NUNO SERGIO SHOE MAPPING

 

Concept:

For this assignment, my plan was solely to create a performance to the "Borderline" song by Tame Impala.   I really liked the steady beat that the 80s type drums have in this song and felt they were perfect to have my visuals react to them. I also wanted to make sure that I implemented graphics that feel like the song.

Process:

The process that I used for this assignment was kind of straight forward, but it did require a bit of research. I started off by just mapping my shoe (which i moved and wasn't able to obtain the perfect angle again) and then attempting to automate all of the effects that I wanted to add to my medias and ISF's. I tried automating through audio frequencies and also added midi controls. Neither gave me the exact result that I wanted. I became desperate and turned to the dark world of reddit. There I was able to find a software named Vezer, which enables you to automate in a timeline type workstation similar to those that are included in DAWs. In this software, I programmed all of my mad mapper cues, color effects, and line effects. 

Jacob Hunwick Project 2: Shoe Mapping

Concepts:

In high school I was the lead designer for a skate company I co-founded. Over the years I have been collecting songs fit for promotional videos. This song, Daily Routine, is one of my favorites off the playlist. It start off very unconventionally with erratic and off-time bursts of sound. These sound bites then start speeding up until the sound is blaring.

Using the music as inspiration for the visuals, I wanted to capture the feeling of energy building up. 

Techniques:

To achieve this, most of my time went into audio controls and keyboard controls. In order to sync up the cue switches I simply linked the cue play button to my keyboard. In addition, to have control over the audio player, I linked the play and loop functions to O and P respectively. To get the lines to jump with each successive audio flare in the beginning, I altered the input and output ranges. Fine tuning so the lines accelerated alongside the audio proved tricky. In the end I got the effect I was looking for.

Execution:

For my stage I used a small table, a shoebox, a piece of styrofoam, light white fabric, and a gray sheet.

I stacked the face of the table on top of the box and let two legs rest on the floor, propped up against the wall. Next I draped the white fabric over the entire setup. Lastly, I wrapped the gray sheet over everything. The white fabric beneath the sheet adds volume and lightness to the setup. This contrasts with the weight of the shoe.

For the shoe I used my oxford Dr. Martens.

Opposite the stage and shoe I sat my pico projector on top of a box. After completing the setup I went about masking each piece I wanted to project on, and began experimenting with materials.

Once I had my 6 quads mapped and complete with materials, I broke them into two cues and began the process of syncing media elements to audio elements.

The three following images depict the construction of my stage. With a more powerful projector, I would have been able to illuminate the texture and layers of the stage. In future projects, I am looking to pick up a higher lumen projector.

My current pico projector. The low lumen makes illuminating dark backgrounds and fabrics a bit difficult. For the next project I am looking to upgrade. 

Samuel Estep Project 2: Shoe Mapping

 Concept:  Since our projects were supposed to have music to go along with them and because a lot of the music I enjoy doesn't tend to play well with algorithms that try to interpret music, I wanted to try a method of controlling the projection that I don't remember reading about.

 Technique:  In order to control my project, I did it through the power of MIDI.  Not a midi controller (I don't have one), but a midi file.  However, MadMapper doesn't have a way to use a midi file to control your project.  What I did was set up a DAW (in my case, Reaper), then route the output from a midi file through a virtual midi cable (LoopBe1), and into MadMapper.

This is what my midi file looked like for this project.  Unfortunately due to time constraints not all of the notes are used, but many are.

Interpretation: Ironically, the song I chose to use in the project (Shpongle Falls - Shpongle) would probably have worked very well with MadMapper's audio controllers due to it having a fairly strong, consistent beat.  However, I continued with my concept anyway because being able to use a midi file to control the project would give me a lot more control than I otherwise would have.  Unfortunately due to time constraints I wasn't able to make full use of the midi file I had set up, nor was I able to fully utilize my subject (the subject, being made out of leather, posed some unforeseen difficulties in the way it reflected light).  Nevertheless, I am fairly happy with the way it turned out.

Conner Hill Project 2: Shoe Mapping

Concept: 

    To projection map my shoe in a way that it would have audio-reactive visuals that articulate the Ivy Lab remix of Night Driving by Rhi. I wanted to incorporate visuals that have a minimal deep electronic style and red and white seemed to be colors that matched the tune.

Technique:

     For this project, I had to kind of made do with what I had, so my setup is relatively simple. I have a side table that I laid longways and then used a black pillowcase stuck to the wall as a backdrop. I set up my projector and iPhone at the end of the table so that I could get a shot that was directly at the shoe.

all of the visual content is made using MadMapper effects. I found that mad mapper layers are great for the minimal deep techno look that I was going for, and they are all customizable so I was easily able to make parts "pop" to the music. I love the line effects in mad mapper and found that my shoe had lots of stitching that would be perfect places to have some lines pumping to the music.

Interpretation:

    Ivy Lab did such an excellent job on this remix and I wanted to really articulate the deep bubbly beat and the echoey vocals. Red and white came to mind because I think that they create a really dark industrial electronic feel, and pairing those colors with minimal techy animations that are audio reactive, and carefully placed scene transitions really articulates the song.

Bayang Flores Project 2: Shoe Mapping

// Concept

    For this project, I was messing around in MadMapper when I saw the waveform option and was reminded of the Arctic Monkeys AM album from 2013. I wanted to play around with the waveform and black and white projections for this assignment. 

