Rival Speak

CREATE TH!S utilize Notch and projection mapping to create a dynamic virtual hosting environment.

Rival Speak is the weekly wrap up show based on the Facebook game show Rival Peak, the world’s first audience-influenced AI interactive experience. Facebook approached LA-based creative production studio CREATE TH!S in need of a dynamic studio environment that could quickly adapt to the shows evolving narrative.

Faced with the challenge of limited time and budget, the team built an XR solution to capture everything in-camera. Utilizing Notch and projection mapping, the team created a virtual environment in which host Wil Wheaton speaks to the audience as an AI iteration of himself within a geodesic dome. The dome takes on a sentient quality throughout each episode as it animates and changes colour to reflect the host’s mood. Different video streams integrated into the domes hexagonal design enable communication between real and animated characters to create a highly controllable and interactive performance space. Every week the teams’ hard work resulted in excellently executed visuals that wowed the viewership and Facebook.

“We could not have completed this show within the allotted time had we not been able to use Notch. Notch allowed us to pump video into each hexagon, live trigger animations and conversations, and rapidly change the overall environment very quickly.”

Irfan Nathoo, XR Creative Direction, CREATE TH!S

Credits:
Client: Facebook
Production Company: dj2 Entertainment and Human Element
XR Creative Direction: Irfan Nathoo
XR Director of Operations: David Cannava
XR Lead Operator and Technical Director: Alon Hammer
XR UI Designer : Tanner Thompson

Notch Designer/animators: Dan Schutt, Alon Hammer, and Tanner Thompson
Video Director: Don Thacker
Director of Photography: Tim Jenson
Lighting Designer: Emilio Marcelino