If you missed out on the U.S. leg of TOMORROW X TOGETHER's current world tour, here's some news which might help soothe the pain. Mashable can exclusively reveal that the K-pop boy group will launch a virtual reality concert this fall, allowing you to get closer to the idols than you ever could in real life — barring a hi-touch ticket.
Produced by VR concert company AmazeVR in partnership with BIGHIT and HYBE 360, the HYPERFOCUS: TOMORROW X TOGETHER VR CONCERT tour will kick off in August and visit five U.S. cities over three months. The setlist will feature some of TOMORROW X TOGETHER's most popular songs, including their most recent single "Deja Vu" as well as 2023's "Sugar Rush Ride."
"Every piece was performed live to ensure the audio conveyed the vibrancy like a live show," AmazeVR's CEO Steve Lee told Mashable.
Though Lee didn't want to give away too much more about the concert, he did share that the show will have some personal touches from TOMORROW X TOGETHER's five members Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and Hueningkai.
"As a spoiler, the members prepared handwritten messages to their fans, MOA, at the final encore segment," Lee said. "Be sure to check them out in the theatre!"
This isn't the first time AmazeVR has brought a K-pop group into virtual reality. Last year the company produced aespa's VR concert LYNK-POP: The 1st VR CONCERT, a 20-minute show which featured five of the girl group's songs. TOMORROW X TOGETHER's VR concert will double that runtime, with attendees to spend around 40 minutes in AmazeVR's Meta Quest 3 headsets (though the complete experience will take approximately one hour).
Lee teased that HYPERFOCUS: TOMORROW X TOGETHER VR CONCERT will include moments "that have never been done before in [AmazeVR's] VR concerts." The event will also take advantage of the VR format to offer experiences that aren't possible in physical concerts. For example, attendees will be able to control the camera in order to choose their own preferred view of TOMORROW X TOGETHER's performance.
"It's like a supercharged fan cam, making it feel like the artist is performing right in front of you," said Lee. "We're giving the power to the fans to decide who they want to see up close and personal."
TOMORROW X TOGETHER's VR concert tour schedule
AmazeVR's TOMORROW X TOGETHER tour will visit five U.S. cities, kicking off on Aug. 8 and running until Nov. 10. Each session will have a capacity of approximately 200 attendees, with up to nine showings per day.
HYPERFOCUS: TOMORROW X TOGETHER VR CONCERT tour dates are as follows:
Los Angeles: Aug. 8 - 21
Orange County: Aug. 23 - Sept. 1
Houston: Sept. 5 - Sept. 22
Chicago: Sept. 26 - Oct. 13
New York: Oct. 17 - Nov. 10
Tickets for TOMORROW X TOGETHER's VR tour will go on sale July 17 at www.txt-vrconcert.com.
Creating HYPERFOCUS : TOMORROW X TOGETHER VR CONCERT
"Working with TOMORROW X TOGETHER was an absolute joy," Lee told Mashable.
Production on HYPERFOCUS : TOMORROW X TOGETHER VR CONCERT began at the end of February, with AmazeVR, BIGHIT, and HYBE 360 collaborating to decide which songs would be included and the themes for each stage. Lee stated that BIGHIT and HYBE had been looking to expand their promotion of the K-pop group, and AmazeVR seemed "the perfect fit."
"After finalising the setlist for the concert and the creative framework together, AmazeVR filled in the details of the direction," said Lee. "Both BIGHIT and HYBE 360 provided full support for the best VR show production, including selecting costumes suitable for VR filming and adjusting choreography to capture the best performance in VR."
AmazeVR also optimised the camera movements for virtual reality, adding close up moments and avoiding quick motions that could risk making audiences dizzy. Once the tracks and concepts had been decided upon, and the choreography and camera movements planned, the recording process went by quickly.
"Although we anticipated the shoot to last longer due to the extensive footage required, the members executed each performance so perfectly that we finished four hours ahead of schedule," said Lee, noting that TOMORROW X TOGETHER had also been preparing for their in-person world tour ACT: PROMISE at the time. "Despite having the most challenging choreography among the artists we've filmed, they completed the shoot perfectly."
AmazeVR filmed TOMORROW X TOGETHER's performance on a green screen in 8K resolution, before upscaling it using artificial intelligence. AI was also used to automate the show's lighting and special effects, as well as program camera animation. The concert was shot using a TechnoDolly, an automated telescopic camera crane, which allowed AmazeVR to pre-program smooth movements to reduce the risk of motion sickness.
"AI has been a key tool in comping the images of all the members every microsecond so that we can place them in a digital background," said Lee. "Previously, this was done all manually, but we have built our AI tools to handle this and have brought down the time to create our VR Concerts by over 80 percent compared to our first one."
Also known as compositing, comping involves removing green screen backgrounds and combining multiple visual elements into one video. In this case, live-action footage of TOMORROW X TOGETHER was incorporated with 3D images rendered by AmazeVR's Unreal Engine-based system.
"Since the camera and TechnoDolly are physical devices, they can’t be 100 percent perfect, leading to small errors," said Lee. "These errors create challenges when compositing live-action footage with 3D rendered environments. Our AI module calculates the exact movement of the camera and applies this information during compositing to ensure seamless integration."
In addition to working with TOMORROW X TOGETHER and aespa, AmazeVR has previously produced VR concerts for artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, T-Pain, and Zara Larsson. Said performances are now available in the AmazeVR Concerts app for $12.99 each, allowing anyone with a compatible VR headset to rewatch these shows as often as your heart desires.
UPDATE: Jun. 18, 2024, 11:33 a.m. AEST This article has been amended to reflect the updated Orange County tour dates.
Topics Music Virtual Reality K-Pop
