This installation is a digital augmentation of a famous historic statue deep in the casemates at Kronborg Castle, Denmark. Using Unity and 3D mapping of graphics, the giant statue of Holger the Dane is brought to life by CAVI (Centre for Advanced Visualization and Interaction) at Aarhus University, Denmark.
All visual effects are created using a combination of particle systems, 3D models and videos projected inside Unity. Everything that we see in the digital model will be projected onto the real statue, including for example real-time shadows.
The graphics require a very high level of detail in order for the visual effects to appear exactly where we want them. The real statue was scanned in 3D which resulted in a model consisting of about 25 million polygons. Afterwards, a 3D print that is four times smaller than the real statue was produced. This print was used in the design process and all the effects was created using this model.
A small and very precise model of the real statue is used for all experiments until we bring all the hardware to the real statue.
A combination of custom-built calibration software and the digital 3D model was used to ensure that the graphics can be projected exactly on top of the physical 3D print and the real statue. This means that we can create all the graphics beforehand, then set up our projector, and then import the calibration profiles into Unity to make it all fit.
Custom-built calibration software makes sure the digitally projected model fits exactly on top of the statue.
The installation is based on Unity which is connected to Max/MSP for surround sound, an Arduino that looks for camera flashes from visitors, and custom-built camera tracking software that allows visitors to interact with the statue.
You can go to Kronborg from TODAY and try the installation for yourself or you can view this video of the entire sequence:
