7 Projection Mapping Tips By Grande Experiences [Guest Post]

Projection mapping is an increasingly popular, zero-waste option for decorating your venue for a special event.

In our latest guest blog post, we ask Melbourne-based projection mapping company Grande Experiences for seven tips to do with immersive projection mapping.

Does the projection area have to be white? Does it change the colour of the projected image if the background is, say, dark blue?
Ideally, the surface has to be a light colour, preferably white, so that the colours and details of the projections can really pop. If it were to be dark blue for instance, you wouldn’t get the same level of vibrancy.

What does projection mapping offer corporate events they can't get elsewhere?
The ability to change the entire event space with the click of the button!

If you want your guests seated above the New York skyline or floating through the Milky Way Galaxy, projection mapping can create that illusion far more effectively than most traditional event decorations because we can make it completely immersive.

It’s also a completely unique experience for corporate guests, who have probably never attended an event in such a space before, so there’s a real ‘wow’ factor to it.

Tell us about some of the more unusual projection mapping jobs you've done.
Last year, we premiered our outdoor traveling experience Digital Nights in Wellington, New Zealand [second image pictured]. It was the first time we had done any sort of visitor experience outdoors projecting onto 54 shipping containers so there was a lot of testing and fine-tuning to ensure the projections worked as well outside as they did inside. The show was an absolute hit and we ended up selling out all tickets! 

Another one that comes to mind was when we displayed Van Gogh Alive in the deconsecrated church of Santo Stefano al Ponte in Florence, Italy [first image pictured] a few years back. Not being a traditional, four-walled venue, there were a few challenges the team had to work around but it was a truly magical experience.

Tell us about the eco-friendly side of projection mapping?
Projection mapping and video projection can instantly transform an entire room or venue without the use of disposable materials.

Using the right equipment, it can be an energy-efficient method of creating large-scale, truly fantastic visual experiences, with the additional environmental benefits of reducing the traditional waste of construction, painting, re-printing, and transporting 'one use' sets and banners.

How far away does your projection mapping unit need to be to cover a wall 4m high? A building 20m high? A city building a block wide? How many units do you need? 
The 'right equipment' and amount required for video projection mapping can vary greatly, depending on your usage scenario, such covering just a wall 4m high, a building 20m high, or an entire city-wide block. However, the goal is always to have a sharp, bright and vivid image that does the source material justice. Therefore, a basic rule of thumb is the bigger image, the more projectors you will need.

Is anything different required for a static image vs a moving video footage? 
Static images and moving images don’t require much differentiating in terms of equipment specification, however, they require vastly different preparation of the content and the site to make sure they all work seamlessly into a unified experience.

What are typical cost scenarios?
It ranges depending on a number of factors – how long the experience is in the city, how large the venue is, how many visitors are expected to attend etc. It’s different for every city.

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