WATCHOUT show welcomes 2018 in Linköping

The city of Linköping, Sweden, welcomed the new year with a magical, mapping extravaganza across the facade of its castle. "Salabim," was produced by Jan Brånå, Eyebrite, using Dataton's WATCHOUT multi-display software, and displayed with six Barco R12 projectors. 

Projection-mapping the castle has become a regular fixture in Linköping's New Year celebrations, and always attracts an enthusiastic crowd. This year's show was preceded by live performances and synchronised with the light art installation in the adjacent park for extra effect. The theme for "Salabim" was magic, with the animated hands of a wizard playing a central role. "It's a very rewarding concept because basically anything can happen!" says producer Jan Brånå. 

The show enchanted visitors with both its humour and its creative usage of the physical attributes of the building: trembling windows, rabbits popping up and other effects. "I think it is important – and much more entertaining for the viewers – to make the building an essential part of the show rather than treating the facade as a huge, flat canvas," explains Jan Brånå. "We created the images using a combination of Cinema 4D, 3DsMax, After Effects and WATCHOUT. We then had a relatively short period onsite to tweak the geometry before the premiere on New Year's Eve." 

The show runs on a 20-minute auxiliary timeline in WATCHOUT with the 9-minute main attraction, "Salabim", followed by a looped 11-minute intermission show. The timeline jumps back to the start at the end of the 20 minutes, ready to play again. 

"Salabim" ran from December 31 to January 7, 2018 in Linköping, Sweden.