Lemma Soft Forums

I would like to clarify a few things. I am not an artist. The only experience I have with art programs is a single graphic design course I took two years before starting college. (That was 6 years ago...). I have experience designing websites, but mostly on a functional level. I can make a website that works great and with logical placement, but if anyone asked me to design graphics or a color scheme, I'd be very stuck... (I only know what looks good to me, and I'm well aware that what looks good to me doesn't look good to most people.) I say this to set the stage for my question.

With that said, there's something I would like to ask you fine artsy folk. This regards backgrounds, perspective, and depth.
room I made this image during Spring Break at the high school I work at. I took a picture on the stage then went to the computer lab and borrowed Photoshop for a minute (Hours). I stitched together a few copies of the original image and recolored it into the image you see. (It's a bit bigger than it looks. (Heehee) 8601x1440)

The purpose of this image is to serve as a background for a debate. Six characters are standing in a small circular room surrounded by a curtain. They're debating over who they believe is the culprit in a murder mystery. (Not unlike DanganRonpa.) Basically, this is a flattened panorama.

Now this could work for the purpose of my game. However, I'm kinda picky. Whenever I test this in my game, I can't shake the feeling that it's just a wall of characters staring at a camera. (Which it is, but that's not the point.) It doesn't feel like they're facing or talking to each other.

So I'd like to (finally) ask this question.
"How would I go about enhancing this image to give the impression of a circular room with a circle of people shouting at each other?"

I'm pretty sure it has to do with perspective or something, but like I said, I'm not an artist.
I'm currently using Paint.net as my primary image editing software. It's serving me well.
I'd like to hear your opinions on the matter and maybe even learn something.

I posted a thread about this earlier, and I have this insight on panoramics:

1) If you want the viewpoint character standing in the very centre of a circular room, then the walls are going to be the same height, as the walls meeting the floor are going to be parallel to the horizon line (the horizon line will always be evenly horizontal in any panoramic). Remember however that rectangular furniture (such as a sofa) will appear curved, with the left/right corners curving towards the ceiling.

2) If you want the viewpoint character standing near a side of the wall of a circular room (instead of the very centre), then the section of the wall closest to the character is going to appear bigger and the opposite wall will appear smaller. These differences can be illustrated in a panoramic by having the "bigger" section have a lower floor and the furniture and wall pattern/texture appearing bigger.

An example of 2 would be this panorama of a rounded room. Here is another example (a panorama of the British Museum Reading Room).

Hey, I recently posted 100+ 360 photospheres of Tokyo f that is of any use to you: viewtopic.php?f=52&t=48905

As for 360 panoramas (cylinder projections), I have a bunch too but they are mostly of Taiwan and I'll need to sort through them.

Here's one: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hBu58MCZ0zTxHKaU2

You can use Google Cardboard Camera on your phone to take them and then use them as reference pictures.

You can also create 360 images in Blender for blocking out a scene.