Projecting Shadows (1/2)

A technical explanation of a project I'm cooking up, in all it's unabashed geek glory! (flame my geekdom all you want, YT viewers... unabashed, ya hear me??)

To make the illusion really work, don't focus on the shadow - focus on the hypothetical body that would cast that shadow.

Check out the accompanying video (video 2/2) at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxiB7uNxztc

Also, check out the (unabashedly geeky) blog at:

http://www.phedhex.com/blog

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• shadow
• theater
• new
• media
• projection
• projector
• virtual
• theatre
• theatrical

[gabrielnaylor]

The solution to the shadow artifacts would be to do some roto paint on the image to clear off some of the debris. You might also try a difference matte... and, you could shoot the person on a green screen. One thing to note about your projector setup is that you'd need to correct the video keystone distortion. That can be done from within some projector's menus, or you an do that to the footage to correct for the pitch.

[phedhex]

Cool. Thanks for the roto advice - that seems to make sense. Yeah, we tried a greenscreen but it doesn't look like we have a budget to do it properly (with correct lighting and enough material to cover an entire stage).

About the keystone - If the camera and the projector are in the exact same location and orientation, all camera distortions and projector distortions undo one another.

[gabrielnaylor]

Yes and no. the camera will never be in the same position as the projector, but it is true that it may be close enough. Great concept ether way :)

[QuicksiIver23]

Very informative... cool effect.