garageCube

Hi MadMappers,

I'm doing my first project with MadMapper and I have a question.

The installation is a 3 side pyramid (you can see the small render in the attachement photo),
and under this pyramid their will be "logs" (thin rectangles).

I will be projecting graphics on the 3 surfaces of the pyramid and text on the thin rectangles.

My problem is I'm having a hard time mapping the text part, I'm not sure I have the right workflow.
I'm using 3 triangles surfaces in madmapper for the 3 sides, that is ok, but when I try to map the long
rectangle you see in the attachment photo with a rectangle surface it stretch my text. Whatever I do
its always poor quality...

Did you ever face this problem, or have you ever mapped text before.. ?
Any advice is welcome !

Thanks

I think your problem will be a RESOLUTION one.

Are you mapping this all off 1 projector??

If so, each individual log, will actually only be a small percentage of the overall native projector resolution, and as such might look small.

It may be worth having a set up where you utilise a MatroxTripleHead2Go card and use 3 projectors to map the surface and the "logs" - this would allow for a lot more spare pixels and therefore better resolution text.

Can you tell us what current PROJECTOR/WORKPLACE resolutions etc etc you are using?

Many thanks

PHIL

Hi Phil, thanks for replying,

Yes I'm using only one projector. It will be a Sanyo 3800 lumen HD projector.
It will either be connected to a mac mini or a macbook pro using miniDisplay Port to HDMI.

Its for a school project, so I'm borrowing equipement from university, and since its our
final expo, everything is already booked so I have to deal with only one projector if possible.

I tested the projector yesterday with a VGA output, that gave me a max resolution of 1280x800.
I just noticed this morning that it was HDMI so I pluged it and in the display status bar at the
top right of mac os x where you change screen resolution, it was 1080p. Its the first time I see
this so I'm not sure if it exactly 1920x1080 but it looked like it.

So I would be playing with this resolution.
What I have on the 3 pyramid sides is just shapes so I don't mind giving less space for them
and more to the text, but even then it seems that the minimum text size is 14, which gives
me text of around 1 1/2 inch height (my projector will be 10feet away). Its too big for my needs.
I also noticed that it was clearer to have darker text on brighter background than the opposite.

I'm kind of screwed right ?

Hmm.... doing 3 sides of a surface off one projector is quite tricky.. Are you angling from above then, or how do you manage to cover all surfaces..

I would definitely try and think about a dual or triple option - otherwise maybe it may cause concerns

You could also remember that MADMAPPER can have two licences so maybe try and run two instances off two laptips, each running their own projector.

1 for the pyramid and one for the text.

Keep us posted

PHIL

Just posting a kick sketch of the installation so you can better visualize it.

Two computer with two projector is not a bad idea, but do you think it will really make a difference ?
And I would have a problem of overlapping each other since both projectors have to project
from the center top..

Lets say I have 1920x1080 pixel to play with.
Lets say I "place" all my element like in this sketch attached... (it can probably be better place but just for the sake of the discussion).

The triangle doesn't take that much space...

I'm thinking, if I can reduce the distance between the installation and the projector, the pixel will be smaller, thus a better quality...
The projector would hang over the installation a bit lower, so we it wont be "hidden" but if the quality is better than maybe its a workaround...

Maybe one projector doing 1 face of the pyramid and 4 logs and another doing the remaining 2 faces and the other 4 logs

Projectors would be lower, i admit, but brighter and more pixel coverage

Worth thinking about

Ta

PHIL