Facepainting - interactive projection mapping

This project was part of a two week lecture course called "3D basics in the the media space" held by Dr. Prof. Franklin Hernandez Castro from the Costa Rica Institute of Technology. The task was to develop a system or visualization to fit on a 3-dimensional neutral bust model. To navigate through the system or to manipulate the visualization we where provided with a leap motion gesture controller.
For this project we decided to develop an informational system about facepaintings of tribes and iconic personas around the world.

After we've came up with the topic we discussed what is possible to accomplish in this limited amount of time. We developed a timetable to know exactly what we have to do and when it needs to be done. In addition we created a plan on how we could limit the system if we couldn't achieve all of our intends and how we could expand it if we'd reach our goal before the deadline.
First we borrowed a book an the local library about paintings and body art of African tribes to get an idea about the diversity of facepaintings. We've chosen a variety of facepaintings. Some meaningful ones and some which are just beautiful to look at. In addition we decided to show some modern facepaintings, like the ones which are typically for clowns or soldiers, as well.

After our evaluation, of which paintings we are going to show and describe we started to design a concept for the informational layer which describes the meaning or purpose of the facepaintings as well as the origin of the tribe or iconic character. We came up with a navigation concept which involves the leap motion controller.
At the initial state there is a world map projected onto the bust. On the worldmap are circles which indicate the origin of the tribes. The controller acts like the mouse if the mouse hovers over a circle, the color fills up and the tribe name fades in. After a little delay the tribe gets chosen and the animation, which draws the facepainting starts.
As soon as the projection shows the whole painting the informational layer will appear to provide short information. With a left or right wiping gesture over the leap motion, the previous or next tribe and his facepainting will be shown. The user can get back to the initial state by wiping upwards.