General Support after Close of Business
- As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform customer support is no longer active for Lightform products as the company has shut down. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
- Upgrading your device firmware and/or software may be necessary to correct a problem. If you have an LF2 or LF2+ projector, the latest firmware ensures you have the latest safety updates.
- The final Lightform Creator Software version is 2.4.1 with the corresponding firmware versions:
- LF1 – 2.8.2.255
- LFC – 2.1.22.255
- LF2 / LF2+ – 2.4.1.0
- Guide documentation will be available at www.lightform.com/go for at least two years.
To our customers, partners, and community – Thank you for believing in us, supporting us, and being a part of our journey to bring these products into the world. We are incredibly sad to say goodbye but excited to see what the future brings for our community. For more details on what to expect going forward, please see our updated Sunset FAQs.
Maintenance of Software
Final Software & Release Notes
- As of October 2022, the final Lightform Creator software version is 2.4.1.
- All Lightform device purchases made on Lightform.com included a perpetual license for Lightform Creator and a 1-year hardware warranty. Devices are expected to work as intended with supported operating systems. We cannot guarantee that Lightform Creator will continue to work on new operating systems launched after being discontinued in August 2022. Lightform will no longer develop new releases and has no active development resources to implement changes.
Maintenance of Firmware
As of August 2022, the final firmware versions are as follows:
- LF1 – 2.8.2.255
- LFC – 2.1.22.255
- LF2 / LF2+ – 2.4.1.0
Definitions
Sunset: Close of business in August 2022.
Lightform has discontinued all hardware production runs indefinitely, effective February 7th, 2022. Lightform will no longer operate to provide cloud services or technical product support after August 2022.
Sunset FAQs: A list of updated FAQs specifically related to Lightform’s shut down and discontinuation of support.
Discontinued products: All Lightform products, including hardware (LF1, LFC Kit, LF2, and LF2+) and the Lightform Creator software that has been discontinued.
End of support: August 12th, 2022 – The last date after product discontinuation and close of business that Lightform provides support and RMA services for discontinued products. After this date, please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Hardware: The Lightform physical product and its physical components.
Firmware: The operating system of a Lightform embedded product.
Software: Lightform Creator; a program running on a computer.
Warranty: Lightform 1-year warranty; full details here.
~ The Lightform Team
]]>Date: February 7, 2022
Today, we are announcing that Lightform is discontinuing all hardware production runs indefinitely and winding down. We will continue to provide cloud services & support through August 2022. Customers should update to the latest software and firmware before this date.
Lightform was founded because we saw projection mapping as a transformational technology to change the way we interact with digital content and the everyday objects around us. At the time, it was expensive and time-consuming to create custom content and to deploy projection mapping. We sought to simplify projection mapping by providing a scan of the real world, using generative content on top of the scan to easily make compelling custom content, and then easily deploying via all-in-one hardware.
We’ve shipped two generations of Lightform products, and three years of Creator software updates. We’ve greatly improved the user experience and added stock video integration, automatic alignment with computer vision, and sound-reactive visuals. We’ve watched the Lightform community grow to create some truly amazing experiences with light. It has been phenomenal to see people start businesses using Lightform, to see Lightform used in television commercials, for making music videos, and to bring projection mapping into art galleries, businesses, homes, retail spaces, classrooms and events.
For the past two years, the team has been working on our next products, which we think are the future of projection. Then COVID-19 changed everything. The events, hospitality, and location-based entertainment industries froze. We, along with our customers, held our breath, and then changed plans. We launched LF2+ and focused on in-home projection mapping. As COVID dragged on, cutting costs wasn’t enough. We simply needed more funding to maintain existing supply chains and to launch our new products. At the same time, investors shifted their focus to businesses that were positively affected by the embrace of WFH and digital only experiences.
Lightform is a grand experiment, exploring what happens when scanning and generative animations are combined with all-in-one hardware for content creation, previewing, and playback. We are incredibly proud of what the team and community has created over the past few years. We are starting to see projectors with integrated cameras and scanning, and we believe the core ideas of Lightform will spread through the entire projector ecosystem. While Lightform will no longer operate, the team is working to add value to our vibrant community.
Thank you for being a part of the Lightform journey. We still can’t wait to see what you create.
~ The Lightform Team
For more information on the transition, visit our FAQ.
Sheltering in place during a pandemic is far from ideal. Still, many in the Lightform community are using it as an opportunity to hone their creative skills and entertain their community. As we approach the year mark of COVID’s onset, we wanted to spotlight the inventive uses of Lightform. For some Lightform users, quarantining has allowed them to channel their spare time into creative exploration, using Lightform as an innovative source to entertain, educate, and connect with the outside world while social distancing. Here are just a few unique ways we have seen Lightform users creatively utilize projection mapping while sheltering in place.
Art Pieces
Last spring, Austrian artist Markus Dietrich collaborated with Vienna visual artist duo Meta Vis to create a projection-mapped art piece. Markus Dietrich, an artist from Vorarlberg, Austria, captured the mood during the pandemic’s first peak in his acrylic paintings. Months later, he came together with Meta Vis to realize an installation with a multi-layered canvas, composed of acrylic paint and projected light, using Lightform to capture and enhance each detail of the paintings.
Projection mapped artwork by Markus Dietrich and Meta Vis.
Lightform user Becker Schmitz has also been keeping busy during COVID with his art installations, developing his artistic approach of Entgrenzung using Lightform. Although there is no English translation for the German concept of Entgrenzung, the term essentially means “the delimitation of artistic discipline.” Becker’s artistic approach fuses Entgrenzung with painting in virtual and analog space, using the Lightform LF2 to illuminate pieces of his work, as seen in the polygonal structure below. As an artist focused on painting, he is continuously working on more projects for an exhibition while working as a lecturer at the University of Applied Arts Essen. Find more of Becker’s projection mapping work on his Instagram, @becker.schmitz.
Polygonal structure by Becker Schmitz.
Zoom Classes
Some of our users have been integrating Lightform into their live Zoom classes, illuminating their studios and gyms with projection mapping. For example, photographer and Zumba instructor Matt Amerndariz uses his Lightform to light up his Zumba signage for a Zoom backdrop. You can find more of Matt’s photography and Zumba classes on his Instagram, @mattarmendariz, or his website, www.mattarmendariz.com.
Matt Armendariz’s Zoom Zumba class
Livestream Performances
While some Lightform users have been integrating projection mapping with their art pieces, others have utilized Lightform for at-home performances and livestreams. Music artist Dolo Jones used his LFC to add projected visuals to his live performance of “Boxes” for Synthstrom’s first-ever Online Festival. Dolo shares, “[This] amazing piece of kit has kept me busy during lockdown! [It was] slightly tricky to film on a multi-camera setup during lockdown, but I tried my best! Hope you like it!”
Dolo Jones’ live performance of “Boxes.”
Similarly, Lightform user Chadewick Harris uses his LFC to enhance his livestreams’ visuals. Here’s a livestream event Chadewick took part in last December. “The panels used to create the projection surface were created by Cerebral Concepts. Great Lakes Flow (my organization) got together with Equilibrium Arts LLC, and That’s Our Friend! to create a digital G.E.T. Down for our communities. We were able to safely gather in groups to create this immersive experience. Thank you to Lightform for helping us light up the night!” shares Chadewick.
Digital G.E.T. Down.
Twitch Streams
Lightform has also been popularly used for Twitch streaming backgrounds. Danny Tumia, a world-record-holding video gamer & former competitive skateboarder, uses his Lightform LFC Kit to create eye-catching backgrounds on his Twitch channel, xSkelatorrr. His recording studio includes projections to animate iconic movie posters. Check out Danny’s gaming skills and his Lightform creations on Twitch.
Danny Tumia’s recording studio.
Homeschooling Sessions
Megan Wanderer is a fine art creator and avid Lightform user. During quarantine, she and her five-year-old niece approach homeschool art a little differently, integrating Lightform’s projection mapping into their art sessions. “All Lightform products are suited for both personal and professional use – that’s why I love them! It is an affordable introduction to projection mapping that is able to grow alongside your ideas and skills,” says Megan. You can find more of Megan’s work on her Instagram, @meganwanderer.
Five-year-old Jasey enjoying homeschool art.
Home Offices
As people have been adjusting to working from home, some Lightform users have creatively transformed their home offices into visually appealing working spaces. Lightform user Ben Stepan uses his LFC to light up and project geometric visuals to visually impact his office nook. His audio reactive projections give his set up an extra AR twist. Find more of Ben’s work on his YouTube channel, Stepout Visuals.
Ben Stepan’s office nook.
How Are You Using Lightform?
From livestreams to homeschooling, Lightform users have found creative ways to blend projection mapping into everyday quarantine routines. Here at Lightform, we are constantly inspired by the many ways Lightform users have used their devices to stimulate their creative pursuits. If you’ve found ways to integrate Lightform’s projection mapping into your routine that we haven’t mentioned above, let us know and comment below, or tag us in your next Lightform creation with #lightformcreations.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Today Lightform is proud to introduce the availability of the LF2+ AR projector. The LF2+ has upgraded camera optics for significantly improved scans and audio reactivity capabilities providing a new creative dimension to projection mapping. The LF2+ retains the same sleek design as the LF2 while boasting additional features to enliven art, home offices, streaming backgrounds, and more.
Create Light & Sound Experiences
Lightform Creator now includes sound reactivity controls for effects and generators. It’s now easier than ever to make your projection mapping designs interact with audio. The LF2+ AR projector includes a microphone to take full advantage of this new functionality. If you are currently using an LFC or LF2, you can also take advantage of Creator’s new audio-reactive functionality. Please note that the LF2 will require an additional external USB microphone (we recommend using one of the following tested and supported USB microphones) to use the audio reactivity feature. On the other hand, the LFC Kit uses the microphone of the included Brio camera and does not require an additional microphone to utilize the new audio reactivity feature. Our recent Lightform Guide article, Get Started with Audio Reactivity, details additional information about audio reactivity in Creator and recommended microphones.
Projector camera image comparison.
Improved Scanning to Streamline Your Workflow
The improved optics in the LF2+ combined with Lightform Creator‘s new user interface streamlines projection mapping workflows with more accurate & detailed scans. No matter which device you’re using, LF2+, LF2, or LFC, the optimized scanning algorithms now in place in Creator will translate to faster scanning speed, greater post-processing control, and better response in darker lighting conditions
We invite you to learn more about the Lightform LF2+ AR Projector and Creator.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Kahika, a trio music group with an electronic/dub/soul style from Australia and New Zealand, recently released a music video for their EP “Mutual Gathering,” utilizing effects generated by the Lightform LFC Kit. In this post, Jon Hislop, a member of Kahika, shares how the video was made along with tips to successfully projection map bioluminescence when filming outdoors. Detailed is how the bioluminescent effects were created using Lightform’s default effects and importing custom motion graphics created in After Effects.
“I wish to reveal everything I know and learned, in the hope that projection mapping as a realistic portrayal of life-energy in nature is explored more by other creators. At certain moments in the music video, certain visuals jumped out as feasibly realistic and, I feel, escaped the monotony of appearing too digital. I hope to push this organic look further in the future.”
— Jon Hislop
— Jon Hislop
About the Group & Song
Last December, Kahika released their EP “Mutual Gathering” along with a music video showcasing New Zealand’s exotic wildlife, using Lightform’s AR projection mapping to light up the island’s lush vegetation with artificial bioluminescence. The song is ultimately about people enjoying and respecting nature. It explores the Māori concept of mana: the life-force energy that exists within all nature. In mythology, mana is gained and lost through your deeds. “Mutual Gathering” is Kahika’s interpretation that respecting nature is a way to invite more mana into one’s life. In the music video, mana is visualized as artificial bioluminescence growing and glowing, which was done using Lightform’s projection mapping. These organic forms were filmed in real-time, using Lightform to cast digital projections to create the plants’ glowing visuals.
Kahika band members Geo Seato, Trent Ward, and Jonathan Hislop.
Projection Mapping Preparations
When projection mapping outdoors, Jon recommends using a 3,000-lumen projector, noting that lumen criteria would suffice. “I had a 6,000-lumen projector, and despite being in a dense forest shielded by the sun, projections only gained strength in the twilight hour – one hour before sunset, and shortly after sunset. Of course, you can project at night, as I did in the second half of the music video, but some ambient light gives context to the scene,” shares Jon. When taking into account the scenery’s colors, Jon noted that neither green nor brown absorbed the light well (the two dominant colors of forests!) Hence, the twilight hour is best suited for great shots.
