Projecting onto Glass

CitizenJoe

Hi Skulpture,

I've done this sort of thing quite a lot with varying degrees of success. A few additional details might be helpful. What sort on an environment will you be in: theatrical; club; installation? What are the competing light sources? You say the thing needs to be as see through as possible, but then say it can be frosted, so do you mean that you have to be able to see the details of what's behind it or just that there is "something outside"?

Something that we use a lot in the theatrical world is sharkstooth scrim: http://www.rosebrand.com/subcategory155/fabric-by-type-sharkstooth-scrim.aspx

The great thing about scrim is that when you light in front of it or side light the fabric itself it's opaque, but when you light behind it, it becomes translucent. You can project on to it quite successfully. it comes in varying weaves up to 35 feet, so you can make very large surfaces if you want to! Mark did something like this in Loopdiver using mosquito screening, which is cheap and has a similar effect.

Rose Brand is in the US, but there are plenty of European manufacturers, as well.

You might also look here: http://rosco.com/uk/index.cfm for ideas.

Cheers,

Hugh

Skulpture

If the project goes ahead it will be in an art gallery and/or museum.

Very expensive collections in glass cabinets. Some air tight. Various sizes but none of them huge (less than 4ft across)

My idea was to use small projectors located in front of the glass and projecting onto small areas of the glass cases with information, short videos, some branding, etc.

The scrim sounds good; i'd heard of that before but forgot about it, thanks.

Michel

Also worth looking at.
http://www.ssidisplays.com/rear-projection-film/intrigue

Best,
Michel

MatthewH

Does it need to be glass or would something like half frosted acrylic work? That would be cheaper and much easier to handle and install than frosted glass. Available in sheets up to 4'x8' and I have used it as an RP surface before with good results.

keftaparty

Hi,

I did some experimentations and shows projecting on frost plexiglass.

I can give only one advice:

Try every material in the exact situation it will be used !

I had one very bad experience: I tried one material with a long zoom projector, the image was ok.

But at the end I had to use a wide angle projector. The center of the image was perfect, but all around the light was arriving on the surface with too much angle and was impossible to see !

Also take care to the angle the "spectators" will have, with that kind of shiny surfaces you get very differrent results depending on the point of view.

Have fun !

Best

Mehdi

CitizenJoe

@Skulpture - It sounds like a really interesting project!

Given the situation, I would be inclined to go towards the really expensive films. In small quantities they may be affordable and they will provide a good projection surface. Most importantly, they won't affect how the viewer sees what's inside the case. I would think that would be the #1 consideration from the museum's point of view.

Cheers,

Hugh

dansnodgrass

@skulpture. If your prerequisite is to be able to see a sharp image and still have the glass to be transparent, there is really only one solution and it's expensive: HoloPro. Similar glass was used in the movie Minority Report.

I installed and use an 8' wide HoloPro glass panel at my company for presentation purposes and it's amazing. To get clarity and transparency of glass, embedded holographic foil is really the only solution. Otherwise, you need to go with rear-projection film (and of course, this means you won't get the transparency.

Cheers.

dansnodgrass

Here is our installation:

particlep

this is an interesting thread. i did some searching and found this uk outfit:

http://www.prodisplay.com/index.html

lcd glass is great, but does it go clear enough for a museum setting?

Victreux

Hello,

Some friends was worked on this show in Avignon. Verry cool projection on glass!

http://www.theatre-video.net/video/Le-Livre-d-or-de-Jan-extrait-video

Skulpture

All brilliant stuff thanks all!

You've all really helped me out and given me lots to think about.

Skulpture

@dansnodgrass the HoloPro is amazing and looks stunning but yes you are right... very expensive.

dansnodgrass

You'll also notice in the picture of the HoloPro, that the woman is interacting with the presentation. This is facilitated through the use of the VIP Interactive TouchFoil produced by Visual Planet (and not available at a store near you for about $10,000 - for the 3'x8' foil you see in use here.)

mickey

..projection on glass

ORGANIC
for the low tech end (and of course budget) try buttermilk: applied thin with a foam paint roller it will dry after approx. 20 minutes (3 time s). it's a charming. try it before applying at the flagstore ,-).
and you can accentuate the vintage look with a brush etc, get a cleaner look with airbrush (?)... just experiment!.. removes with water

PLASIC
(low end) we used to take frosted sandblast foils - they're not soo expensive and easy to remove. get some sample and try

have fun mickey