InPark Magazine: The growing power and sophistication of digital projectors, and the software that drives their content, are creating a revolution in projection mapping. Once primarily limited to 2D surfaces, the technology is being employed on widely varying and irregular surfaces ranging from mountains, buildings and scale models of cars to events including live concerts and theatre productions.
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I hope projection mapping keeps expanding in the entertainment industry. I think the kind of element and mood it adds can definitely help if used the right way. Projection mapping seems to prove how the world we live in is aesthetically pleased by good visual effects. Unlike lighting, sound, and other scenic elements, projection mapping allows graphics and videos to enhance the story being told from the performance. In Florida, I always enjoy standing in front of Cinderella's castle and being taken in by the projected elements of my childhood. I think projection mapping allows the story to be fully told without being too much of a spectacle. I really enjoy everything that projection mapping has to offer, but designers need to keep in mind that it should support a piece and not take over. And that goes for any element of a production no matter how big or how small.
I don't claim to know a huge amount about projection mapping, but it makes my mind race to think about how it could conceivably be used. I personally am drawn to images that appear to have movement and depth. While the more traditional approach to this problem would be to create actual 3-D texture and depth to any image, concrete creations are limiting to the width and breadth of what images can be translated to an audience, especially on a larger scale. Looking at the enormous shark that makes up a large part of the "Glamorous Sky Over Hengqin" show in China, I am firmly convinced that using any technology other than projection mapping would be sadly lacking in the dynamism the spectacle is known for. The ability of this technology to grow to enormous scales and mold itself to organic shapes gives off the feeling of being distinctly energized and alive.
While projection and other media is occasionally still overused for it's novelty in live theatre rather than as an effect which is entirely cohesive with the rest of the design it's inevitable full integration into the design suite of the theatre is a eventuality that I look forward to. I think that projection mapping's development is going to be essential to the success of many productions successful use of this technology.
I have seen a few excellent examples of media use where, pre-existing or original media in a traditional video format has been to effectively enhance a design, however, using media in this way runs an inherent and rather large risk that it will actually distract from the rest of the design rather than merging with it. I think that, by opening up many more applications of projection and removing the limitations such as the necessity to have a rather large flat surface to use a projector projection mapping could open the door to all new implementations of projection for subtle effects like rain or simply to support the lighting in a large dance number.
I think projection mapping is extremely interesting and a very cool way to display art. Projectors have been used for movies for many years on normal flat screens. I think it is more interesting to use buildings or different size and shape objects to project on. Media can completely transform a space and make it look completely different. A skill with good projection mapping is not only in the image created, the surface that it is being projected on is also very important. Finding the right area to work well with the media can make the piece look even better. The more complex the surface is, the more interesting the media can be portrayed on it. Images will get distorted more on weird and uneven surfaces, which make the projection mapping more of a challenge. Projection mapping indoors requires more of the focus to be on the projections and accommodating with the space to place the projectors in the right place without obstructions.
This summer in NYC I went to the Rental and Staging Roadshow which mainly focused on the current trends in video, media severs, and projections. It was incredible to hear from current industry professionals what the technology out there can do. They said that even in the span of five to seven years there has been a monumental leap in the complexity and type of projection mapping that is feasible on an event or temporary installation timeline. I even got to see some of the latest software on popular media severs. The level of sophistication and flexibility is simply mind boggling. It is no wonder why there are media server programmers who specialize in one type of media server ecosystem. All you have to do is literally draw your surface in 3d and input where your projectors are and the software does the rest. However, as always, the tool is only as good as the design behind it. Certainly at CMU, I feel that I have seen projection mapping that has felt forced and out of place as well as some simply amazing content and surfaces.
Projection mapping is like the world’s new found favorite effect to include in basically everything that they can think of, and I am not going to blame them because when it is done right it does look really awesome. And there it is ladies and gentlemen the catch with projection mapping. When projection mapping is done right it is truly incredible and is like nothing you have ever seen. However, when it is done wrong it is so bad. Like awful enough that it probably should not have been included bad. However, to get it to where it needs to be to be good that takes a lot of time, effort and energy, and sometimes there just is not time for that in the production process. Just like anything in the process there is not enough time, and that is part of the game. I find it really fun that that is our challenge, and I’m always excited to see what media designers have turned out.
Mapping, and media design as a whole, is very quickly becoming a buzzword around in the tech theatre sphere. At it's core, media can be any kind of video used in a show, but it can also take many other forms, such as second screen experiences in an app or audience participation to change the dynamic of the stage. An example of this would be CMU's alumni party in New York, where a few years back a few lighting folks got together and did some guerilla programming on ETC net, with the end result being partygoers tweeting a color with the hashtag CMUlight (or something of that ilk) and the LEDs in the room adhering to that color. However, for our purposes, the intense mapping that this article talks about, is one of the fastest-growing practices in theatre, and for good reason. The amount of immersion that comes from projection, when done well, is truly unparalleled. In conjunction with lighting elements, especially, projection can make a theatre experience transcend sitting in a seat into a communal feeling of living the production. Haze or other atmospheric enhancers, when used with projection, make the media literally come to life, as you watch the colors dance through the sky and hit whatever surface you were aiming at.
It is a challenge to do correctly, for sure, but I think that if this generation of creators truly embraces it, media designers will quickly become the most integral part of design teams across the world.
Ever since I found out what projection mapping looks like last year I have been fascinated with the idea. There is just so much you can do with it! It can completely transform an object or space in a way that just lighting could never do. However, so often, when the vision is not realized fully, it can come off as just awkward and out of place. And I think that is the risk a lot of theatre productions face that try to use media. But when the media is used well and flows seamlessly with the project, amazing and stunning things happen. I think media and projection mapping is still too new to have had enough time for people to play with it enough that they know how to use it well at least most of the time, unlike lighting and sound and scenery which have been around a lot longer. It’s always a joy to see what new things are happening in the media world.
This Field, which compared to everything else in entertainment, is a very interesting and powerful way to display art and furthermore it is expanding everyday! I agree with the articles title "The projection mapping Revolution" because 10 years ago I didn't see it anywhere, projectors where a way to show movies or to see pictures. Even my schools only had over head projectors that couldn't really do much. After being in Orlando over the summer I was exposed to many projection mapping shows, mostly at disney. The way they were able to incorporate the story and the spirit of disney into "Celebrate the Magic" show was truly spectacular. although it was well done, I was even more impressed with their innovation in projection technology with ride characters. They implemented this in many rides such as the haunted mansion but the most noticeable is the dwarf mine train. Using a preloaded grid for a face, a animation is able to be projection mapped to a face from behind and make a nice smooth moving character that improves the old school audio animatronic way of making a face move using robotics.If the industry continues to experiment with projection mapping who knows what will be around in another 10 years.
Projection mapping falls under the category of media design, which is a relatively new thing in the technical world. It wasn’t very long ago when CTR projectors were the latest technology, and they are now a thing of the past. The progress that has been made in the media field is astounding. From being able to manipulate an image seem like something from 2030. I own a projector with a feature called a keystone, it isn’t mapping, but it uses the same concept of being able to manipulate an image to appear square from any angle. Because mapping is such a new technology, designers are finding it hard to incorporate projection into theatre. “The Projection Mapping Revolution” makes a good point about bring in “knowledgeable partners” that will make sure the audience gets the most out of the experience. As of right now, media design as a whole is busting down doors in this industry and will be the norm over time.
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