When XiteLabs principals Vello Virkhaus and Greg Russell were first contacted by Nino Jimenez and Max Perez of the Buena Vibra Group, they were truly honored. Their job was to collaborate in creation of a new visual show which incorporates live camera effects, high-end animations, live visual performances, and production design. These elements were then seamlessly wrapped into Bad Bunny’s X100 Pre Tour.
The run of Bad Bunny performances kicked off with the most grand festival of Latino music in the world, Vina Del Mar in Chile. This epic multi country TV broadcast was Xite’s first official run featuring visual art and notch technology.
The 360 tour started off in San Juan, Puerto Rico where 25-year-old Latin trap star Bad Bunny rocked the sold out shows. Each of the shows at José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum drew more than 18,000 attendees. The artist, born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, is a rapper at the top of the music charts. His unique style of música urbana (urban contemporary music) often features collaborations with some of the world’s biggest artists including Drake, Cardi B, J Balvin and Becky G.
Our team jumped in and created over 35 songs worth of original visual art and real time notch camera effects for the 360 immersive experience. The artwork was created by a large group of talented artists on a very tight time table. The XiteLabs team developed interactive camera effects using Notch to seamlessly integrate Bad Bunny into the visual themes.
Concurrently, the XiteLabs team designed an entirely new visual show. The Xite team created an original sculptural video set piece of a giant stylized eye. Matt Guertin working with a tight team from PRG and All Access fabricated and designed custom LED mounts, LED set pieces, Custom LED mounts, and a giant LED rotating pupil. The piece was featured at Coachella Music & Arts Festival on weekend 1 and 2 as a signature part of Bad Bunny’s main stage performance look. Bad Bunny appeared on the Coachella livestream to millions of viewers, emerging from the rotating pupil of the giant video eye before dropping right into his hit track “Ni Bien Ni Mal.”
XiteLabs’ custom resolume and notch media servers allowed for adaptive and rapidly responsive visual performances in the live touring environment.
Here is what various media outlets had to say about XiteLabs’ work @Coachella :
“Bad Bunny Slays Coachella With Mind-Blowing Performance” ET online
“Bad Bunny’s First Coachella Performance Was A Site To Behold” Buzz Feed
“Bad Bunny – had one of the most elaborate and dazzling performances of the weekend.” Billboard.com
Tour Info:
Client: Buena Vibra Group
Buena Vibra Executive Producers: Max Perez and Nino Jimenez
Xite Creative Directors: Vello Virkhaus & Greg Russell
Production Manager: Rolando Garbalosa
Producer: Amish Dani
LED Eye Design, Fabrication & Implementation: Matt OneUp Guertin
LED Eye Team : PRG Josh Huffman & Cameron Trosper
Staging & Engineering Team: All Access- Producer Graham Forrester
Notch: Tanner Thompson, Richard De Souza, Mike Estacio
Lighting: Max McDougall & 4Wall
Illustrator & Animator: Dan Bigelow
Photographer: Vello Virkhaus
Animation Companies: Optical Animal, Volume Tricks
Animators: Ofer Zamora, Danil Tabacari, Grant Davis, Gabriel Hall, Andrew Williams, Fezz Stenton, Kyle Gordon, David Kupferburg, George Berlin, Elad Magdasi,
Gerard Gonzalez, Alena Cochran, Caegan Meagher, Talon Nightshade, John Federico
VJ/Resolume Artists: Ivan Ceron, Tanner Thompson, Vello Virkhaus
Big Thanks to everyone who helped make this awesome!