processing to MadMapper via Syphon [Test] from espadaysantacruz studio on Vimeo.

Wish you could get Modul8 to take an input from some other tool, so that in addition to playing videos, you could “insert” custom visuals as you play?

Wish you could VJ with Processing – without giving up your VJ tool, too?

Wish you could use Processing with MadMapper for custom project-mapped generative visuals? (I’m going to pause at the tiny handful of people who know what that question means. If you’re still with me — congrats.)

Wish you could do all of this with some other combination of tools on the Mac? (Hint: if it supports Syphon, you can.)

Media artist Miguel V. Espada answers just how to make all of this goodness a reality in an exquisite set of easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. Even the render-weary VJ could follow them. (Trust me – been there.)

In fact, I’m just about ready to go through every single one of the tutorials here. Kinect and Processing and Processing and Modul8 and Processing and projection mapping … Miguel, you’re our hero.

http://www.miguelespada.es/?cat=41 [thanks, Ilan!]

And all of these techniques promise to get better with time.

Hear that sound?

That’s the sound of visual sets getting done and people’s thesis work getting finished in time for spring and new, cool stuff happening the next time you go out and see visualists play. Mark my words. Start your engines.

Tutorial: Syphon input in Modul8 from instructions on Vimeo.

Vital public service announcement: Want to make sure this all continues to get better? Donate to the Syphon project. Despite the fact that this platform is utterly free to use for Mac users, and despite the fact that it has unleashed incalculable awesomeness on our community, I hear through the grapevine (or was that my HDMI cable?) that donations have been disappointing. Make that cease to be. For the price of just one coffee / Club Mate a day…

http://syphon.v002.info/

We’ve seen lots of fancy projection maps, sculptural creations, and elaborate architectural facades.

But sometimes, you just want to get rid of those awful seams when using a couple of projectors. And that can make all the difference.

Enter Blendy. This friendly, simple Mac tool sits between two visual applications and gets rid of those seams. It simply blends two textures together, combining them using the inter-app visual texture tool called Syphon (the one we’ve been raving about so much lately).

Using multiple projectors (two is just the beginning), ideally the same model for matched brightness, you can line up multiple images. These days, you can easily run out of a dual- or triple-head setup off even a single laptop. Set up a source – like Modul8 or ArKaos – and an output, like MadMapper. Blendy does the blending to the texture so the projection image looks continuous.

Blendy is under development, so your mileage may vary, but it’s exquisitely-well documented and, thanks to Syphon, works with loads of Mac visual apps. (DIY tools like Processing and OpenFrameworks now work these days, too, not just VJ apps.)

We’ll be watching. Try it out, let us know how you do, and by all means, document your kick-ass visualist setup with video and photos so you can show it off to the planet.

Superior Brazilian engineering:

http://blendy.studioavante.com/

Cost, for now, is €33 – with a special Brazilian discount.

GraffitiMarkupLanguage.com (Trailer) from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Imagine data that stores digital, virtual graffiti tags as easily as you store text. Imagine, then, the power to record and playback tags at different scales, using everything from projection mapping to robotics. Graffiti Markup Language is in ongoing development, but it’s already accomplishing those aims.

More:

Graffiti Markup Language (.gml) is a universal, XML based, open file format designed to store graffiti motion data (x and y coordinates and time). The format is designed to maximize readability and ease of implementation, even for hobbyist programmers, artists and graffiti writers. Popular applications currently implementing GML include Graffiti Analysis and EyeWriter. Beyond storing data, a main goal of GML is to spark interest surrounding the importance (and fun) of open data and introduce open source collaborations to new communities. GML is intended to be a simple bridge between ink and code, promoting collaborations between graffiti writers and hackers. GML is today’s new digital standard for tomorrow’s vandals.

