ABBA: THEIR ‘70S SELVES

 THE RISE OF VR/AR/VFXAND LIVE ENTERTAINMENT

Jim Sullivan — 

VR/AR/MR Trends

June 01

2023

ABBA seen on a massive LED screen. The de-aged avatars were created by ILM in a project that took over five years. (Image courtesy of ILM and ABBA)

In one breakthrough after another, AR, VR and VFX are augmenting live entertainment, from ABBA’s avatars to XR concerts to Madonna dancing live on stage with her digital selves.

ABBA: THEIR ‘70S SELVES

When the Swedish group ABBA returned to the stage last May after a 40-year hiatus, they did so digitally with the help of ILM. The foursome – Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog – appeared in ABBA Voyage via their de-aged digital avatars, virtual versions of themselves on huge screens in the purpose-built, 3,000-capacity ABBA Arena, which was constructed in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. (ABBA Voyage won the 21st Annual VES Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project.)

ABBA’s 20-song “virtual live show,” over five years in the making, is a hybrid creation: pre-recorded avatars appear on stage with a physically present 10-piece band to make the experience more lifelike and convincing. The avatars meld the band’s current-day movements with their appearances in the 1970s.

ILM supplied the VFX magic, with more than 1,000 total visual effects artists in four studios working on the project, according to the show’s spokespersons. ILM Creative Director and Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Ben Morris oversaw the VFX of the show, which was directed by music-video veteran Baillie Walsh.

First, Morris and his team scanned thousands of original 35mm negatives and hours of old 16mm and 35mm concert footage and TV appearances of the band. The supergroup quartet spent five weeks singing and dancing in motion-capture suits as ILM scanned their bodies and faces with 160 cameras at a movie studio in Stockholm. The same process was undertaken with younger body doubles, who followed their moves, guided by choreographer Wayne McGregor, and whose movements were blended with those of ABBA to give the band more youthful movements.

The digital versions of ABBA appear on the stage and to the sides of the arena on towering ROE Black Pearl BP2V2 LED walls, powered by Brompton Tessera SX40 4K LED processors. Each screen is 19 panels high, and there are an additional 4,200 ROE LED strips in and around the area. Solotech supplied the LED walls. Five hundred moving lights and 291 speakers connect what is on the screens to the arena. The result is spectacular and suggests that many large-scale digital shows may be on the way for music stars who are getting old or simply don’t like touring.

ABBA avatars on stage in lower center. The show’s elaborate lighting and live musicians help bring ABBA’s music to life. (Image courtesy of ILM and ABBA)

VIRTUAL TUPAC, VIRTUAL VINCE

Digital Domain created digital representations of the rap star Tupac Shakur and legendary Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi in 2012 and 2021, respectively, which raised the visual-quality bar for virtual appearances projected live.

On April 15, 2012, at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California, Tupac Shakur appeared in a CGI incarnation on stage at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California. The virtual Tupac sang his posthumous hit “Hail Mary” plus a “duet” of “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” with Snoop Dogg, who was on stage, in the flesh.

The computer-generated realistic image of Shakur was shown to some 90,000 fans on each of two nights; YouTube videos of the event reached 15 million views, according to Digital Domain. Some called it the “Tupac Hologram” – it wasn’t a hologram, but it was 3D-like. Unlike ABBA Voyage (2022), which featured the participation of the band in creating the group’s avatars, the Shakur on stage was created long after the singer’s death in 1996. The project took about two months to complete, with 20 artists of different disciplines, according to Digital Domain’s Aruna Inversin, Creative Director and VFX Supervisor. The virtual Tupac was the vision of Andre “Dr. Dre” Young, and Digital Domain created the visual effects content. AV Concepts, and an audio-visual services and immersive technology solutions provider, handled the projection technology.

The digital versions of ABBA appear on the stage and to the sides of the arena on towering ROE Black Pearl BP2V2 LED screens powered by Brompton Tessera SX40 4K LED processors. (Image courtesy of ILM and ABBA)

Silhouettes of Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog – whose virtual versions appear on huge screens in the purpose-built 3,000-capacity ABBA Arena in London. (Image courtesy of ILM and ABBA)

https://www.vfxvoice.com/the-rise-of-vr-ar-vfx-and-live-entertainment