Animating Bumblefoot

Animating a guitar solo by Bumblefoot (Guns N’ Roses) for Dennis Atlas.

Dennis Atlas asked: Can you animate a guitar solo played by Bumblefoot?

I said: When can I start?

Legendary guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (Guns 'n' Roses) contributed an incredible solo to the song "GAMES" by Dennis Atlas.

What was missing, was a way to make him appear in the official music video.

Well - hold my beer!

Concept

Sketches

First step: Listening. Over. And over. And over again!

In my head appears a concept, initiated by the checkerboard pattern of the music video's ground floor. The song is about Games - so what would fit better than a chess match?

LOOK AND FEEL

The music video is very colorful, bright and neon-themed.

For Bumblefoot's solo part, I decided for a different vibe.

As it is the only animated part, it should be distinct, and it should be matching Bumblefoot's appearance as musician.

Animating

For a music video, we need animations!

For that, Dennis organized the help of professional animator Rachel Villanueva.

She set up and painted the keyframes and fill frames for the moving silhouette in the start and end part of the video, as well as sketching the outlines of the waving hair part.

I took care of coloring the waving hair, as well as all other movements, "action lines" and animations seen in the video.