Projection at the Horse

The projection environment at Horse Bazaar is created by tiling 6 projectors together to create one panoramic seamless image that wraps around the walls of the bar. This is achieved through using Watchout, a simple time line based media compilation program. Currently all panoramic content played at Horse Bazaar must be delivered through this software.

To create a digital artwork or "show" you need to download and install the production computer software, which is free, onto your Mac or PC. (www.dataton.com/watchout scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will see a download section). Your show is built on a blank template (The current Horse Bazaar template for Watchout can be downloaded here). Watchout is used mainly as a means of compiling and organizing your pre-produced media allowing you to place still images (such as JPEG's) and video clips (in the QuickTime format) anywhere on this virtual projection surface and move those images and movies around, layer them, and also change their size, transparency and rotation.

Watchout can't create your media files for you, it merely offers a way of choreographing the playback of pre-existing media. It is not a live VJ tool, although it is possible to open a live video capture window in the system and digitise live video feeds from laptops running VJ software, video cameras and DVD players. These live feeds can be manipulated and combined like other media types.

You can preview the show in miniature on your computer, then send the consolidated Watchout show to us and we will load it onto our production computer and display your work in the main room of the bar across all projectors.

We encourage artists to come down to the bar to familiarise themselves with the physical setting and to run their shows up on the system to see how they look and perform while they are still at an early stage of development. If you are producing a piece for a specific event and have not used Watchout before, you should come down at least a week before the event to test out your preliminary concepts and arrange to come down once again before the gig, so there is time to resolve any issues.

The screen around the bar is in a 90 degree configuration:

• the back wall 4.25 metres across (2 projectors: the 1st 2 projectors in the template)
• the main wall 10.8 metres long (4 projectors: the next 4 projectors in the template)

Remember that the projected shows play in a bar which is a social space that operates primarily at night, and that the visuals are nearly 15 metres in width. Shows that are too bright or have too much white in them can wash out the room. Similarly if there is too much or too rapid movement in the show it can be overwhelming and make people feel seasick. Subtle or small changes generally work best. The system is ideal for experimenting with virtual decor or ambient visuals that are panoramic in scale.

Creating a Watchout Show for the Horse Bazaar system

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1. Download Watchout production software and the Manual/Users guide from http://www.dataton.com/watchout and install it on your computer.
   Note: Unfortunately Dataton have stopped developing Watchout for the Mac so the Mac version is a few versions behind where the PC version is currently at. There have been significant improvements in the latest upgrades so if at all possible create your Watchout show on the latest PC version of the software (v 3.4). It will make your job a lot easy and more enjoyable. Version 3.4 has superior rendering of the show in the stage window so you can actually see the show you are constructing, and more tween tracks are available providing greater control of your media. A potential work around this problem is running a PC emulator or Virtual PC on you Mac.
   
   
2. Download the blank Horse Bazaar Template / Watchout show from here and open it in Watchout.
   
   
   The Stage window represents the visual output of entire projection system. The Media window is were you will import all the media that you will construct your show with. The Timeline window is where you create the controls and cues that choreograph your media in the stage window.
   The Red and Blue boxes in the Stage Window indicate the projectors in the Horse Bazaar installation. Dont think of them as separate projectors though. Think of the stage as one long continuous digital canvas. In reality, this wraps around the rear and side walls of the bar. The 2 projectors on the left are on the back wall, the other 4 run up the side wall. Watchout will co-ordinate which part of you image plays on which projector and how many pixels overlap at the edge blends.
   NB: ignore the 2 stray boxes at each end - they represent the final 2 projectors that have yet to added to our installation. They will be installed shortly.
   
   
3. Import your media files into Watchout, keeping in mind the media preparation guidelines below. Add your media files by dragging and dropping from their location into the media window, or via the 'Media' drop down menu and browsing to the location of your media on your computer.
   Working with your current production tools, Watchout reads most media file formats. For example, you can produce text and images in Photoshop, or create and edit video at any resolution in After Effects, Final Cut, or similar software, and combine them into a show in Watchout.
   
   
   
   
4. Watchout brings all your media together, adding realtime effects such as motion paths, opacity, scaling, rotation, colorization, cropping and volume. These parameters can all be controlled over time by setting up cues in the timeline. This is where the fun starts. Now you can build your Watchout show, choreographing your media on the stage by setting up the controls in the timeline window.
   To get your media on screen, you can drag and drop it either directly on to the stage or into a layer on the timeline.
   
   

   Some central features of the timeline window are:
   

   Layers - The layers in the timeline window allow you to overlay images/media on top of each other. This means that you can do things such as build up layered pictures, or overlay images on video, or move alpha-channeled animation files over a static or video background.

   Control Cues - these allow you to control the behaviour of the timeline at specific points. They can be used to jump to other positions on the timeline ie. to create loops, or to pause points on the timeline.

   Tween tracks - these allow you to control the appearance of your media over time. Simply select you media file by clicking on it in the timeline window, then create the required tween track from the Tween drop down menu. The track will become visible in the tween pane in the lower section of the timeline window. Click in the Tween track to create points that effect change. You can drag these points around in the time line or in the Stage window, or double click on them to change their numerical values, thus changing the behaviour of the media file. The controls for each type of tween track are slightly different, experiement with them or see the Watchout Manual for more detailed information.
   