Useful Equipment
Make sure to use tarps beneath your setup to keep your gear safe from the outdoor elements. It’s impossible to keep your cables off the ground, and dirt inside of your connectors is stress-inducing. Gazebos are also a great way to shield your equipment from any potential rain. An additional thing to consider is the generators. “Because generators are so loud, having 50 meters of extension cable can be a great way to make sure the noise isn’t constantly bothering you while trying to relax and work in the bush. Don’t forget to pack lunch…and maybe even dinner,” shares Jon. Setting up your scene, preparing for unexpected natural elements, and perfecting your projection mapping outdoors in the midst of a forest can be time-consuming, so make sure you arrive prepared with plenty of time to commit to your installation.
Filming Caveats
The camera used to film your projection mapping project will make a big difference. Depending on your camera, the quality of your projection may not be picked up through video. As Jon put it, “Occasionally, the projection mapping effects were not fully reflected through the camera. What was unimpressive to my eyes was saved by my Fuji x100v in Velva mode and its ability to boost colors with beautiful yet natural-looking tones. For smooth pans on a budget, I recommend the Zhiyun Crane m2 or the DJI Ronin. For the smoothest possible horizontal pans, look at buying or renting a horizontal camera slider.”
Visual Tips
One of the most colorful moments in this video was achieved by scanning a dense shrub, then dropping on the Lightform effect “Digital Fade.” Voilà.
Adding Lightform effects to a dense shrub.
In fact, this effect, as seen on Lightform’s Conservatory of Flowers, was what convinced Jon to buy Lightform and to create this music video in the first place!
Creating Your Own Bioluminescence
Great “organic” looking effects can be easily generated by running various colorful videos (E.G., “particle fx” videos from videezy.com) through a mesh-warp and displacement map in after effects.
Creating organic looking effects onto a tree.
For example, Jon used this video to recreate the same effect in After Effects. Once you import the video into your After Effects project, you can drag a mesh warp onto it (under the effects panel). Using rows and columns of three and quality between eight-ten, you can distort your video by grabbing any of the points between crossing lines. This is a simple and very controllable way to wrap your content around a source such as a tree with a stump.
Distorting your video in After Effects.
If you want an effect that is more abstract and into the realms of wild and slightly uncontrollable, using “Turbulent Displace” can create very fluid and organic-looking shapes. “There’s no wrong way to play with the settings – they’re all a lot of fun,” says Jon.
Add “Turbulent Displace” for a more abstract effect.
From here, you can animate parameters such as “Evolution” or “Complexity” to bring life to the visual. Importing your own music, you can animate parameters such as the above, or change the color with “Hue/Saturation,” and do it to the beat of the music or a strum of the guitar, similarly to what Jon accomplished in the Mutual Gathering music video by animating my mesh warp. Experiment with any of Kahika’s back catalog.
When you’re ready to project, simply export the video, import it into Lightform, and you’re ready to light up the forest. Film the results, bring them back into After Effects or Premiere, and re-align your video with your music. Done!
Final Tips
If you create audio-reactive visuals, make sure there is enough time in your video clip (of the static bioluminescent visual) before and after the part where your visual reacts to the music. Too often, the video clip repeated too quickly, and Jon wasn’t able to set up some of the filmed footage in Premiere to begin and end when he would have preferred.
Other Filmmaking Creations Using Lightform
Thanks to Jon for his willingness to share his insights on how to projection map bioluminescence. To learn more about importing custom content or how to utilize other Lightform Creator features, visit the Lightform Guide. See Kahika’s full music video and check out their latest EP on Apple / Spotify / Bandcamp.
We’re inspired to see Lightform being used creatively in music videos. Along with Kahika, many users in the Lightform community, including Kira Bursky and Jennifer Deann Scott, have utilized their Lightform devices for music videos and filmmaking. You can find more in our 2020 Retrospective: Inspiring Lightform Customer Examples. If you found this helpful or have other questions about projection mapping, we invite you to leave your comments below.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Lightform power-user and creative force behind D4, Ryan McCoy is known for his large-scale digital installations and mind-altering projections, using Lightform as a medium to capture audiences and showcase his elaborate creations ranging from progressive social movements to psychedelic-induced artwork. From Virtual Burning Man live streams to multi-story renegade political protest projections, read our Lightform interview with Ryan McCoy to discover the fire behind his artistry and evolutionary journey with projection mapping.
1. What is D4, what type of work do you focus on, and how did you develop an interest in projection mapping?
While my background is in graphic design and large format printing, I’ve always had an interest in video editing and animation which I dabbled with on the side. YouTube provided a good source of large-scale professional video mapping that was mind-blowing, but I never thought the production tools would be affordable or easy to learn. Summer of 2018, I discovered a video mapping system that was still in pre-production and was offering a great discount for pre-order customers. With no hesitation, I placed my order and received my Lightform LFC in early 2019. All the dreamy thoughts were finally beginning to manifest. It didn’t take long before a mobile setup was ready for a renegade style projection. There were already a couple of Lightform video promotions showcasing this style and living in St. Louis, MO, [where] there are plenty of spots to bomb some photons. Lightform was the spark for a newly found creative outlet that has become D4. I have since put my focus on expanding my software knowledge for live and interactive projections.
2. Why is projection mapping important to you? Do you think it has a broader importance to society?
Human expression is important to society and video mapping is an extremely powerful medium to capture attention. Light beams add vibrant life to create unforgettable expressions that allow onlookers to see from a new perspective. Projected visuals can impact society’s awareness of important topics or be used to attract potential customers to a business. A favorite quote of mine is from Jim Carrey, “The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.” Projection mapping is important to me because it offers an opportunity to have an effect on strangers without ever speaking to them. I love seeing people stop to watch or capture the moment on their phone knowing that they can’t wait to tell someone else about the witnessed visual.
“Human expression is important to society and video mapping is an extremely powerful medium to capture attention” — Ryan McCoy
3. What has been your favorite project to date?
My St. Louis network has provided the opportunity to set up immersive visuals at a newly opened event space called IMRSD. It’s a creative space located on Cherokee Street, which is a popular district for artists of all types to showcase expressive talents. It’s my favorite place to test new ideas as I push the boundaries deeper into the realm of immersive art. The last event held there was the weekend before the covid lockdown. The news about covid was just beginning to buzz in every conversation so I decided to create a visual theme using virus graphics to light the walls. Little did I know, those would be the last visuals in the space for a very long time.
4. What is the craziest object or scene you have projection mapped?
The craziest video projection I have attempted was for the Black Lives Matter movement. St. Louis had tremendous unrest which started with the death of Michael Brown. This tension flared again with the recent riots connected to the death of George Floyd. I wanted to show my support for the BLM movement and decided to project from a downtown rooftop over to a neighboring building. My biggest concern was the distance to the building wall [which] was over 400 ft away. I gathered some BLM graphics online and prepped them to be black and white for high contrast. I was hoping the full white 6k lumens on my projector would be visible for the extreme distance. It took a few ninja moves to get the gear in place, [but] once I had the content ready and powered up the projector, my jaw dropped as the image focused on the building. I was completely amazed at the visibility and utter size of the image appearing on the building. This projection had the least technical know-how since no mapping was involved, but definitely something I will never forget doing.
5. Describe your projection mapping creative process. How do you choose your scene? What is your thought process behind identifying elements to map?
I still consider myself a novice when it comes to video mapping. I see every new scene as a learning experience opportunity. With Lightform, while the software allows easy mapping, it’s important you are able to capture a good scan. My biggest learning curve was identifying which locations were best for the scan in addition to staying within the limits of my projector. I really like using Lightform on textured surfaces and organic shapes. I love accenting wall murals and paintings. I’m constantly trying new techniques in my workflow, so my creative process is a growing evolution of trial and error. Some projects I’ve spent a few days in planning and setup, while others were ready to go in 30mins. For anyone interested in video mapping, I found Lightform to be a great introduction to my journey of immersive art. As I’m gaining more knowledge, I’m finding creative ways to use Lightform effects and scan data in other 3rd party software.
Learn more about Ryan McCoy and find his Lightform projection mapping projects on Facebook, or follow our blog for more exclusive interviews and Lightform user examples. Interested in having your Lightform projection mapping content featured? Tag us in your creations with #lightformcreations for an opportunity to have your projects shown on our social media!
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Arguably the most valuable resource to learn about using Lightform devices and Lightform Creator software and their many features is the Lightform Guide. The Lightform Guide is updated frequently and it can be easy to miss new additions unless you’re researching a specific topic. To help raise awareness of the great content regularly added to the Guide we’re kicking off a new quarterly blog post series highlighting the most noteworthy additions. New articles added in Q4 of 2020 include:
Lightform is continually improving the networking and pairing process, so it is easy to connect to your Lightform device via different methods. As of Creator v1.12.6, the user interface of the pairing process has been redesigned. While the process is the same, the workflow is more visual and provides a wizard-like method that guides you through the different steps.
Read on about Wi-Fi Pairing Interface Updates.
The test card projected by Lightform devices always displays the status of your Lightform device. When troubleshooting your device’s connectivity or network status it can be helpful to manually turn on the test card. New to the test card is enhanced visual information about device states via a color-coded system.
Blend Modes is one of the most powerful content creation tools in Lightform Creator. A new dedicated Guide article details information about what Blend Modes do and how you can use them to make more interesting layered visuals.
Through a partnership with Storyblocks, Lightform users now have access to hundreds of thousands of stock videos to incorporate in their projects. You can access the Stock Assets by opening the Asset Browser from the toolbar and clicking the Stock Assets tab.
Lightform Labs is an extension of Lightform Creator that includes beta, and experimental features. While we do not recommend using Labs for installations or productions where dependability is required, Labs can open up new possibilities for working with Lightform devices. Recent additions to Lightform Labs include:
An award-winning live show control software for macOS can be used with Lightform via OSC to sync the playback of audio or music with slides in your project.
It’s possible to create an ultra-wide projection by stitching together two or more Lightform devices/projectors.
Utilizing two built-in effects, Transition Fade and Transition Wipe, you can create custom transitions in your projects such as fading in content sequentially on one Slide. We have added a sample project for users to download and customize on their own.
A frequently requested feature now has a solution! With the help of IFTTT and an IR remote, you can now set up a schedule for the projector connected to your LFC or LF1 to turn on and off. We also have an article about scheduling your LF2 to turn on and off.
This will be of interest to our power users: Using a Lens Rework Kit for the BRIO camera (the camera included with the LFC Kit), you can power up the BRIO to be compatible with ultra-short-throw projectors or use a zoom lens to optimize your scans for multiple projectors.
Lightform Guide – A Great Resource
These are just a few of the key articles recently added to the Lightform Guide. As always we recommend the Guide as the go-to reference for Lightform devices and Lightform Creator. Check the Guide often and stay tuned for future article highlights in our quarterly blog updates.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business. The final release of Lightform Creator removes functionality that relies on Lightform Cloud (beta), including the ability to log in to Lightform Creator, search the Stock Asset catalog for new assets, and use IFTTT. Read more about the Lightform sunset announcement here.
As we close out 2020, we thought it would be nice to reflect on creative and inspiring projects created with Lightform LFC Kits and LF2 AR projectors. In a year dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and rounded out with social protests to murder hornets, we’ve taken solace in the creativity of the Lightform community. We have curated some noteworthy Lightform customer examples and collaborations that came to fruition this past year. Enjoy!
1. Night Bloom at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
At the beginning of the year, we teamed up with the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers to projection map a plant-immersive light show for their winter event, Night Bloom. From various tropical plants to floating pond grasses, Night Bloom was the perfect plant mapping installation to put the Lightform LFC Kit to the test. After augmenting complex organic textures and creating an ambient, environmental projection mapping show, the exhibit proved to be a success. Read more about the event in our blog and find behind-the-scenes details to our Night Bloom installation.
