CASE STUDY

Disguise powers
Alan Walker’s NIO
Day virtual concert
Norwegian DJ Alan Walker was invited to play avirtual concert titled “World of Walker” for electricvehicle manufacturer NIO’s annual product launchday. Co-produced by Norwegian music company
MER, UK-based xR specialists 80six and China
and Malaysia-based multimedia content creators
Super Bonﬁre, the short set would highlight tracks
from Walker’s ﬁrst two albums and oﬀer a sneakpeek at a forthcoming single.

www.disguise.one

At a glance
In this case study, you will ﬁnd out how Disguise’s
Extended Reality (xR) workﬂow helped Super
Bonﬁre and 80six create astonishing virtual worlds
culminating in an exhilarating live performance injust three weeks. The end result: a live show
representative of one of today’s most ambitious
DJs worldwide.
Teams spanning across the UK, Malaysia and China had justeight days of production to create a mixed reality ‘alternative
universe’ in line with Alan Walker's disruptive cinematic vision.
Featuring a medley of ﬁve songs and with two vocalists
alongside Alan Walker, the virtual concert was intended tocapture Walker’s distinctive live shows and oﬀer an immersive,
futuristic viewing experience that would tie in with theforward-thinking spirit of NIO Day, the Chinese car
manufacturer’s own event showcasing new EV car models.
Each of the ﬁve songs would be performed in a new, visuallyarresting location. The show would open on a rock orbiting aplanet, and would ﬁnish with Walker and singer Torine ﬂying
above the clouds at dusk. There would be stops on the way ina pulsing digital club, a metallic rocky landscape, and an ornate
palace of ice.

Image credits: Lorem ipsum

The challenge
Limited timeframes, multiple locations
From the moment of conception, Super Bonﬁre had just three
weeks to put together the content for an eight-day production
done by 80six, with only a single day shoot for the actualconcert.
Together they had to produce a spectacular show that would
look ﬂawless and capture the world-beating standards of Alan
Walker, whose single is certiﬁed as Platinum.
“We were creating the content in such a short amount of timeand needed to build the stage to shoot it in an even shorter
period in order to give ourselves room to shoot the footage weneeded,” says Super Bonﬁre CEO, Jason Kirby.
“We had teams in three time zones working 24 hours a day toput this together. The logistics of it were complicated.”

Image credits: Lorem ipsum

The solution
Super Bonﬁre began building the impressive landscapes thatWalker would perform in, using a partner’s studio in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia to test their work. Meanwhile, their partners
80six were in the UK, building the custom xR stage that theﬁnal shoot would be completed on.
The award-winning technology suite supporting the xR
workﬂow was powered by two Disguise VX 4 and four RX II
media servers working together with Unreal Engine and Notch
graphics engines and camera tracking system Mo-sys
StarTracker and a Technocrane on which the SONY Venicecamera was mounted.
“The Disguise workﬂow allowed us to build in a lot of ﬂexibility
across both the Unreal Engine and Notch projects, which gave
us more room to improvise and maneuver when shooting onsite,” says Kirby.
Disguise's groundbreaking virtual zoom feature allowed theteam to zoom in and out of each scene, shooting in a virtual
space that extended far beyond the physical limits of the LEDscreens.

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80SIX“With virtual zoom, we createda variety of complex camera
movements by zooming in andout or panning beyond thephysical constraints of thegimbal and Technocrane,
creating an enhanced virtual
performance space.
Additionally Disguise’s colour
calibration has particularly
improved with the latest
software release, speeding up
the workﬂow and taking us lessthan ten minutes to get thecolour calibration done.”
Paul Nicholls
Head of Virtual Production & Real-Time Technology

Image credits: Lorem ipsum

The results
The ambitious xR performance, boasting more than three
million views on Youtube, skilfully merged 80six's leading
extended reality expertise and experience in the integration ofreal-time technologies, with Super Bonﬁre's creative genius indelivering high-value multimedia content.
One of the big advantages of ﬁlming in an xR studio is theimpact on the artist’s performances. Unlike shoots on green
screen sets, xR studios allow artists to immerse themselves intheir environment and interact with their surroundings.
In the Alan Walker concert, audiences might spot a moment
where German singer Au/Ra casually hops over a raised bar in
the landscape. It’s a playful moment, completely improvised
and possible only because the xR set allowed Au/Ra to see thevirtual elements around her.

