There are already quite a few articles out there that cover how to use various bits of software to do projection mapping. This article aims to cover some of the fundamental ideas behind projection mapping. In order to do this we are going to write our own projection mapping software from “first principles” using openFrameworks.
Projection mapping (San Francisco)
Projection mapping, similar to video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into a display surface for video projection. These objects may be complex industrial landscapes, such as buildings, small indoor objects or theatrical stages. By using specialized software, a two- or three-dimensional object is spatially mapped on the virtual program which mimics the real environment it is to be projected on. The software can interact with a projector to fit any desired image onto the surface of that object.[1] This technique is used by artists and advertisers alike who can add extra dimensions, optical illusions, and notions of movement onto previously static objects. The video is commonly combined with, or triggered by, audio to create an audio-visual narrative.
- With the projection mapping software, a single projector can display a different decoration in each pane. Needless to say, this is only the beginning. Depending on how ambitious you are, you can use projection mapping software in countless other ways. How do YOU use projection mapping at your home or office?
- A powerful projection mapping software to create astounding animations! When making projection mapping, the name of the game is to quickly create animations that suit the audience and the feeling of your show. In addition to allowing you to add your own video content, HeavyM has the largest projection mapping effects library in the world. Animate, add color and bring your scenery to life in all simplicity.
History[edit]
Although the term 'projection mapping' is relatively new, the technique dates back to the late 1990s, where it was referred to as video mapping, spatial augmented reality,[2] or shader lamps.[3] One of the first public displays of projections onto 3D objects was debuted in 1969, when Disneyland opened their Haunted Mansion ride, which featured singing busts. Head shots of the singers were filmed on 16mm film and then projected onto busts of their faces to make them appear animated.[3] Another early example of projection mapping was in the 1967 TV movie Magical Mystery Tour during the Blue Jay Way scene, where images are projected onto George Harrison, including a cat's face and a headless male torso with the words 'Magical Mystical Boy' written on its chest.
The next record of projection mapping is from 1980, when installation artist Michael Naimark filmed people interacting with objects in a living room and then projected it in the room, creating illusions as if the people interacting with the objects were really there.[4][5] The first time the concept of projection mapping was investigated academically[6] was at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the late 1990s, where a team led by Ramesh Raskar worked on a project called Office of the Future to connect offices from different locations by projecting people into the office space as if they were really there.[7] By 2001, more artists began using projection mapping in artwork, and groups such as Microsoft began experimenting with it as a means of technological advancement.[citation needed]
Methods[edit]
The Sydney Opera House during the 2013 Vivid Sydney projection display
After the object which will be projected on is chosen or created, software is used to map the corners of the video to the surfaces. First, one must choose the images or video to project. Then, place each video on to its designated surface. Alternatively, one may choose to map the entire scene in 3D and attempt to project and mask the image back onto its framework. The next step is defined as 'masking,' which means using opacity templates to actually 'mask' the exact shapes and positions of the different elements of the building or space of projection. In 3D Mapping, coordinates need to be defined for where the object is placed in relation to the projector, the XYZ orientation, position, and lens specification of the projector have to result to a determined virtual scene.[8] One such tool to help achieve this end is BLAM! add-on for blender 3D's open source 3D animation suite. Adjustments are commonly needed and made by manually tweaking either the physical or virtual scene for best results. Large projectors with 20,000 lumens output or greater are used for large-scale projections such as on city skyscrapers. Otherwise, for smaller productions, smaller projectors with less output will work. A 2200 lumen projector is adequate for projections under indoor light or theatrical lighting in most cases. Video mapping software such as MadMapper, HeavyM, Qlab, Troixatronix's Isadora, FaçadeSignage, ArKaos MediaMaster and GrandVJ and VPT 6.0 are all downloadable for use in projects like these, though Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, BlenderBlam!, and other packages can also be used by a creative artist. Also, extensible open-source software frameworks such as MPM (Multi-Projector-Mapper)[9] are available among others. Projection mapping can be separated into four categories:
- VJ'ing or VeeJay-ing (video Jockeying) used where live events are augmented by (often interactive to music) projections which are fully dynamic, controlled live, and consist of pre-programmed videos and combinations of effects and effect overlays.
