What interactive media did you design for the client-based class?

As a capstone class for ETBD, we were tasked with creating multiple concert visuals for the Grammy-winning group The Black Keys for their “No Rain No Flowers” tour. The group assigned to the company, Cour, our client for the projects, was being contracted by The Black Keys. Cour gave us the task of creating stage and screen concepts for different songs. Our class was led by our Professor, Ben Nicholson, to work on these projects. While some of us came into this class with more experience than others, it was definitely a lot of fast learning for most of us. Some of the people in the class had already taken his visuals for music class, which helped.

What is the process for developing designs for such a prestigious project?

Our class got to work, creating a band brief, doing research, creating mockups, and talking with our client about what the band wanted. Members of the team worked with a variety of tools, including ones such as Blender, Cinema 4D, After Effects, and Premiere. After working on these concepts with them for quite a while, we eventually had them finished and were able to preview them on our XR Stage. From there, we could start work on actually creating the visuals for each of the songs. Artists within these groups worked together, creating specific content for each song with their software of choice. Many of the artists on these teams used both Blender and After Effects to create visuals for all of the songs needed.

How does doing work for a client prepare you to work in Entertainment and Interactive Design?

During this process, the class continued meetings with Cour, doing constant revisions to make sure we had the best possible product. I personally probably spent about 40 hours on the specific animation you see.

Our class continued this process, creating multiple graphics for their tour and continuing the revisions as needed. Creating graphics for multiple songs, of which some have been used on the tour. It was a lot of fun to be able to see the work that I had done being used by a big band. Just getting to see something that I had made for a class behind them on their tour is so nice.

I felt this prepared me for my career by allowing me to work on a project that I knew created something that was needed for a client. Getting to work with a company that actually does this allowed me to see the process and really get a better perspective of how these bands get their graphics and the process behind it.