Animated Backgrounds 2025 | Project Gallery

The animated virtual backgrounds were developed for a blended shadow puppet theatre production hosted by City Tech’s Center for Holistic Integration (CHI). As part of a project celebrating traditional Wayang Kulit, Javanese culture, and the art of storytelling through light, these virtual backgrounds played a vital role in immersing the audience in the world of our narrative.

Originally, the background concepts were intended to be fully 3D-animated; however, due to time constraints, only one scene was rendered in 3D. The remaining scenes—originally created for our 2024 show—were generated and animated using AI, while the traditional video loop edits were done manually. This process, however, was not without its flaws, as some backgrounds appeared glitchy or low in resolution.

For the spring 2025 rerun of the show, Samuel took the lead in redesigning all the backgrounds to better align with the traditional storytelling elements of the production. Greater attention was given to both visual quality and stylistic consistency. With the help of Scenario AI, the background styles remained coherent, and immersive enhancements were added, such as wind particles, swaying trees, and other natural elements—paying tribute to the environmental themes of the story.

Additional effort was made to ensure each video could loop seamlessly, allowing for flexibility during live performance. The final scenes were then handed over to CHI’s production team to be programmed into QLab, enabling the videos to be triggered through cue-based playback.