Hover the mouse over a dot to see what it contains.

Option-click to erase a dot on Macintosh. memory dots

Right-click to erase a dot on Windows.

If a dot is orange, Flexify's currently using that dot's empty

settings.
full
Dots remember their contents until you erase them. If
you'd rather make a temporary dot that forgets when current
you exit Flexify, control-click it. Temporary dots are
temporary

51
square.

When you start Flexify, it puts the starting settings in a

temporary dot. That way it's easy to start over without
exiting the plug-in.

On Mac, you can drag-and-drop settings files from the

central memory well.

You can build a web page showing how the current

image would look with every memdot setting. Just
option-click (Mac) or right-click (Windows) on the big
memdot image.

Globemaking
Flexify can warp maps into new shapes for making
globes. You can use any of the polyhedron modes,
explained above, to make faceted fold-together
globes.

You can also make a conventional round globe. First,

get a spherical object to use as a form. Traditionally, a
plaster sphere is used, but a toy ball will do. It has to
be exactly spherical: measure its girth in several places
and verify that all measurements are the same.

Next, use Flexify to make "gores" — the lens-shaped

strips of map that form a globe's surface. Print these
out so that the width of the gores is equal to the
diameter of the sphere. Glue the gores onto the
sphere, carefully making them conform to the curved
surface. 12-gore shape

The Tabs slider adds solid-colored “glue tabs” that

make the gores easier to glue together. It also fattens
the mapped part of the gores slightly too, so that you
need not align them perfectly on the sphere.

The Tab color button sets the color of the tabs. color
button
If you don't want tabs, but do want the gores to be
slightly fattened, set the tab color to the same as the
background color.

52
Flexify can also accept gores as input and turn them
into a conventional map. Use the input mode gores:12
or gores:6.

Brick spheres
Flexify can create plans for building an image sphere
from Lego® bricks. Use the output mode called ‘brick
preview’ to see what you can build.

To change settings, click the brick button. A new

dialog box will appear.

Layers: To suit the proportions of the bricks, Flexify

plans a sphere with a diameter 6/5 of the height. For brick preview
best results choose a height that's a multiple of 5.

Plates: Builds the sphere from 1/3 height plates

instead of bricks.

Colors: The best input images have vivid colors and

strong, simple shapes.
brick button
For output you can choose among 12 colors: black,
blue, brown, green, dark grey, light grey, red, sand
red, tan, white, yellow, and sand green.

Light grey bricks will represent any undefined regions.

You can make three kinds of output:

— a multi-layer Photoshop document where each layer

of the document is the plan for one layer of the sphere

— an LDraw model

— a text file with counts for each color of brick.

In the Photoshop document, parts that aren't visible

from the outside are marked with black dots, so you
can substitute other colors there. The sphere plan is
hollow and just thick enough form a solid surface so
you'll need to build supports inside as you go.

The plan doesn't specify exactly what bricks to use,

just what colors go where.

There are some related links later in this document.

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Cube Maps
Flexify can split a panorama into six cube faces. Some
panorama viewers want this format, and it's often used
to make “sky boxes” in 3D action games.
cube map button
Click the cube map button and a new dialog box will
appear asking for the size of the faces. Flexify will
write six Photoshop documents containing the cube
faces.

Frequently Asked Questions

I want to make maps and globes with Flexify. Where can I find suitable input
maps?

Here are some places to start looking:

NASA's Blue Marble imagery

Virtual Terrain project links to many map sources

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab maps of most Solar System bodies

Ars Technica earth map

Living Earth maps of Earth, Moon, and Mars

Björn Jónsson's planetary maps

LunarCell synthetic worlds

You can use Flexify's polyhedron and gore modes to make cut-and fold globes.

How do I make a spherical photo without expensive special equipment?

Get a plain silver spherical Christmas-tree ornament and photograph it.

How do I improve photos of ornaments?

Panoramas made with the mirrored-ball technique always have a flaw at the
point opposite the camera. You can either paint this out, or you can photograph
the ball twice from two locations about 90° apart around the ball's equator.

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Unwrap both reflections; their flaws will be in two different places. Use the good
part of one image to replace the flaw in the other.

Since the reflection in the ball contains the whole scene, the sun or another light
source will probably appear in it, and this can cause your camera's auto-
exposure to darken the whole picture. To avoid this use a manual exposure
setting appropriate for a typical part of the scene.

