VPT in the Project Space

At the moment I am collaborating with fellow Newcastle University MFA student, Jodie Dunnill, working towards an exhibition at the Literature and Philosophy Library in May.

We have booked out the Project Space and a projector for a couple of days and today we have been experimenting with projection mapping.

"Projection Mapping uses everyday video projectors, but instead of projecting on a flat screen (e.g. to display a PowerPoint), light is mapped onto any surface, turning common objects of any 3D shape into interactive displays. More formally, projection mapping is “the display of an image on an arbitrarily complex surface”.

Projection mapping has many alternate names including the original academic term “spatial augmented reality” and 'video mapping.'"

We had never used the software before, and were both very new to the concept of 'video mapping', so we began by watching a tutorial providing us with instructions about how to work with the software. We also watched a couple of examples of 'projection mapping' in action - the results are incredible.

We began by creating a layer as a solid block of projected colour to fit onto a triangular form we had in the space.

We then added another triangular form of a different colour.

Our next challenge was to project an image rather than a block of colour onto a surface. 

And then combined this with the other shapes.

We then progressed to using a video source as the imagery for the projected shape.

It's been a productive and fun day with a lot of learning and problem solving taking place. I'm looking forward to a further day of experimenting tomorrow.