IMMERSIVE TOOLS
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Once we have their exact likeness, proprietary tools at ILM allow us to capture their faces while they are singing and use that to drive the face performance of the digital avatar.” He concludes: “Even though the avatars are virtual, the performance is all KISS – every move, gesture and expression comes from them.” ILM’s technology is making waves in live music, bridging the gap between the practical world and digital one, letting audiences travel to any place imaginable. The company is constantly coming up with novel ideas for an even more immersive experience: “You could take the stage and bring it out to the audience, wrapping it around them,” suggests Cofer. “This can revolutionise live music entertainment. In terms of creativity, the possibilities are endless.” I BELIEVE I CAN FLY It’d be wrong to talk about immersive technology without mentioning VR. Having come a long way since its popularisation in 20th-century science fiction, VR rests entirely on a sense of immersion, with the participant fully entrenched in a digital simulation and leaving their physical world behind. While VR is primarily used in gaming, it has cross-disciplinary applications in education (such as military training), healthcare (virtual rehabilitation) and entertainment (escape rooms, for instance). It’s a format that knows no bounds, which is part of its appeal; users can visit fictional locations, interact with digital avatars and do things they normally wouldn’t dare – like skydiving. Virtual skydiving is an up-and-coming activity, becoming more commonplace and less nausea-inducing (VR has historically invoked motion sickness,
Though not physically present in the arena, these concerts have been carefully crafted by all four members of ABBA
experience, ILM’s latest endeavour is KISS, the legendary rock band which recently wrapped its farewell tour – but not before adding a surprise ending displaying its members as digitally immortalised avatars and hinting at an everlasting encore. “ILM has created an industry around turning the wildest ideas into reality, using cutting-edge techniques to help visionary artists tell their stories,” begins Grady Cofer, visual effects supervisor at ILM. “It was in this way that the wildly successful ABBA Voyage was born. The show was built on ILM’s latest technology in visual effects, digital humans, virtual production and LEDs.” KISS’s concerts will operate using the same cocktail of modern machinery, bringing the de-aged band members to life with advanced performance-capture technology. “First, Gene, Paul, Tommy and Eric came up to ILM where they were captured in 3D,” Cofer explains of the step-by-step process. “We have an Academy Award-winning system called Medusa, where you sit in a chair while surrounded by high-resolution cameras. All those images allow us to reconstruct their faces with incredible precision.
ILM’s Stagecraft captured every detail of KISS’s final show – from facial expressions to fingertips
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