2. A Disney Castle Light Show
As COVID-19 began to restructure our daily routines in early spring, visual artists like Matt Maldonado used his art to inspire entertainment lovers and Disney fans who remained at home during the quarantine. In reminisce of Disney theme parks, Maldonado designed a timeless rendition of Disney favorites through a light show projected onto his handmade, 3D miniature model of the Disney castle. Inspired to keep the Disney magic alive and captivate audiences at home, Maldonado states, “I wanted to create this show for the Disney fans that are not only missing the parks but the magic as well.” In a creative array of classic Disney visuals, Maldonado used the Lightform LFC Kit to cast well-loved characters and Disney clips onto the front of the castle. Spectators of his project are transported to the Haunted Mansion’s eerie halls, launched through a laser-filled Star Wars space battle, and guided into Neverland with Peter Pan and friends as they fly across the castle wall – all while fireworks fill the castle’s night sky backdrop.
3. Social Movement Projections
In response to the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year, Lightform power-user Ryan McCoy used his LFC Kit to display a progressive social movement projection onto the side of a multi-story building in St. Louis. “I wanted to show my support for the BLM movement and decided to project from a downtown rooftop over to a neighboring building,” says Ryan McCoy in one of our interviews. You can view more of his large-scale work on Facebook.
4. Lightform in Wonderland
In a playful, fantasy-inspired projection mapping project, Playable Agency used Lightform in an interactive, Alice in Wonderland installation. The Wonderland art show featured a mad tea party accompanied by the Cheshire Cat, a flower garden archway and a magical “Drink Me” potion. See more experiences created by Playable Agency on their web site.
5. ‘New Thought / No Thought’ Short Film
Kira Bursky (@allaroundartsy) is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker. This spring, Kira participated in the Stuck At Home 48 Hour Film Project, using the LFC Kit to scan her drawings and design the projections featured in her short film. She utilized Lightform Creator’s built-in effects and textures and sourced additional royalty-free animations and clips. In her blog post discussing her filmmaking experience, Kira shares, “I was inspired to tell the story of my mental health journey. Through meditation, I have experienced a shift in my perception of reality. I have pushed beyond what I had once perceived as the extent of reality. It is quite difficult to describe this experience with words, but it is beautiful and life-giving. This film is my attempt to portray that experience.” Read her full story on how to make a short film with Lightform’s projection mapping.
6. L‘esperance’s Lighting Design for an Outdoor Event
Daelen Cory, the creator behind the award-winning design service L’Esperance Designs, has a rich portfolio of historic restorations to futuristic designs. Daelen uses the Lightform LFC Kit to projection map the interior and exterior of his clients’ homes. He created an immersive experience with six LFC Kit devices paired with Panasonic PT-VZ580 series projectors in this project. Daelen and his team transformed the exterior of his client’s property in LA into a mystical wonderland full of color and light. A great example of how the LFC Kit can take lighting design for landscaped outdoor events to the next level. See more of his work on Instagram.
7. Jennifer Deann Scott’s Violin Cover of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails
During the summer, ARWorks Motion Picture Company produced a music video featuring Jennifer Deann Scott in a cover of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. ARWorks used the LFC Kit with an Epson 1450 projector to projection map the planets and create effects on their surfaces. The LFC was also used for background shots, the water scene in the video, and Jennifer’s live performances. “This was shot over two days in a garage in 95-degree heat here in Denver this past July… All the music was produced by Jennifer from the ground up,” says the producer, Erik Schreiber.
8. “Positive Projections” in Sydney, Australia
Sydney’s city murals came to life this summer with Adam St. John’s portable tricycle setup. Paired with Lightform, Adam’s renegade project consisted of projection mapping various murals throughout Sydney’s inner-west neighborhood. His project, “Positive Projections,” was an effort to highlight local artists’ work to help them paint, animate, and develop newly designed artworks in the city. Discover more of Adam’s work on his YouTube channel.
9. A Thriller Halloween
Jérémy Carre Cube is a video mapper and light programmer from the Alsace region in France. This Halloween, Jérémy used his LFC Kit to projection map a band of jack-o-lanterns singing to Michael Jackson’s notorious track, Thriller. His projection mapped jack-o-lanterns are hosted on a haystack stage with a spooky forest backdrop, with digital fire effects cast onto real firewood as a part of his Halloween show.
10. A Bioluminescent Light Show in Kahika’s Music Video, Mutual Gathering
This November, Lightform’s projection mapping lit up New Zealand’s wildlife in Kahika’s music video, “Mutual Gathering.” Paired with various aerial shots of Aotearoa, Lightform’s digital effects were used to light up the New Zealand forests, depicting artificial bioluminescence. “Mutual Gathering” is a song about people enjoying and respecting nature. The music video explores the Māori concept of “mana,” a life-force energy that permeates the universe, which is visualized as bioluminescence upon flora & fauna. “These organic forms were filmed real-time, with glowing visuals made possible with a projector, an outdoor generator, and Lightform,” shared Jonathan Hislop, a member of the Kahika trio. Find more of Kahika’s music on Spotify.
11. Wall Art Projections
DIY expert Chip Wade from Fox and Friends used his LF2 to demonstrate how to decorate wall art for the holidays without the hassle of hanging lights. Using his LF2, Chip projected his digital projections onto his custom-made, wood, cutout art piece in his house to bring his wall art to life.
12. Christmas Village Diorama
This holiday season, many users in the Lightform community utilized their Lightform to transform ordinary holiday decor into projection mapping light shows. Chris Sardinas used his LFC Kit to light up his Christmas Village diorama, bringing his miniature cafe, fire station, and neighborhood bicycle shop to life.
We’re Eager to See What You Create in 2021
We have seen a flux of creativity and imagination from Lightform users this year, and these are just a few among many remarkable projection mapping projects. From retail display to music videos, Lightform users have found innovative uses for their devices to spur anything from business opportunities to artistry. We hope the content you see from others in the Lightform community inspires you to keep creating and innovating with your Lightform devices.
As always, we want to keep up with your new Lightform creations throughout the upcoming year. Share your projection mapping projects with us by tagging #lightformcreations in your social posts so we can feature your content and continue spreading the projection mapping magic throughout 2021.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
When selecting a projector, people often ask how bright their projector needs to be. To determine the brightness value you need for a new projector, you must first understand how much brightness exists in your scene. For instance, you may need a brighter projector to use during daylight hours versus nighttime to combat the light emitting from the sun. Choosing a projector based on its brightness value begins with understanding the various elements that constitute “brightness.” In this article, we will discuss the relationship between lumens, luminance, and illuminance in hopes of shedding some light on the ambiguity of “projector brightness.”
Lumens vs Lux
The Lumen is a unit derived from the Candela that we use to measure the total amount of luminous flux, or visible radiation, emitted from a light source. Flux comes from the Latin for flow. We use it to describe all sorts of things that move through space, like fluids and gases. Light is a wave and a particle that flows through the world faster than any other known phenomenon. Think of a projector’s luminous flux as a different fluid, it’s behavior is not exactly the same but it’s similar enough for comparison. If you have a garden hose that can spray 1 liter of water every second, you really only know how much water there is. You do not know how far your hose can spray, how wide an area you can cover at once, whether the water will be bouncing off of cement, seeping into the dirt, or whether that area is already so wet that more water won’t even register.
Brightness is relative; it’s not the same thing as luminous output, our eyes are an enormous variable. Our brain interprets light differently in different ambient lighting conditions, and the reflections, refractions, and diffractions that may occur as light flows towards your eyes will all contribute to your brain’s perception of brightness. We don’t perceive incremental differences linearly either – in an enclosed room illuminated by a single light source at 1% of its total output, that light will generally appear to the human eye as 15-20% brighter than it appears to measurement tools.
Consider a flashlight with a single brightness setting. Outdoors in the daylight, you probably won’t be able to see any of its light. Take that flashlight inside and it will become a bit more apparent. In the dark though, it will appear much brighter – sometimes too bright. If you can zoom or focus the beam of your flashlight in the dark, or change the angle of the beam so that it glances off a surface instead of hitting it perpendicularly, you’ll also notice that as the same amount of light spreads out over a larger area, the less bright the illuminated area becomes. The same is true if you move further away without adjusting the optics.
Light emitting from a starry night sky in Joshua Tree.
Like flashlights, projectors use optics to create a beam of light, in a projector’s case a highly controlled beam with a defined geometry. Because lumen ratings are used to describe a light source’s total output, they do not tell you anything about the angle or direction of that beam and how it will spread out over distance or the reflective properties of the surfaces it will interact with. As the distance increases, the beam spreads out, and the total lumens are spread out to illuminate a larger area, albeit with less intensity. The density of light falling onto an area, or illuminance, is most commonly described using the SI unit lux (lx), which measures lumens per square meter. In the United States, many industry-backed standards and municipal codes use the Foot-Candle (fc), or lumens per square feet. As math and history would have it, 1fc = 10.76lx, and multiplying or dividing by 10 to convert between them is close enough for most situations in the range you’ll be dealing with.
Even in the United States, however, lux is becoming increasingly common, particularly with lighting equipment. LED lighting panels, for example, list both their beam angle and how many lux of illumination that beam will produce at specific distances. One of the driving concepts behind lighting design across disciplines is the Inverse-Square Law, otherwise known as fall-off. As light flows through space, it spreads out over a distance. The further that distance, the more spread out the lumens become, meaning less illumination when they do finally reach a surface. Lux tells us much more about how bright any given number of lumens will appear to be versus the number of lumens alone, but you’ll need to know a little bit about the geometry of your scene, as well as how much ambient illumination there is.
As an example, if you were to measure and compare the number of lumens hitting a 1m2 section of wall with a projector positioned 2m away, versus that same projector at 4m away, you would find the section of wall at the 4m distance receives fewer lumens from the projector, and therefore a lower lux value as the total output of light is spread over a greater surface area. When you’re trying to determine how many lumens your projector will need, knowing how large your scene will be and how much ambient light there is will make it much easier.
You can measure your space’s ambient lighting in lux with a light meter if you have one, or you can use a digital camera as a light meter, but you can also download any number of apps that will give you an accurate reading on your smartphone. Take some incident light readings in different situations, and you’ll get a better sense of what these numbers mean in relation to what your eyes are perceiving, keep in mind that you are measuring lumens within an area. If you don’t have access to the space to take a reading, there are lighting standards and recommendations for how illuminated a given space should be based on its function, from a living room, to an office, tradeshow, or warehouse, etc that you can reference. If you’re projecting outdoors in a developed area, the local code book will likely tell you what the level of street light illumination should be.
As for how many lux of illumination you’ll want from your projector, we recommend starting with at least 5x the level of ambient lux. The higher the level of illumination your projector is capable of, the more your projection will stand out against the background. The ideal level of illumination is largely subjective, so don’t worry about it too much. That being said, as part of your creative lighting toolkit, it’s usually better to have too many lumens and have to turn the projector brightness down or add additional lighting, than it is to not have enough.
Once you know the ambient lux levels, you can estimate what you’ll need from your projector by determining how large your scene will be. Keep in mind that projectors come in different aspect ratios, like televisions and monitors, if you’re not sure what that means, you’ll find more information below. More than likely you will be working in a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio, meaning that for every 16 units of width, your projected image will be 9 or 10 units tall.
Say you wanted to project on a 4-meter tall mural and your projector has an aspect ratio of 16:9. That means the horizontal width of your projection will be 7.11 meters. With projection mapping, you don’t need to be set up perpendicular to your subject, in which case your frame might be more of a trapezoid than a rectangle, but for the sake of simplicity let’s assume that we are projecting head-on. When we multiply 4m x 7.11m we have a total projected area of 28.44 square meters. Once we know the area of the projection, we can easily calculate the average lux that any given lumen rating will produce within that area by dividing our total light output in lumens by the projected area those lumens will illuminate. 1000 lumens will produce an average of 35.2 lux at that size, 5000 lumens will produce an average of 175.8 lux, and 10,000 lumens will produce an average of 351.6 lux of illumination. If your projected area was only half that size, each of those lumen ratings would produce twice as many lux, and if your projected area was only a quarter of that size, each lumen rating would produce four times as many lux of illumination, and so on.
Any one of those projectors pointed at a white wall will appear much brighter than if pointed at a black wall, as the amount of light reflecting to your eye changes based on the reflecting surface’s properties. The materials in the scene you’re projection mapping will all have different levels of luminance or emittance, which tells us how bright or intense they appear to our eyes. In photometry, luminance refers to both reflected light and light emitted directly from a source, like the screen you’re using to read this. The imperial unit of luminance, the foot-lambert (fL), measures candela/ft2 and the SI unit is simply candela/m2although it is more and more frequently referred to as a nit. You won’t necessarily be using these units in any practical way with projection mapping, but you may notice them on the Projector Central calculator, so it’s worth noting that while their brightness calculator can be helpful, it’s primarily focused on helping you meet the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’ recommendations for cinema screens.
