I’ve known the slowdanger duo for some years now. During a recent residency with them and Bill Shannon. We had time to talk about a future collab. I sent them this video of moving shadows. (gif now).
They liked the idea and wanted it to be portable for touring. I tossed around some ideas but a series of spinning lights seemed impractical. I had some RGB LED strips laying around and after a few night experiments that are too embarrassing to post, I built a giant ring to test. The 50′ circumference ring breaks down into 10x 5′ segments with quick connectors. The whole kit can fit into the trunk of a car and can run off a Raspberry Pi and pixel controller.
The first day I got it up and running, I was almost trampled over by the office dog.
Our original launch date was sometime in the spring, but a show came up at the Wood Street galleries, and they asked if I could slap it together in time. It’s still a work in progress, but one that is fun to play with. Similar to the theater, it looks even better in person and hard to capture on camera. Take a peek; we hope to do more with it soon!
Here’s an article with a DIY method for creating automated projection mapping installations.
Projection mapping installations are cool. Here’s a DIY method for automating your own… #projectionmapping #installation #projectileobjects #minimad @Pro_Objects #automation #howto
I’ve been contributing to projection-mapping.org more frequently than my own blog and it has been some time since I last posted an update. For me, it’s a good problem to have, I’ve been busy…
Over the last 2 years I’ve been piling up a collection of unedited videos from a slew of projects that I’ve had the honor to be apart of. What were once planned to be written detailed accounts for educational purposes, may well end up becoming a flashy promo reel propelled by high energy EDM pop music. <- Or not.
It’s what I have seen everywhere else and while I understand it, it’s not in my immediate interests to create one, or to make bids on larger corporate events. While I may consult on such events from time to time, believe it or not, I’m in this for the fun of it.
A few days ago I finished an update for a local automated projection mapping installation. The goal, take a cool local coffee shop and light up the upper windows at night. The ulterior motive for this? To see what others can do with the visual space when given the opportunity.
Only time will tell what’s going to happen next with this installation, but the opportunity is something that I am excited about. Check back in a few weeks or so as I will have a detailed update of how I made this installation possible and the simple “built-in” means of projection automation.
Its been a while since I’ve a moment to blog and even longer since the first OMG parties, including our infamous U-Haul Dance Party (<-Video / Blog Post <-). So we did it again, but this time we had a tunnel dance party. <- Why not?. The video was quickly put together as a recap and shared on Youtube & Facebook. Interestingly enough, Facebook favors its own video content so heavily that within 24 hours of posting the Tunnel Party video we reached more than 5,000 people compared to our youtube page which only reached 5. 5000 is a 99900% increase of 5. So why even upload to youtube? Archival, SEO, and Quality. While facebook is the social sharing hub of our time, videos disappear just as fast as they arrive. They share with friends, and friends of friends, but don’t rank highly in search engine results. Lastly, to optimize streaming across all devices, facebook really dumbs down the quality of any video uploaded to it. That being said, I hope you enjoy our tunnel party video as much as we enjoyed our tunnel party!. Thank you to everyone who came out.
Here is a new review I created for the PocketVJ, read the complete story here.Remember our review of the MadMapper MiniMAD? .. #hardware #pocketvj #reviews
Here is a link to the article I published for MadMapper’s miniMAD little projection mapping tool.
The MiniMAD is a powerful and compact projection mapping tool. With its ease of use and growing feature set, the MiniMAD may be desirable for your next project or… #hardware #madmapper #reviews
Its been a while since I’ve had the time to blog, my entire year has been non-stop and before I could post my latest works I was already off to do something new. All in all, it has been a trip that I am thankful to be apart of. More recently I decided to experiment with MadMapper 2.0, A Pixlite 16 LED driver, and 25 meters of WS2811 RGB strips. Oh yeah, and all inside of a mobile Uhaul party vehicle powered by a 2000 watt silent generator… Let’s just say this was a spectacular experiment.
For some time now I have been doing some fun pop-up / experimental dance parties with my neighbor and friend Joy ( DJ name “Kill Joy” <- I think). We just like to try new things and that is how OMG started. Original, “Only Mashups Goobers” due to the first event being at a location that did not pay BMI or ASCAP, so we had a mashup party and devised a visual setup using 1 projector, cardboard, duck-tape, spray paint, and some hot pants. This is what the first OMG party looked like:
But even crazier than the actual party was the media campaign that was released on Facebook two weeks before. Quick edited, simply narrated, “hot-topic” videos with blown out audio that looked and sounded spectacular on mobile devices (most of facebooks’ traffic) were a hit amongst those who saw them. Here are some of the OMG videos:
Not bad, and they had tons of shares. So that was OMG 1, after that was OMG 2, The Sledgehammer dance party…. Let’s just say this party was so crazy it’s almost like it never even happened.
And then, there was OMG 3, The Mobile UHaul LED Disco Dance Party…
It’s been a while since I have been able to post some of my projection mapping adventures, but this one with Lazercrunk was fun. You don’t have to be local to appreciate an 8′ tall projection mapped city skyline. 10 buildings, spanning 16′ wide by 8′ high across the stage. Here’s an example of what it looked like by itself.
So for all of you who are interested in Projection Mapping, I’m detailing a little bit of my workflow in this post. While this design looks more complex than some of the ones I have done over the years, it is actually easier with proper planning and forethought.
Essentially you start with an idea. In this case, Todd Keebs wanted to do a Pittsburgh Skyline to celebrate Lazercrunks 7 Year Anniversary. In order to cut the shapes out of foam core and have a design to share with me for content creation he used a vector and took it into his favorite program (Illustrator or Photoshop to give me templates for each building.
