To celebrate the wedding of Sarah Miskoff and David Fernandez, I created an installation that allowed attendees construct portraits of the couple in real time on projection mapped canvases. Using Kinect depth cameras, the canvases were essentially turned into touch devices, reacting to taps and swipes like any touchscreen but with the rich tactile experience of working on a painter's canvas.
Projected canvases containing line drawings of the couple are first seen to drop down onto the physical canvases. Users can then drag their hands over the canvas to fill the line drawings with rich textured colors that resemble oil paintings. Once one of the two canvases fill with color, the painting grows an ornate frame around it and hangs itself in the central region of the projection for display by other users or waits in a queue for the central painting to be cleared.
Completed paintings at the center are then seen to "crack" and begin to fall apart. By smashing one of the giant red buttons at the peripheral, users can blow away the cracked shards of the painting to reveal an actual photograph of the couple. The photograph then hangs, in its ornate frame at the center until it moves to make way for the next painting in the queue.
Due to space considerations, the entire installation was built to be modular and will install with only a few hours of prior access to the venue. Cameras are integrated into the canvas frames which allows them to maintain their mapping even when canvases are moved. The short throw projector is mounted to a 10 foot tower that eliminates the need for ceiling mounts at non-cooperative venues. The projector tower also serves as storage for the system's computer.
Created with OpenFrameworks/C++, GLSL, OpenCV and XBox Kinect.
Two canvas painting stations central portrait display area and two buttons
Color is filled in to mimic an oil painted texture
Paint spreads and drips over canvas as if it were liquid
Freshly painted portraits begin to break until a button is pushed
Buttons clear away the shards of painting and reveal actual photographs of the couple.
Photograph with frame remain in central location until the next painting is completed.