If you’re working with a material or projection coating like ScreenGoo that has a known gain number, the Projector Central tool can help you estimate luminance in nits or fL, but otherwise, we recommend using the Lightform Projection Mapping Calculator to determine whether a given projector produces enough lumens for your scene.
Industry Standards and Marketing Ploys
While there is a SMPTE Standard for cinema projection, there is no such industry-backed standard for projection mapping at this time. There are, however, many standards that govern different aspects of the tools that we employ. No matter what mode of projection you’re trying to equip yourself for, the likelihood that you will encounter purposefully misleading and unscrupulous marketing is unfortunately quite high.
The baseline measurement that has been adopted is ANSI lumens, established by the American National Standards Institute’s 1992 document IT7.215. It establishes protocols for setting up a projector at a specific distance in a controlled ambient environment, adjusting the brightness and contrast settings of the projector to uniform levels, and then taking readings at nine specific points to calculate an average (often the center of a projection will be brighter than the edges). ANSI lumens are the most commonly found unit in projector specification sheets, and also the most trustworthy. As a general rule, if you see a projector advertised using anything but ANSI lumens, your first reaction should be skepticism. One exception to this rule, which is becoming more common as the technology evolves, is LED lumens, but we’ll go into that in more depth later. You may also see projector brightness described in lux with no other information to contextualize that measurement, which is another misleading marketing tactic.
Color Lumens
An important thing to note about the ANSI lumen standard is that it is measured using black and white video projections. Some projectors are listed with a Color Lumen Rating, which is important for picking a projector for projection mapping. Some projectors might measure high ANSI lumens, but when the same readings are taken on an RGB test pattern, they measure much lower. What this means for the consumer is that the color reproduction of that projector will not be very vibrant. Color Lumens are a good indicator of how vivid the colors of your projection will appear and should be as close or to the ANSI lumen rating as possible for the richest color quality.
Using Your Knowledge of Projector Brightness
Now that you have a better understanding of the many facets of brightness, you can select a projector with greater precision. To aid in that process, the Lightform Projection Mapping Calculator is a great resource to help you determine the brightness needed for your installation. For more information on projector brightness and selecting the right projector to use for your projection mapping project, read our blog on How to Pick a Projector.
~ Sean Servis
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Picking a compatible projector to use with the Lightform LFC to begin projection mapping can be daunting. To make it easier for you to get started, we’ve detailed what considerations you should consider when picking a projector. Recommending projectors can be tricky business as models change quite frequently, but these core features will help you get the most out of your Lightform LFC Kit.
The Basics
Choosing the right projector is going to revolve around brightness and image size. As brightness and image size increase, so does the price of a projector. As you begin your search for a projector to pair with your LFC, you should expect to spend at least $500 for a new projector. Top-of-the-line professional units can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars, and large-scale projection mapping projects can employ dozens or even hundreds of these high-end units. As the number of available options continues to grow, selecting a projector has not become any easier. We hope to demystify some of the terms and features to help you effectively narrow down your search. Here are a few things to consider when selecting a projector for your LFC.
Table of Contents
Quick Tip: Helpful Resources
Here are a few resources we use internally to select the right projector for our projection mapping projects.
- Lightform’s Projection Mapping Calculator is a useful resource to help you determine the brightness necessary for your installation.
- Find a Projector search tool via the Projector Central website makes it easy to find a compatible projector for the LFC. We have pre-filled in the search tool with the HDMI and throw ratio requirements to narrow down your choices for finding a compatible projector for the LFC.
- Projector Throw Distance Calculator via the Projector Central website helps determine image size and throw distance.
Projector Requirements
1. HDMI Input
Your projector must have an HDMI input to work with the LFC Kit. The LFC’s HDMI port is responsible for transmitting video data and the projector’s EDID, or Extended Display Identification Data. The EDID relays different characteristics about the projector, such as resolution, timing, and refresh rates, which the LFC needs to communicate with the projector properly. Some powered VGA and DVI converters work with some projectors even though they are not officially supported.
2. Contrast Ratio, Black Levels, and Projection Mapping
The contrast ratio and black levels of your projector are one of the most important elements to consider for projection mapping. We recommend a minimum contrast ratio of 10,000:1, particularly if you intend to project anywhere relatively dark. Higher contrast ratios will give you better results, and greater flexibility in dark situations, but will also increase the price.
Why does it matter?
Traditional projection, whether in a cinema or in your living room, emphasizes a rectangular image frame. Projection mapping, on the other hand, turns any 3D surface into an image frame. Projection mapping is like many special effects and compositing techniques; it relies on black background areas to selectively illuminate your scene. No matter how your projector creates an image, it cannot produce or project darkness, it can only attempt to divert or block light from illuminating the dark areas of your image.
A scan in Lightform Creator with surfaces and effect.
The published Lightform video being played by the projector.
Some projectors can block light better than others, which results in higher contrast images and deeper black tones. Projectors that do not block light as effectively produce flatter, more washed out images, especially in dark environments. In a cinema application, you have the option to use specialized high gain black screens to compensate for a low contrast ratio, but in most projection mapping situations, this will not be the case.
The contrast levels of your projector will affect how visible the edges of your image frame will be when projecting black video, and how much your projection will “pop.” If your projection is significantly brighter than the ambient lighting, this image boundary will be more apparent with a lower contrast ratio, particularly when projecting onto flat surfaces. You can always add more ambient light to compensate, but a higher contrast ratio will help avoid some of these situations and make your projections more vivid in general.
Visible projection frame in low light using an Epson 1060 with 15000:1 Contrast Ratio and 3100 lumens.
Unfortunately, contrast ratio is a projector specification that is obfuscated by competing measurement methods and exaggerated marketing. ANSI contrast measurements are a more reliable measurement but are not universally used. The contrast ratio is defined as the brightness of the projected white video compared to the projected black video. When you see 15,000:1, that means that the white video measures 15,000 times brighter than the black video. The higher the ratio is, the more contrast there will be. But again, these numbers are sometimes inflated in marketing materials, or low ratios might be accompanied by misleading images, so if you are in doubt, search the reviews and specs.
3. “Brightness” - Lumens and More
How bright does my projector need to be? – This is often the first question people ask. The answer depends on a few different factors that will be unique to each individual situation. What we often casually refer to as projector “brightness” is its Lumen rating. In most cases, the LFC supports almost any projector with any normal or short-throw projector with 1000-100,000 lumens. Generally speaking, the larger your scene and the brighter the ambient lighting is, the brighter your projector will need to be, and as the brightness increases, so does the cost. The more ambient light present in your scene, and the larger your scene is, the more light you’ll want your projector to produce.
It’s usually better to have too many lumens and have to turn the projector brightness down or add additional lighting, than it is to not have enough.
To better understand projector brightness there are a few other concepts to familiarize yourself with. There is more to brightness than just lumens. Learn more about the other elements of brightness in our blog about lumens, luminance, illuminance, flux, lux, and foot-lamberts.
We recommend using the Lightform Projection Mapping Calculator to determine whether a given projector produces enough lumens for your scene.
4. Throw Ratio and Lenses
At this point we’ve talked about lumens and lux and how they relate to the illumination levels of your projected image at different sizes, but we haven’t explained how to determine the size of your projection, or how close or far your projector can be to achieve that image size.
The projector lens is a central component of creating a projected image. Similar to camera lenses, projector lenses are designed for specialized uses. A lens that works in one scenario will be the wrong tool in another. Outside of large event and venue projectors, most projectors are manufactured to be used in medium and large rooms. Short throw projectors are made with wide lenses designed to be placed close to the image plane and create a large picture frame. Long-throw projectors are designed to be placed at a distance while still creating an equivalent size frame.
Short and long-throw projectors are determined by throw ratio. To fully understand how and why Lightform works with these different projector types, we need to understand what Throw Ratio is.
Throw Ratio is defined as the size of your projected frame in relation to the distance between your frame and the projector. Like any ratio, it’s a simple division formula, the width (W) of the image frame is divided by the distance (D) between the frame and the projector. You will sometimes see Throw Ratio, or TR, written as a traditional ratio (e.g., 1.5:1), but oftentimes TR specs will exclude the :1 at the end.
The lower the TR number, the wider the picture frame, or the shorter the projector’s throw.
A projector with a throw ratio of 0.5:1 will create a frame that is twice as wide as the distance between the projector and the wall; at a 1m distance, the frame will be 2m wide, at 1.5m distance, the frame will be 3m wide, and so on. A projector with a throw ratio of 2:1 at a 1m distance will create a 0.5m wide frame, at 1.5m, the frame will be 0.75m wide, at 2m distance, the frame will be 1m wide, etc.
Using Throw Ratio
Using the throw ratio equation and its variations is essential when selecting the right projector for your experience – it’s important to consider the positioning of your projector and the size of the image you’d like to project (or the size of the scene you’d like to cover). With the throw ratio equation, you can determine:
1. The ideal throw ratio given the setup of your experience
TR = TD / IW
(Throw Ratio = Throw Distance / Image Width)
2. Where to place a projector given its throw ratio & your projected image size
TD = TR x IW
(Throw Distance = Throw Ratio x Image Width)
3. The width of the image a projector will produce given its throw ratio & throw distance
IW = TD / TR
(Image Width = TD / TR)
Many projector lenses are capable of optical zoom. They don’t have a fixed throw ratio but rather an adjustable one to give you more flexibility to work within your space’s physical constraints. These will be listed as a range, usually with two decimal points (e.g., 1.21-1.56). The greater that range is, the less constrained you will be when choosing your projector’s physical placement, so if you want to make sure you have some flexibility in your installations, that number might be a little more important to you. When looking at higher-end projectors, many of them have interchangeable lenses, which will give you a lot of options to rent or buy lenses with different throws as necessary. Be aware that an interchangeable lens feature can drive up the cost of these systems as they are not always included with every listing.
The Lightform LFC Kit works with projectors having a wide range of throw ratios, from 0.5:1 (short-throw) to 2:1 (long-throw). Two factors determine the throw ratio range that is compatible with the LFC.
Field of View – Lightform LFC’s 4K camera reads a series of visible structure light patterns during the scanning process. At each stage of the scan pattern, Lightform is recording the position of every projector pixel it can see and determining its position within the scene. With short-throw projectors, the LFC’s camera field of view, or FOV, is the limiting factor. If the throw ratio is lower than 0.5:1, the projector image will be too wide for the LFC camera; if the projector image extends beyond the edge of the camera frame, the LFC camera will be unable to detect and register the light from the full scene on its sensor.
Camera Sensor – For long-throw projectors with a throw ratio above 2:1, the 4K sensor on the LFC camera defines the upper limit of optimal compatibility. Lightform Creator’s scans and projects have a maximum resolution of 1920×1200 pixels. Lightform LFC’s 4K camera sensor has a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels, or roughly four times as many pixels as it is responsible for recording during a scan. When the throw ratio of a projector exceeds 2:1, the projector image will be visible to less than ¼ of the available 4K camera sensor pixels (i.e. less than 1920×1200 pixels) resulting in a scan resolution that is lower than the projector’s native resolution.
It is possible to use Lightform LFC with out-of-spec throw ratios beyond the 0.5:1-2:1 range by moving the LFC closer or further away with a long HDMI cable, but ideally, the camera lens should be on the same plane as the projector lens. During the scanning process, the projector lens and the LFC camera lens are essentially acting as two eyes to produce stereo vision. As the difference between the two lens planes increases, the fidelity of the depth disparity data will decrease, which will result in some effects and selection tools not behaving as intended.
It is also possible to modify the LFC camera to accept C and CS mount lenses, which will allow you to change the camera’s field-of-view to better match an out-of-spec throw ratio. This will give you better results than moving the LFC camera, but the conversion and lens will cost more than a long HDMI cable.
5. Throw Distance
Throw distance is the minimum and maximum distance your projector will project in focus. The focusing range of your lens constrains your physical placement options. The minimum distance is how close your projector can be without being out of focus, and the maximum is how far you can be without losing focus.
