Using projection to give a fake tree a face?

[cjgrl3]

Our next show is a children's show with a forest theme. I was thinking of projecting a video of a man's face looking around onto one of the trees during preshow, so it would appear the tree was coming to life every now and then.

Is this even possible? How would I go about doing? We have a projector, so that's taken care of, but how would I need to film the man. Infront of a grey-brown background, with his face painted tree colors?

Thanks!

 

[ruinexplorer]

You have two issues to deal with. The first is creating the content and the second is displaying the content. Whenever you are creating content, you need to know how it will be displayed, so look at that first. Is the tree three dimensional or flat? How is the texture on the tree, painted or sculpted? How dark are the colors going to be on the tree (the darker they are, the more contrast you will have in your image, but the brighter your projector will need to be). Do you want to front or rear project the image (rear image may require a different material for the area of the face depending on construction)?

Once you have determined how you will display the image, you can go about creating the content. You could easily shoot a close-up of a person's head in make-up with the rest of the area blacked out so that when you project, it will only be the head. If you know someone who has the ability to create an image digitally, you could go that route as well.

Yes, all of this is possible and has been done before. As you can see, there are many ways of doing this type of effect to varying degrees of success. The biggest concern you will have is how to light the tree without washing out your effect.