A new Gorillaz story has started - in the emergency room in a hospital in Los Angeles, where 2D is wheeled in by the cops. He's frazzled; Noodle is there, looking fraught; as is Russel, frozen in front of a TV; and there's no frickin' sign of Murdoc. But rather a lot of guest star Thundercat.No doubt about it, this is a very different kettle of fish to the easy vibe of Gorillaz' Song Machine project of last year. And the drama is back. So are Gorillaz in full 3D. Creator Jamie Hewlett has flipped back to a more visceral version of the band - in collaboration with Fx Goby at Nexus Studios. Cracker Island is the start of a new concept - where the band, newly relocated to Silverlake, recruit new members to join The Last Cult... And the new super stylised 3D look will pave the way for multi-platform activations, courtesy of a close creative collaboration between Hewlett and Goby. It's going to be fun...

Uncle Friendly returns to music videos after a six year absence to shoot the new music video for multi-ARIA award-winning Ghanaian-Australian artist, Genesis Owusu, GTFO - and test the viewer's squeamishness at the sight of horrible bugs.The film opens with Owusu - aka Kofi Ansah - kneeling in prayer before a candle-lit shrine in his home, reciting the song's opening lines. But then something distracts him: a great big cockroach scuttling across his living room floor.Something clearly must be done about this hideous creature. But what follows is just like one of those old-time cartoons - with Owusu as Wile E Coyote, or Elmer Fudd. His attempts to destroy the offending insect - by bug repellent spray, cricket bat, and whatever comes to hand - has catastrophic results. But only on himself and his apartment, while demonstrating the famed death-defying qualities of the irritatingly indestructable roach.And it is brilliantly done. This is a superbly daft yet riveting action-comedy from Aussie director Uncle Friendly - aka Rhett Wade-Ferrel. He uses all his experience as a director, writer - and sometime stuntman - to extract the maximum impact from his scenario, eliciting excellent performances from both the artist and his deadly nemesis.The bug is mainly a CGI creation, in fact, but an entirely convincing one. You may even start rooting for the little critter...

Kiwi animator Simon Ward has created a marvellous entertaining video for New Zealand producer Eyeliner, aka Luke Rowell: a yellow dancing cyclopean figure's uninhibited jaunt through a subway system into a weird subterranean realm - featuring motion-captured movements by choreographer and dancer Alana Yee."I had just about finished writing this in NZ and the sections of the tune are marked by samples of subway trains, implying a kind of underground adventure - then I moved to Hong Kong and was riding the subway it all made a lot more sense," explains Rowell, of the title track from Eyeliner's 2020 album Drop Shadow. "It has been a true pleasure working again with good friends and long-time collaborators Simon and Alana, a real dream team! The video as a whole is exactly the sprawling and fun escapade that I had in my head while writing it.”

Jonathan Zawada has created a hugely impressive digital illusion for the title track of Flume's new album - featuring Damon Albarn.A continuous forward tracking shot takes us througha lush rainforest, that parts to reveal a colourful parrot - the visual motif of the album Palaces. Then the shot moves into the bird's eye to reveal an abstract technicolour universe.The animator then introduces familiar elements of business analysis, the component parts of graphs used to measure data, allowed to break free within a 3D world, before the forest takes over once again.

KC Locke directs a mesmerising promo for Tom Grennan's latest anthem. The video for Remind Me follows Grennan as he transitions through a maze of vignettes, starting in a white hallway and ending up on a rooftop - with a breathtaking photorealistic CGI car drive through the city as its centrepiece. That's is the standout moment of the concept, and a lot of work went into bringing it to life on-screen - as KC explains below. The end result is a visual with maximum impact, and a completely new direction for Grennan's videography. We are pushing the boundaries with each project... doing something different that stands out from the norm."A lot of hard work, planning, dedication and long hours from the whole team went into making this idea come to life!

" says Locke. 

"Prep for me is so important on each any every job, I spend a long time blocking out and planning each scene, camera movement, emotion, performance and flow. Tom Grennan is such a pleasure to work with, which gave me confidence in bringing something to him that’s far different to his previous videos and gave us a new world to explore and develop.
"Once the plan was together, Jamil Shaukat (editor) helped put together a pre-vis which became the main reference point during all client & HOD communications alone with the shortlist and written scripts. The team at LMNTL who we work closely with put a lot of hard work and effort into bringing the CGI elements of this visual to life.

