Faith Daignault - Project 1: Backdrop Mapping (Week 1-3)

Concept

     For my project I had a bit of trouble finding the right architecture that I could use for projecting various animations and make it look...unique. It was also difficult finding the right angle to take the picture so their wouldn't be any trees or people in the photograph. I finally settling on the new addition to the Student Services Building. I loved how the new building looks, with its modern touch makes it unique from the other buildings on campus. I took multiple pictures of this building at different positions, front, back, side etc. to find the angle that would be good for projecting.

     I took the picture as a panorama, so it would be set to the 1920x1080 requirements without have to crop some of the building off. Putting the picture into Photoshop I cropped the image down and used the stamp tool to remove the women in the picture. I also had to line up a small crease in the photo where I had moved my phone during the panorama. Finally I added a camera raw edit filter over the top to make it look nice.

     Since I took the picture at 10:30 in the morning, I knew it was way too bright for any projection to be even remotely possible to appear. I used various tools including a dark blue color fill and overlaid the layer over the picture. Selecting the sky, I used a gradient fill to help with the setting sun. Seeing as I couldn't make the picture completely look like the sun had gone down, I settled for a sunset instead. Which would be enough for light to be projecting onto the surface.

Process

     Once the picture was set and ready to for projecting, I imported it into Mad Mapper and started laying out the quads. I knew I wanted the front and side of the building to have Projections, but had some time debating on which other elements should have projections and what should not. I didn't want to mask/quad the whole building because having too much would look fake and unnatural. Less is more in this case. With the quads set I masked out the windows, street signs, tree, and a part of the building that I didn't want the Projection to go on.

     Once I finally picked three other surfaces to quad I experimented with the animations that where provided by Mad Mapper and played around with all sorts of different colors, shapes and forms. Seeing what looked unified but pleasing to look at. My first theme color was blue, one of my favorite colors and a color I can use various shades to make it look unified. Too keep it interesting I also added a touch of orange. It is the complementary color to blue and both look very nice next to one another.

     I love music, and usually projections that I have seen are synced to music, so for composition one, I chose a techno based instrumental only music that sounded nice. With the front face of the building I edited the speed and opacity to be synced with the amplitude and base of the music. The side of the building is set to match the drum beat. The bottom quad is set to the tempo of the music, the pole in the middle set to the soft melody and finally the bottom side panel is set to the rhythm of the musics base.

For the second composition, I decided to just keep things simple and slow. The complete opposite of the first. The theme is more relaxed and soothing, very calming to the eye. Pink mixed with Purple was the main color here and used soft slow animation. No music was synced with this peace as I wanted to keep it simple and relaxing to just watch for a few moments. I added the color of green, that complementary of purple for a spice of color.

Finished Work

     After recording the Projection with Syphon Recorder I put both compositions into After Effects. I synced the first composition back up with the music because having it play through Syphon didn't sound right. So I imported the music into After Effects and lined it up  to get the music sounded right. 

Enjoy!