EyeWriter is a particularly compelling example of what this is all about, and why it’s more than just “because-we-can” technological gimmickry. That project allows a tag artist to continue to work even when he is only able to have physical use of his eyes as physical interaction. And that’s really what all of this is about: representing art in newly open, portable ways allows us to more easily exchange ideas, and extend making beyond the boundaries of our physical beings and limitations.

I’ve been meaning to talk about GML for some time – and, indeed, there’s plenty more to say – but it’s timely introducing it now, as some of its creators are working on extending the idea from visual tags to audio scratch performance. We cover that today on our sister site, Music:
Proposal: A Markup Language for Turntable Scratch Performance; Open Call

CO2 Cube from Obscura Digital on Vimeo.

It’s an older project, but no less timely: speaking of Obscura Digital’s work, they’ve also employed projection as a way to illustrate in tangible terms a serious issue. You’ll hear climate scientists speak in terms of metric tons of emissions. But because we can’t see those emissions, and because most people really don’t think about volumes of carbon dioxide (hardly something you pick up at the grocery), it’s tough to wrap your head around what that means.

That is, it’s tough until you see the volume. Assuming sea level, you get a cube of 8.2m x 8.2m x 8.2m (27ft x 27ft x 27ft) or a three-story building. And so at 2009′s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Obscura Digital made the message more concrete. The object itself illustrates the point, and then becomes a medium for conveying information gathered from YouTube and Google. It’s called a “4-D Hypercube User Interface System,” which seems a bit of a stretch – this would technically still be a 3-cube – if clever branding. But the message is really clear.

It also suggests an important role of creative projection, which is making the projection surface itself part of the content and meaning.

More information:
http://www.obscuradigital.com/work/detail/c02-cube/

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Projections from Obscura Digital on Vimeo.

Illuminating the facades of United Arab Emirates mosque and historical architecture with extraordinary imagery, Obscura Digital transformed these structures with visuals both decorative and cultural. It’s a visually-rich celebration of Arabic and Emirati culture, and one of the developers – absurdly-prolific artist and geek virtuoso Barry Threw – walks us through some of the details of how it was produced, all using TouchDesigner software.

The mosque, top:

In celebration of UAE National Day 2011
Projection and design by Obscura Digital

44 projectors with a combined brightness of 840,000 lumens
were used to cover a surface 600ft wide x 351ft high

Barry explains in detail how this lavish projection project came into being – and get ready for some nerdy vocabulary, folks, which is part of why we love what we do:

All of the mapping is done with TouchDesigner.

The first step in the pipeline is getting some sort of model of the structure involved. In this instance, we used a laser scanner to output a 3d point cloud of the building. This point cloud then needs to be turned into a mesh, and then we re-topologize it into a simpler mesh that can be easily handled in realtime. There is a high degree of skill necessary in this process.

At the same time, the physical projector locations have to be decided upon. This depends upon the actual map of the building and surrounding area, where we can get access to, and what kind of structures we are allowed to build. This particular job was easy in terms of obstructions of the surrounding area, but difficult because of the sacred nature of the site. All of our projector towers had to be well designed with facades to match the mosque architecture.

The projector placement and physical production aspects are a behemoth tasks in themselves. Number and placement of projectors has many variables, but in general, maximum brightness, full area coverage and optimal resolution are the major ones.

The art design process is another concurrent pipeline. After the 3d model and general projector spec’ing is complete, a template can be made to render the content, which has previously been put through an extensive creative process. This is output as video, in our case using a currently-proprietary codec called FireFrame, which are then textured onto the 3d model.

Projector calibration is basically a two-step process.

We typically use stacks of projectors to achieve higher lumens over the projected area. So the first stage is converging stacks of projectors to make a single, clear image.

Secondly, physical projector extrinsics must be calculated to match a virtual camera in our 3D world. We are currently using a technique that I’m lovingly referring to as “Sain-O’Neill Extrinsic Trilateration,” or SONET. Basically, it involves triangulating the projector and projection centroid placements based on other known onsite architectural features.

