Qualms - Hank Scorpio

This is a full 3D music video I created for my band "Qualms" debut single "Hank Scorpio."

We recorded and released the music in February 2020, but work on the music video began late 2019 in creating assets. I managed to complete all the shots and finalise the video for imminent release due to the nation being in lockdown due to Coronavirus. Having this project has certinaly helped keep me sane, though at times perhaps had quite the opposite effect (I'm looking at you rigging).

Note, the video does contain a brief clip from The Simpsons, episode "You Only Move Twice," used in the background. This pays homage to the namesake of the song, Hank Scorpio. This was sourced from Youtube and I do not own the rights to the footage. All rights reserved by 20th Century Fox, or now Disney. So I pray for their goodwill in allowing it.

I feel asset creation was my strength going into the project, as the path of a Technical Director is the Major of my current degree.  I find immense satisfaction in finishing an asset, though getting to play with it in the scene and seeing it under lights is pretty hard to beat. I also completed this beauty shot for the Guitar, as it is my guitar and the first piece I made, so wanted to show it off and aim for photo-realism.

I certainly enjoyed animating and compositing the more I did and the more I experimented. I feel the animation quality improved as the project went along, and certainly as the action becomes more varied and directed. The way the music video de-rails, it allowed more experimentation as I tweaked the story. Also, due to the style of the video, it allowed breathing room for animation as I was going for the comical "so bad it looks good" angle, based on my current limited levels of expertise with animation.

Certainly if I was to do it again, I would spend more time on the Compositing, giving each individual shot more attention, as opposed to applying the same brush to a lot of the scenes for the sake of getting it finished on time. Minor tweaks to the amount of motion blur, and a more detailed attention to de-focus to the Z-pass could have added another level of smoothness.

Software used for project (excluding audio software):

Maya as primary workhorse, Zbrush for creating balloon detail (normal maps) for characters, Mari for painting characters and faces, and Nuke for Comp and processing. Adobe After Effects for layout and testing, Photoshop for various tweaks and Premiere for main video production.

Please ignore second embed below if Vimeo link works. I've only embedded a second link here as playback on Vimeo was having issues at the time of publish.