What problem did this solve?
Group choreography usually takes shape in the rehearsal room, with every dancer present, and the client often sees it for the first time near the end. For a corporate opening number with 10 dancers, 30 drones and a fixed four-minute slot, that leaves very little room for changes.
Building the piece in 3D first meant the formations, spacing, timing and drone positions could be reviewed and changed before rehearsals started, by people in different cities, from a link.
How did the workflow work?
- Film each part. Ty Graynor filmed each of the 10 dancer parts in a studio, one at a time.
- Capture. The Impulse plugin for Unreal Engine 5, with MetaHuman markerless motion capture, turned each video into 3D animation. No suits, markers or capture studio.
- Stage. We placed the 10 animations and the drone paths on a virtual stage, each figure color coded and numbered so every dancer could find their track.
- Sync. The scene ran in time with the show music, about four minutes from start to finish.
- Share. We published it as a private browser viewer. You could drag to orbit, pinch to zoom, change the playback speed, loop sections and step forward or back one frame at a time.
How close was the previs to the real thing?
The video above follows four moments in the music through every stage of the process: Ty’s solo video of one part, the 3D previs, studio rehearsal and stage rehearsal. The formations, the spacing and the drone positions lined up closely with what everyone had already reviewed in 3D. Watch the full stage rehearsal with 30 drones and the full show in our LED costumes.
Why does it matter for clients?
“This will be revolutionary for clients that want to be involved in the choreography process beyond just receiving a final product,” says Dalton Sessumes, founder of MindWorks. Producers can give notes on a formation the day it’s built, and the dance company can learn the piece with the full picture in front of them.
Who was involved?
MindWorks was the segment producer for the opening number. Choreography was by Ty Graynor of Ty & Co., the 10 dancers were from Joel Hall Dancers in Chicago, and MindWorks designed the LED costumes and the custom 30-drone show.
Where else can this be used?
Any show where a client wants to see the staging early: product launches, award reveals, LED performer groups and drone shows built around live performers. See our indoor drone shows, LED performers and full show production.
Video: Ty Graynor’s choreography videos, MindWorks previs, studio and stage rehearsal footage, no audio.