TYLER THE CREATOR - GRAMMY PERFORMANCE

ANIMATION

In Association With Immanent and Silent House Productions

001// THE PROJECT

Working under the direction of Drew Best at Immenent and Alex Reardon of Silent House productions, I was tasked with designing and animating a virtual set extension for Tyler, the Creator’s explosive 2020 GRAMMY Performance of EARFQUAKE / NEW MAGIC WAND, at which he took home the GRAMMY for Best Rap Album for his IGOR album. The physical set, designed by Silent House, depicted a neighborhood street lined with pastel colored houses. During the performance, the set would crack apart and spew flames. My task was to create a mapped animation to extend the set and enhance the effect with added VFX.

002// THE CONCEPT

The performance opens on a colorful neighborhood street where Tyler is accompanied by a quartet including Boyz II Men and Charlie Wilson. The mood quickly changes to a dark, stormy environment. As the earth-rattling bass hits, the street cracks open and the scene begins to self-destruct. Powerlines spark, structures fall, and basically everything explodes as a fiery abyss opens in the middle of the street. At the finale moment, Tyler drops off the backside of the physical set, into the virtual fiery pit.

003// THE Process

I began recreating the houses and the street in Cinema4D using the physical set as a reference. There were a number of unknowns including the final placement of the set in relation to the screen and the camera angles that would be used on show day, so I created the scene in 1 point perspective with plenty of breathing room for ease of remapping and flexibility for the live cameras. Another unknown was the actual audio since Tyler was creating a bespoke mashup for the performance. So I created a series of looping layers and musical moments that could be arranged and composited in After Effects so that we would have the ability to remix as needed as those details solidified.

004// CREDITS

Production Design - Alex Reardon // Silent House
Animation Studio - Drew Best // Immanent
Design & Animaton - Sean Bowes