- Theatrical: where projections are preset and scenes are 'cued' on demand, usually in a set order, in conjunction with dance or onstage performance, often interactive.
- Static/Interactive: where a display is set up and loops or interacts with the environment and viewers via programming.
- Video: where a generally long segmented show is present as a single fluid video that is not interactive and plays from beginning to end.
Productions, advertisement and art[edit]
Projection mapping at Fête des Lumières by P. Warrener in Lyon (2008)
Projection mapping on Cinderella Castle in Celebrate the Magic, as seen from the Fastpass+ viewing area
Projection mapping first came to prominence through guerrilla advertising campaigns and video jockeys for electronic musicians.[10] Large companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Unilever Pakistan, Pakistan Tobacco company, Bank Alfalah, Brighto Paints, Benson & Hedges, John Players Gold Leaf and BMW have since used video projections to create campaigns for their products in major cities across the world. These advertising campaigns commonly use mapping techniques to project scenes onto the sides of buildings. Projection mapping can also be interactive, as Nokia Ovi Maps did a project in which the projections would mimic people's movements.[11] Projection mapping has been used at conferences as a means of decoration or immersing audience members in an experienced-based theme. This can be as elaborate as projecting onto a flat surface, or projecting onto an unusual object such as a car or a chair.[12] The festival Fête des Lumières in Lyon, a festival to honour the Virgin Mary, has recently also started incorporating 3D mapping into their productions, creating the illusion of a giant pinball machine on the side of a building. Common techniques for these performances included both 3-D mapping techniques and 3D projection to create the illusion of depth, as well as motion such as crumbling buildings.
Projection Mapping Tools
It is also being used in technology such as Domes where it is combined with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality to create 360 degree projections for a more immersive experience.
The use of projection mapping in TV and films is becoming more popular. For the sci-fi flick Oblivion, the directors used projection mapping to create an immersive environment.[13] For a 2016 TV commercial, Audi used projection mapping to showcase the technology of the Audi Q7 model. The ad, titled Projection of Greatness[14], was filmed with no CGI and used only content that was caught live in camera.[15]
In the electronic dance music (EDM) community, it is becoming increasingly common for DJs to accompany their music with synced visuals. Though normal projection screens are commonly used, some visual artists are beginning to create custom made, 3D installations to project onto.[16] Many EDM artists employ projection mapping techniques at many of their shows. Artists who are solely visual also use projection mapping as a means of creative expression, believing that it can enhance existing creative mediums such as painting and drawing.
Artists may use it as an avant garde form of expression as it is new technology that can turn their creative ideas into 3D projections, connecting with audiences in a new way.[17] Video projections have appeared in urban centres such as New York City and London, where artists have used guerilla projections in public without any necessary approval. This way, artists can show their work in any location as anything and anywhere can be a canvas. Often people also use it as a means of activism; the group Occupy Wall Street has used it to project onto the Verizon Wireless building in New York City as a means to visually spread the word that Occupy Wall Street is still alive.[18] The Japanese theatre play Mysteries of Yoshitsune I&II (2012-14) is notable for the first major use of projection mapping in Japanese theatre stage play.[19][20][21]
Recently, projection mapping has been used more and more frequently by Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney Creative Entertainment in the Disney Parks. Examples of this include, but are not limited to, The Magic, the Memories and You, Disney Dreams!, Celebrate the Magic, Once Upon a Time, Disneyland Forever, Halloween Screams, Believe.. In Holiday Magic, Remember.. Dreams Come True, Happily Ever After[22] and most recently Sunset Seasons Greetings at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
See also[edit]
- GEAR (show)
References[edit]
- ^'What is projection mapping'. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
- ^Raskar, Ramesh (1998). 'Spatially Augmented Reality'(PDF). IWAR.
