The design concept developed by Tanja Tomic of Strukt combined live cut-out-animation with realtime drawing on the Tagtool. Therefore, the visuals could be designed to fit the overall visual identity of the tour, while opening up endless possibilities for spontaneous creativity inspired by the music. The animators designed landscapes or abstract backgrounds with paper cut-outs live in front of a camera, while the artists on the Tagtool used these elements to tell small stories and create and animate characters.

This technique allowed for diverse styles and millions of possibilities in live storytelling.

The Tagtool artists (top left) create drawings that interact with the stop-motion animation.

The visuals were made live using cut-out-animation. The animators arranged and moved graphical elements live on stage.

The amazing crowd at the Fluc in Vienna.

Following the magic show, further animation and amusement for the children was provided by the Tagtool artists and Patrick Pätmuckl, who motivated the kids to unleash their imagination and actively participate in operating Tagtool themselves.

The Walt Disney production of “Hexe Lilli” allowed the colourful characters that were based on the same named popular children’s book series created by the author “Knister” to come alive on the big screen. The director was none other than the oscar-winning Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky. The cast included the talented young actress Aline Freund as “Hexe Lilli” and the German comedian Michael Mittermeier who dubbed the loveable animated character “Drache Hektor”.

The enchanting ship “Admiral Tegethoff”, docked on the heart of Vienna’s Danube, hosted the Austrian premier party of “Hexe Lilli”

Michael Mittermeier during the ORF Interview with Tagtool drawings in the background

Visual comments on Magic Cristian’s show

Open Tagtool session with kids

“Searching for Max” via Tagtool and Michael Mittermeier giving an autograph on the tagtool

Welcome Area
We created 15 animated clips in full HD to welcome the guests to the event, presenting design quotes we picked, and set them in relation to design elements of the new Mercedes-Benz GLK. We used the element of a pencil drawing construction lines and the typeface building the quotes. For this purpose we custom-made the typeface based on the corporate font of Mercedes-Benz.

Exhibition Visuals
With the node-based programming language VVVV we built a letter-universe which functioned as a soothing ambient visual but also created type-matrix pictures and fonts to feature the participants of “The design:project”. The real-time animation was screened on a 20 meter wide 3x-HD projection using only one computer to create the output signals. This system was later on also used to screen content during the award ceremony. For convenience we enabled OSC commands to control the letter-universe with the help of an iPod Touch.

Party Visuals
To heat up the party after the award ceremony we created a sound-reactive visual application, also based on VVVV and shown with the 3x-HD-projection. The controls for the visuals were handled with a 15-inch Stantum multi-touch screen running a custom made interface.

Tagtool
Additionally we worked together with O.M.A. International, who supported us with live-drawings done with their award winning Tagtool.

Since the event in Stuttgart in September 2008 was received very well, we were invited to also bring our work to Milan, Italy, where “The design:project” was also featured in a similar set-up in the beginning of October 2008.