Š Copyright 2020 Ben Acevedo and Andrew Benson and Sabrina Demers All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form.
Andrew Benson, Photoshop
Everything began with this drawing. As seniors in the Computer Animation department at Ringling College of Art + Design, our thesis was to make a short animated film that summarized everything we have learned during our time at the school. The process started as early as January 2019 (our second semester of Junior year). We previously pitched four stories and developed one about a group of test animals escaping a lab. We soon realized that project would be a nightmare for all of us in many aspects, and the story wasn’t working at the time. We went back to the drawing board and came up with an idea that served as a combination of all of our main passions: energetic action movies, rock n’ roll music, and worldbuilding. The film went through months and months of development to get to where it is today. It was an absolute trip (no pun intended) and we sincerely hope you enjoy exploring the process of what it took to make Pedal to the Metal.
Ben Acevedo, Andrew Benson, and Sabrina Demers Creators of Pedal to the Metal
BEN ACEVEDO
ANDREW BENSON
SABRINA DEMERS
“Camera Kid” East Brunswick, NJ Story and Layout
“Mr. Re-topo” Baltimore, MD Animation and Story
“Ms. Modeler” Boston, MA Modeling and Visual Development
“Creating an animated short takes a long time, and it's important to make something that you will enjoy making for the long-term. I knew Andrew, being a rock fan and guitar player would love to work on a rock-n-roll themed film, and Sabrina, being an avid film enthusiast would enjoy making something cinematic. I pitched the concept of a race to a concert that took place in a Brutal Legend/Mad Max-inspired rock world to my partners, hoping it would excite them as well as the Computer Animation instructors. Through the laborious process, the excitement never faded, and I am so happy that I could wake up everyday to work on a project I loved.� -Ben Acevedo, Co-Director
(Left, both) Andrew Benson, Photoshop
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop; (Bottom) Andrew Benson, Photoshop
The story went through countless drafts and changes. We always knew the film would be super energetic and involve a superfan racing to a rock concert. One of the first drafts we wrote involved a road battle between the fan and the Devil himself, and the film would take place on a highway to Hell. As the story developed however, we kept the idea of going off-road, but decided to focus more on a race between two rival characters.
(Above) Andrew Benson, Procreate (Middle) Andrew Benson and Ben Acevedo, Procreate and Photoshop (Bottom) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
The car chase in earlier stages of planning had a much heavier emphasis on vehicular combat. Both cars were equipped with music-themed weapons which were used to destroy each other’s cars, similar to arcade-style racing games like Twisted Metal, Carmageddon, and Mario Kart. The emphasis on weaponry was pulled back after concerns were brought up over the film’s tone, feasibility, and real world incidents in which weapons were brought to rock concerts. We aimed to hold onto the Mad Max-feel and edge, but create something a bit more lighthearted. To do this, we shifted our emphasis to creating memorable music themed environment set pieces instead of destruction. (Top right) Sabrina Demers, Photoshop (Bottom right) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
Brock’s sweet ride (and only friend) is his 1972 Chevrolet Camaro. When designing the vehicle, we wanted to emphasize the massive engine and took inspiration from the Crusher Camaro mod from the Roadkill Garage show. We chose to change the color of the car from yellow to black to match Brock’s aesthetic and distance the design from the Transformers character Bumblebee, which is a very similar model. The spikes were included to tie in with Brock’s jacket and bracelets.
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop (Top Right) Sabrina Demers, Photoshop (Middle Right) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop (Bottom Right) Sabrina Demers, Photoshop
Render of Camaro from the Film?
Camaro painting, model, and rig created by Sabrina Demers (Photoshop, Maya, Substance Painter)
Early on, we decided it would be a fun idea to have one of the racers drive a custom van because of the association they have with rock fans of the 70s and 80s. We wanted to go against stereotypes by giving Roxy a bigger, tougher, and more souped-up vehicle that could easily pulverize Brock’s Camaro. We took inspiration from the craziest customized Chevy vans we could find as well as Mad Max cars to try to make the van compete better against the Camaro muscle car.
(Above) Andrew Benson, Photoshop (Top Right) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop (Bottom Right) Andrew Benson, Photoshop
Preliminary sketches and original Van painting by Andrew Benson. The initial idea was to have Roxy’s van decorated with memorabilia related to her favorite band, the Fender Benders. It was reworked after we received feedback that audiences might think the van belongs to a member of the actual band. We like to think that these designs could appear on some of their albums!
Final Van painting by Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
Van model created by Andrew Benson Van rig created by Ben Acevedo (Photoshop, Maya, Substance Painter)
Above is the final van painting by Ben Acevedo. The painting was largely inspired by the work of Frank Frazetta and calls back to the stop-motion animated skeleton armies of Jason and the Argonauts and Army of Darkness.
