r/woahdude • u/rampawl • Oct 09 '25
video projection mapping
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Oct 09 '25
How many projectors would this need to get er done?
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u/MADBARZ Oct 09 '25
Just 1. Not sure what program you’d use for animation, but skewing images on a big enough “canvas” would be doable on freeware like gimp.
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u/Disastrous-Treat-181 Oct 09 '25
Madmapper (not freeware) is a dedicated software for this kind of projection, I have colleagues that love playing with this stuff
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u/FBuellerGalleryScene Oct 09 '25
Also resolume, not freeware but a full version is more easily found than madmapper.
I have both, because madmapper is really good for generating line traces
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Oct 09 '25
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u/Next_Instruction_528 Oct 09 '25
Only for the little fire guy to actually look like he is inside the box right? The rest would all look the same from any angle
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u/Honda_TypeR Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
You can see from the shadow on the wall they are only using one.
Professional projection mapping events though do indeed use multiple cameras (especially since they’re done typically on the sides of large wide buildings). At that point the field of view of the projection is limited and you need more than one to blanket the entire surface. The projection mapping softwares account for how many output projectors you have too - it’s a typical requirement.
Btw you can buy software for Halloween and Christmas 3D Projection mapping displays for your house. Most people can get away with just 1 or 2 projectors in their yard. The projectors are the only expensive part to do this project and even those are doable on a budget.
BenQ TH671ST is one commonly used for house mapping (which is under a grand) it’s popular because it’s cheap, bright and short throw (so you can mount it in a box in your yard)
Alternatively you can get a BenQ TK700STi (4k version of the above) damn good bang for buck for around 1500. Only get something like this if your house is large and you need more resolution to keep the graphics looking sharp.
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u/O1_O1 Oct 09 '25
For this specifically, 1. The bigger the surface you want to project, the more you need, but that also depends on the distance from the projector to the surface and the projector's ANSI Lummens.
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u/Diz7 Oct 09 '25
Probably at least two for simple shapes like this. Maybe 3 for even lighting.
You could get away with one if it was for a simple shot where the camera doesn't move.
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u/HotepYoda Oct 09 '25
Besides my mind getting effed, can someone explain what is happening?
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u/MoistStub Oct 09 '25
Picture go on box
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u/WhyAreYouAllHere Oct 09 '25
Box real3dCouldTouchActual?
Or box TupacHolo?
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u/Sqweaky_Clean Oct 10 '25
Real 3d box, projector casts light fitted precisely to area size.
See exampleof a cathedral lit up: https://youtube.com/shorts/OQXS-KIWqTw?si=SilJRZXeHeC8kxBw
See example of Artist Amon Tobin concert: https://youtu.be/z3ZmRoopX0s?si=WjJTJM1uxTCCS32W
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u/chodeboi Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
Take a projector and point it at the wall, whatever you look at on a screen is now being projected out of the projector all at once. One digital screen, one surface. Now, introduce lots of walls (books, boxes, whatever) at any non perpendicular angles and you’ll see skew. To account for this, we want to break up our flat projection into lots of different areas that will match the skew introduced by its placement relative to the projector. Only by software is this next part made possible! We imagine the original projection as a flat space in a 3d environment. We use software to drop
into the 3d space and use visual cues to align the grids to the surfaces IRL to counter the skew we talked about earlier. These grids in the digital space give us a topography we now apply to whatever image we throw at it, taking the nice image and morphing some areas into nonsense so that when it’s projected and the light lands on the weird angle, you nevertheless get the effect that it’s all lined up correctly. This can be animated at will, although in highly skewed areas you’ll resolution stretching and therefore resolution loss. You can map 1 image against the entire topography, or can (as you see here) assign animation to each polygon or shape or sector individually to really cool effect. polygons This is all positing, I’d love to hear how this particular artist pulled it off.
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u/DangKilla Oct 09 '25
TL;DR the dude mapped the light projection video to the shape of some stuff
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u/Pan_TheCake_Man Oct 09 '25
Idk why people gotta act like it’s more complicated than that.
He had a projector and used software to make the video mapped to just the surfaces
It’s cool but it’s not fucking rocket science
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u/bent_crater Oct 09 '25
its weird i figured out the general idea from watching the video but i could never articulate that so well.
am i correct that at the end it still the same flat image, just that its broken up in so parts that look 3d?
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u/blake_ch Oct 09 '25
Correct. You can easily spot this at the end when the cube is viewed from the face, and the little character is cropped on the left.
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u/rickynoss Oct 09 '25
articulate AF. thank you for the experience of reading that. wish I could get my thoughts out that well.
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u/SailorsGraves Oct 09 '25
Was convinced this was going to end with Mankind being thrown off the Hell in a Cell by the Undertaker
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u/KinkyStinkyPink- Oct 09 '25
Can this be done with any projector + software or is this a projector with special features to make it work like that?
