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Sweet Pearl Jam set designs by Kevin Whitfield

demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,848
in The Porch

Concept and Design

The new tour had three main scenic pieces I was responsible for designing: The hanging orbs, fascia on the moving trusses, and a giant upstage scrap wall. Evidence of humanity's fall was to be hidden throughout. The mood boards were a collaboration among the team, and then we had Adam McQuaig make us a concept sketch to get things rolling in the right direction.

I started by collecting some textures and modeling the smaller orbs. Once those were looking similar to the reference, I moved on to the large center orb, which was just an elaboration. For the upstage wall, I modeled a collection of panels and beams, and then used C4D to make procedural variations on those. The same panels were scaled down and re-textured for the truss fascia.

Sadly, because of weight, budget, and time constraints, we had to change the truss fascia to being printed plywood instead of actual metal. This was a challenge, as we no longer had as much detail supplied by the material. The paint and graphics don't catch light or shadow. I made the textures in Photoshop, and derived some from the 3D models.











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    demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,848

    Fabrication

    Our friends at Tait Towers and Upstaging brought the designs to life. Because we had so many things to build, the job was split, with Tait taking on the hero sphere and scrap wall, and Upstaging taking on all the smaller orbs and truss fascia.

    The smaller orbs were made out of a combination of items impregnated with epoxy resin so they would hold their shape. These were then painted and internal LED lighting installed. I gave Upstaging a lot of freedom to interpret the concept, and they did a top quality job. It was really great working with them.

    Tait literally welded the scrap wall together from their scrap bin, which was awesome! Again we gave those guys a lot of artistic freedom and that really made for a great end result. I was super fortunate to help the painting team during part of the process, and actually put some time in painting the back of the Scrap wall. Super fun, but definitely challenging.





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    SarahSarah Toronto Posts: 736
    Interesting1
    "Somewhere in between / There and here / I got lost / I got scared..."
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    manitoumanmanitouman In My Head Posts: 1,073
    Very cool!!
    Soldier Field, Chicago, IL 7-11-1995; United Center, Chicago, IL 6-29-1998; MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV 10-22-2000 ~PJ10~; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 4-1-2003; Cricket Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ 6-7-2003; United Center, Chicago, IL 6-18-2003; Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI 6-21-2003; Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 10-5-2004; The Gorge, George, WA 9-1-2005; United Center, Chicago, IL 5-16-2006; United Center, Chicago, IL 5-17-2006; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 7-2-2006; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 7-3-2006; United Center, Chicago, IL 8-23-2009; United Center, Chicago, IL 8-24-2009; Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC 12-4-2013; Key Arena, Seattle, WA 12-6-2013; iWireless Arena, Moline, IL 10-17-2014 ~No Code Show~; Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN 10-19-2014; Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI 10-20-2014 ~Yield Show~; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 10-22-2014 ~PJ24~: Wrigley Field 1 & 2, 2016; Safeco Field, Seattle Home Shows 1 & 2; Wrigley Field, Chicago Away Shows 1 & 2....
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    cowboyzekecowboyzeke Charm City Posts: 26
    This is fantastic, thanks for sharing!  
    1. 2019 double concept album.  ✔️
    2. 2020 U.S. Tour with 80 dates.  ✔️
    3. Split Intimate acoustic / electric shows.  ✔️
    4. Kickass staging design.  ✔️
    5. Playing January 2021 Inauguration.  ⚡️
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    I am a patriotI am a patriot Posts: 428
    Very cool. Makes the rumors all the more exciting knowing the stage is all set.
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    cwjacwja Posts: 132
    This is the stage setup used in 2018, just in case there’s any confusion.
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    I am a patriotI am a patriot Posts: 428
    cwja said:
    This is the stage setup used in 2018, just in case there’s any confusion.
    Thanks for the clarification.
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    Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,944
    Maybe it was being overwhelmed by the hugeness of Wrigley, but I don’t remember any of this. It’s awesome. 
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    igotid88igotid88 Posts: 27,404
    I can barely see the set design when I'm at the show
    I miss igotid88
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    hihobibohihobibo Tampa, FL Posts: 1,057
    Tim Simmons said:
    Maybe it was being overwhelmed by the hugeness of Wrigley, but I don’t remember any of this. It’s awesome. 
    Same with me. I remember hanging orb lights, because Jeff was pushing them, but not the rest of the items. 
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