GUANGZHOU, China – The fourth annual Guangzhou International Light Festival ranked among the world’s largest visual and lighting spectaculars, seen by as many as 8 million. French multimedia design firm Danny Rose added to the visual spectacle with Play Me!, an interactive and immersive 3D architectural projection mapping experience. The event ran every evening from Nov. 15-30, 2014.
More details from Danny Rose (www.dannyrose.fr):
Play Me! transformed the façade of a traditional style Cantonese Qilong building constructed for the Festival and centered on a kilometer long esplanade in the Flower City, the largest public space in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province, South China.
This was the first year that Danny Rose has presented their artwork at the Guangzhou International Light Festival. Danny Rose specialises in interactive multimedia and architectural projection mapping content and services to light festivals globally, including the multi-award winning Vivid Sydney.
“The first day of the event welcomed over a million visitors. The entire public space in front of Play Me! was packed out by excited audiences,” said Sergio Carrubba, director and designer of Danny Rose, the design team for this project.
Play Me! engages Canton audiences
“A festival highlight, Play Me! from Danny Rose incorporated local Canton themedvisual and interactive elements through a series of massive ‘musical sculptures,” said Sergio Carrubba, director and designer of Danny Rose.
“Each ‘sculpture’ represented a family of musical instruments, which the audience ‘play’ in real-time just using hands and body. The audience was able to change colour, light shape and sound in front of festival-goers.”
Ultra high-resolution projectors were used to project content onto the custom-built façade of a traditional Qilong building.
Play Me! was made possible using powerful 3D real-time software and rendering engine that manages interactivity and high-quality interactive graphics.
A Microsoft® Kinect motion capture system intercepted the body’s movements. Danny Rose custom created a special software that allowed for the audience to interact with Play Me! just using a combination of hand and body movements.
Birds eye view!
Crossover + Canton
This event was themed ‘Crossover + Canton’ that took visitors on a journey through traditional to modern themes.
The event is the largest light festival in China and is organized by Ruifeng Culture and Communication Company and presented by The People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality.
Wang Ruixiang,Festival Director said: “We were delighted to welcome Danny Rose as a guest artist. Play Me! masters a simple and interactive urban interpretation of Guangzhou and the charm of Guangfu culture enabling local people to interact with the art. It has proved to be extremely popular.”
Cédric Péri, 3D designer and motion designer interviewed by Chinese Media for ‘Play Me!’ at Guangzhou International Light Festival
Cédric Péri, 3D designer and motion designer at Danny Rose with Festival Director, Wang Ruixiang (centre) and organising team at Guangzhou International Light Festival
Traditionalarchitecture meets projection mapping!
Synonymous with Cantonese culture, the projection surface for Play Me! was constructed for the Festival and painted white to become a perfect video projection surface.
It is based around a Guangzhou Qilou or arcade style building. These narrow buildings are traditionally narrow and three or four storied. A protruding structure or arcade has a balcony with intricately carved ceilings that usually faces a street.
The Guangzhou Qilou buildings became popular in the early 1930s, which were rebuilt from the traditional Cantonese residential buildings, locally known as the Bamboo Tube House or ‘Zhutong Wu’.