This does not mean that everything between those extremes will be in focus. How much of that given range will be in focus will vary from projector to projector. If you plan on video mapping a scene with a lot of depth, you’ll want to look for a projector with a larger focal range. In general, projectors are designed to create an image on a flat plane, so this isn’t really something that most listings mention, but often time longer throw ratios will allow for more of the projection to be in focus at one. Most short-throw and ultra-short-throw projectors have very limited focal distances, they are great for planar images close to a wall, but are not designed for scenes with depth.
6. Resolution and Aspect Ratio
Like cameras, televisions, smartphones, and pretty much anything with a screen, projectors come in a wide range of resolutions. Resolution is defined as the width and height dimensions of a digital image in pixels. A pixel is the base unit of modern digital imagery, a discrete point of color and brightness that can be individually addressed as one small part of the larger total image. The higher the number of pixels you have to work with, the more detailed your images will appear.
As you research projectors, you will encounter resolutions listed both in pixel dimensions and also their marketing equivalents, VGA (640×480), SD (720×480), HD (1280×720), Full HD (1920×1080), WUXGA (1920×1200), 2K (2560×1440), UHD/4K (3840×2160) and a few others.
Lightform is compatible with a wide range of projector resolutions and will generate scans and published projects with a resolution up to 1920×1200 (WUXGA). Higher resolutions are one of the features that will bring up the overall cost of a projector and may be worth considering if you intend to work on large scenes or with small text.
While a published Lightform project is limited to 1920×1200, many projectors with greater resolutions can upscale HD video to an approximated 4K image, which will look great with Lightform Creator effects. If you have room left in your projector budget for a projector with 4K upscaling, you will benefit from an overall crisper image with the increased pixel density, particularly if you intend to work with very large scenes.
7. Pixel Density
The screen you’re reading this on likely has an incredibly dense pixel array, no matter what its resolution is. More than likely, it’s at least 1920×1080, if not higher, but those pixels are so small that you can’t distinguish them individually without magnification. Digital projectors create images in standard video resolutions but enlarge them with optical lenses. As a result, individual pixels are much larger than on a phone or monitor. They are more readily perceived at close distances, a phenomenon known as the “screen door effect” because the space between pixels resembles the grid mesh of a physical screen door.
Most large-scale projection mapping projects maintain pixel density by blending multiple high resolution projectors together. If you’ve ever seen video mapping on a large building facade, the total resolution of that projection is significantly larger than any individual projector is capable of producing. Instead, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of high-end projectors are combined using software to create one enormous seamless image.
The process for a large scale Lightform project is much simpler, but since you won’t be blending multiple projectors, having the highest resolution projector you can afford will give you better pixel density. The more individual pixels you can fit on your projection surface, the more detailed your projections will appear. Viewing distance will also impact perceived resolution as projected experiences viewed from a short distance will reveal pixel density shortcomings. Conversely, projected experiences viewed from further away will conceal pixel density shortcomings like lower resolution billboards viewed from afar.
Pro Tip: It is also possible to mitigate the screen door effect by softening the optical focus of your projector lens, but be sure to keep your projector focused while taking a Lightform scan. Throwing the lens further out of focus can turn your projection into an even more ethereal experience if your content allows for it.
8. Lamps, Lasers, and LEDs
Lamps, laser and LED engines are systems that use optics to split a beam of white light into different colors. Any number of lamp types can create white light (there are quite a few varieties at this point) but they all need replacement after a few thousand hours. For the budget-conscious projector hunter, this means that you can sometimes find used projectors for sale or auction at a steep discount that only need a new lamp installed. However, the newer Laser and LED light sources have some distinct advantages.
Instead of splitting white light into three channels, these projectors start with the RGB channels already separated. In other words, they can reproduce more accurate and vibrant colors with higher contrast. They are also more power-efficient, brighter, and less light is lost to the color-splitting optics resulting in higher contrast and darker blacks. On top of that, they do not require lamp replacements. Most traditional projector lamps have a life expectancy of a couple of thousand hours and have to be replaced. Laser and LED projectors, on the other hand, are usually rated to last around 20,000 hours or more, saving time and money on maintenance.
Laser projectors have also breathed life back into the 1 Chip DLP system. Since they create RGB channels at the light source instead of needing a spinning color wheel, the Rainbow Effect – an artifact of the rapid switching between color channels, where you may see flashes of color in parts of the image with quick movements or high contrast – is no longer an issue, so if you see a 1 Chip DLP Laser projector, it might suit your needs just fine.
Some Laser projectors use a Laser Phosphor as a light source, which still relies on mirrors and color wheels to create an image. A blue laser (and sometimes a second red laser) hits a phosphor wheel, which creates yellow light when the laser photons collide into it, and that yellow light is then routed through the optical engine. These projectors don’t have all the color reproduction advantages of RGB Laser and LED systems but are still brighter and more efficient with no bulb replacements.
LED projectors create vivid colors, but their brightness is hard to qualify. They take advantage of what is known as the Helmholtz-Young effect when the human eye perceives highly saturated color as luminance. To a light meter, an LED projector won’t read as very bright, but their low lumens go a long way as the human brain interprets what is seen as brighter by two or three times the actual lumens. Many LED projectors are sold using marketing LED lumens, an estimation of how many lumens your eyes will see, to counter the low ANSI lumen spec. But there is no standard point of comparison for this so take everything you see with a grain of salt and read the reviews.
Digital projectors use one of two kinds of imaging chips to turn the video signal from an HDMI cable into a projected video image, 3LCD and DLP. With a couple of exceptions, they will both provide good results with Lightform.
3LCD projectors use dichroic mirrors to channel red, blue, and green light through three small Liquid Crystal Displays, then recombine the color channels with a prism or microlens array, and then project a full image out of the front lens. Each Liquid Crystal corresponds to a pixel; applying electricity to a liquid crystal changes its polarization to control the amount of light that passes through it. Some people find that 3LCD projectors tend to reproduce richer colors, but there is a lot of variance. Keep in mind that a Color Lumen rating similar to the ANSI Lumen rating indicates that a projector will have vibrant color reproduction.
DLP, or Digital Light Processing Chip, creates an image using a DMD, an array of thousands of micro-mirrors that can switch very rapidly between reflecting light towards or away from the lens. Unlike a Liquid Crystal, the micro-mirrors on a DLP chip are a binary on/off output. To create the correct gradations of brightness, multiple mirrors will be assigned to one image pixel, or the mirrors will switch on and off faster than the refresh rate of the video.
The earliest DLP systems used a single Chip DLP configuration, dividing white light into red, green, and blue with a color wheel and then reflecting each color channel off a single DMD one after another. Because the colors are flashing rapidly between color channels instead of being recombined, 1 Chip DLP projectors with a color wheel are prone to the previously discussed Rainbow Effect. Not everyone experiences this the same way, but it will show up on video recordings and still photos. Searching projector reviews for Rainbow Effect is a good habit to get into, and it’s recommended one avoid 1 Chip DLP projectors with color wheels.
10. Vertical Offset
Vertical Offset is another feature of projector optics to be aware of when picking a projector. Most projectors are designed to sit on a surface or hang from a ceiling and create a rectilinear frame towards the center of a wall. To account for this, many of them have a 100% Vertical Offset (i.e., shifting the projected frame slightly higher versus directly straight ahead). With a 100% Vertical Offset the bottom of the projected frame will line up with the center of the projector lens, and the top of the projected frame comes out of the projector’s lens at an upward angle. A 0% vertical offset means the beam goes straight out of the lens like a flashlight and the center of the projector frame is in line with the projector lens.
Some projectors have more extreme offsets for particular situations. Higher-end projectors often have a Lens Shift feature, which will allow you to change the Vertical Offset and Horizontal Offset allowing you to move the frame around without distortion. Lens Shift is a great feature to have in physically constrained installations. You can make a vertical offset work to your advantage by installing projectors upside down and illuminating your scene from above. Minimizing occlusion of the projection as people pass in front of the projection surface makes ceiling-mounted projectors a favored installation approach in traditional situations as well as indoor projection mapping
Final Thoughts
There are many factors to weigh when purchasing a projector, and we by no means have covered them all, but we’ve found these have the greatest impact on successful use of Lightform projection mapping. To learn more about specific projectors we recommend conducting research at projectorcentral.com. If you’d like to learn more about Lightform we have several articles in the Lightform Guide that can help you bridge this knowledge to use of Lightform products.
~ Sean Servis
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Utilizing projection mapping to creatively transform small spaces has become a lot easier with the introduction of the Lightform LF2 AR projector. Designing projections with Lightform Creator in tandem with the LF2 projectors’ built-in Lightform technology simplifies the process of projection mapping and saves time compared to traditional methods. A streamlined projection mapping process leaves more time for Lightform users to focus on their creativity and art. Inspired by our customers’ creative use of the LF2, we’ve shared some noteworthy Lightform LF2 examples that we hope inspire you.
Household Furniture & Decor
Jeff Teague, a Lightform user in New Mexico, used his LF2 AR Projector to produce an immersive light-show on a Byobu folding screen. He made use of the intricate patterns on the screen to align his projections and employ effects to trace the partitions’ borders and create eye-catching animations using the effects library in Lightform Creator.
In a similar fashion, Lightform user Vi Tran uses the LF2 to projection map sheer curtains, displaying nightly shows to cheer up her neighborhood during quarantine. Vi Tran, aka Cleo Patra, is an exhibit designer with an abundance of creative energy. She has published numerous projects, ranging from a psychedelic Easter Bunny to celebrity self-portraits, and paintings by Shepard Fairey, Vasarely, Dali, and many more artists. You can find more of her work on her website, Applied Curiosity.
Wall Art & Paintings
Wall art is among many Lightform users’ favorite items to projection map with the LF2. Here is a great LF2 example by Dave Coughlan. Earlier this year, Dave’s partner gifted him with an LF2 as an early Christmas present, which he used to projection map his wall art (for the first time) in less than an hour.
Lightform user Rick Morrison used his LF2 to projection map his 3D logo (6.5”) as well as a cat painting by Sketchy Eddie of Nova and Loki (30w x 20h”). To find more of Rick’s augmented reality projections via Lightform, visit his Facebook Page, Aw Jeez – Flow Arts.
3D Sculptures
Sculptures are another popular projection mapping object among our users. Christian Onofrei’s first LF2 project was done by creating a low-poly paper lion head paired with audio reactivity, making his LF2 projection react to audio. “I am very excited about Lightform! It allows me to put my design skills into a new realm,” shares Christian. You can find more of Christian’s work on his YouTube channel, Chris tries Mixed Media, or his Instagram, @chris.mixmedia.
Artist Dan Lam’s sculpture is another creative LF2 example showcasing the transformation of still art into augmented reality. Dan brought her unique sculpture made of polyurethane foam, resin, and acrylic to life with the LF2. The combination of overlayed effects on her 3D sculpture via Lightform Creator software adds another level of visual punch.
Hobbies & Other Objects
Because Lightform is capable of scanning environments in minutes, some Lightform users experiment with their LF2 by quickly scanning objects around the house, including hobby items. Manfred H. Launer was able to scan his skateboard in under 10 minutes on his first try.
Andrea Zavareei, an experienced user of the Lightform LFC, is VP of Ops at King Integrated Solutions, Inc., a corporate AV and video-conferencing company based in Brooklyn, NY. After receiving his Lightform LF2, he immediately set it up and projection mapped his Moog Music Workstation. He took some video clips of it and matched it up with original computer music he made circa 2000. Find out more about Andrea’s work on his website.
Latoya Charisse Flowers, a multimedia producer at the Carve Capture collective, used the LF2 AR projector to create her first Lightform experience called ‘Travel with Time.’ The clock served as a blank canvas to display generative spheres. She wanted to achieve mesmerizing effects in circular motions while keeping a minimalistic design. Latoya used X Particles via Cycles 4D and enhanced the color treatment in After Effects before importing her content into the Lightform Creator software to achieve her clock’s unique digital effects. Learn more about how Latoya incorporated projection mapping on her website, Latoya Charisse Flowers.
DIY expert, Chip Wade from Fox and Friends, used his LF2 to demonstrate how to decorate for the holidays without the hassle of hanging lights. He added his LF2 light display to a custom, wood cutout art piece in his house, bringing his wall art to life.
Although the LF2 is popularly used for indoor projects, it can also be used for small, outdoor setups as well, including porches, balconies, and outdoor deck areas. If you plan to install an LF2 project outdoors, we recommend using an LF2 Outdoor Enclosure to keep your Lightform in a fixed position while ensuring its safety from mild outdoor elements or theft.
