Script Writer, Visuals Director and Woodblock Co-Founder Jan Bitzer explains in a recent press release the studio’s approach to creating the visuals and story behind Illenium’s ODYSSEY experience at Sphere, answering the question: where do you even begin to conceptualize a project of this scale?
“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.”
That approach shaped every decision. “ODYSSEY allowed us to conceptualise the show as a cinematic live experience, which we fused with the energy of the dance floor,” Jan continued. The result pushes beyond traditional concert production and continues the broader Illenium cinematic universe. For Woodblock, though, projects like this didn’t appear overnight.
The roots go back nearly twenty years.
Listening back to Woodblock‘s Studio Talk, one thing stands out immediately: the studio’s origin story is almost disarmingly simple. CEO Ilija Brunck describes those early days at the Animationsinstitut as bare-bones by design. Students were given computers and a single directive: start making films. No roadmap, no formula, just the expectation that you’d figure it out by doing.
That first short film collaboration ended up defining how the studio thinks to this day. Short-form work isn’t a side project at Woodblock, it’s foundational. Brunck frames it as the throughline connecting everything the studio has built since, a space where they could experiment freely, develop process, and shape a visual language without the usual constraints of client work. Even now, with the studio producing large-scale immersive experiences like ODYSSEY, that early instinct hasn’t gone anywhere. Making a short film still holds a different kind of meaning for them.
What’s striking is how candid Brunck gets about the economics of it all. High-end CGI isn’t cheap, and it takes serious talent to pull off work at the level Woodblock is known for. Short films, in particular, almost never pencil out financially. By his own admission, there’s no real business case for making them.
And yet the studio keeps doing it, because the value isn’t financial, it’s strategic and creative. Original work is how Woodblock signals what it actually believes in. Putting their own vision out into the world isn’t just an artistic exercise, it’s what attracts the right kind of projects back to the studio. In other words, the short films aren’t a detour from the business, they’re the thing that makes the business make sense.
That same thinking carried into ODYSSEY. To support production at Sphere scale, Woodblock developed a 12K CG pipeline built around Universal Scene Description (USD) and Houdini Solaris. Simulation, scene assembly, procedural workflows and character-driven production all feed into the final visuals.
Alongside Houdini and Nuke, the studio relies on a growing collection of proprietary production tools and apps developed internally to support flexibility across large-scale projects. Woodblock also worked with previsualization studio The Third Floor to design and test how large narrative moments would function inside Sphere’s format.
One theme comes up repeatedly with the team: instinct.
In a recent Woodblock Studio Talk, Chief Creative Officer Fabian Pit Pross shared how the studio approaches creativity, describing it as an instinctive process rooted in bringing ideas to life that don’t yet exist. While every project comes with uncertainty, Pross explained that the team has learned to trust the creative process and follow what feels right. The conversation also highlighted Woodblock’s long-term commitment to creative ownership, with the studio focused on maintaining control over the stories they tell, the content they create, and the distinctive style that defines their work.
That philosophy is part of why Sphere feels like a natural fit.
In the press release, Ilija shared around the opportunity: “Sphere is a technological marvel where we can see the future of immersive live entertainment unfold in real time.” And beyond the technology, he sees a broader shift. “Audiences are craving community-focused, high-quality experiences and Sphere is answering the call.”
Adding to the press release Pit shared, “We have put all of our passion into crafting a world that has the depth to be built upon and brought to an audience beyond the physical limits of Sphere.” And ultimately, Pross adds, “we are driven to empower artists to follow their instincts rather than data, so together we can create new, unique perspectives.” While one of my favorite quotes from the Studio Talk was when Ilija shares,
“If you express your creativity for yourself, people will come for your style.”
In short, art should not be a service. This is a principle that Rick Rubin has reasserted in them as well. July 3rd and 4th continues Illenium‘s Sphere run following 9 dates in March and April with artists such as Tape B, Slander, and Alok. Step inside the ‘Neo-Space Opera’ experience, watch out for the Easter eggs, and give Woodblock a shout out from the crowd.
After watching this official announcement video created by Woodblock go watch the original music video for ‘Forever’ and you will be able to see how the studio developed on Illenium’s imagery for ODYSSEY, the album.
Since those early days at the Animationsinstitut, Woodblock has grown into a 50-strong studio with offices in Ludwigsburg, Berlin and Los Angeles, specializing in animation, immersive experiences and visual storytelling for global artists and entertainment companies.
Before helping shape ILLENIUM’s ODYSSEY with the Sphere Studios led by Carolyn Blackwood, Woodblock also contributed to Anyma‘s nights at Sphere, helping define another landmark moment in immersive performance. At the same time, Woodblock continues to develop original worlds of its own.
The studio recently launched Space Probe Force — a weekly comic series launched on Youtube and Instagram — and continues to build on the same instincts visible in earlier original works including Halo 4 Title Sequence, and the studio’s latest short film Bye Bear, for which they created a fictional brand called Kreuzberg Dynamics to extend the film‘s universe.
Shattered with disbelief from what Woodblock has done, we are left to wonder, what is the next step with immersive experiences? The Sphere continues to conceptualize, implementing concepts such as snow falling from the sky and apples falling off trees into the crowd beneath the sphere dome. What if we could be the main character in the production? Would you even want that?
Maybe the perspective of a bird sitting in the tree that causes the ripple effect within the story would be enough for all the precious hearts out there. As immersive experiences become more physical, interactive, and sensory driven, more venues may begin to follow the lead of experiences such as Zero Latency VR, Interstellar Arc, and other mixed reality and free roam attractions that already require waivers or participation agreements before entry.
Inside Illenium’s ODYSSEY at Sphere
Advances in the spatial web, AI-driven experiences, immersive audio, and volumetric capture are opening up entirely new ways to tell stories, creating experiences that feel responsive, embodied, and increasingly shaped by the audience rather than delivered to them.
You can explore some of the best media studios in the world by diving into who was at the FMX conference in Berlin this year, where Illija took on a panel session around ‘Visions of Change’ with Nicholas Cabana, co-founder, Claynosaurz, Fabian Driehorst, Co-Founder, CEO, Fabian&Fred and Katharina Weser, Co-Founder, CEO, Reynard Films & Yaga Studio for a in depth conversation between 4 studio leaders on how they think about the future of the animation industry.