- ^ ab'The Illustrated History of Projection Mapping'. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
- ^Naimark, Michael. 'Spatial Correspondence in Motion Picture Display'(PDF). SPIE Proceedings, vol. 462, Optics and Entertainment, Los Angeles, 1984.
- ^Naimark, Michael. 'Two Unusual Projection Spaces'. Presence, Special Issue on Projection, MIT Press, 14.5, October 2005.
- ^Raskar, Ramesh. 'Spatially Augmented Reality'(PDF). Office of the Future. IWAR. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^Towles, Herman. 'Office of the Future'. UNC.
- ^'Virtual replica of the real scene'. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
- ^'Multi-Projector-Mapper'. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
- ^Sigrist, Peter. 'A short history of 3D projection mapping'. Archived from the original on 17 April 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ^O'Neill, Megan. 'Comcast is looking for a Executive Director, XFTV Programming. WEB VIDEO 3D Projection Mapping Taking The Advertising World By Storm'.
- ^'Projection Mapping For Conferences & Meetings 3D Mapping'. www.stagerightinc.com. Retrieved 2017-07-15.
- ^'Projection Mapping in Oblivion (starring Tom Cruise)'.
- ^'Projection of Greatness: The all-new Audi Q7'.
- ^'Illuminating Audi's latest advancements'.
- ^'deadmau5 lights up London with amazing 4D projection- Nokia'.
- ^'Mission / Artist Statement'. Integrated Visions.
- ^Day, Adrienne. 'When Skyscrapers are your Screen'.
- ^'Moon Saga 〜義経秘伝〜 Vol.2 Live Report' (in Japanese). Excite Japan. 2014-08-08. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
- ^'Gacktが紡ぎだす歴史ファンタジーの世界感を 日本の舞台史上最大規模のプロジェクションマッピングで演出する Moon Saga-義経秘伝-第二章'. Theatrix (in Japanese). Entertainment Plus. 2014-07-24. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
- ^'原作、脚本、音楽、演出、主演をGacktがプロデュースする舞台『Moon Saga-義経秘伝-第二章』、絶賛上演中!'. Theatrix (in Japanese). Entertainment Plus. 2014-08-18. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
- ^Mine, Mark R.; van Baar, Jeroen; Grundhöfer, Anselm; Rose, David; Yang, Bei (July 2012). 'Projection-Based Augmented Reality in Disney Theme Parks'. Computer. 45 (7): 32–40. doi:10.1109/MC.2012.154.
- IKONIX. 'Dome Projection Mapping'. Ikonix.
- 'Tarantula Digital Studio | Video Mapping Projection & Teknologi Immersive Jakarta - Indonesia'. YouTube. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Projection_mapping&oldid=917615302'
Not so long ago, video projection mapping (the art of projecting video onto surfaces such as buildings, to create the illusion of 3D art) was a fledgling art form, with just a handful of noteworthy examples. Now, a head-turning projection is par for the course for any music festival set, product launch, or show, though that doesn't make these displays any less spectacular.
Video projection mapping has the capacity to transform any object into a screen. Forget flat projection, as projection mapping has the ability to take a real-world object, such as a building, and project onto its walls without any distortion.
Often site-specific, the best projection mapping projects succeed by enhancing rather than effacing the architecture they're beamed onto. Projecting onto a famous building is just one way to excite the crowds. But the sheer scale of any projection mapping project can be breathtaking. Just look at the expressions on the audience's faces during a projection and you'll often see an almost childlike glee. Read on to discover some of the best projection mapping demos from recent years.
01. Borderless
Japanese art collective TeamLab used projection mapping technologies to craft a magical dream world in the Digital Art Museum in Odaiba, Tokyo. In it, different concepts and scenes flow together to form one ‘borderless’ world.