// Process

    Working with the mini-projector I have, I found that it's not as strong as I would have liked for it to have been. I initially wanted to try animations on the black surface of the Adidas logo on my Superstars, but found that the way I had set things up, none of the color were showing in any meaningful way. 

    Instead, I just played around with big blocky areas of my shoe and mapped the topology of the surface as best I could to wrap the light around it. Looking back now, I see that my edges are quite messy. This project was definitely a lot more difficult for me in comparison to our first assignment. 

//Interpretation

    In comparison to projecting on a relatively flat surface, I found that all the curves and creases of my shoe made it so much more difficult to get a look that I wanted. While this is what I have to submit, I want to try and improve on this on my own time for my own sake. I think, with practice, I'll be able to create something better in the future. 

    Also, my apartment has a window basically everywhere but the tight closet, so when I projected the colors weren't as bright as I would have preferred. In the future I might try projecting at night instead just so I can help my mini-projector along as much as I can. 

 

AJ Silverman: Project 2 Shoe Mapping

 

Concept

This project involved taking a shoe and projection mapping onto it with audio. I chose the song In the Night by MUZZY featuring Sullivan King.

Technique

The video that plays behind the shoe was created by hand. I drew several background and foreground frames in Procreate, then exported them as a Photoshop file to link to After Effects. In After Effects, I edited the frames together to match up with the song. I also added shaking effects and opacity changes.

For the object that makes up the floor and walls around the shoe, I collaborated with Cameron Steele to put together. It is three LACK tables from IKEA screwed together, Cameron's design.

The 3D scanner was used to help mask out the shoe. I also had to mask out with floor and certain areas on the LACK semi-cube that were reflecting too much.

Many of the effects used on the shoe were controlled by audio.

Interpretation

The aesthetics are inspired by thriller and action movies, with some science fiction mixed in of course. I noticed that there was an unintentional effect of light reflection when the semi-cube is projected on. I decided to lean into the effect and take advantage of it, so I only projected onto one side of the semi-cube.

Safwan Chowdhury Project 2: Shoe Mapping

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja3bhjALXMM

Concept:

Upon receiving this assignment - using a shoe as canvas for a projection mapping experiment - I immediately decided to use one of my steel-toed cowboy boots. Out of all of my shoes, I would say that my boots have seen the most action and have the most interesting structure/construction. Whether in the stitching that makes its way across the shaft of the boot, or the nicks in the leather that dot the toe and heel (earned through days of work in mud and stone among other things) they seem to have more personality than the pairs of dress shoes, penny loafers, or Adidas sneakers in my collection.

Knowing that we had to produce two compositions, I decided with the first to use the projector to highlight the construction of the boot. I was inspired by the Nike Mags (the Back to the Future self-lacers) as a vision of future footwear, and decided to use the projector to give the boot some futuristic bells and whistles. I saw the composition as an opportunity to explore the aesthetic a space cowboy might show off. The song (El Anillo del Capitán Beto by Argentinian progressive rock band Invisible) chosen for the composition reflects this theme - space travel, at least. It describes the exploits of a bus driver who leaves earth on a spaceship for decades and uses an enchanted ring to protect himself from all cosmic dangers. In the song, the only thing the amateur astronaut can’t escape is his own loneliness.

In contrast, the second composition focuses on the boot itself as a thematic subject. I was inspired by the cowboy boot as a modern symbol of Southern culture, sort of. In reality, the composition was created in spite of modern Southern culture, one which has been created as a fiction (through John Wayne movies and other, more overt, propaganda) that describes modern White America as the inheritors of the great Western frontier without acknowledging the original indigenous caretakers of the land or the Black and mestizo Mexican original cowboys who worked to corral it into its early modern form. The song I used (Theme For an Imaginary Western by Mountain) reflects this. The song was originally written by British guitarist Jack Bruce, of fame as the co-vocalist and bass player for legendary band Cream. The lyrics detail the images associated with the Western film genre - wagons traveling through the frontier, sand blowing through the eyes of brave White travelers. The only mention, in fact, of the original residents of this country is "Pawnee shadow to possess him." 

So, I wanted to use the cowboy boot as a canvas to highlight the nature of the American West through images of flora and fauna. The other major element of the composition is the use of barbed wire as a jarring/disruptive element.

Process:

These compositions were created through heavy use of the masking functions in MadMapper in order to isolate the boot from the background and parts of the boot's structure from each other. After masking off the entire periphery of the projection (everything that wasn't the boot) I went on to make several projection surfaces and mask those off as well. I made 4 surfaces for the sole of the boot and more than 10 surfaces for the shaft of the boot, its straps, and other details.

These surfaces contain preset pattern/content generators built into MadMapper as well as found video content from various internet sources.

Many of the surfaces/the media within them are controlled by audio elements. This was more relevant in the first composition, where I controlled several media and the individual surface which cast a pattern over the entire shaft of the boot using audio. These audio controls are listed here, with one of them expanded for detail.

Interpretation:

I think the first composition was more interesting, but less nuanced. To be frank, I tend towards the maximal (loud sound, deep saturate color, et cetera) in my designs, and the second composition was a little less in my comfort zone. In either case, I think that my use of the MadMapper software allowed me to achieve the disparate thematic goals I hoped to.