Orbit by NAO powered by Microsoft

British singer-songwriter and rising R&B star NAO launched an interactive music video to support her track “Orbit” from her album Saturn.

Microsoft powers the unique experience which produces visualizations based on user inputs and cloud-point data collected from a dancing NAO, taking the fan-artist connection even further. The “Orbit” music video centers on ‘Saturn return’ – an astrological transit that occurs when the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the sky that it occupied at the moment of a person's birth.

To customise the “Orbit” music video, the viewer enters their birthday, initiating the launch of a zodiac-filled night sky in which NAO and a dancer move. Colours of the sky and stars can be adjusted by the fan as the AI picks up the different constellations in the dancer’s bodies, as well as the fan’s own astrological sign. At completion, fans can share an image of NAO posing in the stance of their astrological sign, along with a plot of Saturn’s return in their own personal timeline.

The process for the music video began at Microsoft’s volumetric capture studio in San Francisco, where cameras captured NAO and a dancer performing choreography to “Orbit” that transformed their bodies into point clouds of data. The Microsoft Azure Custom Vision Service was then trained to identify constellations within their movements, resulting in a truly customized experience that allows fans to connect emotionally with NAO’s own personal story. Orbit by NAO is a collaboration between NAO, Sony Music UK, Microsoft and Microsoft's creative agency Listen and garnered a 2020 Webby Award nomination in the Volumetric Immersive & Mixed Reality Video category.

Based in East London, NAO has a sound that’s a mix of soul, funk, R&B and electronic music. Saturn was her second studio album, released in October 2018 through RCA UK.