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Although director Hayao Miyazaki gets the lion’s share of the credit for the sterling quality of Studio Ghibli’s anime films, you can’t discount the contributions of Joe Hisaishi. The veteran composer’s musical scores are timeless and ethereal, and there’s no better visual compliment to their mix of trepidation and adventurousness than the moving pictures of Japan’s most respected animation house.

The beautiful projection mapping that accompanies this stirring piano cover of the ending theme to Castle in the Sky Laputa is a close second, though.

Beginning with what looks like a stone relief atop the piano being played by YouTube user Faithroom, the first few notes don’t stray far from the original arrangement of the anime classic “Kimi wo Nosete.” Before long, though, the cover appears to slide back, and Faithroom kicks the melody’s tempo up several notches.

Each keystroke of the pianist’s energetic piano version of the song is accompanied by a visual flourish, whether beams of light cascading down like the bricks crumbling from the titular castle in the sky, or a flurry of feathers fluttering around a levitating crystal.

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As Faithroom shows once the performance is complete, the background is rendered ahead of time, at a slightly skewed angle. Once projected onto the top of the piano and viewed diagonally, though, it creates the illusion that the flat surface is actually a yawning void.

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With the background set, he then connects his piano to a PC, transferring the data from the keystrokes into a system that produces a beam or feather whenever he presses a key.

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While “Kimi wo Nosete” is Faithroom’s latest projection mapping muse, it’s not his first. Earlier this year, he took his inspiration from American animation instead of Japanese, with this rendition of Frozen’s “Let It Go,” complete with snow flakes and what look like icicles.

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And finally, if you’re an old-school gamer, you’ll probably appreciate this piano version of the ending theme to one of the PlayStation’s most memorable titles, Final Fantasy VIII’s “Eyes on Me,” originally composed by Nobuo Uematsu. It may not feature any projection mapping, but it’s still got plenty of digital artistry

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Deeply moving stuff, and best of all, the Laputa video ends with the message “See you next time.” We’ll be waiting, Faithroom.

Source: IT Media
Top image: YouTube
Insert images: YouTube (1, 2, 3)