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u/account312 Oct 09 '25
A projector will typically have hardware for adjusting the entire image at once for the screen being out of alignment or off center, but not for something like this. This is all done in software. It comes down to identifying which part of the projected image is hitting which surface and how that surface is angled with respect to the projector so that you can apply the right perspective projection to that part of the image to account for the fact that that piece of the screen is not perpendicular to the projector.
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u/Dramatic-Shock4843 Oct 09 '25
Likely using a program called mad mapper. I actually got to use this program for a job a couple years back. It’s basically magic. You use a projector to map out shapes/surfaces and project images/video onto them. Whenever you see the crazy 3d videos done on the side of buildings it’s the exact same thing just on a much larger scale
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u/smelvin0 Oct 09 '25
Well there’s many softwares for it! Touchdesigner worth a shoutout
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u/Aware-Negotiation283 Oct 09 '25
I've had touchdesigner for two years or so.
I still don't know how to use it.
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u/twoworldman Oct 09 '25
Are any of the software free? Also, in the video, is there only one overhead projector used?
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u/loliconest Oct 09 '25
It's just math.
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u/sonic_couth Oct 09 '25
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” - Abraham Lincoln
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u/DoctaTobogganMD Oct 09 '25
Projector emits light that covers entire desired area. Surfaces are manipulated within software to generate screen slices within the one video output. Files are then played and assigned to those screen slices via layers, think of something much like after effects or any other traditional video editor. In this instance, the content was planned ahead to match the perspective which makes it look neat.
For those asking, two software that are used regularly in actual concerts and live events are Resolume and Millumin. They’re in the £200-400 range for a license. Resolume is used by many, many artist tech teams for shows.
Worth noting these programs are free to download and either have watermarks on the output or full trials that then convert to watermarked outputs. There’s also tons of free tutorials and videos about them everywhere.
Resolume is available for PC and Mac and Millumin is Mac only.
There’s many options for software that does this but it can get quite pricey and the integrations and possibilities are nearly endless.
Example: the same high end hardware/software that I’ve described as pricey, is used to control and manipulate things further with integrations with Unreal Engine to make extended reality sets for shows like Fallout, Mandalorian, etc.
Source: I do this for a living.
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u/Crazy_old_maurice_17 Oct 09 '25
If you don't mind me asking, how did you start out doing this?
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u/lawn__ Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
Not OP, but I got into it through a friend’s band. Initially I made a series of clips that matched their music using footage I filmed and edited in Premiere Pro then just did simple playback and triggering clips using VLC (with all the interface elements disabled to not break immersion). At this point there was no projection mapping at all, just a projector and a big rectangle, which as you can imagine was very limited and had no real time effects or transitions. Then I got given a license for Resolume Arena which opened up the door to so many possibilities. Using my own footage and royalty free content I was able to create more immersive shows because I could live mix channels and effects. I started doing more visuals for other bands and eventually my own bands. This then lead me to doing visuals at local festivals and clubs through just word of mouth, which got me into learning about lightning and networks. Then I started using it to make visuals for art installations (both my own and collabs).
The mapping is the easiest part. Setting up your effects and channels can get complex but still pretty basic. If you end up doing live stuff, you’ll likely want to get a MIDI controller to make triggering and mixing easier, the Akai APC40 MK1 or 2 is great but there are plenty of others.
The biggest challenge is creating the content you want to output on the screen. Unless you’re willing to learn how to make content using tools like Cinema4D, Blender, Unreal, Unity etc. your best bet is to source pre-made content when you start off. Otherwise you run the risk of being overwhelmed and giving up before you start. You can do a fuck tonne of interesting stuff in projection mapping software with just masks/static vectors, and simple animations. Then if you’re still keen after mastering the mapping side of things, try your hand at modelling, animation, and simulation tools.
The main tools used in the arts/music space tend to be Mad Mapper, Resolume, and Touch Designer. There are open source options out there but I’ve never tried them. Try one of the aforementioned, they all have free trials/watermark versions for learning and testing.
Source: used to do this for a living
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u/HistoricalPlum1533 Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
It kinda seems like they’re trying to say their AR program is able to create and render 3d models.
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u/FBuellerGalleryScene Oct 09 '25
It's not an AR program, and isn't rendered 3d. It's a flat video that has different parts of it skewed so they can appear flat on 3d cubes, making the video look 3d
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u/Next_Instruction_528 Oct 09 '25
Nope because the object actually has to exist in the real world to project on. This is a way of projecting onto multiple surfaces without distortion.
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u/Lavender215 Oct 09 '25
I genuinely don’t mean this to sound rude but are you familiar with the concept of a projector? It’s just a projector that has its picture warped in such a way that it matches the angle and dimensions of the “screen” or in this case night stand.
