How can I make a special display for UnLiving Portraits?
Our UnLiving Portraits collection is designed to create an illusion of real paintings coming to life (or death?). It contains lots of display options not available in other collections, which gives you so many creative choices!
One way to get familiar with UnLiving Portraits is to check out this piece from our blog, " Step-by-Step: Build Your Own ‘UnLiving Portrait’ Gallery", which includes many but not all of the following tips and tricks in this article.
Framed or Frameless Display Options
There are framed and frameless versions of the decorations designed for both TV and projectors. This means you can choose to display the decorations with portrait frames included in the video, or to display them without portrait frames.
Using a Physical Frame
Lots of decorators have bought or built their own portrait frames to use with the frameless versions of the decorations. The physical frame(s) should have a 4:5 aspect ratio (i.e. 4x5, 16x20, 20x25, etc.), and can be as big or small as you'd like to suit your display. This technique is great for TVs or projectors. Of course, the size of your frame will depend on either the size of your TV or the throw of your projector and its distance from the wall.
Using HD TV displays
One of the best and easiest ways to display our UnLiving Portraits decorations is using widescreen HD televisions. The "Trio" decorations feature all 3 portraits interacting on one screen, or you can select just one portrait to display.
Many smart televisions can accept an SD card and/or USB to play our MP4 format video files, but they may not allow you to loop your playlist or play more than one file in a row. Be sure to check the product manual on your television to find out if you need an extra playback device. You can connect a Sprite Media Player or other video device if needed.
Using Buffer Files and Triggers to Play the Decoration
UnLiving Portraits also includes buffer files to accomplish impressive trigger effects.
The Sprite Media Player features a motion sensor which can use buffer files to surprise your audience with a motion-sensor activated decoration.
Click here to learn more about using buffer files with the Sprite Media Player.
Creating Seamless Transitions
UnLiving Portraits includes transition files to seamlessly switch between different characters on your display. Each transition file starts with one character and morphs into another. You can use these to create an endless, seamless playlist with any device that allows for seamless playback without gaps between videos.
Syncing Three TV or Projector Displays
The complete UnLiving Portraits "Family Feud" decorations includes a special option for 3 in sync decorations, which features each of the three characters interacting in different video files for simultaneous display. Each decoration is the same length, which is perfect if you have three displays you can sync together. You can find the "Singles" videos in the vertical video options of "Family Feud".
For more information about syncing multiple decorations, click here to read the article "Can I play decorations in sync on multiple TVs or projectors?"