Projection Mapping Experiments

I saw Amon Tobin at Sonar 2012 in Barcelona and his live set featured a huge structure made up of many different sized cubes onto which visuals were projection mapped, seeing it live and on such a large scale really made me want to give it a go.

Essentially projection mapping is projecting graphics onto a structure or object in such a way that the graphics appear to be mapped onto its surfaces, so that when the graphics animate, the object itself appears to move or undulate.

I bought a projector and set about trying to teach myself how it worked. I couldn't find much information online so I started playing about in Cinema 4D and After Effects, initially projecting graphics onto a stack of shoe boxes, warping flat graphics onto the surfaces using corner pinning. After a few more tests projecting onto various objects including a radiator (that one was super thrilling) I decided to make my own sculpture, something hopefully a bit more interesting than shoe boxes. I built four tetrahedrons using 5mm foam board and added a hole on the back so I could hang it from the wall.

Using Cinema 4D and After Effects I animated various patterns and effects and timed them all to a track by Pretty Lights.