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u/Cualkiera67 Oct 09 '25
Are there 4 or more projectors pointing from different sides to light each side of the squares? Why isn't the person blocking the light coming from the left? Where is the projector lighting the to of the bottom square? Is it embedded in the top square?
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u/lawn__ Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
It’s a single projector connected to a computer running projection mapping software (likely Mad Mapper, Resolume, or Touch Designer). They’ve just put it at a good angle.
Each individual section of a real world object can be mapped out using masks and transform controls to scale, rotate, and move in three dimensions. Once mapped, you can send video content to whichever slice you want. It can be a single continuous clip or many individual ones, all depends on what you want to achieve visually and the way you’ve prepared the source video.
Source: used to do this professionally
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u/JoeHooversWhiteness Oct 09 '25
Projectors networked together. You map each projector out on surfaces it touches. I hope it goes away, it’s a lot of work for meh. Marketing events love it.
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u/hustle_magic Oct 09 '25
I think he’s mapping 2D images on 3D objects by projecting it on the surface of the objects
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u/Ok-Secretary2017 Oct 09 '25
He has a beamer somehwere adjusts a grid and uses a camera to detect the grid then like a greenscreen he overlays textures
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u/Sea-Bass8705 Oct 10 '25
Best guess is that there’s physical boxes and it’s just a projection lined up well
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u/Fr31l0ck Oct 09 '25
Projection mapping. He's got multiple protectors pointed on those objects from different angles. They have software that has been configured with the object's physical layout and the position of the projectors. The software then takes the video they want and pre-warps it so that when it lands on the surface it appears correct.
It's really cool stuff and this kid doing it in his bedroom is a prodigy.
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u/stickyicarus Oct 09 '25
If i had that in front of me while on shrooms, I'd have an existential crisis.
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u/xkris10ski Oct 09 '25
If you have the opportunity, check out Meow Wolf in Vegas. They have a whole two-story “cave” with projection mapping on all walls/ceilings. I haven’t been since it opened so I’m not sure what the images are now, but it’s insaaane. Def bring the shrooms.
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u/InterestingDamage621 Oct 09 '25
Man, check out Meow Wolf anywhere if you have an opportunity. Mind-blowing!
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u/nevaehenimatek Oct 09 '25
I'm from Aus and travelled to the Santa Fe one 5 years ago. Literally the only reason we went but had a blast in the town too. Tool acid and spent the day playing like children.
A few years later we did the same in Colorado and equally magical
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u/NimbleHoof Oct 10 '25
Went to Omega Mart on shrooms. Best experience of my life. Not gonna lie. The staff figured it out after we were there for multiple hours and started having really weird nonsensical conversations near us to freak us out. Absolute blast. Just please if you're going to do that remember that it's still a family place so be respectful and not overly rambunctious and you'll have a great time.
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u/B-Kong Oct 09 '25
https://youtu.be/HB8QaBtlKUw?si=j5gcnlW5ML4z1V4g
This is the same concept just bigger and better. And I was on mushrooms for this. It was incredible lol.
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u/ScrotalFailure Oct 09 '25
Clicked this expecting my favourite musician, Amon Tobin. Turns out it was my 3rd favourite musician, Tipper. Very pleasantly surprised.
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u/ElusiveWooD Oct 09 '25 edited 18d ago
The ISAM live set seemed revolutionary to me, never seen or paid attention to projection mapping before this.
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u/smiley-communication Oct 09 '25
Aah the smell of deems and dreams. Nothing like a face melting tipper show
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u/UnPuntal Oct 09 '25
> Anything out of the ordinary on the internet: *exists*
> The junkie: "I love doing hallucinogenics I'm so cool!"
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u/NimbleHoof Oct 10 '25
Bruh if you actually think people who do psychedelics are "junkies" you gotta go outside more. Or at least meet some real junkies. Lmfao
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u/UnPuntal Oct 10 '25
Ok what would you call them? I just need a name for the attention starved individuals that absolutely need to make sure everyone knows they get high on stuff.
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u/titdirt Oct 09 '25
This is amazing! I just did a deep dive on projection mapping because of this post, and the way it works is pretty cool. It's the same process they use to make those
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u/Nak4000 Oct 09 '25
Did you find a program that is free?
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u/FBuellerGalleryScene Oct 09 '25
Resolume crack exists, but you can also just download it and try it out for free (the logo pops up every few minutes)
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u/PunchedLasagne87 Oct 09 '25
You could do it on resolume arena on the trial version, it will just throw up a watermark every 30sec or so.
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u/Alternative-Buy-9602 Oct 17 '25
Find a free mapping software, outline your objects or room, plug into Veo (you can use a free trial to generate a few videos a day), then open up full screen to watch the magic.
