Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” design, animation, compositing by Click 3X
A Billy-Idol-Lip-Curl, dance hall-inspired graphics, a Haring-esque black and white room.
A video MTV called a "technicolor masterpiece."
A twitter search going crazy.
Rihanna's latest single and video, "Rude Boy"
The video was leaked yesterday, and officially launched today with hundreds of thousands of hits already in places like Perez Hilton, Just Jared, and MTV. A second time working with director Melina Matsoukas, who has directed videos for Lady Gaga, Solange, Katy Perry, and others. She forged a relationship working with Mark Szumski, flame artist and creative director, here at Click 3X for Solange's "I Decided," and has continued it with Rihanna's "Rude Boy."
The video was a departure from some of the other videos for Rihanna, and was rooted in a highly stylized convergence of everything pop- from Haring-like environments, Warhol pop-art, to dance and dancehall culture. The team ran the gamut of pop culture for visual reference. It needed to be inspired by these sources, but still have a look and feel that specific to Rihanna. Mark Szumski, creative director noted that "there are elements from almost every decade starting with Warhol, Haring, Basquiat dancehall culture, video games, animator David O' Reily, Trapper Keepers, and Save By The Bell. We put all these into a blender and came up with our own look for the video."
While it was difficult to combine such disparate imagery, it made sense for it all to come together because as designer Paul Darrah says, "pop culture is all about imagery. There are so many visual icons that have created that culture, and they are all references that the audience will see and ultimately understand what Melina and Rihanna are trying to convey." Once the design was decided on, it was about executing it and bringing it into the edit. There were a lot of traditional Rasta symbols, Kente textiles and psychedelic video imagery. Art director Steve Weinzierl "intentionally avoided anything overtly sexual or lewd. The design had to be aggressive, since the lyrics were pretty blunt, but in the end, while still stylized and raw, it is still an image of love."
Video Synth for Rihanna's "Rude Boy" Video from Connor Swegle on Vimeo.
All of the graphics that came together were low-fi- referencing 8-bit video game graphics, custom paint, hand drawn animation, and scanned crayola textures. The team also used an analog video synth to create overlaid textures that would give an NTSC-broadcast look to the piece. The bridge of the song, however, creates a contrast to the video in a black and white Keith Haring-inspired scene. It adds the elegance and romance to the video and offers a clean performance section. The environment was created completely in CGI and composited in to look as if it was all captured in-camera.
In the end, the video is a reflection of Rihanna's creative vision, and pop culture swagger.