OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Little Planet Maker
Stereographic Projection of a 360° Panorama Into a Tiny Planet or Tunnel
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How the Little Planet Maker works
This little planet maker wraps a 360 panorama into a tiny world. A little planet is a 360° panorama projected onto a flat disc so that the ground curls into a tiny globe and the sky wraps around it. Drop an equirectangular image here, turn the zoom and rotation sliders until the composition works, flip to the tunnel view if you prefer the sky in the middle, and download a square PNG at up to 4096 pixels. Nothing leaves your browser.
Little planet maker: how the projection works
A 360° photo covers every direction from one point. The stereographic projection puts the point directly beneath the camera, the nadir, at the centre of the picture and maps each direction outwards by how far it is from straight down: the horizon becomes a circle and the sky fills the corners, with the zenith pushed out to infinity. Because the ground occupies the centre it looks like a small planet floating in the sky, hence the name. The tunnel view is the same projection turned inside out, with the zenith at the centre and the ground around the edge, which reads as looking up a well or down a tube.
The projection is conformal, meaning small shapes keep their proportions even though the overall picture is bent, which is why buildings around the edge still look like buildings rather than smears.
Getting a good composition
Zoom controls how much of the sphere fits on the disc. At low zoom the horizon circle is small and the planet sits in a large sky; at high zoom the planet fills the frame and the sky is squeezed to the corners. Somewhere between 2.5 and 4 usually looks right for street scenes. Rotation turns the planet about its centre so the most interesting building sits at the top or the bottom. The image is square, and the rail's output size sets the pixel width of the downloaded planet: 1024 for a social post, 2048 for a print or a wallpaper, 4096 for a large print.
The best source panoramas have a clear, uncluttered nadir, because the ground directly beneath the camera becomes the middle of the planet. Tripod legs, your own feet or a stitching blob at the nadir end up in the centre of the picture; patch them in the original before converting.
Two ways to download
Download planet PNG writes a square image at the chosen output size, sampled from the full resolution of the source so an 8K panorama gives a sharp 4K planet. Download PNG saves the viewport as shown, which is useful for a quick wide preview but is not square.
Source requirements
The image must be equirectangular, twice as wide as tall and covering the whole sphere. A 180° or cylindrical panorama will still project but the missing sky or ground shows up as a repeated stripe. JPEG, PNG, WebP and AVIF are all fine.
Privacy
The image is decoded by your browser and projected on your own graphics card. No copy is sent anywhere and the page works offline.
FAQ
What is a tiny planet photo?
A stereographic projection of a full 360° panorama that puts the ground at the centre of a disc and the sky around the outside, so a street or a beach looks like a small spherical world. Any equirectangular 360° image can be converted; the effect is strongest when the scene has a distinct horizon.
Why is there a smudge or a tripod in the middle?
The centre of the planet is the point directly beneath the camera, which is where the tripod, the monopod or the photographer's shadow ends up in most 360° photos. Retouch the nadir in the original panorama, then convert; there is no way to hide it after projection.
What size can I download?
The planet PNG is square at 1024, 2048 or 4096 pixels. The larger sizes are rendered directly from the source texture, so quality is limited only by the resolution of your panorama.
Can I make the sky in the centre instead?
Yes, choose Tunnel in the view menu. This inverts the projection so the zenith sits at the centre and the ground wraps around the edge, which suits scenes with a dramatic sky or a tall building shot from directly below.
See also: all Mockups & 3D Making tools, Images, Audio, Video & Screen, PDF, SVG, Simulations & Screensavers, Generative Art, Chart Makers, 3D Model Viewers, Drawing Pads, Diagram Makers, 3D Science, Tracker Music.
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