MTV VMA’s

Newark 2019 - VT Pro Design

Jordan and the VTProDesign team had the honor of designing a number of different ways robots with screens on them could reveal award presenters at the 2019 MTV VMAs. For the landmark show, we utilized 5 different robots in an unprecedented way for a live broadcast show environment. Working closely with the Design and Production teams for the VMAs, we engineered a system that could activate simultaneously all five robots - two with screens affixed to them, two with large lighting rigs, and one with a camera to capture the presenters as they emerged from the opening screens on stage.

It was imperative to ensure all robots and the trigger system worked flawlessly with the rest of the production elements in the show. To give the director and producers flexibility, Jordan and Hailey Mendoza were onsite the week leading up to the show to be able to update robot paths and make changes as needed - right up to showtime.

One of the biggest challenges was calibrating all 5 robots to each other so the screen movements were as precise as possible. To accomplish this, we used a custom programmed laser calibration system that calculated where all 5 robots were in relative space to each other, down to the millimeter. This allowed us to animate the screens moving together with incredible precision, as if they were one surface.

The robots were programmed using Autodesk Mimic and cued using Touchdesigner, mixing and matching paths to achieve desired effects.

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