Do you have other LF2 examples you’d like to share or thought of an LF2 example that’s not listed in our blog? Let us know and comment below or share your creative work by tagging your post with #lightformcreations on social media.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Say goodbye to traditional holiday lighting. This year, we’re taking a fresh approach to the usual winter festivities and revamping holiday decorations with Lightform’s projection mapping. Whether you’re sprucing up existing holiday decor – or have no decor at all – use Lightform’s projection mapping tools as a standalone, all-in-one source of holiday entertainment or use it to transform your end-of-year holiday displays. Get the creative juices flowing this December with these creative, holiday projection mapping ideas.
Transform Your Walls
Nothing sounds sweeter than a Christmas choir harmonizing Silent Night…unless there’s a cat in a Santa hat slamming piano chords on a living room wall projection! With the addition of the new Storyblocks feature in Creator 1.11.13, you can now peruse 900k+ videos to projection map not just your Christmas tree but your blank living room wall as well. Transform your wall into the ultimate holiday canvas and project anything from Santa-hat-cats to cozy fireplaces as a winter backdrop.
Add Snow...Digitally
Enjoy a digital winter snowfall from the warmth of your room. Upload your own assets or use Lightform Creator’s built-in-library of effects to customize your holiday projection mapping setup. Use your custom projections combined with classic string lights to give your lighting decor an extra boost of holiday glow.
Projection Map A Fireplace
Light up the winter nights with a cozy fireplace projection. Lightform user Corey Callahan uses his Lightform LFC Kit to create a Christmas scene. Corey lined up the fireplace projection to strategically cover his AC and added an overlaying fire effect to bring additional movement to his flames. His projected furnace is complimented with a green, projection mapped Christmas tree (originally white) for a complete, snowed-in cabin feel.
Dining & Furniture
Holiday projection mapping doesn’t have to be limited to traditional holiday decor. Some users in the Lightform community have found ways to highlight unique dining elements. For instance, Lightform user Jérémy Carre uses his LFC to map a geometric wine rack – perfect for showcasing a wine collection for holiday dinners.
House Mapping
Another popular object for holiday projection mapping is house projection mapping (AKA house mapping). Just as popular as it is for Halloween, many people in the Lightform community like to projection map the front side of their house for the winter holidays. In order to projection map your entire house, we recommend pairing the LFC Kit with an external projector to capture a full-house scan. You can find the details of a compatible projector to use with the LFC Kit here. Smaller, outdoor scans of 6-12 feet can be done with an LF2 AR Projector in very low, ambient light to dark scenes, but we don’t recommend using the LF2 for whole-house projections. Outdoor projection setups may also need some extra preparations. Keep your LF2 unit in an outdoor enclosure to keep it safe from theft and mild weather. Here is a full-house projection that one of our Lightform team members, Anum Awan, created to inspire you.
Dioramas
Dioramas are also among one of our users’ favorite holiday displays to projection map during this time of the year. Lightform user Chris Sardinas uses Lightform to light up this mini holiday neighborhood in his “Christmas Village” display.
Share Your Holiday Projections
Getting festive can look a lot differently for Lightform users who are using projection mapping to create their holiday decor. From house projection mapping to dinner displays, we hope these ideas stir up your creativity for the holidays. Have you thought of a holiday projection mapping idea we didn’t include? We’d like to hear from you – or better yet – see what kinds of holiday creations you’re whipping up this winter. Comment below or tag us with #lightformcreations on social media for a chance to be featured on our social channels.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
It’s no secret here at Lightform – we absolutely love projection mapping on plants. You can imagine our excitement when we were asked to bring our technology to San Francisco’s historic Conservatory of Flowers for their winter light show Night Bloom. Many botanical gardens and arboretums hold holiday light shows during the darkest months of the year, recently some have begun to employ projection mapping alongside more traditional lighting elements.
A few months before the Night Bloom installation began, we brought a 7k lumen Epson G7500 and an LFC beta unit to do some demos and tests in the space. The Conservatory of Flowers has a large outdoor area with manicured lawns, flower beds, and sculptures, but inside its main structure, a sprawling 140-year-old greenhouse, room after room of tropical and subtropical plants thrive. The gift shop at the end of the circuit features a large, lovingly maintained living wall about 3 meters tall and 5 meters wide, which turned out to be our best option for both the simplicity of the mapping and the fact that the watering routine in that particular room was far safer for our equipment.
What we learned in our mid-summer tests as the late afternoon sun came through the greenhouse was that plants absorb light like their lives depend on it, especially the ones with waxy, dark, green leaves. With the projector about 6 meters from the plant wall, we were able to scan and project, but the darker colors of our projection seemed to disappear in the foliage even as the sun dipped below the trees outside. Nonetheless, the botanists who had been tending the plants were excited to see the leaves coming to life and stuck around to watch after their workday was over.
We decided to install our most powerful projector with the LFC Kit on the living wall for maximum effect throughout Night Bloom’s multi-week run. With 12k lumens and a high-contrast 3-LCD laser light engine, the Epson L1505u has done a lot of heavy lifting on many of our large-scale projection mapping projects. With the amount of foot traffic in the gallery, and sprinkler systems just above head height, hanging the projector overhead was the best option for the space. Because the Conservatory’s white-painted glass and redwood greenhouse is a historic structure, there are only a few specified rigging points in the building, and while they’re usually only used to suspend potted plants, they are rated for hanging more than a ton of equipment.
Rigging points above the irrigation system.
Those rigging points were not in the most convenient to place to reach, or in a good spot for our projection angle, so we suspended two lengths of aluminum speedrail pipe from the rigging eyes with aircraft cable, which gave us new rigging point facing the living wall just above everything in the space that could potentially cast shadows. Adding a cage to our big event venue projector brought its total weight to just below 100lbs (45kg), well within spec, and allowed us to hang it from the speedrail using slings and shackles. When rigging a projector for any projection mapping project, rigidity is a huge concern, any movement near your projector will translate to your whole image, so eliminating vibrations and swaying at the source is critical. Hanging a projector from several lengths of cable may seem counter-intuitive, but with enough weight, many points of contact, and the immovable structure of this old building, once the projector settled into position it was incredibly stable.
Tilt controls on our projector’s cage allowed us to adjust the position after flying it.
The living wall, by contrast, was quite dynamic. Dozens of individual plants of all different species, all growing at different rates, being pruned back, or handled by attendees, meant that throughout Night Bloom’s run we had to take a new scan at least once or twice a week. This presented us with a great real-world opportunity to test the Lightform Cloud remote scan and deploy features that we were beginning to develop, not that we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to work on-site in this beautiful venue from time to time as well.
One of the areas where Lightform Creator excels is in quickly augmenting complex organic textures and creating ambient environmental projection mapping shows. To keep maintenance to a minimum, we created one single surface, a simple vignette mask that covered the entire living wall with a soft feathered border, and let the software’s reactive effects do the rest. We used just about every scan-driven effect in Creator, some of our favorites repeated multiple times with different settings, until we had over 30 slides, each between 30 to 60 seconds long.
That’s a lot of video to render multiple times a week, so we took advantage of the LFC’s ability to run one effect per slide live on the device. This wouldn’t have saved us as much time if we needed to have multiple surfaces and effects on each slide, but when you’re projection mapping onto an intricate and detailed subject, like a living wall, or a mural, a single Creator effect can go a very long way, and it meant that we could take our scans in ideal lighting conditions during magic hour and have the updated show running before Night Bloom’s doors opened in the twilight.
As if that wasn’t a dynamic enough projection mapping situation, we also decided to install a Lightform on a smaller 3100 lumen Epson 1060 home cinema projector and illuminate an operational fountain. A few different species of pond grasses floating on top of the water helped absorb some of the ripples and wavelets from the flowing water. What was not immediately apparent during our tests was that the pond grasses were replenished every few days as they disappeared into the belly of a large Koi named Frank. Not to worry, as Frank gorged himself and the mapped grasses moved out of alignment or through Frank’s GI tract, knee-deep water scattered our projector beam in all directions. The refractions and reflections of our Creator effects as they hit the fountain enhanced the ambiance just as effectively as if they had been freshly mapped.
Every night for six weeks, hundreds of attendees walked through an entirely transformed space created by Lightform and Lightswitch, experiencing colored mood lighting and laser beams interacting with exotic plants in new ways, and for many, experiencing projection mapping for the first time. One particularly enthusiastic child sat themself down in front of the living wall at the end of the exhibit and loudly declared, “I could watch this for hours!” The adults may have shown more restraint, but all generations shared the sense of wonder, and our friends at the Conservatory of Flowers were beyond pleased with the installation and excited to begin expanding the use of projection mapping in their after dark event schedule. See the full video of the Night Bloom event on our Instagram.
~ Sean Servis
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
Today we’re excited to announce the release of Lightform Creator 1.11.13. This release includes several new features and major improvements to some of Lightform’s existing core features like scanning, pairing, and creating masks. A complete list of updates in this version of Creator can be found in our Release Notes.
What’s New in Lightform Creator
Stock Assets – Video Library via Storyblocks
Lightform Creator 1.11.13 includes a built-in stock video library found under Asset Browser > Stock Assets > Browse Catalog. Users can now browse through a library of 901,000+ videos and animations and download an unlimited number of them to use in Lightform projects. The stock video library has been made possible through a partnership with Storyblocks. The addition of Storyblocks video library into Lightform Creator makes it easier to enhance your projects beyond using our built-in effects and generators or manually importing videos and images.
Learn how stock videos can be browsed and downloaded to use in projects in our Adding Content guide article.
Test Card
In addition to the new Lightform Creator release, we have also released new firmware for LF2 and LFC devices. Once you’ve updated the firmware of your Lightform device(s), it will display a new test card redesigned to make it easier to get information about your device’s status. New colors corresponding to the device state will display on the test card border upon completion of this firmware update.
This enhancement will aid in the pairing process when setting up your device for the first time or connecting it to a new network. The border of the test card will always display one of these colors, making it easier to identify your Lightform device’s state at all times. The added color scheme can be seen in the graphic below. Within the Creator interface, these colors will also be updated and correspond to the same device state legend.
The grid pattern and text on the newly designed test card will better help you focus your projector. When in the scan dialog and about to initiate a new scan, the test card color scheme will invert, changing the background from black to white. This change in the test card will help you achieve better scans by identifying reflective objects in your scene.
Scan
Lightform scan algorithms now provide more accurate results thanks to recent improvements and updates. You’ll also experience faster scanning speed, greater post-processing control, and better response in darker lighting conditions.
The scan dialog has been updated with more controls in the scan settings section of Creator.
In addition to creating a Camera Mask, you can now also choose to add Smoothing and Noise Reduction to your scans. Previously, these options were enabled by default and caused certain scenes to have significant distortion or degradation when scanned. We now allow the user to apply these settings only if necessary.
Masking Tool Enhancements
Lightform Creator’s pixel based masking tools (Magic Wand, Magic Brush & Brush) create a mask at the pixel level on top of your scan image corresponding to a physical region in the scene you’re projecting on. As part of this update, we’ve enhanced these tools. The Quick Select tool has been removed as its functionality can now be accomplished with the improved Magic Wand and newly added Magic Brush tool.
- Magic Wand has been improved to smoothly select regions of similarity and is less sensitive to noisy areas in the scan image.
- Magic Brush expands the capabilities of Magic Wand by allowing the size of the brush tip to be adjusted, allowing you to select similarities over a larger/adjustable region rather than a single point.
Stay Updated
The updates in this release open up many new possibilities in the Lightform workflow. With better scans, more control over masking, and an infinite amount of videos to choose from, this holiday season is bound to be lit and we can’t wait to see how you will use these newly available assets in your projected decorations. To receive future Lightform enhancement news and updates we invite you to subscribe to our blog in the right panel of this post or our newsletter at the bottom of this page.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business. The final release of Lightform Creator removes functionality that relies on Lightform Cloud (beta), including the ability to log in to Lightform Creator, search the Stock Asset catalog for new assets, and use IFTTT. Read more about the Lightform sunset announcement here.
Projection Mapping A Product Launch
Editors Note: Continuing our Behind the Scenes blog post series Sean Servis, Lightform’s production engineer, details what went into projection mapping a product launch for Nice Kicks. Discussed are the technical details about location set up, equipment used (including the Lightform LFC and LF2), ambient lighting management, and more. Read on to learn more about the event and what went into capturing the visuals for our Nice Kicks product launch project video featuring Lightform projection mapping.
