Darkside Animation Films and Nick Scott Studio came together to imagine and create a universe for Iron Maiden’s new title track video “The Final Frontier". Armed with an array of skill-sets and creativity, these fervent LightWave users, renowned in the CGI industry (20th Fox Century, Universal Studios, MGM, the BBC, Sky, ITV…), turned out three month animation in eight weeks flat from concept to completion and developed entirely new technology to bring to life as never before Iron Maiden’s monster mascot and protector “Eddie”. A total of 141 shots combined live action with integrated CGI as well as full 3D animation, resulting in a complete run time of 5 minutes. We contacted the Darkside team to know more about the making of this powerful video.
You were chosen to imagine and create a universe for Iron Maiden’s title track video for their new album “The Final Frontier”. How did you get the job?
We have worked with Maiden in the past and have a good relationship with them. Johnnie Burke (who worked for maiden) suggested that the band wanted to do something special for the launch of their latest album and so we hooked up for a meeting and threw about some ideas.
What were the challenges of such a project?
Time, Time and err Time. The team worked efficiently and tirelessly for the duration but we would have relished another week or so, but you always expand to fill the time you have so maybe we were about right. It was a tough 8 weeks from start to finish, however the vast majority of the production happened in the last 4 to 5 weeks. Towards the end of that period we put in 14 hour days with a few staff members staying and working for stretches of 30 hours.... really tough.
How long did it take you to do it?
The Project itself took a total of 8 weeks from inception to final delivery. With the first 3 weeks being spent on Pre Production which included the planning the project and Shoot, Casting, Concept, storyboards, 3D animatic and builds of 3D assets the longest of which was Eddie which took the best part of 4 weeks for two people. The Digital Double for the Human (Cleaner) took a little over a week.
How many people were involved?
We had a team of around 10 CG staff and 12 Film crew.
Why a Science-Fi universe? Were you free to imagine and create the universe and scenario? What were the band’s specifications/requirements?
We were very lucky to have the band give us free reign over all aspects of the video, however the song was about a space man waiting to die which pointed us in the right direction. But our motivation really was to create Eddie and have him in conflict with a live actor. Really fun, they had an Eddie designed, but allowed us to tweak the design a little for the video.
What's the story about ?
The Story in a nutshell is that “Cleaner 6” (the man in the spaceship) has been tasked by an Intergalactic Corporation to remove the blight that is Maiden from the universe. He has been on a dangerous mission in order to collect two parts of an ancient device that when combined would bring about their downfall. He has just acquired a key and we pick up the story as he is about to get the final relic. Eddie (The Bands Protector and long standing Mascot) is there to protect the relic at all costs even though he has no idea what it is.
After several heavy encounters, Eddie stands triumphant although curiosity gets the better of him and he manages to complete the Cleaners Job for him!! We wanted to try and make the piece as convincing as possible and leave people wanting to know more about the back story.
