This video uses 3d models composited onto a background and therefore they are shot separately.

Rock music videos tend to use a lot of jump-cuts, fast edits, and 'artistic' camera angles. Also, the camera angle can focus the viewer's attention onto something that you want versus just presenting them with a busy canvas.

For example, as the video opens the scene focuses on the guitars and the hands playing the guitars as it fades in and out of black. Throughout the video scenes are shot from very low to very high. Very little was actually shot head-on at standard height.

While I didn't have a storyboard on paper, I did have one in my head. 90% of the scenes were done in my head with some room left over for adding things as the inspiration hit.

I started with F.E.A.R. I used a God mode cheat to blow through the game in just a couple of hours so that I could access scenes that I would later incorporate into the video. I filled up probably 180 gigs of hard drive space just recording scenes from different angles and while moving.

Next I recorded many scenes in WoW. Having a flying mount meant that I could fly anywhere in Outlands (Wrath of the Lich King was still five months away when I made the video) and get panoramic shots as well as getting to unique places.

Once I had all of the basic footage that I needed it was time to start working with the character models.

I used the basic models for Lvl70ETC (Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftan) minus the Troll guitarist and used WoWModelViewer to capture greenscreen footage.

Sony Vegas has the ability to to Chromakey which is to to pick a particular color and remove it from the scene. Most of the time this vibrant color green is used because there isn't too many things with this exact color. Unfortunately, the guitarist's eyes in this picture are almost the same so I had to occasionally use a blue screen when using that model.

To work with the character models smoothly I had to make a few modifications. First, I had to remove the glow from the shoulders because it uses an Alpha blend to gradually fade the glow to transparent. The problem was that the Chromakey wouldn't be able to remove the green screen that was partially showing throw the glowing shoulders because it would be partially colored by the glow.

The next thing was working with the lighting. With this model viewer you can manipulate up to four different light sources. So, to get started I had to set the viewer to render the model using true lighting. Combined with Dynamic Lighting you will get a very nice representation of color and shadow.

This will allow the camera to see any colored lights reflecting properly off of the model. Now that we have the correct lighting to give us a realistic image it is time to work on the lights.

As I said, there are four different user controlled lights, each of which can be turned on or off. Unfortunately, the latest version of WoWModelViewer had to be rewritten when Wrath of the Lich King was released and it doesn't render the light objects correctly but this is how I did it.

Depending upon the scene I would look at where the lights were positioned in the base layer. For example, in the scenes where the characters are performing on a stage, I knew that the three main stage wash lights were positioned twenty feet above the stage, about six feet out, and spread twenty feet apart with the middle light being in the middle of the catwalk.

So, in the Lighting dialog box I would create each lightsource as a point of light using Light 1 as my guide. You will notice that each light has a Position on three axis' (X, Y, and Z) and a Target which defines where the light is pointing. I poistioned each light in the stage scenes to be positioned and point to the same position on the stage as the real ones.

When composited the lights would then render off of the characters as if they were really on the stage.