Sean Cagney of Mode Studios will be presenting several sessions during LDI at the Projection Master Classes (PMC), including Playback Options, as well as Screen Blending, Scenic Mapping, and Image Warping, both in conjunction with designer and PMC creative consultant Bob Bonniol.
Playback Options will be presented on Wednesday, October 22. This session explores the latest options for media playback and control, from the d3 system from UnitedVisualArtists to DIY systems that clever designers are making on their own, using coding environments like Cycling 74’s Max/MSP/Jitter and Isadora. “Don’t spec things you or your people don’t know how to use,” says Cagney of this session. “The cool new thing probably has a lot of cool new bugs that go with it. If you don’t know how any of your gear functions, you’re just going to annoy the people who do, and you can’t really speak about what your department can deliver to further up the food chain, so you’re toast. Or you are getting lucky over and over again.”
For Screen Blending, Scenic Mapping, and Image Warping, on Thursday, October 23, Cagney participates in a presentation about screen blending, scenic mapping, and image warping, with the objective being to “know how to build it and make it perfect, know how to fake it quickly, know the workflows of both, how that relates to what you’re playing back out of, what you can do before you get there, and what do you have to do in situ, and be ready to do it to either extreme once you’re there,” says Cagney.
“The first warped blend show I did, I spent a few hours focusing it, but the projectors I had were a little fuzzy, and the ending content was really forgiving anyway, so I went with it,” he continues. “The second, I had my content before I got there, load in took awhile, and I twisted the warps together kind of quickly, the big chunks in the middle. I did a bang up job, but the outer edges were being a pain in the ass, so I got high reviews from the video engineer when he heard me say, ‘Screw it. I just won’t put anything that critical in those parts,’ and we moved on to the other side of the space. He never heard a designer say that before.”
Regarding scenic mapping, he adds, “Remember what is and what isn’t scenery—biggest mistake is to try and map text all over scenery. Not that there isn’t an application where you want to read it all, but in general, remember you’re making scenery, not subtitles, for the show.”
At these sessions, Cagney will present examples of how to achieve some technical wonders rather easily, including routing Photoshop through servers, so it can keystone a linear working space, as well as a PTZ camera feed you can move around.
For additional information and to register, click here.