# How many lumens for outdoor night time Projection mapped video



## Tower of Terror Theater (Mar 21, 2021)

I would like to create a projection mapped looping video for my personal Tower of Terror recreation (Show here: https://studio.youtube.com/video/HBLL3aKlYWA/edit). This video will be projected onto the rear of my home where visitors will enter the themed room through glass patio doors. Here is a photo of the rear of the house where I want to project the video: 


Here is a link to the Projection mapped show used as a goal (I can only imagine the lumens used and the cost of projectors that Disney uses) .




My main goal is to simply project the image of the Tower of Terror at night onto the surface of the house with the patio doors. I dont think it will be possible to project a nice image onto the two side wall surfaces without multiple projectors. I guess it would be possible to put some projection film on the glass surfaces to provide a better projection surface so the image could go from ground to roof. The last question is trying to determine how much lumen output will be required to give a fairly vibrant image . In my research it appears that it is possible to pick up a used projector with up to 7500 lumens for under 2K and then the prices go up quite a bit for higher lumen projectors.


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## ruinexplorer (Mar 21, 2021)

The amount of lumens that you will need depends on the size of the image and how well that you can control the light hitting the surface. One thing Disney has going for it is that they have a lot of control of the light. Just a few lumens of ambient light can start to wash out the image. The second thing is that you want to have the brightest content possible so that it will be seen. 

For a rule of thumb, inside the theater where I have better control of the light, I shoot for 50-70 lumens per square foot. Figure out how large of an image that you plan on making and that should give you a good starting point.


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## Ben Stiegler (Mar 28, 2021)

Think about renting if only few days / year. That way you get the lumens and lensing that's best.

how will you mount and secure it? Stabilize it against vibrations? Power it? Does projector noise matter? How moist might it get? Need an outdoor protective enclosure or repurposed dog igloo? Ground level perhaps not optimal for keystone angles and keeping the public away from your expensive projector. Got truss?


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## Jay Ashworth (Mar 29, 2021)

I suspect you can find Sanyo/Eiki/Panasonics in the 5500-6000lm range for not a helluva lot of money these days, if you shop eBay pretty hard...


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## Tower of Terror Theater (Mar 29, 2021)

This effect will be a rare one for special occasions ( 2-3X a yr at most). The projector will be in a location away from any people. I have been shopping on ebay and indeed there are frequently projectors in the 6000lumen range on sale for very reasonable prices.


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## Tower of Terror Theater (Apr 17, 2021)

So I was referred to a person who owns a company that does media development, setup, planning, projection mapping etc. He told me he actually did the projection mapping for the Disney Tower of Terror in multiple Disney locations. He came by to look at my home and basically thought it was a totally doable project, and offered some ideas that I had not thought about. For instance he suggested placing a scrim to cover the opening of an open patio on the far left side of the house seen in this photo. Then you could project onto this scrim as well as all the house surfaces on the rear of the house.

They asked me what I wanted in a projection mapped show, and I had not given much thought other than thinking of projecting an image of the Tower of Terror at night, or modifying projection-mapped shows done at the Tower of Terror in the past. With the idea of using a scrim in the opening above the left side of the house, I thought it might be nice to use a commercial done for the Paris TOT for Halloween, that I thought was very well done and appropriate for a planned Halloween debut of this project



to project onto the scrim, and then project a modified Tower of Terror image onto the remaining surfaces (modified to make it fit, or look realistic) and the events which are occuring in the commercial would be reflected on what is being projected onto the remainder of the house; for instance when lightning is seen in the commercial video , lightning flashes be projection mapped onto the projected TOT image on the rest of the house. Similarly since the commercial shows a woman sitting at a table, a silhouette of a woman sitting in front of a mirror could be projection mapped onto one of the lighted windows in the hotel image, and when a expanding spiral appears at 1:40 of the commercial, this spiral would expand past the scrim to fill all surfaces of the rear of the house.

Anyway that is the initial concept, and am potentially anticipating the quote on doing this might make the whole idea unrealistic. I do NOT have the budget to purchase new 10-20 thousand lumen projector(s), but due to the pandemic and loss of the majority of business for this type of project, I was told now is an excellent time to purchase commercial projectors from defunct businesses. Any other thoughts, ideas, concepts welcomed.


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## Tower of Terror Theater (Apr 17, 2021)

Jay Ashworth said:


> I suspect you can find Sanyo/Eiki/Panasonics in the 5500-6000lm range for not a helluva lot of money these days, if you shop eBay pretty hard...


