Stage Designs

Throwback: Vid Grid

John Tabor with the  Dare 2 Share Tour brings us this cool, grid wall featuring mapped projection. (Originally posted April 2013)

They stacked a whole bunch of 3ftx3ft cardboard boxes. Jesse Ralph and David Prensner worked on video mapping through the whole conference. That allowed them to use the boxes as a whole wall or separate individual squares for some really cool effects.

The lighting design was made to accent the video boxes and not blow them away.

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Church in the Round Folded Over Me

27 responses to “Throwback: Vid Grid”

  1. James Norden says:

    Great idea! How many projectors did you use and what software was used for the mapping?
    Thanks,
    James

  2. Mark Manley says:

    This is such a great idea! By having identical cubes, it becomes easy to map, and changing to a new mapping is fast. Well done – i’m inspired to do some mapping even more now.

  3. Dillon says:

    This is genius! Would love to know as well what projectors you had hooked up for this. Fantastic job!

  4. KIRSTEN B. says:

    Awesome! We love this idea! It looks like the boxes are thin, about 1 foot deep, correct?
    Did you have to secure the boxes together somehow?
    And in some of the last photos it looks like you maybe hung several more boxes above the box pyramid, is that right?
    Very cool!

  5. ~ James Norden – We used 2 projectors on this one. VDMX and madmapper were used to drive the display.

    ~ Kirsten B. – Boxes are all 3x3ft cubes. The squares that are floating above are 4ft panels.

    • jana buzbee says:

      Hi David, we are absolutely loving the possibility of doing something similar at our church. A couple questions…

      How did you attach the boxes??

      Can you give me an idea of the dimensions of what you have created with the cubes on the stage?

      You said you only used two projectors…did you have to use an additional projector for the floating pannels?

      Can you tell me what fabric is on the cubes?

      Thank you soooo much!!!

      jana buzbee

      • Jana,

        The boxes here are about 33ft wide. They are 3ft cubes. Just basic white shipping boxes, no cloth over them.

        Yes, just 2 projectors for all of it including the panels up top.

        Does that help?

        • jana buzbee says:

          Yes, thank you David!! One last question, as I am a novice… I assume this is rear projection?

          jb

        • jana buzbee says:

          Oh, and how did you attach the boxes to each other so they didn’t tumble down?

          • No it’s all front projection, that’s where all the projection mapping comes into play.. They are just regular boxes not attached, just sitting on top of each other. Didn’t have any problem with them falling over.

  6. James Norden says:

    Thanks David for the info.

  7. I love that video boxes. At first I thought it was a video wall until I read the description. Great low cost way to get a high production value effect.

  8. This looks great. Can you post a little more detail about the video set up?

    • Sure, what all are you wanting to know?

      • I’ve been looking at ideas to achieve a similar result for a show this summer, but this looks much more cost effective than anything I’ve looked at. Are you doing edge blending with the 2 projectors? Using the 2 software packages for VJ and video mapping, are they running on the same computer? Just looking for more detail on the hardware/software set up. I’m a sound guy and am new to the video arena…

        • We didn’t end up needing to do edge blending here because of the precision you can get with mapping. Though you could do edge blending if you needed it. It was all running off 1 computer outputting to a Matrox Dualhead2go. Then ran 2 separate lines to the projectors. Feel free to email me if you are needing any help figuring out some creative video possibilities for your event this summer. That’s what I do :)

  9. Herb says:

    David, awesome work and great look!
    what kind of projector did you use?

  10. For those of you interested, here is a time-lapse of the mapping being setup and adjusted.

    https://vimeo.com/66070010

  11. Larry Marshall says:

    Great look. Where did you find the best deal on your boxes?

  12. Jodi Mueller says:

    Is there anyway you can post a link to the boxes? I’m looking everywhere and can’t seem to find them. I even emailed ULine and they said they don’t sell them. The largest they have is 2 feet. Maybe I’m not understanding the sizing right.

    • Yeah, they don’t carry them any more. We have used 2’x2’x2′ boxes in other stage designs. And they work just as well. As far as I know they still carried those.

  13. Jeremy Luchow says:

    Hi David, this is an absolutely awesome setup. Can I ask did you have the projectors mounted close to the stage, as I noticed there was no shadows or display going on people as they stand in front of the screen?

  14. moses says:

    Hello David you said this is what you do, kindly can you teach me to do the same?

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