# Starbucks - A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains -- Projection-Mapped 3D Terrain

> For a Starbucks activation themed around "Only This Green," MLABART turned the Northern Song masterpiece "A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains" into a sculpted 3D relief terrain, then projection-mapped its blue-green (azurite-malachite) landscape pixel-precise onto the physical model -- the flat 900-year-old scroll becomes a luminous, dimensional mountain range. MLABART delivered the 3D terrain, the mapping content and the overall presentation.

- **Client:** Starbucks
- **Industry:** Culture
- **Published:** 2026-06-30

## Scenario

A Starbucks brand activation themed around "Only This Green" -- the acclaimed dance drama inspired by the painting -- presenting the beauty of China through digital craft.

## Interaction

The painting's landscape was sculpted as a physical relief terrain -- peaks, valleys and rivers in real dimension -- then its blue-green imagery was projection-mapped pixel-precise onto the model, light tracing the ridges and rivers following the valleys. A flat Northern Song scroll becomes a luminous mountain range you can walk around. MLABART delivered it end to end: the 3D terrain model, the projection-mapping content, and the overall visual presentation.

## Technologies

- Projection Mapping
- 3D Terrain Model
- Digital Content Production

## Marketing value

A cultural IP rendered in digital craft: "an old painting brought to life" becomes a high-resonance, highly photographable brand memory point, with a tactile quality flat screens can't match.

## The challenge: giving a 900-year-old flat scroll real dimension

"A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains" is a painting every Chinese visitor knows -- which is both the asset and the trap: the higher the recognition, the easier a digital rendition reads as "just a projection of the painting." The goal was for visitors to see not an image on a screen, but a mountain range that physically exists and can be walked around.

MLABART's approach put the physical first: sculpt the painting's landscape as a relief terrain with true elevation -- peaks, valleys and rivers in real dimension -- then make the projected imagery "grow" onto that terrain seamlessly.

## Engineering: from scroll to terrain to millimetre-level alignment

Production ran in three steps: rebuild the landscape as a 3D terrain model from the original scroll, fixing every peak's height and ridge line; sculpt that model as a physical relief; then produce the projection content from the same 3D data so colour and brushwork land precisely on every ridge and riverbed.

Mapping alignment was held to millimetres -- light must travel along the ridges and water must flow inside the riverbeds; any offset instantly breaks the illusion of a real mountain. On-site calibration matched the projection zone by zone against the scroll's azurite-and-malachite palette until terrain and content fused into one object.

## The result: brand expression worthy of a cultural IP

The finished piece is a luminous, dimensional blue-green landscape: the scroll's colours and brushstrokes move across physical terrain, and visitors' first instinct is to photograph it. Against a flat-screen alternative, the sculpted terrain's tactility -- and the story of "an old painting brought to life" -- carries the weight of a Starbucks x "Only This Green" cultural collaboration.

Cultural-IP digitalization is an established MLABART capability line -- related work includes the Relics Time-Travel immersive exhibition -- and the format adapts well to guochao, cultural and festival activations.

## Why brands choose this approach

- The hook isn't "displaying a painting" -- it's turning a flat 900-year-old scroll into a luminous, dimensional mountain you can walk around, so visitors reach for their phones on first sight.
- A physically sculpted terrain plus pixel-precise projection reads far richer than a screen or a printed graphic -- it holds up to the dignity of both the brand and the cultural IP.
- "An old painting brought to life" is a natural memory point and photo spot, ideal for guochao, cultural and festival brand activations.
- MLABART delivers the 3D terrain, the content and the overall presentation end to end, with millimetre-level projection alignment and on-site execution under our control.
- Deep experience in cultural digitalization (Heritage Time Travel, kinetic art installations), keeping execution risk low.

## Video

- [A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains -- Projection-Mapped 3D Terrain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOmaRfU56mc) -- uploaded 2026-06-27

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**MLABART** -- Interaction - Imagination - Innovation

MLABART is a creative technology studio specializing in interactive installations, digital multimedia art, and immersive experiences. We take projects from creative direction to commercial delivery -- building audiovisual interactive installations, anamorphic 3D billboards (naked-eye 3D), kinetic mechanical installations, and AI-driven experiences for brand activations, exhibition spaces, and public environments.

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- Email: mark@touchworld-sh.com
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