MTV VMAs

MTV VMAs
Operating Robots at a Live Event1247 The Design and Production for the MTV VMAs engaged us to design a number of methodologies for robots to reveal presenters at the show.


In order to achieve the desired goals, we brought a fleet of five robots to Newark for the show. All five robots activated simultaneously: two robots with LED Screens affixed to them, two robots with lighting rigs and one robot to capture presenters as they walked out on stage.

We worked with the production designers to ensure that all the robots worked flawlessly with the rest of the production elements in the show.. Robot animators from our team were onsite the week leading up to the show to update paths and make changes on the fly, right up to showtime. The robots were programmed using Autodesk Mimic and cued using Touchdesigner, mixing and matching paths to achieve desired effects.




Mechanical and structural design was crucial to the success of the program. One of the biggest challenges was placing two robots almost 20 feet off of the stadium floor.


To achieve this the team designed and engineered custom truss structures with proper ballast to ensure the robots were safe under their active load.


Credits
Production
- Creative DirectionPaul Caslin
- Production DesignJulio Jimede
- Production DesignMatt Steinbrenner
- Robot Programming and ExecutionVTProDesign
- Roboscreens byAndy Robot
- Robot ContentPossible Productions
- Screen DirectionVisual Noise Creative
- PhotosJulian Cassady, Alive Coverage
Collaborators
- The ROBOSCREEN® robotically controlled display is covered by U.S. Patent No. 7,545,108 and other patents pending.
- ROBOSCREEN® is a registered trademark of andyRobot®





