Painting with Light Creates Projection Art at Bokrijk

Genk, Belgium-based creative lighting and visual design specialist Painting with Light has created a 3-D mapped projection artwork for the Hangar 58 event space at Bokrijk in Limburg, one of the region's most important historical landmarks and a popular open air museum.

The permanently installed show was the brainchild of Hanger 58's owner Wim Grommers, who approached Painting with Light's Luc Peumans to create storyboards, video artwork, and a library of standard content to be made available to various clients renting the space, with custom material available on request.

He wanted something spectacular and eye-catching to set the venue apart and add value to the events hosted there.

The idea is that guests can view the show through the large glass walls of the modern Hanger 58 in the winter and enjoy the large format show standing outside in the summer evenings.

When running, the projection images measure approximately 40m long and 20m tall. They cover a series of different shaped buildings set at 90° to one another in one of the historical villages replicated at Bokrijk.

Peumans was delighted to be involved, "It's great to see someone with the foresight and imagination to invest in a show like this and of course I am extremely proud that it's happening in my home town and base of Genk, continuing the creative spirit of the area with a new technical direction."

Painting with Light undertook a complete 3-D scan of the building facades before creating the multi-million pixel "map" and then Peumans and his team, including Bart Tauwenberg from New Solid, started work on the content.

The shows, lasting between 5 and 10 minutes, precisely match the lines of the buildings.

"Having the two separate surfaces offers great possibilities to split the images and tell the story with contrasting and complimentary images" explained Peumans, 'And while that presents a challenge to get the harmony between the two elements just right, it's also great to be able have a dual narrative running."

Peumans specified a d3 4x2 pro media server which stores and runs the content, mapping it millimetre-perfect to the buildings. He chose d3 for its renowned mapping capabilities and also because they could take advantage of its inbuilt 3d visualizer -- one of a number of integrated workflow tools offered by the platform -- to present an accurate replication of the proposed finished product for sign off by the client.

Luc commissioned Jo Pauly and Michel Stroobants from Visual Solutions to complete the d3 media server programming and projector alignment.

The projections are fed by two Digital Projection (DP) Titan Quartz 20K machines which were delivered by FACE (Foundation for Audio-Visual Commerce Engineering) who are based in Boom, Belgium, and a d3 reseller for Benelux. Both projectors are located inside Hangar 58, one pointing directly at one set of building surfaces and the other firing across at a 45° angle.

The initial "library" shows that Peumans and the team have produced feature sections which can easily be customized to include sequences and images specific to a client. Alternatively, completely bespoke artwork can be produced from scratch if required.

The projection installation has immediately been a hit with individuals and organizations organizing events in Hanger 58, and is proving a highly flexible solution for their clients to make their shows stand-out.

The first custom movie produced was for Unizo Limburg, the local branch of the Union of Independent Entrepreneurs which represents around 85,000 self-employed business people, SMEs, and professionals from all sectors in Flanders and Brussels.

Custom content was produced for Daily Fresh Logistics, ING banking, as well as special shows for the Christmas period and New Year celebrations, which also saw VJs hooking into the system playing their own effects and content across the mapped area with great results.