Make a cut out a Vector cutout for each building and separate them by layers.
Now we could leave the buildings connected for the next step, but part of this project was to rearrange the buildings on site to get the desired look within the projectors throw dimensions. To do this, simply separate the buildings and fit them into your desired output resolution. For me that is 1920×1080. I will be using a projector that is 1280×800, but I am going to let the mapping software do the down scaling. My building template in after effects now looks like this:
From here I can control each layer and customize my content as I see fit. The key here is to use the template for all of the content creation. Once you have chosen your template do not start moving the buildings otherwise you will have to keep readjusting your setup within the mapping software.
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Now the building out:
Todd any I have been working together for quite some time and we have learned a lot from one another. For this next part, I went to making custom content, and Todd started on the cutting. For most projects we use 4’x8′ sheets of foamcore, it’s lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to cut. Todd simply took the largest building in the set and set its dimensions to 8′ tall, in doing so with simple CAD software (or even illustrator) you can get the exact cut dimensions for each building just by using the internal rulers and measurements. Each building was then cut to scale and stacked in a safe place before the show.
Then the setup:
The projector was turned on to show the full output and the buildings were squeezed into place.
As you can see this is an example of a simple single projector setup. To eliminate shadows cast from the single projector source at this point you could add another projector and add a whole new element to your illusion, but for time sake I made the decision to hold off on this addition. (I’ll get into the pros & cons of using multiple projectors some other time).
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Now it’s time to map. (Mac Only)
Using VDMX (my VJ application), I sent a signal to Madmapper via Syphon containing a still frame of my template. Once this is in the pipeline we simply make a rectangular selection for each building on the left (template / source window) and stretch it to fit onto the buildings on the right (output to projector).
Using masks and visual overlays we can make sure that the extra corners from the template don’t bleed over onto the other buildings. The final “mapped” output to the projector now looks something like this:
And here is the result:
So it is simple enough to pull off a multi-plane design like this with a single projector, I obviously skipped over the time it takes to create content, cut the designs, & and setup, but you shouldn’t be afraid of a setup like this. After all, we had a blast doing so, watch the final video to see more:
Today marks the beginning of a new interview series for Projection-Mapping.org. I wanted to highlight how each company has their own unique approach to projection mapping and spotlight some of the most talented groups around the world. First up in this series is URBANSCREEN. Click below to see my post.
I’m excited to release this video that I edited from a benefit event that took place on March 20th, 2015 at Freeride Pittsburgh. The event was put on my Daily Bread in order to raise funds for the Animal rescue league. This design was a cool collaboration between Todd Keebs and I, mainly of Todd’s doing, and while he ran the lasers for that event I was able to work my magic on the Livid OhmRGB controller. Check out the video. Also special thanks to Louis Barr for sending me the footage that he shot that night. While I live to edit videos like this, I am usually too busy to pick up the camera once the night begins so thanks again Louie for capturing all of this great footage.
This was a cool experiment with myself and Todd, we cut and planned a large sized truck to projection map onto for a party we had the night before a monster truck show. All in all it went off fantastic. Here is a video highlighting the setup and event.
Eye Mix Ear, EXE, or EME… has been a dream of mine for quite some time now. The idea came about as I starred blankly at my friends spotify account playing music at his house party, without any visuals, the TV was just boring. I had it in my mind after seeing DJ’s hold back over the years in playing what they really wanted to play just to appeal to the common crowd, and wanted to give them the opportunity to plan their own mix, play what they wanted to hear and promote themselves as such. After all Skrillex didn’t become who he is by playing Bon Jovi to a bar going crowd. So there you have it… EyeMixEar was created and designed to share tastes, talents, and vision, but mainly just to replace that boring spotify layout with something more visceral. A short live mix that you could download, share, play, stream, whatever you want — even remix — and let it be what it is.
This most recent EyeMixEar has a story to it, one that may be funny to me, but I’ll save you the details and just get down with it.
I was first introduced to the Dirtyphonics Endless Summer mix after driving for 10 hours straight and attempting to take my crack a passenger seat slumberland. As I laid on the subwoofer a terrible sensation came over me. I wanted to cut visuals to the mix as it coarse through my every cell. So two days, and some odd hours later, and Eyelumenaughty and I decked out the house we were staying at with projectors, VJ happiness, and over all excitement. Since then there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t woken up with some part of this mix still ringing in my mind.
And so, I present to you the first EyeMixEar of the new year. Here’s to 2015 being an eventful one in your life as well.
The near conclusion of this year has been busy to say the least. What is normally a calm, cold, and tranquil time of the year has been replaced by action, warmer weather, and the start of an exciting event that will now be taking place in the heart of downtown Ft. Myers Florida each month. It was my pleasure to join my pal Greg from Artistic Projection (http://artisticprojection.com/), whom I met at the Boston VJ competition not so long ago. Along with his mates, Jeremy and Alison from SJP Productions (http://SJPLIVE.COM) & the whole Circus Arts crew (http://circusartsunited.com/) we executed what may be Ft Myers first licensed downtown Rave? Shockingly, those were someone elses words and not mine, but we did run 3 stage of action packed Electronic dance music, Projection Mapping, lights, and well, ya know… Fun.
Long story short, it was a great event and the people I met while on this journey were top caliber — I would take a bullet for anyone of them.
So without further adieu and more scripted nonsense, I present a short video compilation of my experiences in Ft. Myers, followed by a heavy and quickly put together credit roll.
