Mark Devlin Visual Design was approached by Rob Halford, lead singer of the heavy metal rock band Judas Priest, to create a Chinese shadow puppet show. The animation to be featured on stage for the performance of “Saints in Hell” throughout their 2018-19 Firepower World Tour.
Chinese Shadow Puppetry, also known as shadow play, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-out shapes of the puppets sometimes include translucent color or other types of detailing. Various effects can be achieved by moving both the puppets and the light source.
At first Mark was skeptical about the idea idea of creating a puppet for a heavy metal band. But the final results of Halford idea spoke for themselves.
The Saints in Hell graphics are becoming”Legendary”.
People are loosing their minds over it. It hit’s a nerve. Nobody’s seen anything like it before in that kind of metal environment. This is the stuff that sells tickets!
Rob Halford
The Judas Priest Firepower Tour is currently Tour the US, Canada & Mexico and is scheduled to continue to Europe in June and July.