Five designers, equipped with Z by HP workstations, collaborated on a new music video for the alt-pop German rock duo Milky Chance. The Synchronize project tapped Z by HP global ambassadors Orlando Arocena, Bradley G Munkowitz (aka Gmunk), Nidia Dias, Jody MacDonald and Rik Oostenbroek to create a digital visualizer for the track, which was produced by guitarist/singer Clemens Rehbein and bassist/percussionist Phillipp Dausch — a.k.a. Milky Chance.
The project was part of HP’s “CoCreated: The Story of a Mixed-Media Music Video Collaboration” program, which challenged the artists to push their skillsets, experimenting with emerging AI, realtime, and simulation tools to produce a music video with multiple voices and a singular vision. The video takes viewers on a ride through a digital landscape that comes together in time with the track’s rhythm. Lush landscapes, captured in India by MacDonald, were paired with realtime sequences from Dias, Munkowitz’s colorful rotating cloud simulations, Oostenbroek’s vibrant floating orbs, and a vector art poster from Arocena. The imagery was created using 3D simulations and custom assets, and built using realtime 3D and AI-powered tools.
The artists’ tools included JangaFX’s EmberGen, Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion, Autodesk’s Maya, Maxon’s Cinema 4D, SideFX Houdini, Adobe Creative Cloud, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and Topaz Labs’ VideoAI.
“We've collaborated with visual artists before, but never so many all at once,” notes Milky Chance’s Rehbein. “We wanted to let the ambassadors do their thing, so we tried to stay out of their way as much as possible, and trusted them to make something great once they shared the initial treatment. Synchronize has been a fan favorite since it came out, so we think our fans will be very excited to see a new visual interpretation of this song. It was very cool to see how the different artists interpreted the song and how it all came together at the end. We think it looks very cool and we hope that you all like it as much as we do.”
“Our global ambassador program partners with leading artists and directors to push the boundaries of their craft,” explains Jim Nottingham, SVP & division president, advanced compute solutions, HP. “Teaming up with Milky Chance to collaborate on a music video that came together from different corners of the globe presented the perfect opportunity to push the envelope. It’s projects like these, and the advancement of artist tools in the areas of AI, simulation and realtime graphics, that inspire our team to push boundaries and deliver more powerful and innovative technology solutions.”