In all events, the main concern is to leave the audience with the satisfaction of having attended. That is why it is important to consider during your planning, the elements that allow you to captivate the attention of all attendees during the whole time.
And for this, you can not set aside the benefits that technology puts at your fingertips, such as Video Mapping, which is increasingly used in all kinds of events, from weddings and birthdays to company presentations, game championships, conferences, and others.
But, what is Video Mapping and how does it work?
Also known as Audiovisual Mapping or Projection Mapping, Video Mapping is an audiovisual projection technique that allows you to make surprising and unique presentations, by producing in the audience an optical illusion or “magic” effect that can give life to inert objects or considerably improve their appearance.
Types of Video Mapping according to the latest trends
Urban Mapping: used in outdoor events such as fairs, historical events, or if you simply want to tell stories and interact with the city or community of your choice. For this, a building or wall is used as a screen for projection, in order to bring it to life or reflect dimensions of images with light and color.
Micro Mapping: as its name indicates, these are projections of small images that can be mixed and interact with the attendees. It is widely used by companies for advertising or marketing purposes; in presentations of new products, to engage customers, who are so impacted that they manage to make the company and its products viral, in different social networks.
Table Mapping: also generally used in corporate events, this technique is a fusion of art, technology, and gastronomy that allows animating dinners in a unique and special way, where we can combine exquisite food dishes with special effects that engage the public, transporting them to real or fictitious environments without the need to move from their tables.
As described above, this technique is widely used in restaurants, where the aim is not only to sell the dishes but also the customer service, so you should not neglect these aspects, because haute cuisine is essential in these events and you do not want customers to remember only the special effects.
Interactive Video Mapping: this new trend not only allows attendees to interact with the images but also allows the image to respond in real-time to a specific action of the person. The result is truly impressive. For this, Kinect System effects (video games) are merged with the animated images.
You should know that the Kinect has revolutionized artistic presentations, as a system that allows facial recognition, voice, or body in 3D, from an infrared camera, another RGB D type, depth sensors, a microphone, and a custom processor. It can thus recognize the silhouette of one or more people, their facial gestures, or the movements of their body joints. An example of an Interactive Mapping application with Kinect is in musical scenarios, where dancers can interact with the images to narrate a story.
7 Tips for using Video Mapping in your events
Choice of the space or surface on which it will be projected.
Because the technique seeks to project video and lights, it requires little or no lighting to ensure the maximum quality of the images.
Therefore, if you want to apply the technique in indoor surfaces, you must adapt all elements of the space to achieve a successful projection. But if you want the event to take place outdoors, you will need to carry it out at night, and also have total control of the lighting of the space or ask for the collaboration of neighbors, because the less artificial light interferes in the projection, the better results you will get.
On the other hand, you must consider the dimensions of the surface, according to the images you want to project, in addition to the color, texture and in general, all the irregularities that may affect its sharpness or quality.
The spaces that are frequently used for projection with Video Mapping are walls, ceilings, cars, tables and you can even do Video Mapping on humans (such as dance or theater shows) or other elements of nature.
Choice of projection equipment:
Without a projector there is no Video Mapping, so you need to have good video projection equipment.
The power of the projector is directly proportional to the surface you want to project on. For small projections such as a wall, a normal projector can work, but if you want to project something big you will need one or more special projectors.
It is best to use projectors with a minimum projection capacity of 90 lumens. However, this does not mean that projectors with lower resolution cannot be used, it all depends on the area and surface on which the image will be fixed.
The objective is clear, it is required great sharpness in the images (greater amount of light) to change or modify the surface on which it is projected and even give the feeling that there is no surface, but it is projected “in the air”.
In the market there is a wide variety of video projectors, especially for projection on outdoor surfaces, such as BenQ laser projectors, which feature high brightness BlueCore technology to project sharp images with a contrast of 100,000:1 and have dual color wheel (Color Wheel), producing a high range of bright colors.
Choice of Production Professionals:
To apply Video Mapping you need a team of experts in 2D and 3D image design, in addition to sound and lighting technicians, so that together, they coordinate the actions of applying special effects. Obviously, they will also require that you have or have specialized software for the design of images, audio and lighting equipment.
As for software, the basics are to start with a program that allows you to create lighting and motion effects, such as Adobe After Effects, and then others that allow you to make adjustments. These programs are also conditioned by the computer, which must also be powerful enough to support the effects you want to use, otherwise, it may not respond at some point in the design or projection.
Location of the audience or spectators:
It is very important to prepare all the logistics (furniture, chairs or other elements) where the attendees are going to be located, and make mappings or tests to focus the projections according to the angle of the audience. Although there are also video projectors that allow you to rotate the angle or adapt your presentation according to environmental conditions.
Budget:
It goes hand in hand with all the previous aspects since your budget depends on the ability to hire good professionals or use special video projection, audio or lighting equipment.
But you can also use special equipment and reduce the size of the image projection to reduce the cost. For example, you can project small images that interact with the guests during the event. This allows you to capture their attention all the time.
Time to plan:
Planning a common event requires time and when you want to include Video Mapping as a resource, you must consider that the design of the projection is a whole work of art that requires at least 3 months to take care of every detail of the aspects described above without exceeding the budget and most importantly, without falling into improvisations that can damage the effort, time and money spent.
The message or narrative:
As we had already mentioned, creativity is fundamental. It is useless to have all the above elements if the message you want to leave in the audience is not well transmitted, so it is important that you indicate to the technicians or professionals every detail you consider necessary according to the story you want to tell in the projection.