Rockstar VFX for the music industry

Rockstar is a small and fiercely independent production studio in the UK that chooses to take a right turn where others turn left. Read on to learn about the story so far

When you're a small, fiercely independent production studio looking to carve out your niche in the industry, taking big risks sometimes pays off. Risks like delivering a demo DVD hidden inside the warhead of a fake 7-foot missile that's been dropped on the doorstep of a major recording artist!

Rockstar may have since grown in size and repute since the company's earlier days, but this studio's outside-the-box creative approach to VFX and the way it utilizes The Foundry's tools remains as punchy as ever.

Creative Director Eugene Riecansky first formed Rockstar more than 15 years ago as a web design company in the music world, with a focus on pushing technology to create incredible visual experiences - and all through a tiny dial-up modem, no less. That's when a bold move put him on the radar of renowned electronic rockers The Prodigy, which changed the game for his company in exciting ways.

"I impressed them by delivering a 7-foot missile to one of their houses, and inside the warhead was a DVD presentation of what I wanted to make for them"

Director X, Iggy Azalea. Rockstar picked up Australian rapper Iggy Azalea as a client, using NUKE to complete some key sequences in one of her latest videos

"I impressed them by delivering a 7-foot missile to one of their houses, and inside the warhead was a DVD presentation of what I wanted to make for them," recalls Riecansky, who went on to work with the famed music group for more than 7 years. Collaborating with The Prodigy cemented his passion for moving imagery, and the studio soon left the world of web creation behind to focus on making music videos.

Over the years, Rockstar has built up an ever-expanding powerhouse roster of big-name clients, ranging from Madonna and Kat Von D, to Sleigh Bells, HIM, and more. "It's a pretty wild job," he says. "We certainly work hard and play hard. I just decided to work in an area that we enjoyed and could put all our efforts and focus into. [There's] no point doing something you don't love."

All Fired Up, The Saturdays. Working on music videos for London pop group The Saturdays has given the
studio a chance to shift gears

Riecansky and his team regularly take on epic tasks like hitting the road to shoot tour documentary videos, creating entrancing background visual sequences to entertain concertgoers at live performances, and working with a wide range of innovative performing artists to concoct unforgettable videos. Whether its creating VFX material that's dark and edgy, or bright and sublime, the creative team at Rockstar delights in pushing the envelope - with the help of valued tools like NUKE, HIERO, and MODO - to keep each project as distinct and memorable as possible.

Loud and proud

Settling for the status quo is not in Rockstar's playbook, especially when it comes to working with the types of clients the studio often courts and attracts. If it's being done elsewhere, then it doesn't belong there. Instead, the studio constantly pushes outward in unexpected directions to harness that special bit of magic that suits each project at hand. This yields a creative process that's fast-paced, fluid, and infinitely flexible.

"We always try and do something different and not get caught in current trends. If everyone is going to the left, we're running away to the right"

Ego, The Saturdays. Many clients who work with Rockstar come back for more, which was the case with The Saturdays

"We always try and make sure we push what we can do from job to job," says Riecansky. "We're very organic in the way we work. We do 'try' and plan what we're going to make, but more times than not, we evolve as the project progresses. Many times, an artist will let us get on with what we want to make, so that gives us a load of creative freedom. We always try and do something different and not get caught in current trends. If everyone is going to the left, we're running away to the right."

As a studio, Rockstar's in-house style leans more towards to the dark, more gothic end of the spectrum, and the edits are often equally sharp and punchy to maximize their impact for each artist. The studio even had one client who wanted to ensure that his project's video edit failed the Harding Test. An epilepsy warning had to be placed in front of the final cut, which was exactly what the client was hoping for.

"We're just a bunch of creatives in charge of a bunch of high-end software, trying to create something exciting"

Gentleman, The Saturdays. Rockstar has worked on a host of projects for The Saturdays, from album TVCs, online tour commercials, and tour visuals

"We're pretty wild in our approach," he says. "Most studios would shiver at the way we work . . . at the end of the day, we're just a bunch of creatives in charge of a bunch of high-end software, trying to create something exciting."

