Mapping Video To Surfaces with IR Mapio + Resolume
Our aims this week are to have each group using IR Mapio and the projectors to map their shapes onto objects. The groups who didn’t get to project last week, will start with the projectors first, and we’ll swap halfway. While not projecting, each group will need to go through the exercises listed below.
Our 6 projects so far, exploring projection with…
– Chairs and memory
– Language and translation
– Glasses as a projection surface
– Animating the inanimate
– Cube geometry
– Animating gears
Activating IR Mapio Within Resolume
To ensure IR Mapio is active within Resolume, follow this procedure:
– In Resolume, under the Avenue menu, click Preferences
– Select Video on the left hand side
– Click the + symbol (to add another location where Resolume will look for plugins)
– Add the IR Mapio location:
-> ‘Computer’ -> ‘Program Files (x86)’-> Double click ‘IR Workshop’ – then Press ‘OK’.
You should now see 2 directories listed under FFGL Plugins. Quit Resolume.
Restart Resolume, and IR Mapio should be available in the Effects tab on the far bottom right. Drag IR Mapio onto either a composition, a layer or a clip. This will generate a pop up window for adjusting surfaces. Test and analyse each of the IR Mapio buttons shown in the Resolume interface below.
Technical Exercises for Week 3
– Resolume
Explore the Resolume manual (also saved as a PDF in your applications folder).
Of particular interest: The overview, how to use effects, how to use Audio Analysis (for letting a sound input automate processes), how to use presets (especially useful for developing custom sequences), and how to use Keyboard Control to enable easy switching of parameters in real-time.
Resolume Tasks:
– Load up some of your own clips and images into separate layers in Resolume and experiment with blending modes and mixing between layers. Try using a top layer of a black and white image, set to the multiply blend mode.
– Try at least 3 different effects on one of your clips, and write down about how those effects could be used in a meaningful way for a project.
– Set key triggers for turning your effects on/off and for making your clips play forwards and backwards.
IR Mapio Tutorials and tips
– Select ‘output’ to adjust surfaces to suit your projection. Select ‘Input’ to adjust which part of the image you want to fit to that surface.
– Adjust corners or sides by clicking and dragging.
– When a corner or side is highlighted orange, you can drag and adjust it with the mouse – or move in small increments by pressing the arrow keys.
– When the centre icon is highlighted orange, dragging or arrow pressing will move the entire surface.
– If Output is selected, ‘Add Quad’ + ‘Add Triangle’ will give more surfaces to play with. The arrow icons at the bottom of editor window bring the layers above and below each other.
– To create a circular mask on a surface, select ‘Effect: Ellipse inv. mask’ and tick ‘enable’. Click once to provide the centre’s circle, a second time to provide the circle diameter, and move the mouse to adjust the perspective of the circle. Experiment with ‘image mask’ from the same menu.
IR Mapio tutorial (requires signing up to site (free)):
“From this video tutorial on popular IR Mapio plug-in for video mapping in Resolume Avenue, you’ll learn how to set up and customize projections for different surfaces, work with layers and make edge blending for super-wide images and multiple projectors.”
(Above tutorial via the Audiovisual Academy, which features a well of live / real-time video and audio tutorials about software and hardware.)
Another IR Mapio video tutorial (10 minutes).
12 minute demo of ‘IR Mapio non-linear geometry correction‘ (mapping onto a cylinder).
IR Mapio Task:
When not projecting, try using a background image within IR Mapio, to practice the above mapping techniques with.
Exporting a video clip?
Vimeo guide to compression. Although this guide is written to suit video exports for the web, rather than video for projection, it explains succinctly in one place, some of the key parameters to adjust when exporting a video.
For Resolume, it’s custom DXV codec gives very high quality images and files that work fast.
Try exporting a video file as DXV, from your video editing software of choice.
BONUS ROUNDS:
Lynda.com’s very good (and expensive) video tutorials… are available for free to students through the RMIT library website. Highly recommended and very relevant to this course – see their collections of tutorials for 3D + animation, editing, photoshop, etc and perhaps of special interest? Learning After Effects CS6 ( animation / visual effects / compositing ) chapters 1-4.
Friday Aug 3: Torsten Lauschmann’s At the heart of everything a row of holes
7PM, National Theatre, St.Kilda : A ‘surround-theatre’ show with portable projections, mechanical monkeys + magic pianos.