Battlestation

Streamer Setup

We created a custom streaming backdrop using using an LF2 controlled by an Elgato Stream Deck. Now you can add events and reactions to your physical space, not just screen overlays, and add virtual characters to your backdrops.

 
 

Difficulty
Medium

Projector
LF2

Software
Lightform Creator, OSC

Hardware
LF2, Elgato Stream Deck

Renegade Projected Public Art with Hybycozo

Renegade projected AR

We took Lightform’s renegade projection bike out for a spin to augment a HYBYCOZO sculpture at Patricia’s Green Park in San Francisco.

One of our favorite things to do at Lightform is to take our renegade projection bike out for a ride and create projected AR public art. We love the idea of rolling up to a sculpture, a mural, or park and temporarily transforming a public space into something new and magical.

Lightform Renegade Projector Bike

Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu, the artists who created the HYBYCOZO series, were hosting a party to celebrate the end of the sculpture’s exhibit in the public park. Serge and Yelena’s work is inspired by the intersection of math, science, technology, geometry, material, and light. A driving force behind their work is the desire to inspire others to make more public art.

“That’s the hope that we have for creating public art, to inspire people do the same, to do whatever their art is.”
-Yelena Filipchu

We hope Lightform inspires people to create more augmented reality public art!

The Process

The Lightform workflow makes renegade projection easier than it’s ever been. You can roll up to any scene, scan it, and instantly start augmenting the scene with digital content.

We’re working on a ‘How to Build a Renegade Projection Bike’ tutorial (subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when we post it). But, you don’t need a projection bike to make public AR art. Power your projector using a generator or portable battery (like this Goal Zero Yeti 1400 Lithium Portable Power Station).

Lightform Renegade Projector Bike

We chose the Epson PowerLite PRO G7905U for our project but you could also use a projector like the Epson HC1450. Mount the projector on a bike, tripod or c-stand.

Renegade Projected Public Art with HYBYCOZO and Lightform

Lightform scans the scene and gives you a Smart Scan – a pixel by pixel map of what the projector sees.

Lightform Creator

Then, you’re ready to to start creating!

Lightform Creator

Difficulty
Hard

Projector
Epson PowerLite PRO G7905U or Epson HC1450

Software
Adobe After Effects

Hardware
LF1, (LFC Compatible)

Creators
Phil Reyneri, Ray Chang, Yelena Filipchuk, Serge Beaulieu

Lightform HQ

Lightform teamed up with Gemma O’Brien and Craig Winslow to create a projected AR mural for Lightform HQ. By combining pixels and paint, we created a whole new kind of experiential art with projected AR. (@mrseaves101) Gemma O’Brien is an illustrator, artist, and typographer who is well known for her large-scale, hand-painted murals. 

We’re big fans of their work and we wanted to get their feedback on Lightform. We also just wanted a really cool mural for our office.

Craig Winslow (@craigwinslow) is an experiential designer and projection mapping pro. His past projects involve bringing faded city signage and broken neon lights back to life using projection.

Opening Up a New Medium

We created Lightform in order to enable more artists and designers to use the projected AR medium. Lightform allows artists like Gemma to add moving visuals to their work without needing motion graphic skills and allows artists like Craig to spend more time creating and less time mapping.  

Difficulty
Medium

Hardware
Epson L1500U or Epson G7500U
LF1, (LFC Compatible)

Software
Lightform Creator, Adobe After Effects

Creators
Gemma O’Brien, Craig Winslow, Ray Chang

Pachamama by Gabriel Schama

Create AR(t) with Lightform

Gabriel Schama is an Oakland, California based artist who makes intricate sculptures by layering laser-cut wooden panels. We partnered Gabriel with one of Lightform’s motion designers, Ray Chang, to add equally intricate projected AR designs to one of Gabriel’s latest pieces titled Pachamama. Lightform makes it easy to augment physical artworks like reliefs, sculptures, and paintings and with digital, AR content.

For this collaboration, Ray used Lightform’s After Effects plugin to stream a live preview of his animations to the LFC. This allowed Ray to see a real world preview of his After Effects composition projected on the sculpture as he was animating it. Live streaming from After Effects lets you see what your content looks like in the real world, allowing you to see how light reacts to objects in your scene as your are creating. Read more about how to use After Effects with Lightform creator on our guide here.

Lightform’s Smart Scan served as the background template which allowed Ray to easily author content, instead of having to animate on a black screen or manually warp a photo he took on another device.

 

Difficulty
Hard

Projector
Viewsonic Pro8520HD

Software
Lightform Creator, After Effects

Hardware
LF2, LFC