He's done animation and he's done live action. He's even combined the two. But now David Wilson joins up with animator Christy Karacas (of Superjail! fame) to mix-and-mash the two media in an outstandingly effective and upfront way for Royal Blood's Out Of The Black.

It's simply the best way to tell this full-throttle super-violent comedy action-horror - involving a gas station heist by psychotic alien inside a giant Easter bunny suit - and his buddies: a snowman, pumpkin, ice cream cone and walking heart. After the animated TV titles intro, the live action centring around a Doofus-like clerk sets the scene, before Karacas's extravagantly gory alien-revealing animation takes over...     

“I became a fan of Christy’s show Superjail! a few years ago," says David. "It was Christy’s incredibly inventive fight sequences and love of hand drawn animation that made me obsess over his work. I love hand drawn animation. It’s where my directing career began, and I still fill my free time over a light box, drawing away.

“I wanted to give Christy as much creative freedom as possible whilst making sure the animation and the live action would still sync together. I would give Christy the starting point of which characters were fighting, where their geographical placing was on the set, and which characters would die. It was then up to Christy to create fight sequence, knowing the in-and-out points.”

Post-production was carried out at Finish, who provided the colour grade and extensive visual effects work to knit the promo together. "“One of our key jobs was to create several big matte paintings, the main one being the backdrop for a scene where the service station employee confronts the aliens in costumes," explains Flame artist Judy Roberts. "A smashed up helicopter, cars and a dead body, were all added to the clean plate using hand textured CGI renders, and various supplied photographic elements.

Colourist Julien Biard adds: “David is based in LA and he couldn’t be in the grading suite with me so we used a remote grading system, where I’m grading in London and David is at another facility in LA. It’s great because both suites are linked up by an almost instantaneous feed so he could see every adjustment of the grade in real time."

“They worked tirelessly to elevate the piece," says David of FInish's input. "Like with the majority of Post Production this is done in ways that are often very difficult to spot, but that’s only because they did an incredible job. The result lived up to my dreams. I dreamed BIG on this one!”