Glass Animals

Overview for Glass Animals:

FRAY Studio collaborated with Glass Animals to create the video design for their Tour of Earth , a show shaped by space imagery, early computer graphics, and the playful visual language of 70s and 80s animation. The aim was to build a world that felt retro, exploratory, and deliberately lo-fi, using negative space as a defining part of the visual identity. This approach gave the show a distinct aesthetic — minimal, graphic, and slightly uncanny — while supporting the band’s off-beat tone. The production combines pre-rendered content with real-time elements driven directly by the band’s performance. Each instrument sends MIDI signals into the visual system, allowing specific parameters to shift live on stage. This creates a responsive environment where the visuals behave differently each night, shaped by tempo, intensity, and performance nuance. The result is a show that feels alive rather than fixed, mirroring the band’s improvisational energy. FRAY tailored parts of the content to each stop on the tour. Each city receives its own bespoke “zoom from space” sequence, starting from orbit before dropping into the local geography and a city-specific reveal. These moments anchor the show to each venue while reinforcing the broader planetary theme. The stage architecture supports this layered world with a mix of display formats: twenty console screens, a hologram unit, a large upstage screen, and a circular screen suspended above the stage. Every song features its own dedicated live-camera effect, designed to sit naturally alongside the content on the main screen and extend the show’s retro-digital aesthetic into the IMAG system. Many tools were used to build this show which reflects its overall eclectic feel. We worked with Notch, Touch Designer, Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D, After Effects & Photoshop. Together, these elements create a visual environment that feels playful, responsive, and distinctly tied to the identity of Glass Animals both musically and conceptually.

Services provided: Creative Direction, Video Design, Real-Time Content, 2D Animation, 3D Animation, IMAG & Live Camera Effects, Interactive Development