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We have seen iPad being used for light painting before but for this McLaren P12 teaser a plasma screen is used to render 3D animated light painting effect. The Found Collective in collaboration with Marshmallow Laser Feast and James Medcraft produced this stunning piece for the launch of McLaren’s P12 super car.

The goal for the project was to show the P12’s aerodynamic qualities in a whole new light, without actually having physical access to the car itself. Light painting has been around for decades but has never been put into full motion. Until now.

Working with McLaren we were able to process their wind tunnel airflow data and score out paths for individual trails of light. Each frame was then sliced into 650 frames that represent depths of 3D space and a plasma screen, mounted on a motion control rig, was used as a 3D light printer to play back the 650 slices as it moved through the space. We then repeated the move a thousand times for each frame of the animation and with each frame the camera, mounted on another motion control rig, moved a few millimeters so that over the course of the shoot we were able to create the effect of a moving camera.

The finished film merges photography, animation and sculpture and is a truly unique way of representing aerodynamics that we feel justly celebrates this astonishing car.