The best ornaments to use are blown-glass ones from eastern Europe, but there
are other kinds of mirrors you can use:

Gazing balls. These are garden decorations originally popular in Victorian

England, and they can be found at some garden-supply stores.

Safety/security mirrors. These are the dome-shaped mirrors sometimes seen at

busy corridor intersections at airports and warehouses. These are usually not
hemispheres but ellipsoids with proportions of about 1 : 0.85, so you should use
the ‘ellipsoid’ input mode.

Large steel ball bearings. The makers of HDR Shop have hints on where to get
them.

Hemispherical mirrors from “whole sky cameras.” These are hard to find since
meteorologists now use fisheye lenses for sky photography.

Large steel or copper mixing bowls don't give sharp reflections, but they are
inexpensive and can produce soft, tinted views with streaky blurs around the
highlights.

Using a mirrored ball you can make a wide horizontal view panorama with no
flaw. Place the ball on the ground and photograph it from directly above; or hang
it from something and shoot it from below.

Use a zoom or telephoto lens to get far from the mirror and minimize the size of
the camera in the picture.

To enable a telephoto lens to focus closer, use it together with a close-up lens.
That this will reduce depth of field, making focussing trickier.

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What is the difference between equirectangular and Mercator?

An equirectangular image shows the whole sphere, usually in a 2:1 wide

rectangle. The north and south poles are stretched out to lines at the top and
bottom, and the lines of latitude and longitude make a uniform grid of squares.

A Mercator projection shows most of the sphere, but not the poles or nearby
regions, because the complete projection is infinitely tall. The lines of latitude
and longitude form rectangles that stretch taller the further they are from the
equator.

Although Mercator projections are notorious for making Greenland look as large
as South America, they have two useful properties. They are conformal, which
means angles are accurate within small regions. And they show lines of constant
compass bearing as straight lines. These lines, known as rhumb lines or
loxodromes, are useful in air and sea navigation, which is why Mercator maps
are still used.

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So:

Equirectangular images are good for panoramas and spherical texture maps.
Mercator maps are good for sailing across an ocean.

How do I make a cylindrical QuickTime VR panorama?

Make an cylindrical projection, then turn it sideways so the bottom is on the

right. Convert it with QTVR Make Panorama 2 (Mac) or VRMakePano (Windows).
You can find more detailed instructions here.

How do I make a cubic QuickTime VR panorama?

Make an equirectangular projection that's exactly twice as wide as it is tall, then

convert it with MakeCubic PPC (Mac) or PanoCube (Windows).

What other panorama viewers are there?

Lots; click here for a list.

How else can I (ab)use Flexify?

Straighten out the horizon in panos shot off-level.

Warp an HDR lighting environment so it’s easier to paint out the tripod.

Use it on non-panoramic photos to make them weird.

Distort the same image twice or more in a row to make it weird.

Photograph safety mirrors and security-camera bubbles in public places. De-

warp the reflections to see what they see.

Extract a normal (rectilinear) view from the input.

Take a photo of a spherical object like an orange or the Earth and see what it
would look like from a different point of view. Use orthographic input and
orthographic output.

Make many-sided dice for role-playing games. Use only polyhedra whose sides
are all the same shape; otherwise the die will be biased.

Make weird graph paper. Start with a blank white image and turn the grid on.

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What are some panoramic photo resources on the net?

Panoguide.com — info for beginner to semi-pro panoramic photographers

Panorama Tools — software to view, create, edit and remap panoramic Images

Evermore QTVR links

International Association of Panoramic Photographers

Panoramic Network — galleries & info

Panoscan — high-end scanning cameras

Apple's QuickTime VR developer tools

Where can I get Lego® info and bricks?

eBay — good for used bricks

BrickLink — extensive selection

Virtual Lego — a book about Lego® software

Lego Shop — the official source

LDraw — model-planning software

LUGNET — users’ group with extensive resources

Version History
Version 2.5.0 September 2009

New output modes: zenith & nadir, horizontal cross, vertical cross, thirtysphere,
devtet, conictet, geodesic spheres, sphericons, quatretat, twistless rind, curvy
cube, baseball.

New input modes: six gores, zenith & nadir, horizontal cross, vertical cross,
soccer.

