Summary

Exploration of 3d projection mapping and digital fabrication. 

Project Team

Students
Jeremy Baker, Design
Thomas Heban, Landscape Architecture
Nikki Lemon, Design
Zach Maynard, Design
Ben Schroeder, CSE
Cheng Zhang, CSE/Design

Staff
Vita Berezina-Blackburn
Matt Lewis

Project Leaders and Directors
Lesley Ferris , Theatre
Mary Tarantino, Theatre
Jeanine Thompson, Theatre

Project Description

This three part interdisciplinary endeavor - performance, installation and international symposium explores interwoven threads of the Special Operations Executive (SOE): theatre artists employed to develop the art and science of camouflage and the role played by women agents in clandestine activity. This multi-media new work offers a fresh, compelling meaning to the expression 'theatre of war’ (excerpted from the Camouflage Project website).

ACCAD's two new areas of creative research in the Camouflage Project involved the exploration of 3d projection mapping and digital fabrication. Visual concept development for spaces that included 3D projection mapping had to take into account the challenges of projection mapping while still creatively transforming the space and immersing the actors into the world of the story in a way that sets and props cannot do on their own. Motion capture was utilized to create the performance of the monkey characters interacting with the props.

One of the challenges during the project was learning how to reliably project onto 3D geometry: modeling the location, orientation, and lens characteristics of a projector so that rendered scenes would match with the surfaces of real-world objects. Through a series of experiments, a process was developed that combined simple measurements of projected geometry with traditional checkerboard-based calibration techniques from computer vision. Mapping projected images onto complex surfaces required exact physical models of the 3D geometry to be fabricated.  The technology necessary to convert virtual objects into physical objects is becoming increasingly accessible. This project provided an opportunity to learn about these emerging affordable fabrication tools.

The project was in collaboration with OSU's Department of Theatre, with support from the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the College of the Arts and Humanities.

Completed in 2014.