ST. LOUIS – Experiential marketing agency Switch: Liberate Your Brand produced the stage show and video segments Jan. 21 for the St. Louis Arts Awards. The event at the Chase Park Plaza also honored local native musician Chuck Berry with a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award. To set the scene, Switched used pixel mapping with Barco FLM-HD20 projectors to project 3-D animation effects. The project took two weeks from conception to completion.
More details from Switch: Liberate Your Brand:
ST. LOUIS – Experiential marketing agency Switch: Liberate Your Brand produced the stage show and video segments for the St. Louis Arts Awards sponsored by the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis. The event, which also commemorated the organization’s 50th anniversary, was held on Jan. 21 at the Chase Park Plaza. St. Louis native musician Chuck Berry was honored with a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award at the event, along with other local businesses and residents promoting the arts in the city.
Switch used pixel mapping to produce the event’s video segments. With pixel mapping, a photograph or video of an object is taken, then using video design software, an artist creates a digital map “pixel by pixel” of the object. Switch used the technique on a still photograph of the organization’s Centene Center for the Arts, creating a digital pixel map identical to the architectural details of the building.
Using the animation software, Switch could manipulate the building in any imaginable series of lighting and animation effects. The effect used at the Arts Awards required an extra step, however. Frequently the completed video art program is presented on the outside of a structure or building. In this case, as the event was held indoors, Switch used the same artwork to create a digital and pixel accurate 3-D model – or masque – of the building. Using Barco FLM-HD20 video projectors, the video artwork was projected onto the masque of the building to create the animation effects.
No media servers were needed – the project used the advanced warping features within the Barco projectors. The media was played back using Mac towers with DT Video Labs Playback Pro software. All of the true 3-D animation was created in Autodesk Maya with filler done in Adobe After Effects.
The project was a team effort put together in rapid fashion, taking two weeks from concept to completion. The key designer for the mapping portion was Jeremey Lueders from Switch Digital Media Group. Scott De Broux created the scenic units in the Switch Fabrication Studio with help from IATSE Local 6.
View the opening video Switch created:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2lZPZJtUmM&list=UUMqEJflHS73HobojR1uLKjw&index=1