For a long time, the studio had used Adobe Premiere and After Effects for much of its visual effects and music video work, but that changed as The Foundry's tools caught Riecansky's attention. Rockstar recently adopted NUKE, HIERO, and MODO, which are getting lots of play on a wide range of projects and have become increasingly key fixtures in its production pipeline.

Notorious, The Saturdays. Rockstar has found that the studio is using MODO more and more on project

NUKE and HIERO

"We started to look at NUKE and instantly loved the node-based approach," says Riecansky. "It simply fitted the way our brains work. One thing I love about NUKE is that it has a great community of Gizmos. Nukepedia is a great place for finding cool gizmos that do a bunch of great things."

Despite favoring dark and moody imagery over light and bubbly visuals, Rockstar is just as adept at going in the opposite direction when it needs to. Working on a music video for London pop group The Saturdays gave the studio a chance to shift gears. It was also the its first opportunity to use NUKE and HIERO together on a project, and the results of pairing the programs exceeded expectation. "The two worked great together," Riecansky explains.

Up, The Saturdays. Rockstar's ever-rotating array of new adventures keeps the studio on its feet

The team started by cutting the video in Premiere before bringing the EDL into HIERO and exporting NUKE comp scripts for all of the effects shots that needed to be tackled for the project. "[We] hate doing round trips between various bits of software, so to finish off a comp in NUKE, render it out, and then switch back into HIERO to find it instantly updated was brilliant," he says. "It also made it quick and easy to version the clips, so we could begin by doing rough comps, get those signed off, and then jump back into each comp and finish."

Many clients who work with Rockstar come back for more, which was the case with The Saturdays. Initial projects had the studio making remix videos for th group, where the team was given the original video and a remix version of the song and asked to create something interesting. "Polydor and the band loved what we'd done on those, and we continued to work on more projects, from album TVCs, online tour commercials and, more recently, their tour visuals," says Riecansky.

More recently, Rockstar picked up Australian Rapper Iggy Azalea as a client, using NUKE to complete some key sequences in one of her latest videos. "We recently used NUKE on the VFX work we did on the incredible Iggy Azalea Black Widow video," he says. "We created the smashing type intro and the bike shots. Using NUKE to quickly look-dev the bike shots was amazing, and again, because there are loads of useful gizmos around, we could create a unique look that the director wanted."

Overcoming challenges

As a small company, rendering lots of 3D is always a challenge and tight deadline constraints can weigh heavily on production. On The Saturdays video, the team had to render out a lot of scenes in a short period of time, which included all the necessary research needed to pull it off.

"Our deadlines are always 'next week' rather than next month or next year, so everything we do, we need to do it quickly and hit the ground running," says Riecansky. "NUKE helps us do that because we think in the same way as NUKE works. It also allows us to create node 'templates' scripts, so if we want to do a certain result or look, we can quickly open up that template script, copy it into our main NUKE script and plug it in. A lot of our work uses the same nodes, so it makes our life easier."

Preferring to tackle lots of short-term projects rather than getting tied down in a heavy volume of long form work, Rockstar's ever-rotating array of new adventures keeps the studio on its feet. Upcoming projects currently in the works include a projection gig at The Sky Garden, more music videos, and tour visuals for some other interesting clients.

"We're also starting to use MODO more and more on projects . . . It took us a little while to get into it, but now we're up to speed, it's a cool piece of software"

Higher, The Saturdays. The team had to render out a lot of scenes in a short period of time, which included all the necessary research needed to pull it off

"We never quite know what's going to happen next week, but that keeps it exciting . . . rather than knowing we're doing one project for the next few months," he says. "We're also starting to use MODO more and more on projects. We currently have 3 projects on the go that we're using it for. It took us a little while to get into it, but now we're up to speed, it's a cool piece of software for quickly knocking out motion gfx-style animation."

Related links:

Rockstar's official site
Follow Rockstar on Vimeo
Learn more about NUKE
Check out HIERO
Discover MODO
Free MODO tutorials