Gores 3 of 12 output mode is now properly aligned when longitude = 0.

Option-click on the memdot preview now builds a web page showing how the
current image would look with every memdot setting.

Version 2.4.0 November 2008

Adds the tattoo 1 and tattoo 2 projections. Fixes improper results from
exporting cube faces on Intel machines.

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Version 2.3.9 August 2008

Fixes a case where the Mac version can fail to produce a a result after the user
clicks OK.

Version 2.3.8 July 2008

Adds the 3-incurvate, 4-incurvate, phenyl cross, anthracene, and conformal

dodecahedron shapes. Fixes artifacts that can appear when “de-halo” is turned
off.

Version 2.3.7 June 2008

Fixes a crash that can happen on Macintosh PowerPC machines.

Version 2.3.6 May 2008

Adds the shard and starburst projections. Makes the first preview appear faster
in the Mac version.

Version 2.3.4 April 2008

Fixes a case where the Register button may not respond.

Version 2.3.2 April 2008

Fixes a crash that can happen on PowerPC Macs.

Version 2.3 April 2008

Adds the waffle, trident, astercurve 5, astercurve 7, astercurve 8, trizag, shark 3,

shark 4, sunburst, 2 cylinders, 3 cylinders, and Isle of Man projections. Adds
exportation of equirectangular poly-face maps. Brick previews can have
antialiasing. PSD export has a “same proportions as original” option. Text entry
of settings. The Mac version has multicore support, drag-and-droppable
presets, and a resizable interface.

Version 2.2.5 December 2007

Adds the pointy, shuriken star, calyx 3, calyx 4, calyx 5, and calyx 6 projections.
Fixes cosmetic problems with the interface under Mac OS 10.5.

Version 2.2.4 September 2007

Adds the square fish 1, square fish 2, and Gilbert globe projections. Improves
the handling of input modes which have transparent areas or discontinuties.
Changes the Gilbert projection so it reacts more usefully to nonzero latitude
settings.

Version 2.2.2 September 2007

Adds quick globe and equal squarea projections. Improves “best” mode results in
strongly anisotropic regions. Removes speckled pixels that sometimes appeared
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on one edge of previews in “better” mode. Some polygonal projections now show
colored faces better.

Version 2.2 August 2007

Adds antialiased (smoothed) output and preview. New input modes: Hammer,
Winkel Tripel and equal-area cylindrical. New output modes: cross, double
Guyou, wide rect, semicircle, ellipse, Reuleaux 1, Reuleaux 2, Reuleaux 4,
Reuleaux 8, octreleaux, zigzag, chevron, monozag, 3-malta, 4-malta, 5-malta,
6-malta, Gilbert, stereo twice, stereo thrice, Adams diamonds, equal-area
cylinder. No more missing graticule lines. Graticule slid over one pixel to the
proper location. Added the Tissot indicatrix.Gores:6 output removed; use
gores:multi instead.

Version 2.10 June 2007

Adds the shuriken output mode. Fixes a Windows problem where the plug-in
wouldn’t remember its registration when it was installed in one user account but
activated in another. Fixes a Macintosh problem where the plug-in could have
bad settings or crash when installed on a machine for the first time.

Version 2.09 May 2007

Adds 19 new output modes and the Lagrange input mode. Replaces gores:36
with the more adjustable gores:multi. Improves the appearance near the poles in
most conformal projections: no interrupted graticules, no top-to-bottom color
wraparound.

Version 2.08 February 2007

Adds new output modes: thorn levo, unFish, Lagrange plus, Adams 1, Adams 2,
trecunx, quadracunx, quincunx, sexacunx, heptecunx. Smoothed out creases in
thorn mode. Fixed poor antialiasing in the 4/12/24/60/70 views modes. Fixed a
probem where the latitude-longitude grid would sometimes not appear, and de-
cluttered the grid near the poles. More memory dots. Windows PSD export can
have a custom size. Mac presets have custom Finder icons.

Version 2.06 December 2006

Adds new output modes: semistereo, thorn, Lagrange 3/4, squoculus, and box.
Universal binary on Macintosh. More memory dots. Exported HDR files can be
layered. Exported OBJ files fixed to work with Photoshop CS3.

Version 2.05 May 2006

Adds exportation of PSD images with custom size; new grid option. New input
modes are 12 gores: radial and Mercator. Fixes a problem under Windows where
the software could crash on HDR images.

