# Projection mapping



## J-Man (Feb 1, 2011)

Look up spiney99 here on the forum. He's the resident guru on projection mapping. ?


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## spiney99 (Nov 1, 2010)

Wow, waking up to a compliment. Thanks J-Man!! 
You are wayyy too kind. 

Personally I use adobe products. 
Photoshop to create the overall façade on the house
After effects to make the changes etc.

I use a video editing software to slap it all together. I use Serif Movie plus X6 because I learned how to do mapping from a few posts by IcePick on this forum. Unfortunately, it is an old software no longer made and each new version of windows makes it harder to keep using. I will probably have to go with Adobe premiere very soon.

If interested, Here are the posts that got me started
Haunted Neurons mapped an old weathered façade on his house..This is truly what started my addiction. My first year was just an old brick façade with no animation and nothing in the windows..but each year I tried to get a little better.









Atmosphere Effects: - Projected facade of old weathered...


I tried my hand at video mapping to the front of my house this year. Turned it into an old weathered house as a backdrop to my graveyard. The actual projection picture is a captured video frame so doesn't look as good as it does in person. The first picture is the graphic I created in Photoshop...




www.halloweenforum.com





Here is the original tutorial from Icepick








Projection mapping tutorial


Hello everyone. I'll try to make this short, but also thorough. First a bit of backstory. I go to Disney world at least once a year, and while the singing busts in the haunted mansion are great, what really caught my eye was the complete transformation of the castle they do as a night show. I...




www.halloweenforum.com





There is also a guy doing some amazing stuff who is extremely friendly and talented. He goes by "Projectthishouse" he also has some youtube vids of his stuff. I believe he uses Adobe, but maybe he will see this and comment!
Thanks,
Rich


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## Ken F (Oct 20, 2011)

spiney99 that’s is so much for the info, I really appreciate you taking the time to add the added post! Thanks J-man for the connection . This is what this forum is all about !!!!!


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## spiney99 (Nov 1, 2010)

Glad to help!..Now if you go down the Adobe path, There are tons of videos online regarding tutorials.
I just found this video and it's in depth (maybe too much haha)


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## Ken F (Oct 20, 2011)

You’re the best ! I usually have about 12 projectors playing Atmosfx videos but I really want to bring it to a new level


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## spiney99 (Nov 1, 2010)

12??!? Wow! Do you have any vids on YouTube? I would love to see them in action! Do you have them synced at all? Are they all over the place? Indoors? Outdoors? Yes to both haha?
I ask because I am always interested to see what others do .. I still am learning and trying to figure out how to make outdoor storage and protection/ better ways to sync the videos etc etc.

I have 1 short throw that covers the house, 2 in different windows. Last year I added 1 to cover the garage doors to make the vids pop more . Then I have 1 other projector for the three singing pumpkins on the side yard..(No matter how hard I work, those guys always get the most attention)..
Here is my channel.








Savage Manor Projections







www.youtube.com


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## Adam Fertig (Sep 19, 2014)

What projectors are you using spiney? Curious as to costs involved.


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## spiney99 (Nov 1, 2010)

Hi, 
My Projector Line up: 
House facade BenQ mw824st 
Garage Doors BenQ mw824st (New this year - wanted the garage doors to "pop" more) 
Top window BenQ mw817st 
Bay window BenQ mw817st

All of these except the main house façade are overkill!!
I started with one unit and was the "coolest house on the street" . I grew the number of projectors because I wanted the window images to be brighter, the garage to pop more etc etc..
They are extra bright for their purpose, but I was able to get great deals over the years and honestly started to become addicted haha. 

I believe that Project this house uses 1 (BenQ819st) and he gets amazing results




 
Regarding cost : I am not sponsored by BenQ even though I wish I was. I live on EBay
I found one once for $300. I purchased one of the mw817st for even less, but then spent $80 on a new lamp. 

I have 4 searches for different models on ebay going all the time since another one at that price may not happen until Feb, etc.

I hope that this helps?

Good luck! Hope you find them!
Rich


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## Jack-o-Lantern King (Aug 3, 2012)

spiney99 said:


> Hi,
> My Projector Line up:
> House facade BenQ mw824st
> Garage Doors BenQ mw824st (New this year - wanted the garage doors to "pop" more)
> ...


Where are you located, if I may ask?


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## spiney99 (Nov 1, 2010)

Jack-o-Lantern King said:


> Where are you located, if I may ask?


I am in Southern NJ .

Just for "full disclosure"
My YouTube channel is higher up (#7 in the responses)

The Barn video with the pumpkins in the post you replied to is from "project this house ". I believe he is in California, but not sure. I wish he was closer haha


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## wackychimp (Jul 16, 2009)

How are you synching the projectors Spiney99? I have one but it only covers the house and not garage. I'd like to add another when I can but no idea on how to sync the feed.

Your videos look great! I need to check out your channel too.


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## spiney99 (Nov 1, 2010)

wackychimp said:


> How are you synching the projectors Spiney99? I have one but it only covers the house and not garage. I'd like to add another when I can but no idea on how to sync the feed.
> 
> Your videos look great! I need to check out your channel too.


Thanks very much! 

Syncing was the bane of my existence for the month of October last year haha: I had 4 projectors running a 5 min, 21second video.

Since all vids are same length (I learned one was a few fractions of a second off, but I will discuss that later), all I needed was to start them all the same time and loop them.

Here is what I ended up with. Not saying it is "THE WAY", but it is what I could get to work..There may be people out there that can do it with a raspberry pi, internal networking etc..

If anyone has a different way I would be glad to learn it! This is what I could get to work for me...

Each projector was connected to its own Android media player . The players are all connected to my house wifi system. The model player that I used is a MX9Pro. New egg actually had them at $39.99 (cheaper than what I paid, but look around for other options/devices)last year. *Any android player should work as long as you can add a google acct and download apps off of google play*.

I loaded each player with the same user id and google acct that I made up for this project. I went into the google play store and purchased an app called video kiosk ($15 for each license).
I had to work with the app developer, but ended up being able to get all four devices to trigger within a one second time span.

In other words, I stored the garage door video on one player, bedroom window video on another player, bay window vid on another player, house vid on another player etc...

The Video kiosk app works with Google Calendar to trigger each player to start their local video at a certain time (calendar appointment) and repeat the video until the event is over. This is why I used the same google account. One appointment triggered all 4 at once, and it also stopped them al at once..

For example : The app checked for an event on google calendar every second..
at the start of the event, the app triggered each player to play its video. 
It wasn't 100% exact based on internal clocking, speed of a 39.99 player etc, but the vids triggered just about the same time . sooo I was happy that they were all triggered within a fraction of a second.

Interesting side note...the video with David Pumpkins upstairs was a fraction off of the other vids. , soo after a night of looping you see the vid appears in the window before the house is actually faded in.. (me just being a detail freak).. not a huge deal, but a learning opportunity for me to check length next time.
Sorry for the ramble, I hope this helps!

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