When Radiohead released 'Go to Sleep', the second single from their Hail to the Thief album, The Mill virtually demolished and rebuilt a whole town square around a virtual image of Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke performing on a park bench in this CGI-animated music video.
Director:
Alex Rutterford
Production Company:
Black Dog Films
Alex Rutterford of Black Dog/RSA, former CG artist and creative director, he of Judge Dredd fame, directed the promo. Barely tinged with colour, it opens and closes with a red flower seen at first in front of classical buildings, which slowly crumble into a pile of rubble then reassemble as modern architecture. Virtual business people hurry to and fro, as oblivious as the vocalist is to the dramatic transformation occurring all around them.
Stylistically, the film has photo-realistic movement and polygonal-faceted textures. A stylised version of Thom Yorke performs realistically. The buildings have little real texture, but the dynamics of their collapse mimic the reality of actual demolitions. Around 20 Mill professionals, both 3D and 2D, worked on the buildings and animation. The complex crowd scenes were generated using the new Beta software Massive, originally designed for use in the feature film Lord of the Rings, which allows the animator to create crowds of people who have virtual interactive intelligence.
Producer: Dilly Gent
Production Company: Black Dog Films
Record Company: Parlophone
Director: Alex Rutterford
Producer: John Payne
VFX & Design: The Mill
VFX Producers: Stephen Venning, Shannon Hall, Satoko Iinuma
2D Artists: Dave Birkill, Jason Watts, Paul Marangos, Adam Grint, Lorraine McLaughlin, Daniel Morris, Gavin Wellsman