Halloween is by far the most artistic holiday. People everywhere unleash their creativity as they dress to impress in costumes of all genres. Michael Jackson will forever be known for his brilliant & spooktastic music video, Thriller. Therefor, I wanted to recreate his masterpiece for my Halloween tribute!
When starting an animation I often write a paragraph that tells the story & becomes my script for creation. For this collaborative piece with Alex Solis, I sent him the story below as well as a rough sketch of the zombie coming out of the grave.
“The animation will begin by me drawing a gravestone with the words “Happy Halloween” written on it. Once I tap the gravestone to “come to life” the graveyard surrounding it becomes spooky with bats and stuff. The paper in front of the gravestone begins to rip. Dirt & muck emerges along with a zombie hand reaching up and out!! The zombie then pops both hands & head out trying to lift himself from the grave. I come to the rescue with my finger slapping him back into the ground. “No, zombie! No!” I exclaim in my head as I struggle to keep him in his grave. The battle is lost as the blood hungry brat grabs onto my finger! In a panic, I lift him fully out of the grave and he attacks! He dangles and bites before I flick him across the screen and out of the frame. I then reveal that I have been bitten and magically my hand begins to transform into a zombie!”
Alex was quick to respond with his rendition of my sketches. I was instantly blown away by his artistic abilities & I was eager to bring his drawings of Michael Jackson's Thriller to life!
A lot of love & time went into this piece. Roughly 12 hours of illustrating, 2 hours of set design and then 3 hours of filming & editing. From creating each leaf to shading each blade of grass, this was by far one of my most detailed animations to date.
The result was a better than I could have hoped for. I never quite know how an animation will turn out, but I'll admit that I was thrilled with the final result of "Thriller! Hope you enjoyed it, too! A special thanks to Alex Solis for contributing his art to this piece, I couldn't have done it without him!