Monday, May 3, 2021
Eduardo Garcia Projection Party Finale
Project 4
My initial idea was to make a silhouette effect on my dancing body using two projectors. I ordered one through amazon and they lost it so I was forced to buy a different projector who outshined my tiny pico projector. The difference in "faux lazers' was disgusting and ruined my complete idea. If only amazon didn't lose my very important pico projector. What better way to avenge my love for silhouettes than using my own on a huge blank canvas with so much real estate for fun and lazers. I'm happy I have a better projector. I really want to invest in an EMMA laser projector. That is the future.
Samuel Estep: Project 4 Final
Concept: I wanted to revisit my second project because it was the one I was happiest with, while also being one that I had room to expand on.
Techniques: I had two ideas for expanding on the concept, the first was to use the space around the boot. The second was to turn the boot into a 3d model so that I could take advantage of madmapper's lighting. Unfortunately the second part fell through and, as I had spent more time than I should have, means that I haven't completed the revised projection.
Interpretation: Expanding and using the space around the boot is fairly simple. I've reused the boxes from project 3 and rearranged them around and behind the boot. One of the main ideas that I had (but didn't get to do on the original) was project water onto the platform beneath the boot. As part of this, I'm going to include lines around the objects to simulate ripples during key parts of the song.
Turning the boot into a 3d model is something that took a lot of time and ultimately failed. I attempted to use photogrammetry to create a 3d model from the boot, however, consistent with my previous attempts at photogrammetry, my effort failed (the point cloud was much more coherent than previous attempts, but it still wasn't good enough to make a model from). I've been using Regard3d for this as I have an AMD gpu and most photogrammetry software requires an nvidia card, so that could be part of the problem.
Lighting is a big part of what I would like to play with in regards to the revised projection, so I will be turning most, if not all of the scene into 3d models.
Original Project 2 video (Original post for info on how the cues were controlled):
The Revised Scene:
Ripple Concept for revised project:
The boxes will get their own surfaces too (you can see the one on the left is currently wip), however getting a rough setup for the ripples is about as far as I've gotten.
Revised Projection: It's finally here!
Controlling the project (My original info can be found here): Everything, from the cues, the material parameters, UV rotation, etc, was controlled with a MIDI file. Now, for the most part changes in materials and surface visibility were
controlled with cues, which themselves were controlled via the file,
however a lot of things that reacted to the beat, like the ripples in
the water, were controlled via MIDI as well. This was born out of my own perfectionism and the fact that I often have issues with audio-detection algorithms functioning spottily at best, not at all at worst. So why would you use a MIDI file? Because it gives you a finer level of control at the cost of time.
As a warning, this can get very time consuming; about half of the time spent on my project was creating the MIDI file and setting the controls. Make sure you keep notes on what's controlling what, as having lots of MIDI controls can get messy as well.
This should be fairly program agnostic as all we're doing is making a MIDI file pretend to be a MIDI controller. The basic steps required to do this are:
1) Find a program that can output MIDI through MIDI. I think most Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) can do this (I used REAPER), and there may be some standalone MIDI editors that can do this as well.
2) Download and install a virtual MIDI cable. Personally I used LoopBe1 since I'm on Windows
3a) Create your MIDI file. If you're using a DAW then you can place your audio in a separate track from the MIDI track, and use that to help sync the MIDI with the audio. Additionally, make sure your BPM and time signature match the audio as closely as possible. This will allow you to snap the MIDI notes to the beat and copy-paste repetitive sections without having to re-sync the notes to the audio.
3b) Create your projection. Keep in mind your audio and how you have your MIDI notes laid out when you're planning and creating your surfaces, cues and materials. In some cases (like having things react to a beat) it may be easier to control a surface or material directly with a MIDI file instead of using a cue. You may even want to allow some things to be controlled by the original audio, in which case you'd probably be best off outputting audio from your DAW into MadMapper (or other program of choice) through a virtual audio cable in the same way we're using the virtual MIDI cable. That way you can ensure synchronization between the audio and MIDI controlled parameters and cues.
4) Once you have your MIDI file set up, set the MIDI HARDWARE output to the virtual MIDI cable. Not the audio output, the MIDI HARDWARE OUTPUT. We want the MIDI file outputting the raw note information as if it was a MIDI controller, not the audio. In REAPER this can be achieved by going to your mix (at the bottom of the screen), clicking on the "route" button that corresponds to your MIDI track, and then under "Hardware Input" select your virtual MIDI cable (in my case, "Loop Be Internal Midi").
5) In your projection mapping software (in this case, MadMapper), go into your settings and ensure that the virtual MIDI cable (in my case "Loop Be Internal Midi") is present and enabled.
6) Treat the MIDI file like a normal hardware MIDI controller and assign your cues, scenes, material and surface parameters like you normally would for a MIDI controller.
7) Make sure you're outputting your projection to your projector, swap to your DAW, and press play!
Tip: Have some scenes or a row of cues be "reset points" for various stages of your projection. This will make it easier to preview changes you've made without having to start your projection at the beginning.
Since this is an issue I ran into: Help, I have my virtual MIDI cable set as the hardware MIDI output in my DAW and as an input in my projection mapping software, and I have things set to trigger with notes but nothing's happening! What could be causing this?
Check and make sure the MIDI channel you're sending from your DAW is the same as the channel you're receiving in your projection mapping software. This can allow you to have multiple MIDI files loaded accessing the same note without conflicting with each other by putting them on different channels, however it can also be a bit confusing if you're not familiar with it. However if that doesn't help, all I can suggest is making sure you have your MIDI outputs and inputs enabled and properly configured (and your virtual MIDI cable isn't muted), and that your MIDI controls are set to the notes you've defined.
