On Nov 10th Ralph Lauren put on this live camera projection extravaganza!
Very impressive work! MPC was the vendor on the 3D end of things. Although I do find it disturbing that Ralph Lauren has made the false claim of this being the FIRST such camera projection piece or “4D experience” as they call it. [Correction: OK, after watching the “making of” and reading further on ralphlauren.com I learned that by stating “4D” they are referring to the use of scent. So at the moment the cologne visuals come up the audience is treated to a dose of fragrance. On that count they are the first perhaps, but in the video itself the fragrance enhancement is not made clear, therefore many folks did cry foul on their claim] Now that this has been noted, be aware this sort of things has been done numerous times on a variety of structures. Here are some other examples of this technique in action.
Seeper Collective’s KraftWork – Autostadt, Wolfsburg
Another Seeper Collective – AC/DC VS Iron Man – Rochester Castle April 2010
Toronto 2010
VimeoFest – New York 2010
Nissan’s Juke promo – The Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
Nissan’s Juke promo – Liverpool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICi6mbod_1A
You get the picture. It’s been done before. In any case it’s a great live effect.
On the technical side it is directly related to traditional 3D camera mapping as you find in your major 3D applications like Max, Maya, xsi etc. To move into the real world you would create a 3D proxy model to match the location your are projecting on and then create whatever awesome effects you can dream up! The ultra bright projectors are the biggest technical challenge. I imagine aligning and calibrating the projection setup is no easy task. But as long as you are projecting from the POV you shot your reference image for your proxy model you should be all set.