An "imaginarium" refers to a place devoted to the imagination. There are various types of imaginaria, centers largely devoted to stimulating and cultivating the imagination, towards scientific, artistic, commercial, recreational, or spiritual ends.
Charitha's Imaginarium
This was a visual installation done incorporating LED wall design and projection mapping. The production was a segment of a narrative music video titled “Sakura Malé” (Sakura Flower) composed by Charitha Attalage.
The back story is, Charitha has been composing a musical score for a movie titled “Sakura”, where him and the film director are involved in a perilous love triangle with the lead actress.
The intended effect was to depict the room the composer produces his music in. We depicted the room as a space that blurs the lines of physical and imaginary. The room was constructed to draw inspiration from the film however, it is affected and altered by the memories wedged deep inside the composer’s mind.
Set design
There was no post production planned for this segment. Hence, all content had to avaible for the camera to capture.
We utlised LED panels to be depicted as floating canvases. The piano where Charitha will be playing was a white baby grand which was projection mapped.
LED walls as a light source
Two profile spots with a 45-degree beam angles place opposite to each other, lit up the artist. Four colour washes were timecode synced to provide colour and depth on the piano and artist.
LED panels were used as an additional ambient(fill) light source. The content was specifically designed to provide light and colour the scene whilst expressing the storyline. As production timelines were limited, real-time simulations were used at each stage; to understand the effect of light and content on the physical objects and space.
Real-time Pre Visualising
The 3D environment was re-built inside TouchDesigener to visualise content on LED walls and the projection mapping on the piano. This enabled us to plot the camera positions and tweak content for the point of view of the camera.
Instancing and Displacement
Fragmented memories converging was the underlying theme with this effect. TouchDesigner’s powerful instancing capabilities were used to create photo explosion effect.
Content Summery - Floating Canvas
The start of the content was designed to appear as if projected using a cinema reel projector. From this the attempt was to slowly transition the content into fragmented memories of the composer.
Most of the content was generated and composed inside TouchDesigner. A few 3D elements were build it cinema 4D. After Effects and Photoshop was used produce minimal motion content.
Content Summery - Projection Mapping on Piano
All content for projection mapping was developed inside TouchDesigner. The generative and real-time nature of the content enabled us to apply tweaks and adjustments on site.
Making of Sakura