This gets you fairly close with careful application, but a number of post-3D and 2D transformations are used on the geometry to account for the fallible nature of the physical world to which we are chained. There is also a separate group of procedures that are used in the instances where a blend between two channels are necessary, and the one that we use is dependent on the architecture.

Equipment used / number and types of projectors / lumens / power:
44 projectors on the mosque (24 x 20K lumens + 20 18K lumens) = 840,000 lumens
5 projectors on the fort (5 x 20K lumens) = 100,000 lumens
940,000 lumens total
49 projectors x 3.2kW x 60 hours = 9,400kW total show (Mosque and Fort)

CO2 Offsetting plan:
9,400kW = 12,878 lbs of CO2 = 6 tons of CO2
(1.37 pounds CO2 per kW / 2204 pounds = 1 ton of CO2)
6 tons x 5 trees per ton = 30 trees
Equipment rigs:
Custom-built projector enclosures based on floral designs that match the mosque

Architectural mapping / scanning components:
Obscura laser scanned the surface area of the mosque to generate 3D models.
Incredibly complex geometry: flat walls with intricate hand carved details (all mapped); arcades with rows of columns; domes ranging in size from the “small” 7m ones on the sides of the main gate to the 37 and 46m main domes of the prayer hall; all four of the 107m minarets.

I’d like to mention Dorian Orange (http://www.dorianorange.com/), a NY based shop who helped us immeasurably with the media on this project.

More information:

http://obscuradigital.com/
http://www.derivative.ca/ [developers of TouchDesigner]
UAE National Day Grand Mosque Architectural Projection Mapping [barry threw blog]
UAE National Day Fort Al Jahili Architectural Projection Mapping [barry threw blog]

A massive team worked on the project. Credits:

Technical Direction
Andrew Plourde
Eugene Dowlen
Simon Ransom (theRansoms)

Creative Direction / Media
Travis Threlkel
Marta Salas Porras
Ron Robinson
Nathaniel Ruhlman (Dorian Orange)

Production
Gaston Albanell
Nick Lynch
Diego Novoa
Rainen Janes
Joe Vigorito
Nathan Houchin
Eric Knuble

Interactive Development
Mary Franck
Grady Sain
Imran Nabhan

IT
Sean Holt

Photos / Documentation
Josh Brott
Block IPDelete

In code and 3D models, in live visual performance and augmented architecture and dance, in VJ sets and futuristic 3D demos, shows and games, visualism extended to new ways of transforming perception. For just one slice of what happened this year, entirely by the numbers, here are the stories that scored the most page views in 2011 – not necessarily the most significant stories, but those that ranked largest in traffic, which to me is at least an interesting metric in terms of what garners the greatest attention and audience.

Let us know your favorite stories from 2011, too, on CDM or elsewhere. And see where your musical counterparts’ eyeballs went, too, on Create Digital Music.

The countdown to the most-read story starts … now:

10.

Make a Building into an EQ, More MadMapper Projection Mapping Tutorials

While here it ranks at number 9, it’s tough to overstate the importance of projection mapping generally, and the MadMapper tool here – seen even as stories from past years soared to the top readership on the site.

8.

Codify: Elegant, Creative Coding Directly on the iPad – No (Other) Computer Needed

7.

Survey: Which VJ – Visualist Software Do You Use Live?

And the results: What Visual Software Readers Use: Some Clear Favorites, Plenty of Diversity, in Census Results

Summary:
1. Modul8 (28.5%)
2. Resolume Avenue 3 (25.6%)
3. Vidvox VDMX (19.4%)
4. Apple Quartz Composer (19.3%)
5. Max/MSP/Jitter (16%) *
6. Processing (15.4%)
7. vvvv (10.2%)
8. ArKaos GrandVJ (8.4%)
9. Resolume 2.x (8.1%)
10. Isadora (6.9%)
11. OpenFrameworks (5.8%)
12. Pd/GEM (4.3%)

6.

