reasearch and process

Note for me, to note things that worked, things that didn’t, retrace the creative process.

First phase : discovery

Curating a moodboard, finding tutorials that fit my vision and technical constraints. Feeding the creative machine, imagining ways to make it my own and fit to the event. Easy in some way, following a tutorial isn’t hard. The hardest part was knowing when to stop looking for effects and just start digging in one direction. A few effects didn’t make the cut because too heavy or not fitting the artistic direction, but I found quickly the main visuals. With 2-4 ideas selected, I started experimenting.
The testing phase was the most interesting. I would get into long sessions of optimizing, re-arranging the BASE comps to make it more modular, the most reliable in different contexts.

Second phase : validation

After coming up with a few pocs, I showed the work to the team to validate the artistic direction, align our visions, and evaluate what was working, what wasn’t (always good to get out of tunnel vision). Good feedback, the vision was the same from all parts, some animations didn’t make the cut, mainly the “bouncing”.

Third phase : refinement and controls

This phase was about doing the last mile visually, find loops that work well and setting final parameter ranges that could be automated with music. Another big aspect was setting good controls on the custom base components for perform mode and mapping controls to a PS4 remote. This phase was a bit lacunar, because of lack of time the week before the event. The last steps were taken on the night before during setup, not ideal.

Fourth phase : setup

As I said, the last steps were taken during the setup and during the night before, didn’t sleep a lot, which was maybe a bit my bad, but very needed as well. Ideally, I would’ve liked a little bit less experimentation and more setup. It’s a good lesson I guess. It was not too stressful but it could’ve been more chill. Having a todolist would’ve been useful.

Fifth phase : the event

Here, the goal was to control the unexpected effects of the smoke and the lights on the input, change cam battery, and change the artist text during the night. Ah and letting go. No need to stress all night for it, sometimes I had spikes of cortisol thinking about something that could go wrong, but in the worst case, it was still ok, just no cam background.