In the summer of 2019, Lightform had the opportunity to collaborate with our friends at Nice Kicks to transform a portion of their retail space using projection mapping. Located in the Upper Haight neighborhood of San Francisco, their shop’s top floor had recently been gutted to prepare for a remodel. It served as the perfect setting for a launch party for their new sneaker release celebrating the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. We met the Nice Kicks team a few weeks before launch in their luxuriously black space – black marble floors, black trim, and in some areas, black ceilings – and made a plan for how Lightform could be best deployed to augment their plans to turn that space into Woodstock, 1969.
Laser distance meters are a helpful addition to any projection mapping toolkit.
Testing Lightform Creator’s reactive projection mapping effects on the Woodstock sneakers, an Adidas Ultraboost collaboration with bright tie-dye patterns, felt like cheating. The most psychedelic shaders in the Lightform software tend to perform well on psychedelic subjects, so no one was surprised when Ganzfeld, Palette Trip, and Ripple took it up a notch. With a screen printing station for customizing handmade tie-dye shirts, there were plenty of test subjects to choose from.
Our wizards testing out different elements and deciding where to mount everything within the projection frame.
The fully-dressed set with completed projection mapping.
A second skylight shaft near the opposite wall was the perfect place to hang another LF2 projector to showcase three large prints from the sneaker’s photo marketing campaign. We picked out a few key photo elements to highlight with colorful effects but left most of the photographs un-illuminated not to overpower them. We had some real estate left above the photos, so we imported some JPEG files of all of our logos into Lightform Creator and threw some extra branding in the space.
Projection mapping on product photography.
The skylights were as far back from the windows facing the street as possible, but as the setup progressed and we took stock of the ambient light throughout the day, it became apparent that there would still be too much daylight coming through them for the first hour or so after the doors opened. Usually, we would use some duvetyne and or a tarp for a temporary blackout. Still, since we had some spare posters for the event lying around, we used those to cover the windows instead making for a more cohesive ambiance while still meeting our lighting requirement.
Side-mounting Epson 1060s from ceiling joists using a hodgepodge of 5/8″-16mm grip components.
The second half of the space faced the street and had floor-to-ceiling windows that were not easily dimmed. To address this, we opted to use some brighter (3100 lumens) Epson 1060 home cinema projectors with Lightform LF so that intruding light at sunset wouldn’t present too much competition. Two-thirds of a long, bare wall running towards the window was soon covered top to bottom with a vinyl collage of black and white photos with some empty white rectangles. Like many commercial and industrial spaces in San Francisco, this building dated back to the 1930-40s and features large exposed redwood joists in the ceiling. Using Avenger baby plates and swivel joints, we mounted projectors out of sight by screwing them into the joist’s sides.
Two Epson 1060s with LFCs gave us enough coverage for projection mapping on the photo wall. The Magic Wand tool, in Lightform Creator, made picking out elements like brake lights and protest signs to highlight super easy. The empty white rectangles in the collage gave us the perfect areas to project archival film footage in color, a striking video presentation surrounded by still images.
The remaining section of empty wall space had a more mural-like vinyl decal covering it, a line drawing of a dove rendered after historic Woodstock artwork with the words Peace and Love. The black linework of the large vinyl decal sat atop a white background. This stark contrast made the selection of different inner sections of the dove a simple two-click operation with the Magic Wand tool. Filling in the voids with Lightform Creator’s trippiest, most colorful effects made the whole thing come to life, particularly after one of our engineers added a new tie-dye generator to Lightform Creator for us.
Two Epson 1060s with LFC projection mapping video and Lightform Creator Effects on vinyl.
The Nice Kicks crew knocked it out of the park, both in transforming the physical space, and making a whole line of products that were a natural fit for projected augmented reality. The Woodstock launch allowed us to showcase a few different ways of using Lightform for retail and events all at once, on photography, on products, bare walls, murals, neon signs, and more. The attention to set dressing details really gave Lightform a great starting point to take the whole scene to the next level, and for me, it reinforced that some of the most compelling projection mapping events benefit from paying just as much attention to the physical elements as the digital ones.
Lightform’s very own Tomato loves projection mapping and product launch events.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
As Halloween approaches and the boundaries between this world and the spirit world become thinner and thinner, you may be tempted to experiment with spells and pentagrams to summon all manner of demons and ghouls to bend to your will. This kind of powerful dark magic is a very specialized skill, unfortunately, but with Lightform you can join the ranks of centuries’ worth of magicians who have convinced a terrified public that ghosts haunt our world with Halloween projection mapping. Halloween helps mark the Vernal Equinox, halfway between the Summer and Winter Solstices in the Northern Hemisphere. As the nights grow longer, so too does the window for outdoor projection mapping. However there are plenty of effective indoor projections options also.
Scary Projections: Renaissance to Disneyland
Some of the earliest projected images were horrific, intended to scare audiences and convince them that what they were seeing was real. In 1420, over 100 years before the Magic Lantern existed, Italian renaissance inventors drew the projected figures of winged demons emanating from abstract contraptions. Many of the earliest illustrations of Magic Lanterns in use show projected demons, and the horror genre and projection arts have been closely intertwined ever since.
Projection Mapping and phantasmagoria are similarly connected. In fact, the very first projection mapping installation, Grim Grinning Ghosts at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, used 16mm film projection to selectively illuminate marble busts and create the illusion of ghoulish “living” faces. Like many special effects and optical illusions, projection mapping relies on using black backgrounds to mask out parts of a scene and selectively illuminate specific objects and surfaces. You can apply this technique much more easily with modern digital projectors and computer software like Lightform Creator, which allows you to quickly select your areas of illumination using a scan of your scene.
Making 21st Century Jack-o-lanterns with projection mapping.
Halloween Projection Mapping Ideas - Front Projection
If you have a marble bust lying around, you could recreate your own grim grinning ghosts, or you could use the same projection mapping technique on any Halloween decorations. Skeletons, skulls, and calaveras all react well to Lightform creator effects. Projection mapping a face on a pumpkin uses the same concept as Disney’s ghouls. You can make or find videos and gifs of animated jack-o-lantern faces with black backgrounds that will readily map to your gourd, but you can also draw your own design using Lightform Creator’s brush and pen tools, and add fire effects, or whatever new twist you’d like to add to your surface for a unique, customizable jack-o-lantern.
Ghosts and spiderwebs can make for some of the spookiest projections. Anything with delicate fibers will appear to glow as light penetrates further into them than with a solid surface. This diaphanous quality can be used to great advantage with an ethereal subject, such as a ghost. However, when projection mapping a ghoul’s shroud, you will want to immobilize your subject as much as possible to keep the mapping accurate.
Ghosts on Ghosts
Halloween Projection Mapping Ideas - Rear Projection
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion also used another much older trick to create the illusion of spirits and apparitions, which may be useful in your own haunted house. Pepper’s Ghost appeared in theatres in 1862, but previous versions of the trick existed in rougher forms well before then. It can be done in a few configurations. The basic setup involves a sheet of glass positioned at the correct angle to appear transparent from the audience’s perspective while reflecting a second scene from a side room towards the audience when the side room is illuminated. The result is the appearance of a transparent “ghost” image on the main stage. If you’ve ever seen a reflection on a window appear superimposed over the real world on the other side of the glass, the concept is the same, just with controlled lighting design.
A Pepper’s Ghost Illusion configured to reflect from the orchestra pit.
This trick is still done traditionally using glass today. Still it has evolved with projection technology. There are a wide range of projection scrims and “holographic screens” designed specifically for creating a Pepper’s Ghost illusion with digital projectors serving as the original side room. Some of the most well-known deceased entertainment figures of our time have been called back to this world at high-profile events in the past decade using large event venue projectors and the largest and most expensive of these special screens. While they are often referred to as holograms, in truth, it’s a projected Pepper’s Ghost that put Tupac, Michael Jackson, and others back onstage with the living.
Rear projection is very similar to the modern Pepper’s Ghost but more straightforward. Instead of projecting towards an angled scrim from the side, the projector is positioned behind a screen to illuminate it from the rear. Rear projection is a great technique to use on windows. Since your window is a rectangular frame anyway, you don’t necessarily have to worry about having a black background in your video assets. If you want to turn your window into a portal to a scene of unspeakable horror instead of using it to conjure spectral apparitions, the window frame will help establish that context.
Any relatively sheer curtain, or a stretched sheet, can be a suitable rear projection screen. There are several window films and treatments specifically designed to turn glass into a projection surface. These window films provide greater visual clarity and better light transmission. This approach is effective with videos of, say, hands desperately clawing to escape, blood splattering against the inside of your windows, or a scene of witches and werewolves silhouetted against a full moon, for example. The point is to have fun with it and maybe make your neighbors reconsider their housing choices. You may want to position your projector at a slight angle to prevent glare from your projector lens from interfering with the illusion. As that angle changes, you’ll see the window frame in your scan appear to skew. To make sure your content is not distorted, you can corner pin your rectangular videos to the window frame using Lightform Creator’s structure tool.
If your projector can produce a frame large enough to cover the whole area, you might consider projection mapping your entire house for Halloween, or maybe just a section of it. If this is the approach you’re thinking about, make sure you have a safe place to put your projector to protect it from the elements. If it’s going to be outside, a projector enclosure is a great way to protect your gear. Pulling the curtains closed during your scan will give you a better scan result, as well as another surface to project on if you’re not using them as rear projection screens. You’ll also probably want to adjust the perspective of any video assets you use in your projection mapping show to align to the architecture, just like with the window scenario we just described.
Interactivity with OSC Triggers
Now, all of these techniques are great for creating spooky projections for Halloween, but whether you’re projection mapping for the trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood or you’re designing a haunted house, keep in mind that some of the best scares are born of surprise. If you want to bring some interactivity to your horror show, OSC triggers can help you increase the fear factor. If you have a blank looping slide in your Creator project, it will play indefinitely without any input to advance. With OSC triggers, you can use a motion sensor to turn on your frightening light show at just the right moment to send passersby running for their lives and then reset to the blank slide and let your automated system wait for the next unwitting victim.
What Will You Create?
While the threshold between our world and the liminal spirit world only blurs during Halloween, with the evolution of projection technology, the boundaries between our imagination and our ability to create get continually thinner. Hopefully, we’ve given you some new ideas for Halloween projection mapping projects and how to use projection mapping for your holiday displays this season, and maybe (once you clean up the viscera), you’ll have some ideas for the holiday season ahead. Happy haunting, and be sure to share your Halloween projections in the comments below.
Author’s Note: the author is not a psychopath, his parents were married on Halloween. Perhaps they are the psychopaths.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
As people are ramping up creative decorating for the Halloween season, users from the Lightform community have utilized the LFC Kit for Halloween projection mapping projects. Indoor and outdoor scenes are being taken to the next level as part of neighborhood and office competitions. From entertaining little ones next door to hosting socially distanced holiday gatherings, find inspiration for your next Halloween lighting project from Lightform users using projection mapping to transform interior and exterior spaces into Halloween spectaculars.
Halloween Projection Mapping On A House
House mapping has proven to be a popular approach to decorating for the holidays. Projection mapping is a fun and fresh way to light up an entire outdoor region with Halloween scenes. Daniel Ioannou’s example of house projection mapping includes both his house and lawn to overlay his Halloween story.
Dans Haunted House by Daniel Ioannou.
Garage Mapping
Garages alone are a great projection mapping canvas for Halloween scenes. Visuals of fiery ghouls and skulls are accompanied by haunting music in this piece by Mark Hallett, who used his outdoor garage for projection mapping.
“I plan to incorporate Lightform…into a Pyromusical & Lightshow in the near future. I have been in the projection mapping world for a while now and can say [that] Lightform saves so much work, allowing more time for creativity. I love it!!” — Mark Hallett
Halloween section of Mark Hallett’s garage projection using Lightform.
DIY Halloween Props for Projecting
The use of smaller, handmade Halloween props and objects to display projections has proven quite popular. Mark Hallett’s project used scrap pieces of styrofoam to create his own haunted house-style window. In contrast, Julian Dorrell utilized a mannequin for his projection mapping project.
