Off World Media Production Toolkit
This week, we explored the process of creating 360° videos using the OFF World Media Production Toolkit. I’ve always been curious about immersive formats like this—whether in games, film, or VR—and this session gave me the chance to see just how different the workflow is compared to traditional linear video.
Unlike fixed-camera storytelling, 360° video opens up the perspective entirely. Instead of directing the viewer’s gaze, you invite them to explore the space freely. That shift completely changes how you think about composition, blocking, and even pacing. It’s more like building a world than framing a shot—and it’s that viewer agency that makes it so immersive.
To get started, we downloaded and installed the OFF World plugin. A particularly useful feature that comes with it is Sprout, which allows software like Unreal Engine and TouchDesigner to communicate seamlessly. This real-time linking means we can preview interactions and visual outputs from TouchDesigner directly inside Unreal before committing to a final render. It’s a smoother, more integrated workflow and makes cross-platform experimentation way more intuitive.
Once the toolkit was installed, we moved on to setting up a 360° camera in Unreal. That involved tweaking the project settings, creating new Blueprints to handle the capture process, and using the Sequencer to animate the scene. After rendering the footage, we used Adobe Media Encoder to make final edits and export the video in a viewable format.
This was a really valuable experience—not only did it demystify the technical side of 360° video, but it also gave me a new perspective (literally) on how to structure narrative in immersive formats. I’m now considering ways this could feed into future projects, especially anything experimental or VR-based.