[Haunted Neurons]

I tried my hand at video mapping to the front of my house this year. Turned it into an old weathered house as a backdrop to my graveyard. The actual projection picture is a captured video frame so doesn't look as good as it does in person. The first picture is the graphic I created in Photoshop, the second is the house its projected on having the shutters prepped with custom covers, you can see the projector booth in the lower left corner, and the last is what the projection looks like.

Actually had a guy ask if I painted my house like that just for Halloween, I had to point out the projector setup.

Learned some lessons from doing it and intend to add ghostly animations in the windows and bats flying by and things like that for next year.

 

[Abunai]

Wow.
Incredible effect.
Good job.

 

[theundeadofnight]

That looks amazing . I like how you whited out your shutters for the projection . How long did it take you to trace the shapes of your house ? Were you using fog , did it soften the effect ? Bet it looked incredible in person .

Tom

 

[LT Scare]

Very, very cool!! I'm impressed. However, if you put any props or decorations up it would break up the image. Maybe you could someone hanging in a window thrashing his arms around. You could have a Zombie climbing into a window on the bottom floor. Have a hatchet suddenly stick in the front door and have blood dripping down the door from the hatchet. You could place a dummy dressed in all white with a blank white head standing on the porch against a wall and do anything you want with him - even have him morph from normal into a zombie or from normal into a werewolf.

Very cool base from which to start.

 

[StanFam3]

That is amazing!!! Wow!

 

[Defenestrator]

Fantastic...I love it.

 

[Rumsfield]

Oh man that is really cool. I never knew such a thing could be done..
Jeeze in a way I wish I had not seen this as I have been using Halloween for years not to re-side our house.

 

[captpete]

Really cool! This gives me some ideas for sure. Hmmm....
If the projector was up high it would be less likely that the image would be blocked by people or objects.
Once you have the basic mapping, the sky is the limit as far as what you can do. The house could turn old, change colors, etc.
Pete

 

[Haunted Neurons]

Thanks for the comments!

How long did it take you to trace the shapes of your house ? Were you using fog , did it soften the effect ?

Tracing all the shapes was about an hour or so. Setting up the projector so I could put it back exactly the same so the shapes lined up again was a pain. I did use fog and it didn't soften the effect as only light amounts passed in front of the projector, but what it did do was reveal the projector beam very prominately which I did not like.

if you put any props or decorations up it would break up the image.......You could place a dummy dressed in all white with a blank white head standing on the porch against a wall and do anything you want with him - even have him morph from normal into a zombie or from normal into a werewolf.

Yes putting anything on the porch during the projection would not look right. So I have decorations for daytime viewing and take them off the porch on Halloween night so I can do the projection. No one goes up to the door on Halloween, all the action is at the end of my driveway with a Magic Mirror set up so props on the porch are not needed, besides I could create the props digitally if I needed and that would look better.

I really like your idea of a dummy with a white head and changing the projection on the head to different characters. Although mapping out a non-geometric shape might be a pain. Especially on something that might change its shape after being stored and touched. The house never moves so each year I can reuse what I made with no adjustments.

 

[Evil Elf]

I also never would have thought of that. It just looks more convincing than I would have guessed, although you're probably using a very nice, very expensive projector. I hope to see it when you add animation to it!

 

[keithcorcoran]

would love to do this but would need to build a climate controlled projector booth so i could leave it out and running all month every night. no way i would be happy only having that for 1 night... it's too cool!

now, what are your projector specs?

 

[Haunted Neurons]

The projector was expensive in its day, close to $5,000, but that was back in 2008. I got it for about $200 off of eBay earlier this year. There are a couple on there right now for under $100. Probably sells so cheaply because its big, not something you set up in the living room for movie night. But I will never try to use it for that so it works perfect for me.

Its a Sharp XG-PH50X, Has 4000 lumens, provided by two lamps, 1024 x 768 native resolution, and was used in conference rooms. Its been out of production since 2008. Here is a link to the projector info. http://www.projectorcentral.com/Sharp-XG-PH50X.htm

I want to make the projector booth robust like you commented keithcorcoran, I would like to have it running a few weeks before Halloween with the animations going. But like you said need it to be protected from the elements and also locked down so it doesn't grow legs. I did run it a few random nights before Halloween but with close supervision and an eye on the weather.

 

[captpete]

Depending on your set up, you could put it in the window of a vehicle to keep it out of the weather and protected from theft.

The projector was expensive in its day, close to $5,000, but that was back in 2008. I got it for about $200 off of eBay earlier this year. There are a couple on there right now for under $100. Probably sells so cheaply because its big, not something you set up in the living room for movie night. But I will never try to use it for that so it works perfect for me.

Its a Sharp XG-PH50X, Has 4000 lumens, provided by two lamps, 1024 x 768 native resolution, and was used in conference rooms. Its been out of production since 2008. Here is a link to the projector info. http://www.projectorcentral.com/Sharp-XG-PH50X.htm

I want to make the projector booth robust like you commented keithcorcoran, I would like to have it running a few weeks before Halloween with the animations going. But like you said need it to be protected from the elements and also locked down so it doesn't grow legs. I did run it a few random nights before Halloween but with close supervision and an eye on the weather.

 

[DaveintheGrave]

Wow, that looks absolutely FANTASTIC! Now I know why you call yourself Haunted Neurons. LOL

Great idea and execution!

 

[captpete]

http://bateshaunt.com/

Dave Bates has been doing this for a few years now.
Pete

 

[Dminor]

Nicely done. I was given the same projector by a friend in the A/V field and have been trying to figure out what to use it on...

 

[weeping angel]

WOW!!! That looks FANTASTIC!!! Can't wait to see what you do for next year!

 

[oaklawn Crematory]

OMG! That is just awesome ! How SMRT of you to pull that off!

 

[Col. Fryght]

Absolutely unbelievable !!!! I would have never thought that it would look that cool. I have seen images/characters projected on homes, but never a totally creepy facade.

 

[victor-eyd]

So original! I love this use of projection bombing taken on a halloween level. Its great that you have the throw distance for such a large image. I guess for future use now that you have the exact location for your projection would be animation. If you don't want to mess with the original image consider a second projector with your animated image (ghosts, people, zombies, etc.) in front of a black background and point it the house at the same time. You could get away with using a dvd player instead of your laptop.

Again, well done!

Victor