50 Days to Decorate My Home for Halloween Digitally: Mistake or Not?

I decided 50 days ago I would try to project decorations on my home for Halloween, but with only days to go was it a big mistake?

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Halloween Projection Mapping in Washington State: Good Idea or Not?

The first time I realized what was capable with projection mapping, I was in Disneyland watching their new Castle show years ago. The castle suddenly jumped to life and seemed to change form right in from of our very eyes. This effect is made by creating custom animated graphics designed specifically for a particular structure called "projection mapping". The key to a great projection mapping show it to make it work with the shape of the building you are projecting on. To accomplish that is actually much more difficult than it seems. My family has always gone trick-or-treating all night and never actually decorated our own house for Halloween for trick-or-treaters. But over the last two years, both of my kids expressed the want to change and asked me to figure it out. Instantly my mind went to projection mapping.

50 Days from Halloween I Made My Decision

I have a few years of experience with Adobe Premier-Pro and some with After Effects, realizing that those were some of the best programs to create what I was planning. 50 days from Halloween this year I dug myself into projection mapping YouTube videos trying to learn all I needed to know. I also had an extra 1080p projector I thought at the time would work, more on that a little later. After spending a few weeks learning and figuring out how to create my house in 3D within the programs, I made a basic design and did a test outside. Even though it was 3,500 lumens, my projector was a regular throw projector and there was no way it was going to work. In order to cover my entire home with projection, I needed to be in the middle of my street, and from that distance, it was not nearly bright enough.

Short Throw Projector Was the Answer

After doing some more research, I found what I needed: a short-throw projector. A regular throw projector needs to be 10-13 feet away to create a 120-inch picture. A short-throw projector can do the same job from only 2 feet away. That means the projector can be much closer to cover the house, also making the image brighter. Luckily I found a used one on eBay and had it within 4 or 5 days. This time the image was plenty bright but I could not get my image to match the panels of my house. I won't get too technical, but I basically needed the new version of the Adobe software to be able to do what I wanted and a one-year subscription is basically the only way to get that version. By this time I am only weeks away from Halloween and still have not managed a successful test. I ordered the software because I am crazy, even though I was not sure I could actually get this plan working in time. After the update, the software did what I needed and I managed to line up my digital house panels with my real house outside. I spent the next few days adjusting my effects, characters, and videos to match the new design. After finishing, I exported my video, and to my dismay, everything was warped and didn't look right. With about 7 days to go, I started to freak a little and dug deep into forums to hopefully find the answer.

I was Freaking Out with 7 Days Till Halloween

I was reading deep into a forum when I suddenly thought I found the answer. I need to create a "digital" camera for the design, and then place the exact location in the 3D space in order to give me my desired result. After hours of freezing outside over multiple late nights, I finally figured it out and processed a test video for another last-minute test. I hooked up the projector and crossed my fingers as the projection show started. I almost screamed out at the top of my lungs because of what I saw. My design fit my house beautifully and with a very small adjustment was better than I thought it could look. In the final couple of days before Halloween, I will try to get another 1 or 2 quick scenes done for variety if I can. If you live near the Tri-Cities area, come by and see it for yourself on Halloween night starting around 7 p.m. Any earlier and the projection will not show on my house, so we will get our own trick-or-treating done before then. We should have plenty of candy for all trick-or-treaters after the show starts around 7 p.m. and plan to run it until 10 or 11 when people stop coming by. You can find my house near 14th and Kellog in Kennewick inside the Creekstone area. If you just can't wait, you can see the video I shot from my successful test last night posted below.