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Version 2.04 May 2006

Adds the equi tall projection. Fixes a problem where the software could forget its
registration.

Version 2.02 March 2006

Adds IPTC keywords and color profiles to all exported images.

Version 2.0 March 2006

Adds 32-bit high-dynamic-range capability. Can handle images up to 30,0000 x

30,000 pixels, given enough hard drive space. Adds the quarter-equi, Robinson,
and mylar input modes; rind 1, rind 2, rind 3, tunable ellipsoid, tunable egg, 4
four views, 12 views, 24 views, 60 views, 72 views, and Robinson output modes.
Memory dots, info button, exportation of 3D models. Changes ‘transparent
gaps'’to make backgrounds transparent too. Equirectangular output is now
always 2:1.Cube maps now always export to six separate files. Adds Anamorph
and De-halo controls. Exported PSD files now have color profiles. The Mac
version lets you use Adobe's color picker.

Version 1.99 September 2005

Adds the stereographic, hyperdouble, hypertriple, Mercator cross, Mercator star,

and Lagrange projections. Fixes tiny flaws in the grid lines and adds a glue
mode. Better previews in the file chooser. The Mac OS X version adds the iPhoto
button.

Version 1.98 May 2005

Faster. Adds the Mercator and umbrella projections.

Version 1.97 November 2004

Adds the GID, oculus, triptych, tetraptych, and annulus projections; sharpening;
transparent gaps; polyhedron edges; two new glue modes.

Version 1.96 July 2004

Adds the dodo projection and face exportation.

Version 1.95 May 2004

Adds the 6/12 gores projection, and Nicolosi, stereographic, and half-equi
input. Works with 16-bit-per-component color.

Version 1.94 January 2004

Adds the swoop projection and more glue modes.

Version 1.92 December 2003

Recordable as a Photoshop action. Adds the beanbag projection.

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Version 1.9 September 2003

Adds globe gore input, more brick options including LDraw; the star 3, star 5,
and magnipolar projections; and six new glue modes. Improves globe gore
output.

Version 1.86 May 2003

Adds a button for creating cube maps. Adds a six-gore mode and changes gore
shapes slightly for better results. Fixes the appearance of previews in presets
from version 1.85.

Version 1.85 March 2003

Adds two input modes: circular fisheye 180° and full-frame fisheye 180°. Fixes
tabs on the ‘24 faces a’ shape.

Version 1.84 February 2003

Adds Mollweide input and output, and icomap output.

Version 1.82 February 2003

Adds more glue modes and fixes a crash that could happen when using the
menus under Windows XP.

Version 1.81 December 2002

Adds the ellipsoid input mode. Adds new glue modes: Color, Luminance, Linear
Light, and Pin Light. Fixes the appearance of text in the interface when running
under Mac OS X 10.2.3 .

Version 1.8 August 2002

Adds the brick sphere.

Version 1.75 June 2002

Adds the spikeball. Fixes the sizes of the half-polar, Hammer, lozenge, and two-
circles projections, which were too small in version 1.7. Changes the tabs on the
‘gore’ projections to simplify printing them at the right size.

Version 1.7 June 2002

Adds the paperlock and Omnimax projections, and origami instructions.

Version 1.6 May 2002

Adds the grid checkbox.

Version 1.5 February 2002

Adds the ‘24 faces b’ shape.

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Version 1.4 December 2001

Adds the loop, two-circles, and balloon shapes.

Version 1.3 August 2001

Adds the 12-, 24-, and 36-gore shapes for globemaking.

Version 1.2 June 2001

Adds the 30-faces polyhedron shape; adds two new input modes, cylindrical and
orthographic; and fixes a bug where some polyhedra would not display correctly.

Version 1.1 June 2001

Adds eight new polyhedron shapes.

Version 1.0 May 2001

The first public release.

How to Purchase
You can place an order online here. A secure server for transactions is available.

Questions
The software, documentation, and supporting materials are made by Flaming
Pear Software. Answers to common technical questions appear on our support
page, and free updates appear periodically on the download page.

Trouble with your order? Orders are handled by Kagi; please contact them at
[email protected] .

For bug reports and technical questions about the software, please write to
[email protected] .

©2009 Flaming Pear Software

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