Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral and MLC Centre will be illuminated by large format 3D video projections during the festive Christmas period.
PAYCE and Ample Projects have teamed up with video services company Technical Direction Company (TDC) to deliver large-scale 3D projection mapping and visual storytelling on the two iconic Sydney buildings.
A release from TDC says they have called on over 20 of their high-brightness Barco projectors for the projects all of which will be controlled using advanced 3D media servers at several locations.
Lights of Christmas, St Mary’s Cathedral
Presented by PAYCE, the 2014 edition of Lights of Christmas is being held from 9 to 25 December 2014. TDC is partnering with AGB Events for the fourth year in a row and for what the largest light show in Australia during the festive season. Lights of Christmas drew an audience of 200,000 visitors in 2013 and was Internet streamed live across the world.
Kain Jones, Special Projects Manager at TDC explains that the massive surface of the 75-metre high by 33-metre wide sandstone Cathedral façade is transformed using the latest video 3D video mapping and projection of still, animated and video content. For the video projection mapping, the TDC team works with a 3D model of the façade, pre-visualising the entire building and accurately mapping every pixel onto the architecture of the cathedral.
AGB Events’ Creative Director Anthony Bastic worked with Art Director Giles Westley to specifically create the content for the event. This year’s edition tells the story of ‘giving’ and ‘service’ in three segments, symbolically following the visual and metaphorical journey of a honeybee. The Twelve Days of Christmas treats visitors to a fun and specially designed animation of the traditional melody in vivid and moving imagery.
Video projections are accompanied by commissioned soundscape and narrative that resonate with the ideals of the Christmas season of peace, joy and goodwill. The Lights of Christmas event brings joy to hundreds of thousands of Sydneysiders who gather in front of the Cathedral each year to celebrate the season. The nightly spectacle is heralded by live choir performances from the steps of Sydney’s grand Roman Catholic Cathedral.
Merry Go Round, MLC Centre, Martin Place
Sydney’s Christmas celebrations continue at MLC Centre in Martin Place which will see high-resolution projection mapping for the curved facade of the Commercial Travellers Association Building. Merry Go Round by Ample Projects transforms the building into a mechanical toy carousel, complete with playful robots, animals and space inhabitants.
Explaining how the show pushes the transformational possibilities of architectural video projection to its limits, Nicholas Tory, Creative Director at Ample Projects said that the project required ultra-high resolution projectors and design for the cylindrical architecture of the CTA building, for which they turned to TDC to provide state-of-the-art equipment and on-site show programming.
Michael Hassett, Managing Director at TDC comments that it is their first Christmas projection on the compelling façade of the CTA building. TDC interpreted the design by creating a 3D map of the building and public space, and using the latest media server technology to map the intricate layering of the graphics to the building with razor sharp accuracy.
The MLC Centre event runs every evening 8pm to midnight from 5 to 25 December 2014.
Images and Video: PAYCE and Ample Projects.
