Hi all,
I know this is somewhat similar to other threads. I've looked through every one I can find already and haven't found quite a solution that will work for me.
The director for a show opening in May asked me to start researching to figure out how to achieve an effect and I'm interested in any suggestions you all have. (I'm a lighting designer and this is projection, so it's a little foreign to me.)
The director wants to have a (roughly) 25'X12' projection of several different sunsets on the ocean. Each scene takes place on a different day, including a sunset (and one sunrise). The show takes place in Florida, and as much as I would like to fly out there and film a bunch of sunsets to get what we want, I don't think that's in our budget.
Our Equipment:
I'm new to this position, so I'm finding new things every day. I know I have a few different PCs, all running Windows XP, and a couple seem to have a decent speed. Unfortunately, none of them have more that one monitor output.
One EX320U-ST projector.
My dilemmas:
1) I need to find a way to project across such a wide space. My thoughts from other threads is to use two EX320U-ST projectors, largely because of their wide angle lenses (and we already own one), which will be split by DualHead2Go coming out of our computer's VGA output. This should work for the space we have in the theatre. The difficulty is running some sort of video control software- I only have one VGA output on most of the computers. The one that has more is an S-Video and RCA video. So theoretically I could use the VGA out to the DH2G and the RCA into a monitor of some sort.
2) I need to blend the images so that I don't have a hard edge in the projection. I downloaded both VPT and Isadora (the demo) and played around some, but without having the DH2G, it's hard to get an idea of what it would end up being. I also need to be able to run the show, and I'm not too clear about how that would be done with VPT or Isadora yet. I probably need to look into it more in those programs.
3) I need to (hopefully) take an image of the ocean, lay an effect over the water to give it a shimmering quality, some color gradients and things like that to create a sunset, and some cloud layers. This isn't something I've done before nor am entirely sure how to do (I guess I don't even know if it's plausible). Would it be possible to do something like this in the same software that would give me an edge blend?
4) And finally, we are a little theatre. If I could do all this for free, that'd be great. I know it's not possible. But finding the most cost effective solution is the best.
I'm hoping that you all can give me a bit of advice on one, two, or all of these aspects. I know I'm asking a lot, but I want to make this the best possible, so literally any advice or thoughts would be great- I've got some time before I have to have it all figured out.
Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to your thoughts and suggestions!
I know this is somewhat similar to other threads. I've looked through every one I can find already and haven't found quite a solution that will work for me.
The director for a show opening in May asked me to start researching to figure out how to achieve an effect and I'm interested in any suggestions you all have. (I'm a lighting designer and this is projection, so it's a little foreign to me.)
The director wants to have a (roughly) 25'X12' projection of several different sunsets on the ocean. Each scene takes place on a different day, including a sunset (and one sunrise). The show takes place in Florida, and as much as I would like to fly out there and film a bunch of sunsets to get what we want, I don't think that's in our budget.
Our Equipment:
I'm new to this position, so I'm finding new things every day. I know I have a few different PCs, all running Windows XP, and a couple seem to have a decent speed. Unfortunately, none of them have more that one monitor output.
One EX320U-ST projector.
My dilemmas:
1) I need to find a way to project across such a wide space. My thoughts from other threads is to use two EX320U-ST projectors, largely because of their wide angle lenses (and we already own one), which will be split by DualHead2Go coming out of our computer's VGA output. This should work for the space we have in the theatre. The difficulty is running some sort of video control software- I only have one VGA output on most of the computers. The one that has more is an S-Video and RCA video. So theoretically I could use the VGA out to the DH2G and the RCA into a monitor of some sort.
2) I need to blend the images so that I don't have a hard edge in the projection. I downloaded both VPT and Isadora (the demo) and played around some, but without having the DH2G, it's hard to get an idea of what it would end up being. I also need to be able to run the show, and I'm not too clear about how that would be done with VPT or Isadora yet. I probably need to look into it more in those programs.
3) I need to (hopefully) take an image of the ocean, lay an effect over the water to give it a shimmering quality, some color gradients and things like that to create a sunset, and some cloud layers. This isn't something I've done before nor am entirely sure how to do (I guess I don't even know if it's plausible). Would it be possible to do something like this in the same software that would give me an edge blend?
4) And finally, we are a little theatre. If I could do all this for free, that'd be great. I know it's not possible. But finding the most cost effective solution is the best.
I'm hoping that you all can give me a bit of advice on one, two, or all of these aspects. I know I'm asking a lot, but I want to make this the best possible, so literally any advice or thoughts would be great- I've got some time before I have to have it all figured out.
Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to your thoughts and suggestions!