This project was a great starting point in projection for an architecture fan like me. UTD has many spaces that often lack character, life and attention, and has buildings that lend themselves for projection. These spaces could be brought to life in the form of art projections, announcement boards or interactive experiences for students and visitors. I chose two spaces on campus that are often forgotten. For the first, I took a photo of the side exits for the University Theater. For the second, I took a photo of a tiered-garden space at Founders.
University Theater
Founders
Technique:
In the software, I set up quads for the major surfaces I was going to be animating on, and then went to Photoshop to create masks for the different layers. Then I added effects to the images and messed around with color and animation settings in order to learn the ins and outs of the program. For the second projection, I went into After Effects and synced music to the scale of text reading "Welcome to UTDallas". Then, I brought it into MadMapper and fit it onto a quad.
Interpretation:
At first I had no idea how to use the software, but after some exploration, I feel comfortable with the interface for the most part. With my knowledge of video editing software, I feel confident in my use of this software for future projects. Projections in random parts of campus would look awesome!
The first two weeks of this Spring semester began rocky, I had to register late for upper level classes and the course material was more intense than I had hoped. I knew for this project I wanted to focus on creating art pieces that demonstrated the overwhelming anxiety I had felt the past two weeks before getting used to my course load. Anxiety is something that I had always dealt with personally, and I thought it was a good topic to begin this project on. I hope to come back to this project as i expand my skills.
Overall, I wanted my compositions to blend the mapping with the architecture as a way to alluding to hidden anxieties. It is a way of representing those with mental illness who suffer everyday, quietly, and blended within their environments.
Composition 1:
This composition tested my technique with masking, I utilized Photoshop to mask away certain elements so that I could place materials between the base and the mask. I also edited the color balance to a darkened, cool toned hue.
From this point, I played with some of the materials I had access to until I reached the final result. I wanted to utilize a series of fast paced motions with no distinct direction or rhythm. The point was to make the piece uncomfortably scattered while also blended into the architecture as well as the layout of the room. I changed the coloring, the blending, and the patterns of the media. For a lot of people, the classroom is a place of high anxieties, and I think I did well in representing that.
Composition 2:
This composition utilized some of the same techniques, I edited the image in Photoshop to create the background and the mask. This was significantly more challenging to compose because I was unable to take an image where the staircase was empty, which is actually perfect to demonstrate the unwavering anxieties to keep working. The difficult part was masking around the person and deciding what media I wanted to use to fill the stairs.
I attempted to use media that mimics loading bars, circles, any indication of slow data processing. Again, I altered the bled modes so that the media would become a part of the architecture. For me, Loading bars in the middle of trying to get work done are one of the worst things to encounter. Especially when trying to get work done before a class.
This staircase is memorable for a lot of students in ATEC. It's many plugs and seating promote production value. While convenient, it is also a structure that reminds us to keep working, to keep charging our electronics so that we can continue to create. While this is a great resource that many students appreciate, I've also seen a fair share of people show signs of stress. The resource tells us that there is no excuse to stop working so long as you have access.
Again, I think I did a good job executing the message I wanted to get across. Anxieties, especially about school are difficult to overcome especially when society paints mental illness in a bad light and we are expected to get through our day to day lives. Again, I hope to revisit this composition and improve it in any way I can once I expand my experience.
Concept:
I wanted to really use the outside of the ATEC building and utilize the modern architecture to add the moving maps. I go to the ATEC building almost everyday and it seemed like a good idea to get a high angle of the building to add a bit more depth to the photo/video. If I wanted to get a high view I would need a picture from inside looking out, I also wanted to incorporate a bit of a UTD landmark into the photo as well. The reason for choosing mostly walls for my assignment is because I wanted to go for a more geometric approach with the previous stated modern architecture.
Technique:
I went to the third floor of the ATEC building and used the window to capture the depth of the walls and the love jack. To create the the projection maps I created three checkered board materials and and placed them diagonally along the wall to give it the 3D effect. I used the mesh feature that came with the checkered material to cut out the windows and stairs on the side walls. Then to add the UTD touch I colored the maps in the green and orange colors of our school.
Interpretation:
After tackling this assignment with a few bumps in the road I found that the software itself (demo) was quite easy to grasp and manipulate to the users will. I came into the project blind and it didn't take me long to know the basics of the software. My interpretation was the geometric style that complimented the windows and the walls of the "box" that I've taken the picture of. Giving everything a sort of boxy and straight sort of look.
For a majority of my work I wanted to focus on the mundane around UTD and attempt to bring it some form of vitality. I never said I would be good at this (as a preface) but I do pass a few areas around campus daily that look like they can use some form of rejuvenation as a large amount of work went into creating them. As a first project in 3-D mapping goes, I feel like anything can go into making these spaces more alive and active.
Technique:
Honestly, with zero experience in Mad Mapper I just wanted to produce a product that was better than the pre-existing environment before it so I picked two of the most stagnant settings on campus I could find and added some form of animation that the app could provide. For the first scene I wanted to add something relevant to UTD to be school spiritual so I over-abused the school colors to map out enthusiasm all over the ATEC building.
The second environment I activated was merely an exercise in animation. I wanted to see how a lively environment would look in a previous "passerby" space.
Interpretation:
In my attempt to realize school spirit I messed around with numerous media presets. I would have loved to have found a setting to cycle through the rgb settings, but most preset medias left me with only two color options, making a school setting selection an obvious scheme to work with.
I walk by this space almost daily and all I really wanted to bring to it as a first assignment is some sense of vitality. I used the square array across multiple different surfaces to achieve at least a basic level of animation in a space I would otherwise refer to as "dead inside".
