Omnipotent Youth Society at Mercedes-Benz Arena, Shanghai

LiveNation assembled a team of talented visualists for an awestruck audience of 10,000 with Omnipotent Youth Society at centre stage.

To create visuals for Chinese alt-rockers Omnipotent Youth Society’s latest performance at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, LiveNation gave the creative team a lot of space to experiment. With the help of Creative Director Ruan Qianrui, the band came up with a unique vision they wanted to develop for every song.

After determining their production plan, the creative team sketched things out in Photoshop and used After Effects for the first stage of their image and video processing. Notch Designers Miii and Kirin Wang then loaded all assets into Notch for individualised structuring and sorting and added different effects, such as segmentation flicker, digital destruction, and Bump Map Warp specifically.

The team combined traditional and modern aesthetics that often corresponded with the precise sound at each moment. For example, with every stroke of guitar distortion, they’d use Notch to create visual distortion matching the level of “crunch” in each given moment. The Notch Designers also used Notch’s built-in modifier nodes to introduce variety and randomness while retaining control of the overall post processing and live camera effects.

With an accompanying orchestra and over 10,000 audience members, Omnipotent Youth Society and the team delivered a phenomenal result described by the team themselves as a moving and, at times, shocking “art installation” of austere rock and roll with silent onlookers mesmerised by the culminating show.

“Using Notch in a real-time workflow allowed for a lot of experimentation. Because we could produce content so quickly, we could explore limitless possibilities.”

Miii, Notch Designer

Additional press coverage:
Asian Pop Weekly, Zhihu.

Credits
Client: Omnipotent Youth Society
Production Company: LiveNation
Production Designer: Ellen Xu
Creative Direction: Ellen Xu & Ruan Qianrui
Notch Designers: Miii & Kirin Wang
Video Director: Ellen Xu

Video Producers: Ruan Qianrui, Kirin Wang, & Miii
Lighting Designers: Yan Lei & YEG
Stage Designers: Aerin Fang & Ao Li
Screen Producers: MRT (中国上海仁添工程) & Ao Li