Tigerstaden

This is a project blog for the project “The Tiger” for SSP’s restaurant and bar project Tigerstaden at Oslo Airport Gardermoen. We are to make a projection mapped Tiger installation on top of a bar at the airport. This is a one of a kind project and this blog is to document the whole project for future reference.

After a few weeks of construction, the restaurant is more or less finished, and was time for us to rig the projectors and calibrate everything on site. We have to admit—this was the most challenging mapping project we’ve done to date. But after a few days of tinkering, we managed to get a good fit on all three projectors, with solid coverage and a nice blend between them.

An interesting detail is that we set it all up during the time of day we in the planning phase figured the illusion might not work. Still, it looks quite nice throughout most of the day—and absolutely fantastic once the sun begins to set.

We wrapped up with a sign-off meeting and a happy team from SSP, who gave us an enthusiastic thumbs up. We’re now doing a few final tweaks to perfect the gold and northern lights rendering.

Next up: the grand opening! We’ll wait to turn on the projection until the restaurant officially opens.

As always, here are a few action shots from the final steps of the process.

A short post (and a big sigh) as we have safely transported and installed the tiger at OSL Gardermoen. And it already looks spectacular – even without the projection. The ears of the tiger cleared the service elevator doors by a few centimeters, and everything went according to plan during the night of March 4th. Here are a few happy faces from the team that installed it. Good job!

The next step is to mount the projectors and calibrate them on the tiger. It is scheduled to be done on March 26 and 27, after the rest of the work on the restaurant itself is completed.

Finally, we are at the stage of checking whether all simulations, tests, and ambitions actually work in real life. After a few days of tweaking and adjusting, we invited Martin and Cecilie from SSP, as well as Thomas and Harald from Grid, for the final approval.

Some thoughts so far: Our biggest concern has been the light levels during the day at OSL. We have conducted several tests to get answers, but the real test came this week when we projected onto the final tiger in the workshop. The light levels in our test setup, with lamps on, are about 1100 lumens—significantly higher than at OSL. Even under these conditions, the projection is quite interesting. But of course, when we switch off the lights, the illusion becomes even more compelling.

We are testing two different gold effects and one northern-lights-inspired metallic finish. After fine-tuning the tempo and brightness levels, we feel we’ve hit the sweet spot.

This is the final test and sign-off before installation at OSL Gardermoen. On Monday, it will be shipped, and the next step for us will be on-site calibration once Food Tech has completed their part.

Here are some pictures from this week’s tests.

The most golden version with the rooflights off gives a good idea on how the tiger will look at night time.

This is a bit more subltle gold finish and with some more texture in the golden structure. This reflection is based on the actual reflection from the position the tiger will stand at OSL. We will test both version on site. The rimlight spread on the back wall will be adjusted on isntallation. It should not “bleed” like that when installed.

We are creating a short behind-the-scenes video for this project—or rather, our friends at QWERTY Production are. And as it turns out, Thomas is quite fluent in English. Who knew?

Another video showing how we also can invert the stripes making an interesting optical illution where we switch between reflection and having it appear the light in the stripes comes from inside the tiger.

This is the “northern light” version. A shiny surface inspired by the colours in the northern light.

This is how the “northern light” projection looks like in bright light. It brings enough light to give an illution of something you don`t really understand, and is quite interesting to waltch even if it is much lighter than suggested in our charts.

This magnificent phone video provides a glimpse of how the animation appears on the tiger.

Here is some more “work in progress” shots when tweaking the details.

This is how happy we are. By Scandinavian standards; we are over the moon with joy. (But this could also be a photoshoot for our next album “The golden Tiger”.)

With some extra time on the milling machine, we’re working double time to stay on schedule. We’re making good progress and starting to get answers to some details we’ve been quite curious about. With things moving fast, here’s an extra update from this week along with some thoughts:

Surface and finish:
Måneproduksjoner has done an amazing job fitting, grinding, and surface-treating our tiger with three layers of Jesmonite. We’re really happy with the finish. We were afraid it would look like a generic clay tiger, but the texture gives the impression of something solid and heavy.

Black levels and projector mapping:
We’ve set up one projector to reference the tiger stripes—our second piece of really good news. The contrast comes through well, even in a brightly lit workshop. The lighting here is stronger than at OSL, and although we won’t get final answers until day zero, this is very promising. For us at Netron, this has been the biggest unknown factor. Even when we follow every step by the book, it’s not always possible to predict whether the illusion will play out as we envisioned.

Here are some pictures from the process:

A close up, giving an idea about the surface. All lines are penciled in after a projector map overlay, making sure we get the lines exactly where we want them.

It is quite time saving and effective to have the workshop nearby to discuss details in the finish.

Safety testing if the tiger is safe for children and pets. Although intimidating, the test came out positive.

Here the stripes are projected on and Jørgen is carefully drawing in the lines with a pencil. Interestingly this is done with the roof lights on. The dark stripes is the actual base colour and the lighter parts are only white light.

This is just a reference grid to help us align the “tiger geometry”. Again; interesting to see how much contrast we get out of our projector even in a bright studio. This reference grid is also helpful if we are to make new mapping textures in the future.

Carefully positioning the tiger for projecting and painting.

After weeks of milling, gluing, and grinding, our tiger “Roar” is now standing on its own legs. There have been a few issues to sort out along the way, as is often the case when doing R&D, but we are very pleased with the progress Maaneproduksjoner and Eker are making. The 3D-printed details have been treated and glued on, and the various CNC-milled parts have been assembled.

After calculations and discussions, we have decided that there is no need to reinforce the construction with a metal frame inside. The stressed parts are CNC-milled from a stronger material, which helps keep the overall weight down.