Cameron Steele: Project 4
How it Works:
This is what the user sees when they first visit the website. Here they can draw, change the color of their brush and change their brush shape. The face number corresponds to a specific face of the physical object (In this case an icosahedron).
As the user draws on the canvas, the canvas for other users updates as well. The client informs the server when something new is drawn and another client running on the madmapper system updates the object's UV and sends it to madmapper via syhpon.
We do this for each visible face of the object and add it to the madmapper composition by UVing the input to the arranged surface.
If you care to see the code you can find it here: https://github.com/ATechAdventurer/Projector-Control
Project 4 Ysatis Muniz
Concept:
Using the song "Cut My Hair" by Mounika and Cavetown, I wanted to portray a kind of sad and rainy theme that matched how the song felt.
Techniques:
I used the same box that I projected on for my last project, but this time I decided to put it on the floor and have the corner facing the camera, so that the box could be at an angle. I also project on this nice flower hanging thing because I thought it would be cool to project on.
Since the flower has separate sections of it (different outlines) I thought that it would be cool to project something different onto each area. Originally I mapped the full outline of the hanging flower, and then made masks in the same layer for each inner flower outline. However, I then made different layers for each outline and just copied and pasted the according mask in the layer. This probably wasn't a good/right way to do it, but I confused myself so I left it how it was.
For the box, I used a grid on the mesh warping option to have it conform to the box and not distort the projection on the box or have it look flat. I decided not to map onto the top of the box because it wouldn't even be able to be seen anyways. I was originally going to film and project at a different angle so that the top of the box would be seen, but it didn't work out so I just resorted to a straight on angle. I only used lines a couple of times for the circle in the middle of the flower. I used a lot of effects that looked like rain or clouds to accompany the rainy backgrounds. On one of the last cues where it portrays someone sitting in a train, I used an effect that looks like light moving to make it look like the moon passing was giving off light.
Interpretation:
I tried to project what this song makes me feel. It gives me sad vibes and the feeling of being empty, so I wanted to portray that with rain. There’s also a kind of fuzzy sound in the background of the song that kind of sounds like rain, so that helped match the vibes that I set for the project. For the first cue that had the daisies, I wanted to portray a kind of sweet, mellow vibe that the introduction of the song gives me so I included a calm, soothing background accompanied with calm patterns. For the following cues where it's alternating between the daisies and a static background, I wanted to do a kind of static/intermission look to look like it's cutting in and out, and I did it along with the music where there's a certain key that is played. When the background music cuts out so that we are only left listening to they key being played, I switch in between the static background and a plain white background. I showed the plain white background when there is no noise the signify emptiness. When the music starts again I switch to a rainy background, which shows that we kind of switched moods/vibes. The rest of the video is just different cues with the same vibes.
Koby Wheeler - Project 4: Extension of Cara Mia Project/ "We're Back"
Concept
For this project, I used the song "You" by Petit Biscuit to create what I consider a sort of extension of the Cara Mia project done by Lightsquad, however, this story is rounded out with the joys that come from getting vaccinated and being able to finally start to get back to a semi-normal life.
Process
Because of space/logistical constraints (ie I'm moving apartments in 5 days) I decided I was going to create this piece strictly in Madmapper, similar to the first project. I first found a photo of the Empire State Building as I knew that was the building I wanted to build a projection for. I pulled the photo and measured the dimensions in Photoshop so I could build the content to the correct dimensions. After that, I created a custom preset in Premiere Pro with the correct pixels and began to gather footage. I focused mostly on content for this project as there was a lot to sort through, both for music and for video content to sort through to hit the right tone and progression of clips and audio. I was able to gather footage early on from the pandemic from YouTube and vaccine, ambulance, and outdoor clips from the free video site, Pexels. Once the footage was edited together I imported the photo of the Empire State Building and the video into Madmapper and put together a planar map with an "add" overlay to let some of the building show through.
Interpretation
I enjoyed making this piece because I saw it as an extension of the Cara Mia project and rounding out the circle of what has been an incredibly hard 14 months. While the pandemic isn't over yet, I think many people will find solace and hope in this piece and what is to come over the next few months as we gain back more of normal life.
Vanessa Le Project 4: Creative Expression
Project 4: Creative Expression
Concept:
For this final project, I chose summer as the theme. This project is similar to the relief project as well as the shoe project that we did this semester. It includes a variety of summer activities or summer themed events. The song that I chose for this is called “Palm Trees” by Surfaces, which also goes along well with the overall concept of this project.
Techniques:
Similar to project 3, I used the spatial scanning technique to capture my background and boxes that I used as my relief. After Effects was the software that I mainly used to create compositions and different animations for this project.
To capture the theme of summer, I used a couple of videos from my past summer vacation of a beach and a harbor. I also used a bright and warm color palette, as well as cool colors to contrast with it, when needed.
Since this was the final project, I wanted to include things that I’ve never tried to in past projects like videos and audio visuals, so I had a lot of fun working with those. I also wanted to use text for this, just to see how it would work. Text is also something that I never added in past projects, so I wanted to experiment with that as well. I also incorporated everything that I’ve learned in this class into the final project.
Interpretation:
The outcome of my final project.
The summer themed relief mapping.
The idea of creating the two boxes as “people” was pretty fun for me and it helped me convey certain ideas of scenery, especially the harbor and the scuba-diving one. I like the idea of being able to project something that can make simple boxes look entirely different, which is something I lacked in the last relief project.
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