Spectaculaires: Monumental Visions
Barré and Marty prepared dozens of Photoshop files of visual elements from artists native to the region, such as painter Georges de La Tour, printmaker Jacques Callot, caricaturist J.J. Grandville, and the Daum art glass studio. Next, they transferred the layered images to Motion and began working on animation.
Architecture in Motion
The seamless integration of Apple and Adobe software lightened their production workload significantly, Marty says. “Considering how little time we had, Motion turned out to be a fantastic tool, both because of its user-friendly interface and its compatibility with Photoshop files. I didn't have to export all the layers from my visual researches. I could just drag and drop PSD files directly to Motion and animate them, since Motion keeps all the layers independent. It was very easy and straightforward!"
Clément Barré of Spectaculaires.
Photo by Benoït Quéro/Jean Marc Charles.
Motion simplified their work in other ways as well. “Motion’s perfect handling of direct sound — and its ability to play in real time even at 4K — saved the production,” says Barré. “It allowed me to synchronize the animation with the soundtrack. And the keyframe editor mixed with the real-time playback gave me what I needed to be more productive — no more rendering to check my animations!”
For many of the show’s sequences, the Spectaculaires team wanted to precisely match the Hôtel de Ville’s elaborate contours, highlighting individual architectural elements such as columns, pilasters, and ornamental urns within the projected artwork. To align the projections accurately with the outlines and details of their architectural canvas, Spectaculaires needed to manipulate images at 4K resolution — in other words, images approximately 4000 pixels wide.
“Because of this, we chose Shake compositing software from Apple,” Barré says. “We also called Certified Apple Trainer Erwan Le Cloirec, who gave us accelerated training on Motion and Shake. Erwan provided us with a macro in Shake to split the 4K animation from Motion into two 2K animations, including the overlap needed by the two projectors.”
The final setup featured two 30,000 lumens Barco projectors linked by optic fiber, providing an HD image with a resolution of 3895 by 1080 pixels. “When it was all said and done, we deployed a nearly invisible installation that helped augment the magical feeling of the presentations,” says Marty. “And the show is actually less demanding in power consumption than the lighting systems already in place.”
Plein Air Projections
“Rendezvous at Place Stanislas” was such a hit that Spectaculaires was asked to return with an expanded 22-minute show in 2008 and 2009. “City Hall confessed that our event went way beyond their most optimistic expectations,” Marty says. “Throughout the summer, 300,000 spectators met at our ‘rendezvous,’ and for the 2008 edition we added two extra sequences.”
To craft the new sequences, Spectaculaires once again turned to Motion. “Without Motion, we never would have completed this project in time,” Barré notes. “It’s so intuitive, and its library is so useful. The real-time performance on high-resolution files saved our production. There’s no equivalent in any other platform. It is a must-have for all creative people!”
Following the success of the Place Stanislas projections, the Spectaculaires team has created a number of other large-scale international projects, including a four-day “festival of light” attended by 1.5 million spectators last December in Lyon, France. “Several other public and private structures have contacted us to ‘expand’ their monuments,” says Marty. “And since dreaming is not forbidden, now our crazy ambition is to renew this experience in the twelve most beautiful places in the world!”