We are now starting the finishing process, where color and surface texture will be applied, allowing us to get a sense of the final installation. Once that is completed, we will begin testing the projection.

Here are some fresh snapshots:

“Roar” needs to be on it`s back for milling out the details underneath. (Not for bellyrubs)

Here she is – still a bit shy – before getting her final makeup on and of course the tail.

The moutpiece is 3D printed in PLA (a plastic material) in multiple parts as shown earlier. These are primed, and surface treated before assembly. This gives us an idea on the finished surface.

Mouth section and claws glued on. Joints and uneven details need to be sanded before final stages.

This week, our teams gathered in Fredrikstad for a recap and update over lunch before heading over to Eker to check the progress on the milling machine. Judging by the smiles and laughter, everyone seemed pleased with how things are moving forward. We’re happy to report that everything is on track and progressing smoothly.

It’s always exciting to transition into the physical production phase. Our next meeting will focus on testing the projection on the finished tiger.

Here’s a quick look at where we are in the pipeline right now:

Netron, Maaneproduksjoner, Avinor, SSP and Grid – i front of the 1:1 scaled tiger

A rendered example of gold texture on the tiger in actial size.

Size and aspect are hard to document, but here is our tiger still in its block. Later it will be flipped 180 degrees and detailed on the other side. The whole building is constructed around the 5-axis CNC -milling machine.

Victor from Eker Design (in the white cap) telling us about the process.

Tone, Cecilie and Malin inspecting the details.

Work in progress. The body of the tiger soon ready in the milling machine. The opening for the mout still to be cut out. 👇

Some of the details on the tiger, like mouth and claws are best 3D printed and merged into the model. 

Discussion about the colour samples and the finished texture.

We’ve been crunching numbers to ensure the map and terrain align perfectly. Additionally, we’ve had constructive discussions with Maaneproduksjoner and Back regarding important details. We’re now almost ready to begin creating the actual tiger.

Here are some visuals of where we stand right now:

We have updated our drawings with the items that are actually at the location. As far as for projector number 3, we had to make sure there is space between the column, wall, kitchen and lamp.

Where’s Waldo… (or Baldo)

We received our access passes in record time and conducted a site inspection at Gardermoen together with Cecilie and Thomas (from Back). It was really exciting to get a backstage look at Gardermoen.

We came well-prepared and managed to take a lot of measurements and make several assessments.

Conclution: We need to verify the physical space agains the plans to make sure all angles and placements of the technical gear wil fit and project as planned before continuing the process. Right now we are re-simulating the space to make sure we don`t miss any details before sending the Tiger to production.

Here are some snapshots:

Light: We did some control measurements on the lighting and found that projecting onto the departure side might be effective even during the daytime. However, the side facing returning travelers likely cannot be projected onto during the day.

Projector Placement: We reviewed the placement of all the projectors, measured the height of the glass and possible obstructions. 
The hight of the glass wall is taller than we thought and might pose a problem. Our number one priority right now is to recalculate the third projector to make sure there is no conflict. 

360 Photos: We took several 360-degree photos to see if we can recreate the environment for VR testing and simulation. Additionally, we captured some 360 HDR images of the location where the tiger will be positioned. These will be used for the gold reflections, ensuring it reflects its actual surroundings. HDR photos consist of a series of images with varying exposures, allowing us to extract detailed information about the light sources.

Considerations: We also made some observations regarding visibility. We noticed that people descending the stairs from international arrivals come very close to the installation, which will undoubtedly become a focal point.

We are green for takeoff…

We held our kickoff meeting with Cecilie Gangmark and Martin Bondlid from SSP, officially launching the project. We reviewed the timeline, points of contact, and responsibilities. We have also had a constructive meeting with Harald and Thomas at Grid to coordinate the plans and the process ahead. Access applications for OSL are underway, and everything’s in motion. High fives and smiles all around—we’re green for takeoff! 😊

Grid and Netron going over the latest to update the floor plan

Here is where we are at in the process right now.

Before getting the green light, we conducted a pre-study and pre-viz to tackle the challenges of creating a life-sized tiger with dynamic projections. Our main focus areas were:

1. Lightweight and Precise Tiger Model
   We needed a detailed yet lightweight model that could handle projections without distorting light. This involved optimizing 3D designs to achieve realism while minimizing weight.

2. Material selection
   Finding materials and production technique that balanced durability and light reflectivity is key.After testing, we chose surfaces that would enhance the quality of projected images.

3. Projection Techniques
   Through pre-viz, we tested angles, resolutions, and light setups, ensuring that motion graphics would align seamlessly with the tiger’s form.

4. Model Covering & Projector Placement
   Projector positions to prevent shadows and ensure optimal coverage.

5. Lighting Impact
   Ambient light in the airport posed a unique challenge, impacting the projection’s clarity. We tested several lighting setups and calibration techniques to ensure that the projected imagery would remain sharp and visible.

Here are some snapshots from the initial phase:

This is the “clean tiger” before projecting anything on it. Rather than a black and white tiger, we have painted it with gray tones.

This test helps determine optimal projector placement for full coverage and overlap.

We found that three projectors effectively cover the entire tiger model, with each projector displayed in a distinct color.

Above: the layout with the tiger and the three projectors.

Top right: An early test on how to make “liquid gold” melt together in one immersive projection.

Middle right: Testing the setup 1:1 in VR. This is an important part of our process and help us get an idea on how the final product looks in it`s final environment – as seen from the audience. The first impression is that it looks even bigger when it is 10 feet above us…

Bottom right: A physical test of the surface treatment in the material Yesmonite.