Nexus’ Mighty Nice Teams with Comic Artist on New CHVRCHES Music Promo

Nexus were introduced by Virgin EMI to Jamie McKelvie, a highly regarded UK comic illustration artist, who had previously created artwork for some of the band’s posters and albums. CHVRCHES wanted to maintain this artistic theme by using his work as a catalyst for inspiration in the “Bury It” music video. Mighty Nice were commissioned to co-direct an animated video that put McKelvie’s artwork into motion. Mighty Nice is a Sydney-based animation studio co-founded by Nexus Productions in London and Darren Price, their one-time Head of 3D. Sometimes taking the high road can be a super hero strength in itself, so in this animation the band were blessed with super telekinetic powers - having the ability to move objects through mind power.

The animation was set amongst a New York city skyline, as the band members magically fly like angels through clouds and around city skyscrapers.

“Depicting a band in animation is a fairly daunting task,” commented Darren Price. “Translating illustration to animation is also never easy. Jamie McKelvie’s beautiful, detailed still images are great, but tough to bring to life in an animated world. The piece also needed to capture visually the mood of the song whilst being true to the identity of the band. A further challenge was the super tight time frame required to make this 3 minute video; it required quick decisions from a small, talented army working furiously day and night in order to make delivery.”

The beauty of the final, completed work is the craft. The artists at Mighty Nice loved working with the freedom of colours used in the background and environment designs. The technical and artistic fusion of mixing 2D, matte paintings and 3D character renders, particles and animation, all brought together by some nice compositing and crafting, makes this a truly unique piece of artistry.

Darren Price added “The team on the project were amazing. I enjoyed watching everyone work together; bouncing ideas off each other, and helping out where needed. The commitment to the art of the piece was extraordinary. The studio was filled with energy and there was a fantastic creative vibe around the whole project.”

"Music has always had a big influence on my work, and making a music video seemed like a natural progression of that” added Jamie McKelvie. “Getting the opportunity to work on this video with such great collaborators - CHVRCHES, Hayley Williams, and Mighty Nice - meant the reality turned out even better than I'd imagined."

Everyone loves music videos; they bring a visual heart to a song. When you add the art of animation, mix it with fantastic music artists and a brilliant song, you have the recipe for a music clip that is truly spectacular.