I was contracted to develop several animated backgrounds for a stage performance of Shrek the Musical. I was responsible for asset creation and acquisition, digital scene development, animation, VFX, and rendering. I developed and animated these scenes in Unreal Engine, and rendered out videos using Adobe Premiere Pro. I worked closely with the show's director and set designers over this process in order to ensure materials, colors, and styles matched to the physicals props and set pieces, and to ensure the layout of each scene properly framed the staging of set pieces and actors.
I also traveled to the theater to assist in installation and testing of the rendered videos. I worked with the show's lighting and technical director to ensure accurate image display. During this process, I would especially note the viewing angle of the projected image and the displayed color of the image as compared to its rendered color. I used this information to tweak the digital camera settings. In many scenes, we wanted to make the stage seem to extend into the projection, as opposed to it just appearing as a flat backdrop. Getting the camera angle to line up with the audience's general viewing angle was important to sell this effect. The displayed image color was noted to tweak the video's post processing effects and rendering settings. It was important that the videos appear vibrant enough to pop for the audience, even against stage lights, but not so bright as to distract from or wash out the actors.
In the end, 16 digital scene loops and transitions were rendered for use in the performance, several of which are viewable above.
Some assets sourced from Megascans and the Unreal Engine Marketplace.