Peder Norrby( Trapcode)has done it again with this slick new plug-in for After Effects called Horizon. The plug-in allows you to make Quicktime VR like experiences in After Effects with 

Floating Point Support

Offers support for Floating point mapping of .exr image maps in After Effects CS3

Equirectilinear Image Mapping

Familiar to 3D artists, “equirectilinear” images are maps that provide full 360-degree coverage of a sphere. Horizon will map these images seamlessly onto the background.

Gradients

Built-in gradient modes provide up to 8 colors for generating colors on the virtual sphere.

Coverage Controls

With controls for horizontal and vertical coverage of the sphere, you can determine how much of the virtual sphere to map—especially useful for using non-panoramic images or video.

Controlled Zoom

Mapping in Horizon depends on the Field of View in After Effects, so you can create a zoom effect by animating the field of view of the After Effects camera.  Tracpcode products are distributed and supported by our friends over at Red Giant software.