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This projection-mapped Christmas tree is the Tannenbaum

FrontFX Magazine

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If you want to put out the bare minimum of decorating effort, you can buy pre-lit Christmas trees. They’ve already been strung with lights, and all you have to do is hang the handmade ornaments you’ve had since grade school. Or you can buy a fake fir with chintzy balls and tinsel already adorned. Brazil studio Ambos took a more high-tech approach to decking out its tree: projection mapping.

Think of the projector you have in your conference room. While it projects images on a screen, with projection mapping, that same device is used on a non-flat surface — like at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride, which projects images on fake heads to make them look alive. To make its projection-mapped Christmas tree, Ambos digitally rendered a tree in 3D, created the projections on a screen, then projected the images onto an actual tree, according to Fast Co. Considering how obsessed my cat is with ornaments, I can see the appeal, but then again, he may take a projection-mapped tree as his own personal laser light show to pounce upon.

Projection mapping is often used to temporarily transform buildings, too. Earlier this year, the Sydney Opera House invited several artists to project animations on its iconic facade. It’s typically a CGI-heavy display, but Universal Everything took a different approach with hand-drawn animations.

“In contrast to previous years’ artists’ use of advanced CGI, our analog, handmade animation process reveals a human soul in the drawings,” Universal Everything Founder Matt Pyke said in a press release. “Due to the use of traditional animation techniques, this film could have existed in 1920, albeit with a 21st-century twist — bringing our influences of global pop culture, modernist graphics, and physics simulations into a playful exploration of this iconic building.”

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AV Projects

The Sharjah Light Festival is back with 11 nights of colourful displays

FrontFX Magazine

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The festival kicks off next month

There’s a dazzling projection art event coming to Sharjah.

Sharjah Light Festival is returning for 2022 with 11 nights of colourful projections and music. If this year is anything like previous festivals, our eyes are in for a treat.

The colourful festival is the first and only of its kind in the region and has been running for over ten years. It attracts thousands of visitors to up to 20 locations in Sharjah each year. The designs are inspired by local culture, stories and traditions.

The 2022 Sharjah Light Festival goes from February 9 to February 20 and is organized by the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority.

The festival brings a kaleidoscope of creative lights and colour to Sharjah’s architecture. Diverse locations are featured during the annual show, with light and sound spectacles that transform them. (Have your camera ready.) The festival uses energy-saving lighting technology and all the lights and projectors used have passed certification for environmental compliance.

The Sharjah Light Festival also showcases the emirate’s rich heritage and historical monuments. Local and international artists, musicians and light technicians collaborate to showcase the emirate’s achievements.
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