Open Source Match Move: Camera Tracking in Blender, Plus Tutorials on Mac Builds, Compositing

By the way, I ran into a core Blender developer in Eindhoven, NL in November. We’ve got a lot more Blender talking to do in 2012, as this year wraps up with a big new Blender release.

5.

Scanning the Universe in 3D: The Hottest Kinect Video Yet?

4.

Running Live Visuals for The Glitch Mob: An All-Access Pass Behind the Scenes

Probably an easy reader favorite, and certainly one of my favorite stories this year, thanks to Momo’s in-depth reporting of what made the tour tick.

3

New TouchDesigner Goes Gold, with Free Sharing, Ableton Live Sync, More

Side note: clearly one of the tools of the year, TouchDesigner touched many of our biggest stories.

2.

Kinect-Augmented Reality, as Projection Mapping Meets Depth Sensing (Hint: It’s Awesome)

1.

Gameduino is a DIY, Open Source Game Platform Built on Arduino That’s Ridiculously Awesome

In a stunning, surreal set of tests, our friends at Bologna, Italy-based Apparati Effimeri are using stereoscopy and projection mapping to muck with the fabric of what you perceive in a garden or architecture. The results would make Dali go buy a six pack of beamers. There’s little to say other than to have a look, but here’s their description:

A week of video projections and tests to experience the 3D stereoscopic technology applied to mapping, first-hand. The Apparati Effimeri collective came back to studio aware of the huge possibilities that the stereoscopic tool can offer to mapping technique. In addition to the by this time “classic” mapping on architectures, the video projection was realized directly inside a garden. There are, needless to say, Infinitive potentialities. Coming soon this report will be available for stereoscopic vision directly on your 3D Monitor.

We’ll be watching, you infinitive potentialities, you.

More:
apparatieffimeri.com

And yes, they’re right in line with my idea of projection mapping as the ultimate in Neo-Baroque aesthetics:

Apparati Effimeri work in the field of Visual Design, experimenting the possibility to create new links between the past history of human vision and contemporary techniques and approaches to visual art.
The project started in 2008 in Bologna with the focus on bringing up to date the idea of displays typical of the parties in the past, especially during the Baroque period.

As 2011 winds down, here’s a good end-of-the-year resolution: get your showreel together – or get some inspiration from others. Our friend James Cui (VJ Fader) put together his latest reel. Based in LA but working internationally, he’s been a very busy guy, working with Processing and Max/MSP and Jitter to code custom solutions, from touchscreens to projection mapping to event visuals to interactive work to Kinect. I could say more, but the video does a better job.

Description:

Fader’s visual projects of 2011, featuring Kryoman, Claus e Vanessa, Rock-it! Scientists, Oidem, Mandy Mozart, and VJ Leo.

(Don’t worry if you didn’t catch any of those names he just dropped – there’s plenty to stimulate the eyes.)

http://www.vjfader.com/

By the way, think you can do better – or, simply, want to share work that’s your own and different? I get loads of showreels in our inbox, but keep them coming. I can’t cover everything, but even knowing you’re out there makes a difference, so don’t be shy, and don’t be frustrated if I don’t respond. (That inbox is a mighty noisy place, but I’m watching!)

We’re living in an age of the Neo-Baroque/Neo-Rococo, in which technique creates marvelous illusions, when technique and thought can create dazzling effects. And as the technology matures, that work begins to evolve genuine playfulness. It’s not enough to see the novelty: that novelty is now conveyed through real wit.

At least, I feel fuzzy, optimistic thoughts like that when I look at work like a series of spots for the Sony PS3. Friend-of-the-site Memo Atken is involved, alongside FND and Flat-e, with the wonder, mixing real-time projection mapping with head tracking and camera tracking (both at once) for a sort of live match-moving-like effect.

But… well, just watch. I hope we’ll get to talk to Memo, Flat-e, and FND soon. Credits and a teaser description of how it was done below.

