Formula 1 team and supercar manufacturer McLaren is the geek's fast car maker of choice - the Woking-based concern is obsessed with data rather than unquantifiables like emotion; leave that nonsense to the Italians.
Marshmallow Laser Feast plainly understand this. The teaser they created for the launch of Mclaren's new P12 supercar, in collaboration with James Medcraft, is a long exposure photography light painting animation driven by real-life wind tunnel data and motion control rigs.
Light painting
The MLF team used light painting to create an image that was tangible but abstract, as befits the teaser nature of the ever-secretive world of car launches. MLF worked with Moving Picture Company to create CG animations of the most relevant air flows around the car, highlighting its aerodynamics while giving a sneak preview of its shape.
The 3D flow geometry of each single frame was chopped up into 800 slices and with 900 frames of animation they ended up with about 750,000 HD slices. They wrote an openFrameworks app to play back this data in sync with a motion control rig which moved a 60in screen backwards at a constant speed. The effect is extraordinary, we think you'll agree!
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