Rothbart BHS
bully! entertainment partnered with iTicket for the National Ballet’s production of Swan Lake—creating a rotating digital stage environment, part sculpture, part set, designed to evolve in real time alongside world-class dancers and a live orchestra.
At the center of the production was a large-scale digital construct, structurally designed to embody the ballet’s themes of duality and metamorphosis. With precise 180-degree rotations, it shifted between two distinct worlds: a structured, architectural castle and an organic, enchanted lake. With limited rehearsal time and the complexity of an outdoor venue, the full performance was pre-visualized in VR—allowing creative and technical teams to align early and adapt across shifting light conditions.
Swan Lake was one of the most important and rewarding projects I have worked on, as I was involved in nearly every stage of the visual production pipeline. My contributions ranged from designing and creating the main antagonist, Rothbart, to building environments, developing visual transitions, and collaborating directly with the ballet’s conductor and choreographer to help shape the overall visual experience.
The project presented many unique technical and creative challenges. One of the key tasks was organizing a complex production pipeline in a way that allowed the entire team to work efficiently without losing consistency across scenes and assets. Another major challenge was combining real-time workflows in Unreal Engine with more traditional rendering techniques to achieve both performance and cinematic quality.
A strong focus was placed on creating visuals that would feel immersive and surprising for a live audience, blending theatrical performance with large-scale digital environments and animation. The project pushed both the artistic and technical boundaries of the production and became an incredible collaborative experience.
The work was recognized with both Best of Show and Gold awards at the ADDY Awards.