 Jenny O’Sullivan (production designer) and her art and construction team brought to life the practical sets and blue screen elements which worked seamlessly with CGI integration."It became a bit of a military operation for Lewis Nicholson (producer) and our production team making this ambitious concept work logistically using our 13,000 sq ft film studio in Manchester. Nick Platt (gaffer) pulled out all the stops and brought in his experienced team from DropCity to handle the multiple lighting set ups and mountains of kit needed to pull this off in a day. 

DoP Pieter Snyman understood what I was wanting to achieve and really supported me in bringing this idea to life!"We are pushing the boundaries with each project and it is important to be doing something different that stands out from the norm."Big thanks to the entire team for taking on the challenge of bringing high speed city car chases, magical maze labyrinths and cinematic rooftop worlds to life! We are very proud of the results and want to thank Tom for putting his trust in us and video commissioner Kat Cattaneo and Sony Music for supporting the journey."

KC Locke directs a powerful visual for Pip Millett, seamlessly combining realism with escapist fantasy, for Ride With Me. The video starts in sombre black and white, dramatising a moment in the breakdown of a relationship, overseen by Millett. Then it dissolves to colour and she is driving a vintage American car, which soars into the sky, high above the streets of Manchester. It's an ambitious and brilliantly realised concept, and follows the trend in KC Locke's work towards the greater use of visual effects, with artist performance. "When Pip Millett sent me this song I knew it would be a classic," he says. "This is our tenth video together, after handheld, self-shooting our first video together under three years ago with Danny Usman pulling focus. Now we're flying cars over Manchester and making really meaningful, cinematic videos in the R&B space."I really enjoy working with Pip and helping share her vision... [And] I'm really enjoying pushing the boundaries, mixing in-camera with CGI and building worlds for artists to live in."

Joe Simmons directs a breathtaking promo for Project Peters, created entirely within real-time 3D tool Unreal Engine. Created in collaboration with Unreal artist/DoP Ben Halford, the otherworldly video follows a pair of astronauts who crash-land on a planet inhabited by potentially dangerous aliens. Simmons reveals that he was inspired by another space-themed universe when conceptualising the project. “Since watching The Mandalorian, I have been fascinated by the enormous potential of Unreal Engine, and I truly believe it’s this generation’s DSLR revolution," he says. "It grants developing filmmakers a level of choice and flexibility in creative storytelling that’s only afforded to projects with massive budgets and huge teams. Though it’s still a complex new technology and inverts standard production, our team held some of the most creative people I’ve ever met, who had equal parts talent and patience to tackle it!”The video boasts remarkable, supernatural landscapes, mesmerising character design and a high-ocatane narrative to boot. “Working in Unreal has completely opened my eyes to what is possible, and the look and feel of this music video couldn’t have been created without it," declares Simmons. "It has allowed me to dream with the camera without restriction, and to try things I thought I’d be unable to for years."I’m very proud of the work we’ve made together as a team, and know that my approach to all future work has been massively impacted by this formative experience.”

Welcome to the world where only futuristic humanoid robots exist, and everyone worships the greatest humanoid robot racing driver: Crashtag.It's the latest blockbuster for Pink Noise directed by Kim Chapiron, and here co-directed by Paris VFX-studio CG supervisor Jehan Bouazza, based at top Paris VFX house Mathematic.Bouazza led Mathematic’s team of skilled artisans and animators throughout the nine-month production, encountering challenges in developing a modern and first of its kind music video world, solidifying a unique character design for Crashtag, and managing a high volume of assets required to create the racetrack arena.Lead Character Artist Camille Gurruchaga oversaw the creation of Crashtag, crafting the character’s background story and psychological profile to inform design decisions, while concept artists simultaneously developed the look of the environments, including the racetrack and larger arena. Once 'lookdev' was finalized, the team set out to produce the five-minute animated sequence, using Zbrush for modeling, Maya for animation, Substance Painter for textures, Nuke and Flame for compositing, Resolve for color grading, and Arnold for the final render.To bring the anthropomorphic Crashtag character to life, Mathematic motion captured a performance by Ladj Ly, the acclaimed French director of the 2019 film Les Misérables. Ly’s performance imprinted humanlike qualities – including a distinct personality and emotional warmth, when it comes to the crunch. And there is a crunch.