   In version 3.4, Tween tracks can be created to control:

   Position - to position or move media files around the stage window over time.
   Scale - to change size - can be used to zoom in or out.
   Opacity - to change the transparency of a file - can be used to dissolve or fade in or out or build up images with multiple layers from multiple files
   Rotation - to rotate media around an anchor point, or to flip it.
   Crop - to crop images and video from any edge. This can also be used as an effect, allowing an image to be "wiped in" from any edge.
   Colour - allowing the color of images to be adjusted over time. This works like using a colored light to look at an image, essentially removing all color(s) not part of the specified light, thereby making the image darker.
   Tint - adding a color tint to the image. In contrast to the Color tween track, the Tint track adds color to the image, making it look brighter and more washed out.
   Volume - to control the volume of associated audio files if they are included in the show

   For more details instructions refer to the Watchout manual, which is automatically downloaded with the software. NB: The Watchout manual is only up to version 3.1, whereas the software is at v3.4. This means that there are not yet detailed written instructions for some of the latest additions such as the tint, colour and crop tween tracks.
   

   This rather simple set of variables and controls is intuitive to use and can be combined creatively for enormous and quite stunning effect. Experiment with them and get a feel for how they work. You'll find yourself quite adept in no time. Only some of their uses have been flagged here. Push the software to its limits cos we like to be surprised.
   

   Editing - If you want to repeat sets of instructions for different media, or sections of the show, the tween track controls can be simply selected and cut and paste. Or you can drag and drop a different piece of media on top of a set of instructions in the timeline and now those controls will apply to the new piece of media.
   

5. Consolidate your show and bring/send it in to Horse Bazaar. Consolidating your show means that the show and all the media used in it are all saved together. This ensures that all files required to play your masterpiece are included when it gets to Horse Bazaar.

Preparing your media

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Video
The Watchout system at Horse Bazaar has some limitations that you need to be aware of. to achieve satisfactory results, or even to get your show to play at all. The most common problem we see involves playing video within a show.
Width of Video Clips:
You can't just export a QuickTime movie that is 4500 pixels wide from After Effects (for example) and play it back across all 6 projectors. It will, depending on size and codecs used, potentially overwhelm the system. One option is to split the movie up into say 3 or more separate narrower clips and compose these within Watchout, or to create a single movie around 2000 pixels wide and use Watchout itself to scale it up so it is put across the entire template. Both of these strategies have been used very effectively by artists creating shows for Horse Bazaar.

Compression of Video Clips
Even a video clip that is only 720 pixels wide will not play back if it has not been compressed properly. If you export a clip in the DV format (the native format used in Final Cut Pro for example) then it will not play back smoothly and will take too long to transfer from the production computer to the display computers. A good codec to choose for compression is Motion-JPEG or, if you need an alpha channel in your video so that some areas are transparent, then the animation codec, is a good choice.

Still Images
JPEG or PNG are good choices. There is no point using huge high-resolution TIFF files, they are too big and provide no quality advantage. Watchout cannot display .pdf or .eps so you need to convert those formats to something else. Watchout can display Photoshop .psd files however which can be handy. Remember that the system has only 600 pixels in vertical resolution so unless your are zooming into or panning around still images (a very effective and under utilised technique by the way) then they don't need to be any bigger than 720 pixels top to bottom.

Finalising the show
The other major source of problems with Watchout shows sent to us at Horse Bazaar is missing media files. While the show might play back fine on your computer, with some files on your desktop, some on a Flash drive and some on a CD, people often forget to include all these media when they send off the show. Therefore unless you have a good reason not to, we recommend using the consolidate command in the File Menu to consolidate your show, which ensure that we get all the media files that the presentation requires.
Keep in mind that when you consolidate your show, only media that it actually used in the show is packaged up, so if stuff is in the media window but not used in the timeline then it will not be incorporated into the consolidated show. This is normally exactly what you want. However if you are bringing down a show to fine tune on site before a gig for example or experimenting with a Horse Bazaar prize entry you should ensure that you bring all the media that is yet to be incorporated - or don't consolidate the show.

Which version of Watchout
Dataton released Version 3 (currently 3.4) of Watchout for PC, however 2.3 is the most recent version for the Mac which has less functionality and terrible preview (but can be uploaded onto our system)

Examples
See this work, Antfarm by Jonty Burton, for an excellent example of such an approach. It is innovative and complex use of the software which demonstrates how powerful it can be.

The green path of dots on the stage window map out the motion over time of the selected alpha-channeled ant video in layer 4. The selected file is a little hard to pick, but its the one in layer 4, just in front of (and touching) the green line that runs vertically through the entire timeline window and indicates the play position. At the bottom of the timeline window are the tween tracks for this one piece of media. One controls its position and the other the rotation of the file as the ant video file wanders along the tunnel at the bottom of the ant farm. Each ant in the ant farm is controlled by similar sets of tween track instructions. The mapped out virtual journey takes place in the real world as the ant travels around the walls of the bar at Horse Bazaar. These instructions and files have all been cut and paste numerous times saving the artist from having to map out each individual ant's travels from scratch.

Another example of an innovative use of Watchout is this show called Ruff Trade by Aaron MacLoughlan.

In this show Aaron has actually used Watchout's timeline to animate his show. Each layer holds the image of one of the characters. Numerous Photoshop (.psd) files of these characters are placed in succession, each file slightly different from the previous, in effect becoming frames in an animated movie of each character. Thus, as the play progresses down the timeline the slight differences in the image become movement as each character talks and dances.

Watchout content creation summary

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1. Download Watchout from www.dataton.com

2. Download the blank Watchout show from here and open it in Watchout.

3. Add some media, keeping in mind the media preparation guidelines above.

4. Build your watchout show, choreographing your media on the stage and timeline.

5. Consolidate your show and bring/send it in to Horse Bazaar.

6. If preparing an entry for the Horse Bazaar Prize, follow the guidelines on submitting an entry here