“Maneki” Sequence
The Seattle-based band Thunderpussy brought me on board to be their visual designer for their live show projections. I’ve been with them ever since, designing graphics and running the graphics for their shows.
One of the first sequences designed was the “Maneki Neko” sequence, utilizing the iconic cats, with a bit of Bowie flair added to it. I hand painted onto some dollar-store maneki.
Filmed on a mirrored turntable, and shot several dozen different iterations of the cat, spinning, static, etc.
Filmed on a mirrored turntable, and shot several dozen different iterations of the cat, spinning, static, etc.
I see a lot of live shows, and there’s some boring graphics up there; simple geometric shapes, or random pulls from music videos. Viz needs to POP. The usual wasn’t good enough for me, I wanted something more, and something that fit the flavor and color of the song, most importantly added to it.
The challenge though finding the right balance realizing these visuals are not the show itself, they’re just an aspect of the show... an additional topping on the pizza, if you will (And who doesn’t love pizza?). You need to have your visuals work with the band, the sound, the lighting, not steal the show or overshadow it. Confident I struck the right balance.
And here you see it up on the main stage at the 2016 Capitol Hill Block Party, with singer Molly Sides in the foreground. The viz looked damn good up on a Jumbotron, and it never gets old seeing things scaled up to 100 feet. (Event footage by Andrew Franks)
Individual clips were programmed and controlled via a midi pad, and plugged through the program VDMX5. Beep boop beep.
And here you see it up on the main stage at the 2016 Capitol Hill Block Party, with singer Molly Sides in the foreground. The viz looked damn good up on a Jumbotron, and it never gets old seeing things scaled up to 100 feet. (Event footage by Andrew Franks)
Individual clips were programmed and controlled via a midi pad, and plugged through the program VDMX5. Beep boop beep.
