HORIZON See the event before the doors open.
A ballroom, a stage, a shared picture. A fictional gala rendered from a floor plan, so the people planning it can argue about sightlines before anything is built.
Living Paintings Give an old picture a pulse.
The idea
A projected painting that breathes holds a room in a way a print cannot. The brief was ten loops, each one a Renaissance painting with just enough motion to feel alive, delivered so that one iPad and one projector can run a wall for a whole evening without anyone watching over it.
The approach
Each loop starts from a high-resolution scan of a public-domain painting. Generated motion is directed region by region, judged by eye, upscaled, and joined into a seamless loop. The loops play through Easel, a projection-mapping player John built for this: corner-pin and mesh warping, soft edges and masks, gapless looping, a soundtrack, and a show mode that restarts itself if anything stalls.
The role
John Collins directed the animation studies, finished the loops and wrote the player software. The paintings are by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Domenico Ghirlandaio and are out of copyright.
See it in motion.
Nothing plays until you press play. The films are silent unless marked.
What this study shows
Ten projection-ready loops with editing masters, and the player that maps and runs them.
Concept study shown here with three of the ten loops. Generated motion is illustrative and approximate; the paintings themselves are the artists’ work. Projector, color and sustained-playback checks belong to each installation.
Animation studies, finishing and the Easel player by John Collins. Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Domenico Ghirlandaio, public domain.
Imagine what we could make together.
A place, a story, a possibility. Let’s find its form.