“Artworks move out of the rooms freely, form connections and relationships with people, communicate with other works, influence and sometimes intermingle with each other,” explains the exhibition’s description. Hosted in a vast, 10,000 square metre space, the installation is brought to life using 520 computers and 470 projectors.
02. Palacio Barolo
To celebrate Argentina's bicentenary, there were huge parties across the country. In Buenos Aires, celebrations saw a massive projection onto one of the capital's most famous buildings, the Palacio Barolo, which is said to be created around the concept of Dante's Divine Comedy.
The projection mapping by Ula Ula Productions saw silhouettes of dancing figures projected onto the building, creating an atmospheric and mesmerising piece.
03. Terraform Table
Tellart’s Terraform table enables users to ‘play God’. Located at London’s V&A Museum, projection mapping turns the giant sandpit into a rugged landscape, with mountains, valleys and lakes. Here’s the cool bit: thanks to a machine learning algorithm, the Table is able to read the height of the sand and respond to any changes. In short, this means you can dig a hole to form a lake, raise a hill to create a snowy peak, or smooth a river over to expand a forest.
The Table forms part of the V&A’s tech-focused The Future Starts Here exhibition (which runs until November 2018), and was created as a response to the question: Should we shape the Earth and other planets for human use?
04. Bloom
Established in 1947 to provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit in the aftermath of the Second World War, the Edinburgh International Festival celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2017. To mark the occasion, 59 Productions conceived an opening event that transformed the whole of St Andrew Square into a magical night garden. Buildings burst into life in a floral explosion of colour, texture and sound.
Rather than being a one-off event, Bloom ran for two nights at the start of the festival, from 10pm to midnight on a 20-minute loop, allowing the audience to enjoy the spectacle at their own pace.
05. Interconnection
The winner of both the Jury's Choice and People's Choice awards at the 2016 iMapp Bucharest competition, Interconnection transformed the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, into a psychotropic exploration of the interconnectedness of all things, man.
Created by Limelight, this projection mapping project draws inspiration from contemporary visionary art and architecture, sacred geometry, physics and chemistry, and mixes them all up into a properly mind-altering five-minute trip.
06. Wear the Rose
In September 2015, the O2 joined forces with Projection Artworks to create the world's largest projection mapping project to celebrate the Rugby World Cup. Making use of 68 projectors and more than 122 moving head light fixtures, the project saw the roof of the venue transformed into the English rose emblem. According to the O2, the show could be seen from space.
07. Harrods' Fabergé egg
Projection Artworks was also part of the team that created the world’s brightest projection mapping show in Easter 2015. Global design consultancy Just So collaborated with Projection Artworks to illuminate the windows of world-famous department store Harrods.
Conceived for Fabergé's Easter storefront display, the 360-degree mapped 3D installation was based on the company's pendent designs – which are 1/100th of the size of the 1.5m model – and incorporated an interactive touchscreen element to showcase the detail of the jewellery.
08. Box
Funk music playlist. This video from Bot & Dolly and GMUNK was created without any special effects. As the performer engages with a morphing set, unfathomable shapes, graphics and animations are revealed. As the video continues, we're eventually shown that it is in fact, a robotic mechanism hidden behind every illusion.
Using their state-of-the-art robotic camera systems 'Iris' and 'Scout', the technique allows for millimetre precision of the robot arms.
09. Battersea Power Station Annual Party
Battersea Power Station invited Drive, a UK-based agency that specialises in projection mapping, to create an awe-inspiring visual experience to raise awareness for the iconic building's spectacular redevelopment. This is the result: 360,000 lumens of immersive visuals celebrating the building's past, present and future.
10. Tokyo Station Vision
JR East celebrates the opening of the reconditioned Tokyo Station with a spectacular projection mapping experiment by NHK Enterprise. Brickwork peels away to reveal pistons; clockwork automata strum pilasters while trumpets and cymbals blow and crash from behind bays; at one point a route-map inscribes itself across the facade like a 150m long game of Snake.
