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Music

Bright Eyes: Projection Mapping On A Human Face

BELL’s latest music video features an interesting use of the Kinect and projection mapping.

Projection mapping is one of those techniques whose popularity is only increasing with time, and its ubiquitous nature has brought about some interesting and inventive examples. For example, we’ve seen buildings come alive, interiors decorated, illuminated architectural scale models, and factories transform into theaters—all meticulously planned and executed. Now we can add the latest music video from Brooklyn-based musician BELL to the ever growing list of novelty uses. It takes the human form as its canvas—specifically lead vocalist Olga Bell’s face.

The video for “Chase No Face,” directed by Francisco Zamorano with visuals from Zach Lieberman, Andy Wallace, and Michelle Calabro, was made using a hacked Kinect, an LED projector, openFrameworks, a laptop and Jason Saragih's FaceTracker code.

In the video, the projection mappings all happen in real-time, giving a rather interesting and charming appearance to the video. As the augmented animations start dancing across Bell’s face, we’re drawn to the way they cling to the contours of her features, highlighting her lips, cheeks, eyes, etc. Using the singer's face in this way enabled Zamorano to play around with the FaceTracker software in a way we haven't seen yet, while adding emphasis to the lyrics and generating some playful yet precise footage. The end result looks simple yet entertaining.

Below is a behind-the-scenes video, giving some insight into how it was made.