Making a Tiny Planet Trip Through San Francisco

Karen X. Cheng created this 1.5-minute “tiny planet” video that shows what the city San Francisco looks like through this unusual perspective.

“Tiny planets just recently became really easy to make,” Cheng tells PetaPixel. “They used to require a 6-GoPro rig and complex stitching,” but now everything can be done using Ricoh’s $350 Theta S 360-degree camera and the free companion app for iOS.

As a tip, when using a handheld 360-degree camera, use a selfie stick so your hands don’t look ginormous in the resulting photos/footage. With selfie stick:

Without selfie stick:

If you’d like a more in-depth tutorial on how you can create this type of “small world” video — the technical term is “stereographic projection” — using Ricoh’s camera, Cheng has published a guide here.