Ingenious animation brings Underworld's beats to life

It's always tricky to come up with an original concept for a video, but here's one that really works.

An animated music video for electronic group Underworld, it starts out with a single hair. As it weaves its way around the action, the music and animation work as one, playing off each other and creating a treat for both the eyes and ears.

Hair in the gate

The idea came from the classic problem of the 'hair in the gate', where a trapped hair in a cinema projector creates an unwanted dark line on the screen. This ingenious take on the problem shows the talent of director Joost Korngold, who's worked with everyone from Nike to our sister mag Computer Arts.

Korngold had help from Dylan Kendle, who's worked on advertisements for the BBC4 Today programme. The pair used 3ds max to create and animate with composition and rendering of the macro hair footage in After Effects. There is also a second version (known as the black version) here.

Words: Alex Williamson

Alex Williamson is an art and design student in London, who blogs about design, art and illustration. Follow him on Twitter.

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