Concept, Creative Direction, Design, Permanent Installation

An historic neon revival at The Neon Museum.

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"Historic Las Vegas neon signs that sat broken and covered in dust for decades brought back to life in stunning new augmented reality immersive experience."

—DailyMail

A fully immersive audiovisual experience, and emotional narrative into vintage Las Vegas.

Brilliant! is a permanent installation created from concept-to-completion with The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, NV which utilizes the latest in projected augmented reality technology to bring back to life a large boneyard of neon signs, as well as a multi-sensory feeling of vintage Las Vegas like never before.

Eight projectors, housed in two custom-designed, climate sealed & controlled towers, cover 360º around the viewer with light. 24 speakers surround the participant with 3D directional audio that gives the feeling of each sign lighting up & singing. The projection mapping of such a complex surface was done using structured light scanning, then each sign was recreated digitally, bulb by bulb, and animated using a workflow of Illustrator, After Effects, and Premiere. Additional processes of drone footage, photogrammetry, and 3D pre-visualization, really helped to make this experience what it was, in the 9 months it took to create.

The soundtrack was designed to include many legendary performers, including Frank Sinatra, Liberace, Elvis, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, and more. It also weaves a subconcious historical narrative that ties with the visuals on the signs.

Brilliant! opened on Feb 1, 2018, and runs 7 nights a week.

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'Brilliant!' began as a proof-of-concept made in 24 hours.

The idea for Brilliant! started as a conceptual light installation during a roadtripnear the end of my Adobe Creative Residency.

With the support of Adobe, I was able to bring a project to life called Light Capsules, projection mapping back to life worn, painted ads called ghost signs. During a roadtrip to speak at SXSW 2017, I brought a team of three others together and drove through the southwest. For our stop in Las Vegas, it was the perfect location to test out a concept I had of projecting on broken neon...

After reaching out to The Neon Museum, they let me setup a generator and 3 projectors, and in 24-hrs we photographed, vectorized, animated, and projection mapped a corner of the North Gallery neon boneyard. The project can been seen here, on Behance.

The next day, their whole organization was buzzing with excitement about the potential of the project. 9 months later, we launched Brilliant!

Special thanks to the SXSW Light Capsules Roadtrip Crew —
Erin CongerMaggie Bignell, Brandon Jones.

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