C3 - Idea Development #2 - Mannequins and Stage Area

Idea Development #2 - Mannequins and Stage Area

Mannequin

Mannequin is one main important item for my project. Well, if you don't know what mannequin is, it is just a display doll or dummy that you can find mostly on fashion boutiques or tailors. It is designed to display the fashion clothing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannequin

For this idea development, I need to know more and understand on how to do a better projection mapping effect. At this point, I need to think about on how to handle the position the mannequin with the area space or stage and also choosing the type of mannequins.

Since it is built with different poses, I need to consider which pose  or posture is suitable to provide clear visual mapping.

Some sketches of type of poses for mannequins:

The provided sketches could help me to find better poses or postures of the mannequin that I am going to use for my experiments or/and my final build of the installations.

The mannequins are usually built with open postures where most of upper body parts are exposed widely, for easy clothing display. It is better to find the mannequins with their upper body parts exposed, rather than with folded arms that blocked the view of the chest area.


Some samples of real mannequins photos and images that help for the project:






For the build quality of mannequins, I prefer to get a clear, matte-looking type of surface because they will not get reflected by lighting sources and also provide less reflection that make the projected image looks clear on mannequins surfaces. As you can see from the images above, some mannequins have shiny-looking, reflective surfaces. Eventhough a plastic or polystyrene mannequin does not provide too much reflective surface, but the quality of the mannequin could be a bit problem for my projects since it is not really durable.

Sources:
http://hollywoodhatesme.files.wordpress.com
http://www.mannequinmode.com
http://andyfishwrap.blogspot.com

Stage and Projected Space

For the stage, it is recommended for me to have bigger spaces area.
The stage area involved a wider wall panel that acts as a background. It is positioned behind the mannequins.
The wall panel serves as background drop from the projected visual. When the visual is projected, the wall panel will shown the background of the certain scenery or effects.

So, as for the ideas, I am stuck with the chosen shape and design of the wall panel. I wonder if I want to make a flat panel or rounded wall panel(to make it look like a panoramic scene).

After sketching the plan and things, I decided to go for three-sided flat wall panel to be as a background.
It is because the 3-sided panels provided large range of space that is good for my background scenery. Plus, with some extra panel, it is good to show a lot of things for the background.

So, here is how my floor plan will look like for the installation:

The projector projects the visual from PC or laptop to this wall stage area. The mannequins are there to become a figure that wear the fashion clothing that will be showcased through the projected visuals. The wall panels act as background of the certain scenery. When the montage is running, the background will show certain scenery, animations, special effect, lighting effects and texts, according to my storyboard of the video timeline.