Sochi has another major attraction —3D morphing of faces on giant screens

Sochi had an impressive show just at the entrance of the Olympic Park which attracted millions. People were able to see their own faces over 20 feet tall, rendered on a giant morphing wall. Spectators start by getting their likeness captured at one of seven photo booths throughout the park.

Asif Khan, the British designer who conceived of the pavilion for Megafon, one of the games’ sponsors said that Mt. Rushmore-style monument is “the first thing you see when you go in.”

A five-camera array generates a 3D image of the face, which is then processed for the facade, where it’s rendered with 11,000 pistons, each acting as its own LED-tipped pixel. (After getting their picture taken, visitors get a QR code to scan that lets them know when to expect to see their mug go big.)

Scott Eaton who was behind the making of “Captain America” and “World War Z”, the digital sculptor worked with animators at Lucasfilm and Pixar, was the creative director for the project. A software was created that situated each face at a certain angle. Kahn worked with Basel-based engineering firm iart to bring the idea to life.

The faces are larger than the face of the statue of liberty about 8 meters tall and are shown thrice in a cycle of every 20 seconds.

Khan felt this was the best way of involving the spectators by harnessing the latent emotive potential in the face; this was a novel way of communicating with everyone without language, without any text, without anything.

He also experimented with the colour of the face but that didn’t turn out too well. But he had to be careful about what he was communicating. At one point, Megafon wanted to explore the idea of rendering the faces in true color, using the LEDs to recreate spectators’ skin tones.

Still, even in monochrome, the faces are a striking sight, harkening back to monumental sculptures of antiquity. If you want to put a more contemporary spin on the installation, you could think of it as a Mt. Rushmore for the Selfie Age. The iconography of the face and the expressive potential behind it hasn’t been surpassed and he felt that it he didn’t think it ever will be. But the piece proved to be a big hit with all those present at the games.