Cash In Cash Out: Iain Murray and Greg McKneally Talk All Things Zoetropes and Pharrell Williams

Hailing from Toronto, Greg studied Painting, Photography and Animation at Yale University and completed a masters in Digital Art at University of the Arts in London. In 2003 he founded moving image collective The Photon Shepherds, going on to create video installations around the world, including tour visuals for Basement Jaxx. He then worked as a Lead 3D artist and VFX Supervisor for commercials and independent feature films with Passion Pictures, Spanner Films, Animagine Studios and Pixel Kitchen. 

In 2014 he joined MPC as a CG/VFX supervisor, honing his craft in high-end CG production by working on award-winning projects with directors Fredrik Bond, Michel Gondry, Rupert Sanders, Dom&Nic, Christian Larson, Guy Ritchie and Ben Scott. He has delivered large-scale film and tv sequences, promos, and commercial campaigns for major clients including Sky, Heineken, Toyota, Ed Sheeran, Playstation, M&S, Channel 4, Paramount and Warner Bros. Greg was one of MPC's CG/VFX supervisors for Ghost in the Shell (2017), leading the team to achieve some of the most complex and nuanced effects in the film.

Greg joined Electric in 2019 as an established 3D Lead, and since then has led key projects including Palace Skateboard’s animated spot PALACE EVISU, and the fully animated Pharrell Williams music video for Cash In Cash Out, released in 2022 featuring a CG Zoetrope. In 2021 he became joint head of CG with Dean Robinson.

Iain started his career as a professional photographer when he was in his teens working out of a studio in North London. Despite his early successes in photography it became apparent that he was more interested in image manipulation so he did an Arts & Design Degree at the prestigious Central Saint Martins.

In 2004 he began his career at Glassworks, where he quickly worked his way up the ranks to become a VFX supervisor. After ten years he made the short move across Soho to MPC where he spent five amazing years perfecting his craft and building up his reputation for being one of the most creative and hardest working supervisors in the industry.

Iain finally joined Electric Theatre Collective in 2018 and he soon became joint head of 2d. His talents are in constant demand as he continues to produce high-end, exceptional VFX for projects such as 'Cash In Cash Out' for Pharrell Williams, 'See the World Differently' for Virgin Atlantic, 'Palace Evisu' for Palace Skateboards and Fifa’s 'Champion’s Rise' to name a few.

Q> This has been in the works for a while. Do you remember your initial reaction to the brief when you first heard about it?

Iain> The brief came in right in the early days of the pandemic and it was a no-brainer for us. As the world descended into bleakness, paranoia and UGC adverts about “sticking together”, we were buzzing to be able to work on something boundlessly creative.

Greg> The beauty of this project for our team was that it never felt like work. Everyone wanted to be a part of it and the dynamic between Francois, Jules (Division) and us was super collaborative from the off. This was the theme throughout the project as new ideas made their way onto the zoetrope right until the latter stages of the project. 

Francois’s original references included some inspiring classical zoetropes from the genius that is Muybridge.

And a more modern twist from Mat Collishaw 

Our brains began to tick and so during the pitch we jumped straight into some initial tests

Q> Was it a challenge to get started with a fully remote team?

Iain> ’It was definitely a test, however it was such a collaborative and creative project that it actually helped shape and define how we wfh at ETC. Having said that, it certainly didn't make our task any easier! For a project so huge and creative, you really want to be in the studio together bouncing ideas around the room and seeing what sticks. There was also something so incredibly nuanced about achieving the look that Francois wanted from the characters. In particular, it was a balancing act of making sure the scale, likeness and stylisation was executed perfectly for our character assets. That sort of thing can be quite hard to verbalise and sometimes you just need to get in front of some plasticine and sculpt some physical shapes to discuss. We had talent spread across the globe, working from bedrooms and garden sheds but looking back on it, everyone was so invested in this project that we made it work without too many hindrances.

Q> How did you create the CG models of each artist without getting to shoot anything?

Greg> All of the characters were hand-sculpted by our asset team. They were built from reference and we started from a place of realism and likeness, before working in stylisation. This process was one of the longest as the slightest tweak to the sculpt could suddenly push the character likeness too far into stylisation. Or we’d lose a sense of the miniature scale. Pharrell, 21 and Tyler all provided photographs and videos of themselves performing the track as well, which was invaluable. Throughout the process, Francois was crystal clear on the look he wanted us to achieve for the artists in particular. This made decisions about the way the characters' clothes deformed and the overall level of detail really important for us to nail. Again this was a super collaborative process - Francois even hand drew all of the artist's tattoos for us to take into texturing and look development.

Q> There is a rumour that someone who was supposed to feature got shot in the foot can you confirm or deny?

Iain> We can neither confirm nor deny this as we’re not in the habit of making libellous statements!

Q> What was it like to work with Francois Rousselet on such a unique project?

Greg> Without being too gushy, Francois was the dream collaborator on this project. For something so big and expansive it was invaluable to have someone with a technical brain as well as a creative eye. He was heavily involved in the details of how we made the film but he also enabled us to have a role in making creative suggestions for how we could push it even further.

Q> What was the most labour intensive part of the VFX process?

Iain> Aside from building a full scale working zoetrope ‘for real’ in a virtual world, it’s hard to isolate one part of the process! Undertaking a fully rendered music video is inherently labour intensive from the start. Every discipline in the team, from asset, animation, FX, lighting and comp worked to a granular level. A huge amount of time was spent making sure our assets looked amazing. This included the intensive animation process, none of which was driven by mocap. Our team spent a long time building up a visual library of poses and expressions that helped define each performance. ‘’

Greg> Our FX lead built a working system in Houdini, based on the mechanics of a real zoetrope and from there, spent a huge amount of time optimising ‘under the bonnet’. This enabled our layout artists and lighting team to move around incredibly dense scenes, at speed.

The fundamental luxury that we were afforded on this project was time. In an age where schedules are getting shorter and shorter, it was so refreshing to enable our artists to really take their time to finesse and enjoy working on what is an amazing project.’’

Q> Was that a cheeky ETC logo we spotted on the train?

Iain> In the words of Oasis… Definitely Maybe.

Q> What part of the project are you most proud of?

Greg> The equivalent of choosing your favourite child. Not possible. However, this is a landmark project for Electric and what we’re so proud of is that every single one of the 5736 fully rendered frames has a level of detail in it that keeps you staring and seeing something new. This project was testament to the brains of Francois and the team of artists we have at our studio.