For Assignment One, I chose two different sets of images to practice dropping in the presets. My first image consists of a student's cardboard wearable I photographed for the 3D Design class last semester. The second image is of the Angelika film theater. Both screengrabs are combined in the video at the end.
Concept One:
Every semester the 3D Design course has a cardboard wearable parade to show their creations off. I think a collaboration between this class and the other for a proper show in the ATEC Auditorium. With the idea of moving subjects being in mind, I thought of this video which uses "The latest work to utilize real time tracking and face projection mapping using a state of the art 1000 fps projector and ultra high speed sensing". If each student could walk across and take a spot on the stage, to then each have a projection be shown to create a visual story is my vision.
As this was my first image, I tried to just familiarize myself with the tools as I watched along to the Madmapper tutorials. I did basic mapping using the quads tools. I utilized the snap quads feature, rotate, and different blends to have different armor effects.
Concept Two:
This idea was more general than the previous. For the theater name board and lamp post, I wanted the effect of a spotlight going across each one. That preset seemed too general for the windows, so I decided to choose a more modern square preset to fit with the theater's style more.
Utilizing the mask tool while inside the quad, allowed me to use the preset on the windows without showing also on shrubs by the left or the lamp post.
Video Screengrabs:
For Assignment Two, I learned to NOT get pneumonia during your first weeks at college because you lose a week and half of your life. I created a lantern in illustrator and photoshop in hopes I could become more familiar with creating my own designs. I used a real lantern for reference and changed it so some of the angles weren't as harsh. I also added a candle and flame to give it a more rustic vibe.
I started to play around with the lantern files in Madmapper:
After I created that, I eventually ended up with pneumonia and lost track of time. I did go on to create a 30-second multi-composition piece with an edited song track, video, and Madmapper files for my promotional piece of the assignment. I timed the chasing lines and video transitions with the beat of the song in Madmapper and in premiere edited clips together from Tom Odell's music video I wanted to promote. I also edited visuals I found from the cool program I found called RemixVideo by MixVibes. I recorded each saved preset to put them all together in one Premiere project. In the end, I had three different saved preset compositions within the 30 seconds:
For Assignment Three, I had a clear vision in mind. I wanted to craft another piece fit to a song like the Tom Odell piece I did. Projection Mapping is much more fun if it is to music in my opinion. One of my favorite artists is the singer Aurora. With her song "Half the World Away" in mind, I wanted to construct a scene that was almost otherworldly. Using footage of a galaxy and footage of the earth spinning, I placed a barge floating across clouds that I animated in after effects. The boat would travel across the long wall from the left side of the room where one half the earth is spinning to the other half on the other side of the room. This was to symbolize when one is far away from someone they love, it feels like they are they are a galaxy away even though they could just be on the other side of the planet. For a final touch, I masked out a video of a butterfly, animated to travel and land on the barge in after effects. The playlist of each video is below:
For Assignment Four, using simple graphics and the song "Glisoli" by Sigur Ros showing the transition and resiliency of the mind was my goal. Choosing the face sculpture and using a combination of well-chosen gifs, I edited most of these effects in Premiere. It was a simple concept that was then made complicated when my brain asked: "well what if there was a solar system above the head to symbolize how expansive our thoughts can take us away?". To appease my own brain's vast thought process, I then animated planet doodles in after effects to move in the form of a circle around the sculpture.
Bonus Content: This is for another class but I wanted to show it here anyway because I am happy I feel inspired enough from a class to take it elsewhere:
Concept:
Over Winter break I traveled to Morocco to visit my sister and got plenty of beautiful pictures of the landscapes. I loved the view from my sister's balcony. It peers over part of the city of Rabat and looks almost straight at a Mosque. Although noted that projectors wouldn't reach as far as I mapped I still strived to highlight the building shapes and edges. In addition, to the work in Mad Mapper, I created a type of visual sound synthesizer and imported it live from Max.
Techniques:
I started with two quads on the far left building that I chose to map and set up the perspective. I used the quad mask and control point snaps to mask only the building and take the windows out. I duplicated this process on the building in the middle. The building on the bottom and back right were created each with a single quad and mesh warping. I masked out the buildings and windows but also masked out the red trim on both buildings. On the First Display I used contrasting colors as well as the Max Display. On the Second Display I sampled colors from the buildings around to created projections that blend better with the surroundings.
For the Max Display I split what I made into three separate parts. The First Part creates the background of colors. Its created with noise that is distorted, spun, and blended. The Second Part takes audio input (such as music off of my phone), duplicates it three times, then delays each duplicate. These duplicates get converted from Max's audio language to Max' video language and each duplicate gets applied to a different section of a scope creator that controls the colors. These two videos get meshed together. The Third Part makes the video into a texture and refreshes it live on a plane. It also uses a plugin that Mad Mapper recognizes called Spout that lets the video be transfer through the programs.
Going into this assignment, I ended up looking around campus for spaces that would be interesting to project on. What that meant to me was any large rectangular space, landscape or portrait, that was only slightly obscured by trees, foliage, bikes, et cetera. While looking at the basic generators and patterns that come stock within MadMapper, I decided I wanted to make some sort of squishy liquid type projection.
Technique:
For my first go at MadMapper, I feel like a gained a solid initial understanding of the program. To create the pattern I used in my final render, I used the 'Bar Code' material and distorted it by using the Mesh Warping tool. I created 4 vertical and 2 horizontal subdivisions and dragged the lower center point into the top corner. This warped the simple striped texture into a round, almost lava lamp-esque texture.
After finally sitting down and working in MadMapper, I'm really pleased with how user-friendly it is. I went into the project with a simple idea, and produced the results I wanted with ease. To make things more interesting, I will have to learn as much about the software I can and make the workflow second nature. I'm excited to see what techniques I will learn, and I'm excited to explore into the Audio/MIDI aspects of the medium.
