Passion Pictures' Pete Candeland and graphic designer Jamie Hewlett collaborated to create animated video "Clint Eastwood" for cartoon concept band, Gorillaz.

The video features the same characters featured on the band's Web site, all of whom were designed by Jamie Hewlett, creator of the "Tank Girl" comic.

The video shows the characters practicing in a sparse environment, when suddenly, the Ghost Rapper (voiced by MC Del Tha Funky Homo Sapien) possesses Russel the drummer and things take a turn for the macabre. The group is transported to an unsettling graveyard, where the tombstones that erupt from the ground are soon followed by an army of cantankerous gorillas. Action ensues as do sweeping pans and tightly animated sequences, culminating in Noodles, a small martial arts-proficient character drop kicking the gorilla leader.

"The premise is, they are in a studio with a couple of mellow shots at the beginning," says Candeland. "Then, Russel shows some signs of being possessed and the Ghost Rapper comes out. On that cue, the environment builds up to form a dead white. Through reasonably slow stages, this graveyard environment builds up out of the ground. The Gorillaz appear, attack with Michael Jackson dance moves and Noodles comes to the rescue."

Candeland, an animation director with Passion Pictures says he has been involved with creating the identity for the Gorillaz for about a year, working with Hewlett as per how to represent the entirely incorporeal band. Hewlett came up with the concept and design for the characters and working with Candeland and Blur's Damon Albarn (a chief conspirator behind Gorillaz) fleshed out the personalities for each character.

"Jamie does a comic book-style storyboard," says Candeland. "We worked through the boards together, getting the pacing right and so forth and he kind of designs what the characters will wear. Between us we figure out the layouts and then he leaves me alone with the animators and we sit down and get the characters moving in the scenes, consulting with each other throughout the process."

Hewlett's specific storyboard and trademark style served as the foundation for the animation process. The characters were hand traced from Hewlett's original designs and animated traditionally, while background elements such as mist, the graveyard scene and other elements were created in 3D using Lightwave.

"We put them together and lit them at the same times so the 2D element gets hit by the same element as the 3D," says Candeland. "If we needed more shadows or to adjust, we'd do that on the spot at that point. In that sense, this was a post thing where the two elements came together and were integrated."

Live-action shots of the sky and cloud scenes were shot, integrated and treated with the same lighting effect. For the crackling-static look applied to the Ghost Rapper character, Candeland and his team appropriated static from a TV and composited it onto the character.

Gorillaz> www.gorillaz.com