The Power of Terry
In celebration of the many parodied and remixed edits of Old Spice’s commercials starring Terry Crews, I joined a team of video and audio producers to create some visuals for a 16-minute collaborative remix, strung together by a medley of various songs.
This voluntary passion project kickstarted my work with After Effects and Blender, and introduced me to many collaborators who would become my close friends. The parts which I worked on either with them, or individually, are outlined below.
Avast Your Abs
The section which I was personally assigned to (and which was completed entirely on my own) made use of the chiptune track Avast Your Ass, which had seen use in similar remix videos in the past.
While ideating, I had very little original material to reference in regards to the track itself, other than the album cover. Originally, because the album made use of sprites reminiscent of Mario Bros., I had attempted to style the part in a similar way.
The two album cover variants for the song I was working with- virtually the only non-arbitrary source of visual inspiration.
Unhappy with the result, I threw much of this out, and rather than trying too hard to devise a clear “story”, I listened to the track and sketched imagery I imagined, mostly making use of the red and green pipes. I then translated these sketches into motion graphics, and devised ways to flow between them. I also used some of the original sketches as backgrounds.
The result was, admittedly, a bit bizarre and difficult to follow, but in the end I was much happier with some of the visual ideas and compositions. Additionally, working this way gave me an excuse to really start learning to use 3D software, namely Blender.
Night of Nights
Another section I assisted with was Night of Nights, which made use of music from the Touhou series and parodied a scene from the fan-made anime, Fantasy Kaleidoscope. Most of the visual ideas and identity for this section came from efforts to translate this scene to 3D, and replace elements with references to Old Spice commercials.
Undoubtedly, this portion of the project required the most teamwork. Assisted by four close friends, I took charge of storyboarding and delegating tasks, continuing onward as a sort of hands-on director. Some worked on character animation, others on modeling, simulations, compositing, etc., while I animated cameras, finalized the framing of shots, and generally overlooked all aspects of production to ensure cohesion and timeliness.
My original storyboard for Night of Nights, compared to the final version.
In the end, while many of us look back and chuckle at the quality (which at the time we considered mind-blowing), it was not only an exciting reveal for the project, but an excellent exercise in teamwork which solidified my trust in those involved. I’ve continued to work with each of them, always pushing our limits, and I hope to continue for quite some time.
Other Assistance
In addition to my work on Avast Your Abs and Night of Nights, I also assisted with a handful of scenes for various other sections, including Athletic Theme, Airbrushed, The Moon, and the credits.
An early animatic I created for a portion of the Athletic Theme section.
Terry's Reaction
The most exciting outcome of this project was likely the reception from Terry Crews himself. It was first brought to our attention that he had seen the project when he spoke about it during a livestream on his Instagram account, but eventually he even began posting parts of the collaboration on Twitter. The link to our video remained in his bio for quite some time. We were very grateful to have such an enthusiastic and encouraging response from him!
Terry's first in a series of tweets showing off our project.
The Power of Terry will always hold a special place in my heart, being the first large-scale collaborative project I was invited to work on; but more importantly, being the reason I met those who have now become my greatest source of motivation.