Yes fairly high light-output used projectors sell at a huge discount compared to new pricing.


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## macsound (Apr 19, 2021)

When you are looking at what projector to purchase, you also need to think of lensing as it relates to throw distance and your space constraints and that trying to cover your whole house with a 15k projector may mean the projector needs to be 25' away.

When thinking about lumens its more complicated when not projecting on a single flat surface since you have to accommodate for the architecture, throw distance cover your odd shaped projection surface and how many projectors you may need to cover these surfaces.
If you are projecting on one surface and it is similarly shaped to the 16:10 aspect ratio of the native output of the projector, you can use a single projector.
Want to project onto one large wall plus the corner off to the left or right which now makes your total projected image to be much wider than it is tall means you'll need to overshoot the projector or use 2 projectors.

Is the pool part of your backyard or is this a community pool?
Think about shining a flashlight from where you're standing. In order to get the flashlight to reach the top left corner of the deck and the bottom right corner by your sliding door means you'd have a shadow on the wall to the left of your sliding door and spill all over the ground and sky.

If you are planning on having multiple projectors, you'd need to either run the videos separately, like one computer to each projector, or make a single video that's divided up as it relates to how the stretched image appears across the multiple projectors.
Think of a 3 monitor desk setup. Either each monitor operates independently or you connect to one computer and stretch a video across all 3.

I'd start with one projector on the surface you think will look most thematic when augmented which may be rear projection onto your patio. Then if you have another idea of something that could add onto that, decide on a projector that fits that scenario.

And so you're not just shopping specs all day, look for a 3000 lumen office Epson projector. They're cheap new or used and in complete darkness can be used on a 8' diagonal screen with great contrast. It'll give you something to walk around and experiment with shining on your walls to see if the effect works.


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## Tower of Terror Theater (Apr 19, 2021)

macsound said:


> When you are looking at what projector to purchase, you also need to think of lensing as it relates to throw distance and your space constraints and that trying to cover your whole house with a 15k projector may mean the projector needs to be 25' away.
> 
> When thinking about lumens its more complicated when not projecting on a single flat surface since you have to accommodate for the architecture, throw distance cover your odd shaped projection surface and how many projectors you may need to cover these surfaces.
> If you are projecting on one surface and it is similarly shaped to the 16:10 aspect ratio of the native output of the projector, you can use a single projector.
> ...


Thanks for you insight. I figure this is something that I did need professional help with in at least doing an initial assessment and then some testing with projectors. As per the professional projectionist who visited, he felt the project was very doable; the main concern in my mind is the cost.


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## macsound (Apr 19, 2021)

I mean, it's not actually hard, especially considering what you've done with your space already. That's why I recommended getting something cheap to try with initially because you'll realize how easy it is.

Currently in my house I don't have a TV in the living room, I have a projector, so when I wanted to do the Haunted Mansion singing busts for halloween, I just pulled out a mac with Qlab and some styrofoam wig forms painted grey and went at it!


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## Tower of Terror Theater (Apr 19, 2021)

I went out night before last with an old panasonic 1600 lumen home theater projector just to see what it would look like. Yes I could see an image projected onto the middle wall above the glass doors, but colors gone and certainly needed alot more lumens than that. I think the professional projection mappers can come up with much more impressive effects than me, with my total experience of two days playing with Lightform equipment and software. 

My creative partner Donald already 3-D printed a bust with pre-made fracture joints (he wanted to recreate the video shown on the elevator door when in the video the elevator crashes to the basement, and the bust falls over and breaks into pieces on the floor. I am thinking of placing the bust on the right side of the elevator door and projection mapping some facial expressions onto it. Kind of mixing Tower of Terror effects with Haunted mansion effects now LOL.


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## Tower of Terror Theater (Apr 19, 2021)

So I got the first feedback from the projection mapping company; $35,000 for content alone, not including projector rental, setup labor. So that is not something that I would be willing to spend on the projection mapping. So looks like this project may be something that I will dive into myself.


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## Tower of Terror Theater (Aug 25, 2021)

So I ended up finding a discontinued 10,000 lumen laser engined projector from Maxell at considerable discount. Here is a snippet of one of the first tests projecting onto the wall above my Tower of Terror set recreation. Plan to have a motion-triggered media player to start video with integrated and synchronized lightning strobes around the house.


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