We are doing it right in Los Angeles to kickoff the 100th anniversary season on the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A free festival on September 30thfilled the streets for eight miles from the Walt Disney Concert Hall to the Hollywood Bowl with 1800 musicians, artists, dancers, art installations, food trucks and more.
Come sunset a free concert swung into gear. From an AV perspective the highlight was the debut of Xite Labs, a new project from content creator Greg Russell (formerly of Tandem Digital Entertainment) and visual artist Vello Virkhaus (formerly of V Squared Labs).
The result was a projection mapping platform that was responsive to music in real time, improvised to the performances, and reacting to the orchestra. No time code. Just Gustavo Dudamel and John Williams’ batons.
Let’s take a look:
Star Wars
Katy Perry’s Firework
Herbie Hancock’s Rockit
A team of 12 computer animators, programmers, and digital artists spent two months creating 16 looks to accompany the performers, using more than 17.4 million pixels to fill the Bowl’s icon proscenium arch.
The creatives used tools such as Notch Designer and Playback, Cinema 4-D, real-time generative particle systems to reinvent the medium as a blend of projection mapping, lighting, AI, camera tracking and sound design to create AV that is built collaboratively in real time with the performers.