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u/O1_O1 Oct 09 '25
If you didn't know, projection mapping is relatively easy to pull off and pays very well. Look up programs like madmapper or resolume arena.
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u/member_one Oct 09 '25
Pays how well?
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u/O1_O1 Oct 09 '25
Depends on the complexity. We are currently working with a 27 year old that will do some relatively basic stuff and he's charging us around 1500-2000 US dollars simply because it's like 8 different surfaces. The most complex one being projecting on the roof of a very large tent to make the illusion of a sky.
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u/malkuth23 Oct 09 '25
I charge $1200-$1500 a day for media server programming. Resolume programmers often get less because the vj world drags down the value (no judgement). It is very much a who-you-know industry though while also being a what-you-know thing. As in, you definitely need to know what you are doing, but that still wont get you a gig unless you know someone or are very persistent.
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Oct 09 '25
Doot. For checking later 😊
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u/B-Kong Oct 09 '25
https://youtu.be/HB8QaBtlKUw?si=j5gcnlW5ML4z1V4g
The Orion Ampitheater in Huntsville, Alabama has the ability to do this built into it already. Here is a video of what one of my favorite edm acts there a few weekends ago. He’s known for pairing with some of the best visual artists in the game. They do all of this live. It’s absolutely incredible.
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u/basicseamstress Oct 09 '25
day 3 with Jonathon Singer, making the waves of light shine over the windows tickled my brain
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u/B-Kong Oct 09 '25
Yeah I was on the left side all weekend so the windows were my favorite part. We got a good view of em lol
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u/B-Kong Oct 09 '25
Fuck yeah haha. I’m super bummed I never made it to Suwannee for a TnF. Only one I ever went to was Orion this year.
Still was easily the greatest live music experience I’ve ever had.
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u/LuigiMPLS Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
Is this a version of RNG by J1mmy?
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u/Merry_Dankmas Oct 09 '25
Goddamn, I would have never in a million years expected this video and J1mmy of all people to be related lol
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u/The_Celtic_Chemist Oct 09 '25
I can't believe I saw this when it debuted on reddit 12 years ago and it still hasn't been implemented. I was sure it would be the next big thing and still feel like it could be.
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u/_dontseeme Oct 09 '25
This does look super cool but I can’t imagine enough developers getting on board to do what looks like a lot of custom work for such a niche device
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u/NimbleHoof Oct 10 '25
As far as I know a third party program could do this without having the developer do anything. But I don't know everything
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u/erdbeertee Oct 09 '25
That's the first time I've seen or heard it, awesome concept! I knew about Ambilight but this is much better.
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u/b_e_a_n_i_e Oct 09 '25
First thing I thought of as well. Was such an exciting concept and would've been game-changing
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u/Dry_Jellyfish641 Oct 09 '25
I have friends who make a lot of money doing this for concerts and art installations. If this guy builds a reputation doing this he can have a very lucrative career
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u/MrdnBrd19 Oct 09 '25
Anyone remember when Microsoft patented that AR projection tech that used the Kinect to map your room? Nintendo filed a patent on it too back when the Switch was still called the NX.
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Oct 09 '25
Back in the day we’d just drop a tab of acid.
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u/FBuellerGalleryScene Oct 09 '25
That's what got me started projection mapping. It was an attempt to recreate what I saw when I closed my eyes on 3 tabs at psytrance rave.
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u/immeyournotaswell Oct 09 '25
This just looks like the local Chili’s on Thursday ( I’m a drug addict)
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u/InsidiousOperator Oct 09 '25
These techniques have fantastic applications honestly. I oversaw the production of several mapping for a permanent exhibition with the Roman world as its focus, being its curator and general production overseer. We applied it to several epigraphic inscriptions, to highlight the Latin text, expand on all the abbreviated words and expressions, translate it to several languages and then show a scene representing the content of the inscription.
We also used it to light up a sarcophagus depicting the myth of the Kidnapping of Proserpina, explaining every scene of the frontal reliefs and applied a possible hypothesis on how it could look colorized, as it would have been originally.
It's a really good way to blend technology and cultural heritage imo.
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u/Dylz52 Oct 09 '25
So the little dude that appears to be inside the big box at the bottom only looks right from that specific camera angle yeah? It would look messed up from any other location
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u/drunkymonky Oct 09 '25
I love this kinda stuff. Anyone interested in projection mapping should check out Tipper at the Orion Ampitheater on YouTube.
Here's one example with The Void and Synesthesia
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u/Sliquid69 Oct 09 '25
Tipper at Orion amphitheater is the best example I’ve ever seen out in the wild. Also at camp bisco 2019 he projection mapped the inside of the tent for visuals just too nuts
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u/Dick_Meister_General Oct 09 '25
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