Virtual Tour Software Virtual Tour Techniques

Theasys.io Tutorial: a powerful and FREE virtual tour software

How would you like to create a virtual tour for free?  Theasys is a free virtual tour creator with many useful features.  But to be honest, it is not very intuitive.  Here is a tutorial by Ty Hurd, who shoots virtual tours professionally and uses Theasys for some of his clients.

Cool dingy pedestrian overpass in Golden CO
Cool dingy pedestrian overpass in Golden CO

I’ve been shooting VR tours and 360 images professionally for several years and have been a professional photographer for the last 20 years.  I’ve shot hundreds of virtual tours and have tried just about every platform available for hosting the tours. For me, Theasys.io has been a stand out provider.  It’s powerful, incredibly versatile, and I’ve received top notch support.  They’re incredibly responsive.

Being an active participant in the 360 photographer groups on Facebook I’ve seen a LOT of requests for a YouTube tutorial of Theasys.io, a free virtual tour platform.  Theasys has become one of my favorite virtual tour hosting platforms, but it can be a little intimidating at first.  However, in the tutorial below, I will cover all of the basics to get you started right away!

Overview

Include tour cover pages with call-to-action links (Maps, URL, Call Us)

First we will start by going over the Theasys interface and what does what. Then we will move onto how to upload your panos (hint: they do need to be less than 20MB and no more than 10,000px on the longest side), and how to set the default view of your pano images. Next you’ll learn how to work with hotspots and interconnecting the various pano images. One of the reasons I love this platform is that you only need to link one way – Theasys will auto-link back, and I’ll show you how (this is a great time saver, especially on larger tours). Moving on we will cover how you can add other hotposts (things like click to call, click for directions, images, etc). Finally I’ll go over how to add a cover image and work with the basic tour settings.

Once you get the hang of it Theasys can be a powerful tool.

Theasys Tutorial

What could be better

Keep in mind, I do feel there are a few downsides to the platform.  I’ve found it would be nice if you could replace a pano rather than having to upload a new image and start from scratch (i.e. replace hotspots on other panos linking to it).  This is a feature Kuula.co and some other platforms do have.  Another feature I would love to see it the ability to have audio play on a pano-by-pano basis.  This would be great for narration of what’s in a particular scene.  You can however, include an mp3 audio file to play throughout the tour.

Easily embed custom images
Add custom images, hotspots, video and more

Summary

All-in-all, I really like Theasys and would recommend it, especially if you’re looking for a hosted solution with tons of features.  My tutorial will help you with the basics and help you over the sometimes steep learning curve.

To learn more virtual tour techniques, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and give my FaceBook page a like!

About the author

Ty Hurd

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