This is a great projection, which is sympathetic not only to the architectonics of the building, but its function too.
11. Dr Blighty at Brighton Pavilion
Dr Blighty was a free production that became one of the highlights of the 2016 Brighton Festival, transforming the Brighton Pavilion, on England's south coast, into an Indian scene. Produced by Nutkhut and animated by motion design and projection mapping specialist NOVAK, it celebrated Brighton Pavilion's history as a WWI hospital for wounded Indian soldiers. A specially commissioned soundtrack rounded off the colourful event.
12. Speed of Light
Not all projection mapping examples can be measured in metres. Sharp and Jenkins' Speed of Light film bills itself as the worlds smallest all action police chase. Using hand-held micro projectors with an iPhone video source, Tom Jenkins and Simon Sharp create a dynamic and witty chase that plays out across the surfaces of their own office, and proves that size isn't everything.
13. As Above, So Below
Light Harvest assembled a whole team of artists for this unusual mapping for Manhattan Bridge. The animation makes great use of the facade of the bridge but where it really shines is in the tunnels underneath. The entire curved ceiling becomes animated, and when entering the tunnel, the audience becomes immersed in the projection.
14. Sweater
Using two walls, a treadmill, and some nifty projection, director Filip Sterckx creates a virtual world for the musician Willow's music video. As with most projection mapping projects, it's the technique that charms here.
Singer Pieter-Jan Van Den Troost gropes at doors that aren't really there, trots on the spot down imaginary stairs, and kneels pretending to be paddling in the sea. It's all surprisingly lo-tech, and all the better for it.
15. Lighting the Sails
Jørn Utzon's inspiration for Sydney Opera House's iconic shell roof is brought to life in this work by Urban Screen. The roofs appear as fabric ship sails, undulating in the wind. The distinctive chevron tiles – a labour of love for Utzon – pulse, fold, and rupture to reveal the rich interiors.
How Do You Do Projection Mapping
All of Urban Screen's projections are worth watching, particularly Tag und Nacht for its clever interplay between in the interior and exterior, and the seminal 555 Kubik.
16. Scintillation
Xavier Chaissaing's super low budget film demonstrated what an inventive artist can achieve with limited resources. The film was shot with a DSLR and a motion control rig made by the artist himself.
Its innovative mix of stop motion footage and live camera projection is particularly bewitching in the scenes where the projection is viewed through the translucent petals of a flower.
17. Omicron
One of the few permanent installations in this list, Omicron can be seen at the Hala Stulecia museum of Architecture in Wroclaw, Poland.
Romain Tardy's minimalist aesthetic takes its inspiration from the period in which the dome was built and does an incredible job of highlighting its structural qualities, making the heavy concrete construction light and dynamic. The making-of video is interesting, too.
18. Sagrada Familia (Ode à la vie)
Gaudi's plans for a polychrome facade on the Sagrada Familia have been realised, albeit only for 15 minutes. Moment Factory combined video projection, gobos, sharp beam lights projecting beams into the sky, and lighting from the interior to create a spectacle it describes as a, 'living fresco made of colour, light and sound'.
New: Toast Audio Assistant: Import audio from almost anywhere-LPs, tapes, microphone sound, or streamed-then edit, enhance and add it to your music library or burn to CD. Toast 10 titanium mac download. More than just a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray-burning application, Toast Titanium for Mac includes functions like online media capture, media format conversion, and the ability to directly share your videos on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Vimeo. It's a powerful - albeit expensive - application.ProsSnappy operation: Toast Titanium for Mac proves to be speedy. Clean up and enhance recordings with audio filters. Full Specifications What's new in version 14.0.
To work with the complex geometry of the cathedral, a 3D scan was used to help map and light a show that works with the host architecture in brilliant symbiosis.
Related articles: