Inside the Making of Illenium Presents: ODYSSEY at the Sphere

2 weeks ago 19

Jan Bitzer, the visual director **at animation studio Woodblock, sat down with us to discuss bringing Illenium’s vision for his latest album, ODYSSEY, to life at the Sphere.**

In February, Illenium released his sixth studio album, ODYSSEY, an epic, 19-track sonic journey exploring themes of love, loss, resilience, and self-discovery. Written with his imminent nine-show residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas in mind, the album now expands beyond the music into a fully immersive audiovisual experience. That vision was realized through the visual storytelling of the animation studio Woodblock, with the project led by Visual Director Jan Bitzer.

Illenium Presents: ODYSSEY at the Sphere was over a year in the making. In the beginning, Bitzer worked closely with Illenium and his Creative Director, Sandy Meidinger, to write and direct the visuals based on Illenium’s vision. Bitzer said the process was closely collaborative, and that “Illenium has always made himself available to us, providing feedback and sharing many of his own ideas.”

Early conversations centered around building scenes inspired by the music, establishing a musical structure and flow, and striking a balance between high-energy party moments and meaningful story elements. Visually, ODDYSEY is a neo-space opera with classic hero’s journey archetypes about two female warriors searching for each other. They enter epic battle sequences along the way, but by the end, they discover their true selves and learn acceptance and forgiveness. The narrative’s themes allude to Illenium’s past struggles with addiction and mental health issues.

“From the start, we were focused on constructing a song-based, filmic language of key moments and symbols which would resonate with the audience and seamlessly propel the story forward,” Bitzer said. “ODYSSEY allowed us to conceptualize the show as a cinematic live experience, which we fused with the energy of the dancefloor.”

visual samples of ILLENIUM's 'ODYSSEY' live at The Sphere

Any creative project for the Sphere is an ambitious undertaking, but this is not Bitzer’s first rodeo. Illenium is the second electronic artist to headline immersive venue, and Bitzer was also behind the visuals for Anyma’s “End of Genysys” residency from late 2024 to early 2025.

Bitzer said this second project was perfect for exploring a lot of the ideas they wanted to try out. The opportunity to create a more cinematic live show allowed them to bring their filmmaking expertise to the table while collaborating with the team of production experts and technologists at Sphere Studios.

A lot of moving parts went into ODYSSEY. The visuals were created using high-end industry-standard tools like Houdini for computer generating the visuals and Nuke for assembling and finalizing them. Woodblock also developed custom software in house to streamline the production process, and they collaborated with the previsualization studio, The Third Floor, to plan out the large narrative scenes.

Creatively, Bitzer recounted that they drew inspiration from classical theatre, using partial sets, selective lighting, and constantly moving cameras and lights during the process. But above all, he said it was all about “finding the balance between story, dance party, and spectacular, immersive moments.” He added, “Letting people have a great time at a live show and also sending them home afterward with the sensation of having witnessed an epic story was the sweet spot we wanted to reach.”

Music and animation, though very different mediums, often work together to enhance one another. Bitzer noted that the emotional depth of Illenium’s compositions significantly informed their approach to the visuals, explaining that his music is “almost like a film score sometimes and works perfectly with character-driven moments to convey a feeling, an experience, or a decision.” Bitzer said the team also used snappy light animation and dynamic movement to support the show’s heavier, bass-driven dubstep moments.

Beyond movement, color played an important role in shaping the show’s storytelling. The team gave each character their own signature color palette, and they also worked with a “contact sheet” — a bird’s-eye view of all the shots side by side — to see how color flowed throughout the entire show.

“Animation gives you the possibility to control every detail so meticulously,” he said. “This helped us fine-tune the change of color, identifying and accentuating moments of extreme power and finding balance between high energy and calm moments through the aesthetics.”

Creating a show for the Sphere comes with its own unique challenges, much like adapting a novel into a film. Bitzer started with a full story outline, but found it was too complex to translate directly to a dialogue-free, music-driven backdrop for a live set and dance party.

“I distilled the story down to iconic, easy to comprehend moments that propel the flow of the narrative forward and work with the dynamic of Illenium’s musical structures, which consist of builds and drops as a core element,” he said.

Without spoiling anything, Bitzer said fans will get to experience a show that captures the high energy of Illenium’s live performances while also building on his growing cinematic universe.

“I’m super excited to see the fans react,” he said. “I think they are very empathetic and hopefully our ‘neo space opera’ will not only get them to dance, but also feel connected to the characters and story unfolding on screen.”

Illenium’s Sphere residency marks the only opportunity to experience his complete creative vision for ODYSSEY in its truest form. Tickets are still available for all dates via his official website, so buy yours and finalize your travel plans so you don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.