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Projection Design Workflow Tutorials?


trashcan

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There's no real roadmap to engineering projectors in Vectorworks, and I was surprised that there wasn't a workflow ready to go for projection design other than using the Vectorworks built in objects - while useful, are woefully inadequate. I don't even use them to be honest. 

 

I have a workflow I've cobbled together that feels half way decent for engineering without using any plugins (as well as enhanced workflows using plugins). I have some serious industry experience that is informative and helpful outside of strictly-Vectorworks methods. 

 

I was thinking it might be useful to throw some tutorials up somewhere. It might not be the right process, but it's been working pretty well for me. I've taken many of the Vectorworks University courses and nothing was totally correct. Though very informative and I'm glad I did it because it was the only way to figure things out. Also Don Ward is the man.  

 

So wanted to take the forum's temperature on the following:

  • Simple projection design: How to choose a projector, what information is important, what everything means! 
  • Vectorworks: setting up your project file, simple classing, building the room, drawing a primitive projector, drawing a projector beam and cone
  • More complex stuff: Proper classing, Creating your own record formats for projectors, Designing data tags
  • Presentation: Sheet layers and viewports

 

Beyond that:

  • Using Vectorworks data to:
  • Set up After Effects files
  • Set up MadMapper files
  • Creating Grids

 

Even Beyond that:

  • Making mounts, pipes
  • More complex projector modeling
  • Designing a system flow without using ConnectCad
  • ProjectionViz, setting it up, integrating into your existing workflow, rendering and viewports
  • ProjectionViz, masking, blending

 

I have been designing, producing, and engineering projection projects since 2012. 

 

Point being wanted to take the temperature of my fellow nerds in here and see if this is something people would find value in / interest in. 

 

And also - should this be free? I have virtually zero teaching experience. 

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@georgetims there wasn't a ton of interest in it and I lost steam TBH. Vectorworks is a very powerful tool, but there hasn't been a whole lot of movement in improving the native projection design tools in VWX. You can see many posts talking about the pros and cons here

 

Some helpful thoughts though--

 

Projection design in VWX is still very much DIY unless you are doing very very basic trade show style projections. Anything complex or approaching any level of mapping requires a lot more effort, skill, know-how. 

 

The best advice I can give is: learn VWX basics with Don Ward's beginner and intermediate courses (free and VWX university). Then do the 2 hour entertainment seminar (also free, but you need to sign up, just email training@vectorworks.net). Then learn how to do engineer projector positions manually, then learn the plugins ProjectionViz and Landru's tool (which I can't remember the name of ATM). I never use the native VWX projector tool because it's designed for traditional projector use, which is almost never the use case of projection design (at least for me). Weird angles. Weird surfaces. Weird coverage. 

 

Learn what a frustum is and how you can make a frustum using a locus, a rectangle, and multiple extrude. That frustum is your lens throw. Learn some of the most common lens throw ratios and experiment with coverages. 

 

I've never had to really think about rigging- I'm mostly a "projector goes here this is the required clearance" guy. Braceworks covers that. But you should learn the basics first. 

 

This forum is top notch. I've said this before and I'll say it again- I use a ton of different creative technology programs and I'm active on a lot of forums (Adobe and VWX are probably my biggest two), and the community here is incredible, unbeatable. A great resource to ask questions and ask for help. So, ask away! 

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