Esplanade · Projection mapping · 2022
Dancing with Light: choreography written across architecture.
I directed animation, motion design and visual effects for the Esplanade's first projection-mapping show, created for its 20th anniversary celebrations.
- Role
- Director
- Client
- Esplanade
- Medium
- Projection mapping
- Year
- 2022
Designing movement for a real surface
The Courtyard was not a neutral screen. Its geometry, depth and architectural features shaped every decision. Rather than treating those features as obstacles, we used them as part of the visual grammar, allowing light, texture and animated forms to reveal and reframe the space.
The show combined live dancers with projected imagery, so the visual flow needed to respond to bodies moving in front of the facade. Storyboards and motion studies helped us choreograph the relationship between performer, projection and architecture before the work reached the site.
Blending disciplines into one performance
The production drew on motion design, animation and visual effects. My job was to keep those techniques serving the same rhythm and visual idea, while giving the artists enough room to solve each sequence in the medium that suited it best.
That collaboration made the project more than a projected film. It became a live exchange between dancers and light, with the audience seeing the familiar Courtyard behave like a changing stage rather than a static building.
Credits and project record
Director: Davier Yoon · Producer: Natalie Ong · Lead Artist: Jared Tay · Motion Design: Jared Tay, Kennie Lim, Jen Hou and Harris Hamdan · VFX Lead: Yang Sishuo.