Called “Cat House Sessions”, Insomniac made the broadcast of a total of 8 episodes possible, which premiered on 14th February 2021. Each episode features a 2-hour long set by Cat Dealers, featuring different setlists as well as 8 most unique virtual environments, which were created with Depence, exclusively for these sessions to portray the musical mood of each set.
The virtual environments were conceived by Creative Director André Ayres following the creative input and ideas from both DJs Pedro and Lugui (Cat Dealers) as well as the responsible lighting designer John Okazaki. The base frame of the design was modeled, assembled, and textured in Cinema 4D and then effortlessly exported as FBX file into Depence. From there on, John Okazaki designed the specific lighting setup as well as the special effects which brought life into each of the environments. Following all kinds of different themes, the shows display all kinds of creative designs reaching from spaceships over ancient temples to an ice cave and more.
"My favorite aspect of this software is how the lighting equipment in the virtual scene behaves as close as it gets to the equivalent real equipment."- John Okazaki
One main aspect to make the whole project possible, was the use of the Depence chroma key feature, which allowed the designers to capture the DJs through three different camera angles and to integrate the live video footage into the Depence visualization. The live content was shot in two 12-hour long studio sessions. To match the look and feel of a real stage even more, Okazaki used real lighting to be replicated over the DJs matching all colors and effects which later were also used in Depence. The result is stunning and adds up to the realism of the project even more.
[…] With such tight deadlines, a software that can preview quality visuals in real-time is a huge help in the workflow of a production with these many hours."- André Ayres
The whole production team is thereby more than satisfied with the various unique features, which Depence offers to realize such a complex virtual production. For example, the creators made use of the virtual motor driven fixtures, which allow to move virtual objects of any kind realistically. The realistic water simulation, a unique key feature of Depence, also allowed a brilliant world building. To create an atmospheric sunset scenario, the sun’s altitude was controlled with keyframe animations to simulate a feeling of time passing. In addition to that, the Mass Crowd feature, which was implemented in our latest big Depence update 2.2 was used to create an animated crowd, which also hugely adds to the realism of the scene. To that, NDI recording was used in combination with Resolume Arena to animate the light design displayed in the virtual LED strips along the different stairway designs.
“We look forward to keep pushing the boundaries of our Virtual sets through Depence even after the conclusion of the series.“
Cat Dealers Team:
Pedro Henrique Cardoso - Artist
Luiz Guilherme Cardoso - Artist
Mario Sergio Albuquerque & Edo Van Dujin - Management
John Okazaki - Show Director and Lighting Designer
Andre Ayres - Creative Director and CG Artist
Rodrigo Vieites - Production Manager
Carlos Eduardo Cardoso - Legal/Administrator
Mary Frasso - Marketing Manager
Gabriela Pacheco - Marketing Assistant
Fernanda Kuster - Junior Marketing Assistant
CAT HOUSE sessions:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvRwIXAqw5Wgva1peyjXRM314i_OTV-XO
https://www.youtube.com/insomniac/featured
