All Of It Now deploys disguise on Halsey dates
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Numerous features of the disguise solutions came into play for the tour starting in pre-pro. “The show’s video design used a multi-layered frame, and the 3D workflow of disguise Designer allowed us to create parallel maps that placed content on the screen spatially without requiring specific renders for certain songs,” explains Danny Firpo of All of It Now, a disguise rental partner and workflow specialist based in San Francisco, who did the tour’s video programming with Cade Moore. “This gave us the creative flexibility to move content around the screen and explore different approaches for certain songs.
“The show used three different frame sizes for the tour - small, medium and large - but we did not have enough time to see all of the different sizes in rehearsal. We relied heavily on the 3D pre-vis in disguise to confirm how content would look on each of those different sizes. When we loaded in to the first venue using the smaller size, the content was mapped perfectly and required minimal changes during load in.”
The new EVO workflow was also used in the early pre-vis stages, merging the disguise and MA3D environments, and creating additional opportunities to integrate lighting and video departments. “For Bad at Love, the EVO overlay gave us the ability to see the Video and Lighting elements merged together in a single screen, and Arlo was able to program the stage lighting to match the lighting within the on screen content”, says Firpo.
With the disguise Designer workflow, All Of It Now was able to programme all three show files in parallel using the track export and import functionality to push specific programming changes to each of the show files. That saved a lot of time, according to Danny, because the track did not have to be reprogrammed three times.
The Manic World Tour takes a “very cinematic approach” with disguise “used almost like a non-linear editing tool on a couple of songs,” explains Firpo. “This gave us the flexibility in rehearsal to arrange and duplicate clips for rapid revisions and fast collaboration, which alleviated some of the need to re-render content.”
“The additional GPU power of the gx 2c gave us the creative freedom to explore more GPU-intensive Notch looks,” he reports. “For Graveyard, we explored a 2D fluid simulation that emulated watercolour paint flowing onto the IMAG screens. This was also used as a transitional effect for the IMAG to swirl off the screen during key moments in the song.”
The content itself made heavy use of gradients of both chroma and luma space, so “the NotchLC codec was crucial in reducing banding and compression artifacts,” he notes.
At All Of It Now, Cade Moore is the touring operator, and Kevin Zhu the Notch designer.
The tour’s production management is by Jimi Storey, and creative management by James Richardson. Tarik Mikou of Moment Factory and Aude Guivarc'h are the creative directors; tour production and content design is by Moment Factory. Arlo Guthrie and Jose Antunes are the lighting designers, and Screenworks is the video equipment provider.
