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[Arrrammis]

And it turn out really good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-iPq3qWeQQ

Published on Aug 31, 2017
After 6 years of tinkering in my spare time, my vision to animate the music video for Rhinestone Eyes, the incredible Gorillaz song from the 2010 album "Plastic Beach" is finally here. This video is purely a fan made production, created entirely by myself (with help from my wife Yaoyao Ma Van As).

There is no copyright infringement intended, I do not own Gorillaz characters or the song Rhinestone Eyes, and have created this video with the sole purpose of sharing with other fans a glimpse at what this video could have been had it not been cancelled. All copyright is held by respective owners.

Thanks for all the inspiration Damon and Jamie, and thank you to all the people who have messaged me with kind comments and words of inspiration through the years. I hope your patience was worth it.

**The story of why this exists**
Back in 2010 Gorillaz released their 3rd studio album "Plastic Beach" with the intent to tell a complete story over "4 or 5" music videos. Those were "Stylo", "Melancholy Hill", "Broken" and then "Rhinestone Eyes". Unfortunately due to budgeting issues "Rhinestone Eyes" - one of the main concluding chapters - was cancelled in favor of a different single; "Doncamatic". The good thing is that the storyboard video for "Rhinestone Eyes" was already done at the time of cancelation, so we were able to see what the story was going to be.

My video is an effort to take that storyboard video and animate it as closely as possible to the style established by the other videos. My ultimate goal is that you could watch Stylo, Melancholy Hill, and then this iteration of Rhinestone Eyes, and feel like the story is complete. All credit to Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn for the imagery and music associated with this fan project.

A bit of context leading up to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulpnlbqTdMA&t=0s

And for anyone interested, here's a fairly lengthy video that recounts the fictional story of Gorillaz, including Plastic Beach and featuring the storyboards for the original cancelled Rhinestone Eyes video, which were used to create the fan-made video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAXWR7umFvY

 

[Fj0823]

That's really cool.

 

[DarkKyo]

I've been watching the storyboard one for yeeears so I'll always prefer that (mainly due to art style purity, plus the colors on the animatic are incredible). However you gotta applaud the fan that put this much effort into making it a reality. I would have done anything for an official video due to this being one of my favorite Gorillaz songs, but from what I understand Plastic Beach under performed so they couldn't get more funding to actually make the video.

 

[James Scott]

Saw it this morning. Pretty impressive for a fan project. Even nice-ish looking CGI animation.

Bit of a bummer that it seems like Gorillaz won't be making much of the story based videos anymore.
Guess it was too expensive (since they had to abandon this one and their other plans for Plastic Beach)
Humanz has a lot of that weird CG that looks noticably worse than that of Plastic Beach especially for some of the live interview stuff which looks terrible

 

[DarkKyo]

Saw it this morning. Pretty impressive for a fan project. Even nice-ish looking CGI animation.

Bit of a bummer that it seems like Gorillaz won't be making much of the story based videos anymore.

The video for Saturnz Barz was fantastic and was pretty important imo in order for Humanz to form a connection back to their early days(because it's a pretty big departure in tone and style from older albums). I'd love to see another one like that. Really not sure which Humanz song would be good for it though. Submission might be cool in that style.

Humanz has a lot of that weird CG that looks noticably worse than that of Plastic Beach especially for some of the live interview stuff which looks terrible

Yeah that's their mo-cap models. They're cheap and only sort of effective, and they look really wonky.. However I think the 2D model really worked for Sleeping Powder because of the nature of that song.

 

[EchoChamber]

Whoa this is fucking amazing

Saw it this morning. Pretty impressive for a fan project. Even nice-ish looking CGI animation.

Bit of a bummer that it seems like Gorillaz won't be making much of the story based videos anymore.
Guess it was too expensive (since they had to abandon this one and their other plans for Plastic Beach)
Humanz has a lot of that weird CG that looks noticably worse than that of Plastic Beach especially for some of the live interview stuff which looks terrible

They are gonna make a TV show, maybe that's why is lacking the story on the music videos.

 

[ZeoVGM]

That's awesome. Now I need to go listen to Plastic Beach again because it's amazing.

Humanz is so disappointing.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I always wanted Gorillaz to do something like this...

That's awesome. Now I need to go listen to Plastic Beach again because it's amazing.

Humanz is so disappointing.

Humanz is really good...

The tide is going to turn on that album in a few years.

 

[Narag]

huh, this made my day. I always wanted to see the storyboards realized.

 

[Euphony]

That was really good! Plastic Beach holds a very special place in my heart as it was the album that made me fall in love with the Gorillaz. While Demon Days may be the better album, I still like Plastic Beach more if that makes sense and I go back to it more than any of their other albums.

 

[AlexFlame116]

Oh this fills me with so many emotions. I'm so glad that someone made a recreation of a video but I'm also still upset that not only was this not ever finished, but that it technically isn't canon anymore.

Argh!!!

I love Plastic Beach. And this fan video looks so awesome.

What's the best way to download a YouTube video in the best quality possible?

 

[RecRoulette]

Those storyboards were fucking amazing, glad someone did the work!

 

[sixteen-bit]

Is that a Zero Escape reference

 

[Crossing Eden]

Impressive that they even included CGI noodle.

 

[hughesta]

yeah Humanz is the best Gorillaz album but the visuals have been lacking this phase, which is a shame because Jamie's art is better than ever. the TV show's gonna make up for it though

 

[Euphony]

Oh this fills me with so many emotions. I'm so glad that someone made a recreation of a video but I'm also still upset that not only was this not ever finished, but that it technically isn't canon anymore.

Argh!!!

I love Plastic Beach. And this fan video looks so awesome.

What's the best way to download a YouTube video in the best quality possible?

I use youtube-dl which is a command line program. It needs some slight setup so it might not be what you're looking for.

 

[Guess Who]

God, Rhinestone Eyes is so fucking good. One of my favorite Gorillaz songs. Glad to see the video finally "finished."