And consider this: the combination of sensing with projection is to live digital visuals what a technique like perspective was to painting centuries ago. It’s a calculated illusion, but it could be the basis for an entire body of work, both a marvel in itself and a springboard to new art.

Credits:

Realtime projection mapping for Sony PS3 Video Store.
Agency: Studio Output
Directors: Robin McNicholas (Flat-e), Barney Steel (FND), Memo Akten (MSA)
Cameraman / AR: Thomas English
Music: Finn McNicholas/Si Begg
Client: Sony PS3 Video Store
Production Company: Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF)

Sony PS3 Video Store Realtime Projection Mapping [flat-e]

Memo writes:

For the launch of the Sony PlayStation Video Store, our job was to bring a living room alive with hints at various hollywood blockbuster franchises – so we decided to push projection mapping to a new level. We projection mapped a living room space with camera (or head) tracking and dynamic perspective. All content realtime 3D, camera (or head) is tracked to match and update the 3D perspective in realtime to the viewers point of view. Add to this real props, live puppetry, interaction between the virtual and physical worlds, a little bit of pyrotechnics and a lot of late nights. I can tell you, physically walking around in that space really messes with your head, e.g. when the floor drops you reach out to grab onto something!.

Dynamic projection mapping with camera / head tracking – Sony PlayStation Video Store [memo.tv]

Thanks, Steve Nalepa and David Lublin.

Mapping Festival is a real-world hub for visuals, a place where photons against surfaces and human visualists converge in the physical realm, and not just online. So, we’re very excited to see what happened in 2011 – and to look forward to 2012. We’ve been watching some of those videos in the past two months:

“This Medium of Light”: Movement and Flickers in New Mapping Fest Trailer
From Technique to Medium: Mapping Festival in Videos Immerses Eyeballs

Today, we have three more videos, showing movement and choreography, audiovisuals against dance and projected on cloth, and a stunning Kinect-powered workshop.

It’s almost too late for you to get involved. The deadline for submissions has been extended to tomorrow, Friday, December 2.

http://mappingfestival.ch/

From top, the videos:

The Kinect-based workshop.

CITYMEDIA PROJECT AND BODY DOUBLE WORKSHOP led by Douglas E. Stanley
Partnership Mapping Festival/ Master Media Design Head – Geneva
head.hesge.ch/

Body Double looks at various methods of integrating Kinect sensors into interactive installations and performances. Two methods of vision capture are explored : the first dealing with detecting body morphology and the second dedicated to analyzing points in space. A development library already in use by the CityMedia project is used as a starting point. After a brief introduction to the tools, workshop participants built prototypes which were then applied directly onto the City Media system.

Video credit:
Camera: Camille Dedieu, Linda Cavaliero, Jerome Monnot, Vania Jaikin Miyazaki
Editing: Jerome Monnot
Music: ‘Belleville’ by Ikkaku (Courtesy of Micropunto Schallplatten) micropunto.net

The exquisite audiovisual piece, on cloth:

MEMORSION by MANUEL CHANTRE
manuelchantre.com
Memorsion is a tridimensional audiovisual experience made up of twenty-two large cloth canvases assembled to create a unique maze of video projections. It appears as a labyrinth and pictures a fictive urban world. The audience is invited to enter this disturbing environment and meditate on urban architecture and cultural memory.

Video credit:
Camera: Jerome Monnot,Vania Jaikin Miyazaki
Video assistants: Camille Dedieu, Linda Cavaliero
Editing: Jerome Monnot
Music: Manuel Chantre

The computer-augmented dance choreography:

DISORDER by CENC [Centre d'Expression Numérique et Corporelle]
cenc.ch
This artistic performance is an interplay between contemporary dance and computer-generated imagery aimed at conveying the feelings of a person through sound, dance and video.

Dance & Choregraphy: Kevin Ramseier
Programing: François Moncarey
Music: Ben frost & Tarrabass

Video credit:
Camera: Vania Jaikin Miyazaki, Jerome Monnot, Camille Dedieu
Editing: Jerome Monnot