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Success
80six and Super Bonﬁre proved that xR technologies can berelied upon to deliver outstanding visual content even with alimited pre-production time, whilst avoiding the perils intrinsic
to such a new set of immersive technologies. The ﬁnishedvirtual concert was released on NIO Day, just three weeks after
the teams started work on the project. It has since been viewed
over 3.6 million times.

381

3.6M

weeks to create
content

days spent inproduction

day to shoot theﬁnal concert

views on Youtube“It's always good when we get to work with Disguise! The
back-end support from them has been great and we learn a lot
from them everytime we do a project. There is so much support
available, not only technically, but also through the wider
Disguise network. Being a part of it gives you access to a worldof industry leaders in this ﬁeld. Without the support from
Disguise, this project would not have been possible,” saysKirby.
Watch the full virtual concert.
Watch here

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Disguise equipment used

VX 4

RX II

DESIGNER

Optimised for playing up to fourtimes uncompressed 4K60 andlossless 10-bit video, the VX 4
powers content of the highest
quality at any scale.

RX II is our dedicated system forhosting content from real-timerender engines, unlocking 40%
more graphics processing power
than its predecessor.

Designer is the ultimate software
to visualise, design, andsequence projects at every stage,
from concept all the way throughto showtime.

Find out more

Find out more

Find out more

In Partnership withMER CONTENT

SUPER BONFIRE

VIRTUAL PRODUCTION STUDIOS BY 80SIX

Director: Kristian Berg
Director: Mads Neset
Producer: Madeleine Kviljo
Executive Producer: Gunnar Greve
Director of Photography: Morten Forsberg
Musical Director: James Daniel Njie Eriksen
Backline & Playback Engineer: Nikolaj Gloppen
BTS Photo: Mo Sarmadawy
Edit: Mads Neset
Edit: Kristian Berg
Logger: Sondre Fagerborg
Colorist: Didrik Bråthen
VFX: Wirat Johannessen

Executive Producer: Jason Kirby
Project Managers: David Ran, Shukri Yunos
Lead Producer: Charlotte Chong
Creative Director: Kaism Lim
Animation / VFX Directors: Azhan Karim, Kaism Lim
Art Director: Zhao Xiang Li
Style Frame Design: Zhao Xiang Li, Azhan Karim, Miao Lang
Online Team: San Nai
Video Editor: Lumi, Yuan Yuan
XR Technical Director: Carl Loo
UE Lead: Bart, Nini Tan
UE Artists: Azhan Karim, Madnas, Syazwan Nazzaruddin
Blueprint Engineers: Hao Chen Guang, Benny Chong
Notch Creative Animation: Anius
Notch Animator: Bounce
CG Leads: Kaism Lim, Azhan Karim
Lead Compositors: Azhan Karim, Madnas
Compositors: Syazwan Nazzaruddin,Zhang Min Min, Guo Zhen Yu
3D Animation: Azhan Karim
Animation Support: Lv Dong Yang

Production Director: Dan Hamill
XR Producer: Petra von Schalien
Executive Producer: Jack James
Technical Director: Paul Nicholls
Systems Engineers: Laurence Dobie, Pete HumeBrompton Engineer: Stuart Thatcher
LED Technicians: Jules Blagg, Adam Barthorpe
Disguise Support: Annalisa Terranova
Unreal Artists (on-set): Antonino Scodrani, He Sun
Notch Artist (on-set): Alex Wilson
Mo-sys Technicians: Martin Parsley, Asi San
Gaﬀa: Gary Churchil
Rigger: Tim Williams
Audio: Sonny Evans, Andy Carrington
1st AD: George Nelson
1st AC: Mike Linforth
2nd AC: Liam Reardon
DIT: Moses JeremiahVideo Playback: Philippe Clavier
Remote Head Operator: James Davis
Grip 1: Tony Shults
Grip 2: Michael Farrell
Grip 3: David Bradshaw
Crane Technician: Tim Plunket
Hair & Make-Up: Carla Ramsey
Runner: Melina Bryant

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