Haunted House Window by Mark Hallett
Mannequin by Julian Dorrell
Haunted House Interiors
Reminiscent of Disneyland’s Haunted mansion, Chris Sardinas’ Halloween scene leverages household furniture and Halloween props to design a haunted house with his LFC Kit. The scene includes a talking magic crystal ball, a shattering picture frame, and a monster grandfather clock. This scene exemplifies Halloween projection mapping magic.
“It’s a great product, been looking for something like this for a few years. In a couple more years everyone is gonna start having these things.” — Chris Sardinas
"Spooky Town" Diorama
Ryan Tuttle, used smaller scale Halloween props for a full-table diorama in his project called, “Spooky Town.” This year, he decided to add a little light to his town using a Lightform’s LFC Kit.
“Spooky Town” by Ryan Tuttle
Halloween projection mapping has transformed holiday lighting and decor, and it’s inspiring that Lightform LFC Kit has become part of this trend. The LFC has proven to be a critical part of our customer’s creative tool kit ideal for projects ranging from full-house projections to intricate indoor displays. For more Halloween inspiration and other holiday-centered projection mapping ideas, follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter. If you create a Halloween projection mapping installation share it with us in the comments.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
House mapping, using a projector in combination with image mapping software to illuminate a house, is a popular topic of Lightform customers. Our team is often asked “Can I map my house with Lightform?” and the answer is, “Yes, you can.” Lightform streamlines the process to create immersive displays to decorate your home and showcase your design skills.
In this blog post, we will discuss house mapping best practices and recommendations when using Lightform. Several Lightform customers have created noteworthy house mapping examples, using a variety of projectors across the spectrum of house sizes, that we’ll highlight below. Lastly, you’ll find useful resources and articles to help you create a successful house mapping experience of your own.
Which Lightform Unit To Use?
When it comes to projection mapping a house with Lightform, pairing the Lightform LFC Kit with a powerful projector is recommended. Utilizing a projector that will be bright enough to display projections from a distance is important to consider. This holds true for all large-scale projection-mapping installations. If curious to the differences between the LFC Kit and LF2 AR projector we recommend reading: Lightform LFC Kit vs. LF2 – Choosing the Right Tool for the Right Job.
House Mapping Tips & Recommendations
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House mapping by Joel Dittrich.
Bright (high-lumen) projectors are ideal to use with the LFC Kit for house mapping. A projector with a minimum of 3,000 lumens is a good starting point for a single-story house. A brighter projector >5,0000 lumens is recommended for projecting on larger homes.
What are Lumens?
Lumens are a unit that measures the total amount of visible light from a lamp or light source. Projector brightness is measured in lumens. The higher the lumen rating, the brighter the light source will appear. In short, more lumens equals more light. The official name for projector lumens is ANSI lumens (ANSI being short for American National Standards Institute.) As an example, home theatre projectors usually emanate between 1500-3000 lumens.
- Bright (high-lumen) projectors are ideal to use with the LFC Kit for house mapping. A projector with a minimum of 3,000 lumens is a good starting point for a single-story house. A brighter projector >5,0000 lumens is recommended for projecting on larger homes.
- An optimal position for the LFC Kit and projector is an important consideration when setting up your scene. There are a few things that will determine what that optimal position will be, or what projector will work best in your space.
- Dimensions of the area of the house you want to project onto should be measured. Keep in mind that the larger that area is, the more lumens you will need to achieve a bright projection. Similarly, the larger the area is, the larger the individual pixels will be in your projection, so you’ll want at least 1080p resolution, if not 4k, to maintain clarity and detail.
- Throw ratio and aspect ratio of the projector will help you determine the distance between your projector and your house to achieve the scale you want. Throw Ratio is the distance between the projector and the frame divided by the projected frame’s width.
Throw Ratio = Throw Distance / Image Width
The lower the throw ratio is, the closer the projector can be, the higher it is, the further the projector can be. LFC supports throw ratios between 0.5:1-2.0:1. The aspect ratio is the relation of the projected frame’s width to the projected frame’s height. The majority of projectors have an aspect ratio of 16:9, like a widescreen monitor or TV, but some have 4:3 aspect ratios. If your house is close to being as tall as it is wide, a 4:3 aspect ratio might be useful. - Throw distances and focal ranges are listed by projector manufacturers to help you determine where they can be positioned while calculating screen size. Like a camera lens, projector lenses cannot focus on everything at once. The throw distance will tell you how close and how far the limits of that focus will be. Unlike camera lenses, some projector lenses don’t focus to infinity, and there will be a maximum distance they can be before creating a blurry picture. The focal range will tell you how wide the area will be in focus at any given time. If your projector has a wider focal range, it will provide greater flexibility when placing your projector at an angle, allowing you to keep focus through a larger section of your projection’s entire depth.
- The alignment of the LFC Kit camera and the projector lens is an important part of any setup. The LFC camera must be able to see and properly focus on the entire subject. To get the best scan results, reference our Guide article Getting a Good Scan. Having a good scan of your house will make it easier to choose different surfaces and insert effects on the different areas in your scene.
Add Custom Animations & Video Loops
- Custom animations are supported including those generated with After Effects. To use custom animations render them to video and import them into Lightform Creator.
- Custom video loops can be downloaded and combined with the effects in Lightform Creator’s built-in library to create a memorable show. Customers have reported success using content on websites like pixabay or MotionLoops to create their custom loops.
How to Add Custom Content with Lightform Creator
An ideal way to create unique Halloween and Holiday projections.
Environmental Conditions
Cabin projections A-Frame by John Meehan. Made with LFC Kit + a Panasonic PT-VX500U (5,000 lumens)
Weather should be accounted for to ensure a positive experience when projecting outdoors. Lightform devices, like most projectors, are not waterproof. We advise caution when using them outside and we recommend taking safeguards to protect them. Projector enclosures are an option to protect your devices. If using an enclosure be sure there is proper ventilation for both the LFC Kit and the projector. The ideal operating temperature for the LFC is between 32°F – 86°F (0°C – 30°C).
The amount of light, whether from the sun or artificial lighting, can negatively impact the quality of the projection on a scene. Projecting in bright daylight or direct sunlight is not recommended. To get the best results wait for lower light levels during early evening hours or at night time. Keep an eye out for street lights as they might create unwanted shadows in your scene.
Beyond House Mapping Examples
The following examples highlight additional opportunities beyond house mapping, including projects covering gardens, terraces, pool houses, and more.
Mapping the Trees
Daelen Cory from L’Esperance Design used six LFC Kits to transform this client’s property into a mystical wonderland by mapping the trees and the grass around the house.
Pool House Mapping
Taylor Henson decided to turn his pool house into a cool house with projected AR and some funky mind-bending effects.
Mapping The Rose Garden
Luke Lee is a maker at Fusiform Design Workshop LLC. Before shelter in place started, he made sure to bring all the Lightform gear back to his house so he could map his rose garden.
What Will You Create?
With these best practices and recommendations, you should have an easier time house mapping and creating your own projected light-show. We look forward to seeing how you wow your audience and invite you to share house mapping experiences in the comments below.
If you’re on social media don’t hesitate to tag your videos #lightformcreations on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to have your work spotlighted on our blog and social accounts.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business and is no longer providing technical support for the product. Please refer to the Lightform Guide and FAQ for self-help resources.
What is Lightform Labs?
Lightform Labs is an extension of Lightform Creator that includes beta, and experimental features. As our team develops new features and functionality, we make some of them available without support as they’re being developed or tested. Lightform Labs has always been a part of Lightform Creator and many features that are now core elements of Lightform Creator started off as Labs only features such as blend modes and asset transform properties. While features in Lightform Labs are unsupported, we welcome bug reports and feedback, to help us continue to build the best software for projection mapping.
How to Access Lightform Labs
To enable Lightform Labs within Lightform Creator, click Help > Enable Labs. When Labs is enabled you will see the icon in the top-right corner of Creator.
What You Can Do in Lightform Labs
Once Lightform Labs is enabled, new controls and settings will be revealed in different parts of Lightform Creator. On a high level, this includes changes to the following areas of Lightform Creator:
- Labs Menu
- Control Page
- Asset Properties
- Surface Properties
Some of the Labs features allow for advanced capabilities such as making effects reactive to sound over Open Sound Control (OSC). We have also documented the full list of features with descriptions on the Lightform Guide.
Lightform Labs & You
Lightform Labs is a great resource for Lightform users to experiment and take projects to the next level. If you have feedback about Lightform Labs features contact us (include link). We’re eager to see how you use Lightform labs in your projects and invite you to share your projects in the comments section below.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business. The final release of Lightform Creator removes functionality that relies on Lightform Cloud (beta), including the ability to log in to Lightform Creator, search the Stock Asset catalog for new assets, and use IFTTT. Read more about the Lightform sunset announcement here.
Lightform OSC Interactivity
The possibilities of what you can do with your Lightform are infinite when you add interactivity into your projects with Open Sound Control (OSC). Lightform devices can be configured to respond to changes in their environment and be controlled by external devices. The communication protocol that Lightform supports is OSC. In this post, we will explore Lightform OSC interactivity: what OSC is and how it works in conjunction with Lightform.
Open Sound Control (OSC)
Open Sound Control is a protocol that was originally developed for communication between synthesizers, musical instruments, and other multimedia devices but has transformed into a popular tool for interactive installations, particularly as an alternative for MIDI. There are many advantages to using OSC such as increased flexibility, interoperability and accuracy.
OSC can be used with Lightform in a number of ways such as to advance slides and trigger other playback controls, and manipulate effects and generators. OSC allows for another device or program to send data to Lightform Creator over a wireless network.
Choosing which OSC program to use depends on what you’re trying to do. The Lightform Guide includes some use cases about interactivity with OSC that might help you find what you’re looking for.
How does OSC work with Lightform
Have you noticed Open Sound Control settings on the Control page in Lightform Creator?
This is where you can decide how to map your OSC controls and watch your project update in realtime. Before you can make effects reactive through OSC, you have to make sure that Labs is enabled and the effect or generator is Live. This OSC Controls article on the Lightform Guide goes over the configuration and set up in Lightform Creator so you can start using OSC.
Lightform OSC Interactivity Examples
Audio Reactive Visuals
Sound2Light is a program that uses your computer’s microphone to analyze incoming sound which you can use to map to your Lightform project to make media that is reactive to sound. This is a video of Lightform user, Taylor Henson, using Sound2Light to project on posters.
Vezer is a timeline-based sequencer that can send OSC commands to Lightform based on the sound input. Similar to Sound2Light, you can load a song into Vezer and have Lightform media synchronize and react to it.
If you want to produce your own music and link it with your Lightform project, Ableton Lite is a great option as it allows you to send OSC commands from what you create. While this is a more advanced workflow than Vezer and Sound2Light, it also provides the most customization.
In this below, Lightform and OSC were used to project audio-reactive visuals on the wall of a dance studio by one of our customers.
OSC Controllers
Designed by the game company, Elgato, Stream Deck is a customizable hardware controller that can be used to interact with your Lightform project. By mapping the LCD keys through OSC, you can trigger content on the fly like switch slides and launch effects. The customizable visual design of this controller makes it a fun and easy to use hardware accessory.
Commonly used during interactive installations or live performances, TouchOSC allows you to build touch interfaces on a phone or tablet that lets you send and receive OSC messages that enable you to control your live Lightform project remotely.
For those that prefer command-line tools, sendosc is a good tried and tested option that can be used to control any type of supported OSC property on Lightform Creator. Though the learning curve is higher, the amount of control sendosc gives you is worth the learning.
Alexa
You can use voice assistant commands on devices like Alexa to control your Lightform device through If This Then That, also known as IFTTT. When you make an account with IFTTT, you can design ways for your devices and apps to communicate with each other. One clever example is when our Product Engineer, Christophe, used his Alexa and Lightform to change the scene and make fireworks appear on framed art hanging in his house.
These are only some ways to leverage Lightform OSC interactivity. We are actively trying out new OSC integrations to use with Lightform devices and adding them to our Guide with more tutorials. If you’re using OSC in your Lightform projects, we invite you to share it with us! Tell us about your project and include a video link in the comments below.
Note:
As of August 12th, 2022, Lightform is no longer in business. The final release of Lightform Creator removes functionality that relies on Lightform Cloud (beta), including the ability to log in to Lightform Creator, search the Stock Asset catalog for new assets, and use IFTTT. Read more about the Lightform sunset announcement here.