Not the sharpest tool in the shed, but certainly not to be messed with! When creating Brock, a lot of research went into studying the fashion of the glam metal scene. An important note we kept in mind was that these were fans and not rockers themselves. A deliberate effort went into making him a more grounded, and not overly cool, character to avoid outshining the band. We like to think that he is a pretty laid back guy with a heart of gold and not as tough as he tries to seem. His outfit and car have a spike and flame motif while Roxy has a skull and lightning theme to differentiate the characters and avoid repetition in visual iconography.
(Right) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
(Above) Andrew Benson, Photoshop
(Above) Ben Acevedo and Andrew Benson, Photoshop
These were each of our semi-final designs for Brock. We decided against certain features such as tattoos and patches to avoid distraction.
(Top) Sabrina Demers, Photoshop (Right) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop (Far Right) Andrew Benson, Photoshop
This hotheaded gal will do anything to see her favorite band live! Her love for the Fender Benders is only surpassed by her unhealthy relationship with her van. Although our first pitch image depicted two men racing, we quickly realized we did not want to fall in the trap of making a hypermasculine, testosterone-fueled story, like many other action films. To steer away from this, we decided to make one of the fans a female so the film could appeal to a wider audience. Our team strongly believes that rock and roll and action cinema are for everyone and wanted to make a film that reflected our values. Her fiery personality contrasts with Brock’s more laid-back demeanor. This is shown by her being the one to start the race, as well as the first to resort to violence by smashing Brock’s car into the cacti field. While reworking the story after our layout critique, we changed the lead character from Brock to Roxy. Not only because it simplified the story beats, but also because we fell in love with the character Sabrina beautifully modeled!
(Left) Sabrina Demers, Photoshop (Right) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
(Above) Sabrina Demers, Photoshop; (Bottom) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
(Above) Andrew Benson, Photoshop; (Top Far Right and Bottom) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
Sabrina Demers, Photoshop
For our hair designs, our team went through many iterations in terms of style. We had a few discussions on how to translate the shape language from our 2D inspirations into a 3D animated film. Initially, we thought of going with geometry hair that could be sculpted and textured to fit with the painterly look of the Pedal to the Metal universe. However, we found we could still execute the shape language we desired using an industry standard simulated hair system. These exploration drawings (above) show how we planned to group hair tufts and have them grow from different parts of the head like real hair would.
Sabrina Demers, Photoshop, Maya, Substance Painter
Sabrina Demers, Photoshop, Maya, Substance Painter
The cool-as-hell leader of the rockin’ Fender Benders, Clutch was a late addition to the film and wasn’t seen in the final animatic. He was included after feedback from the last critique of Pre-Production. We were inspired by the extravagant outfits of glam metal legends (particularly KISS, Motley Crue, and Steel Panther). We loved the elegance and power of Robert Valley’s characters in Zima Blue with their broad chests and elongated proportions. Getting the sharp angles to work in 3D proved to be difficult, and made the character especially challenging to pose and animate with. We are very happy with the final result and we like to think he makes a strong impression even though he has very little screen time.
Designs by Ben Acevedo, Photoshop Bobble Head created by Andrew Benson, Maya and Substance Painter
Early explorations for the band’s iconography and merchandise. As the rockstar character was fleshed out more and the band was given more attention, we decided to go with the car themed name “The Fender Benders.” This gave them more specificity, playing off of the idea of car accidents and Fender guitars.
Andrew Benson, Photoshop
Clutch Blend Test Poses
Clutch Final 3D Model
Andrew was very happy with how this guitar came out.
Andrew Benson, Photoshop, Maya, Substance Painter
A revised ending of the story was boarded the summer after pre-production class in order to show off the newly added character. Camera angles were carefully chosen to avoid showing the full crowd but still have the feeling of a packed concert. A note from our instructor (Billy Merritt) that we kept in mind was to build the excitement as much as we could until the credits rolled. Because of this, we decided to have the film end with the rock star leaping towards camera and a massive pyrotechnics explosion.
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
The desert landscapes of the film are inspired by the American deserts of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. We specifically referenced features of national parks such as Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon, and Canyonlands. The Pixar film Cars had a car motif in the rock formations, which inspired us with our approach on how to design the desert. (Top) Sabrina Demers, Photoshop (Bottom) Ben Acevedo. Photoshop
An earlier cut of the film featured extensive use of street signs and traffic lights. This idea was scrapped to focus on rock formations and staying true to the offroad nature of the film.
(Top and Bottom) Andrew Benson, Photoshop
(Above) Andrew Benson, Photoshop; (Bottom) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
One set piece that didn’t make it into the final film was a Microphone rock inspired by Bryce Canyon National Park. It was meant to serve as the climax of the chase as the highest point Brock and Roxy would reach before crashing onto the concert. After layout crit, it was suggested that we shorten the film as the car chase was starting to get tiresome. Once the microphone section was removed, the record player rock where the characters get caught up in the moment and the cliff reveal story beats worked much better and the pacing of the film improved. We intended to include the microphone rock as a background detail but the model was never finished and with limited time, it didn’t pan out in the end.
Alpha Card Paintings by Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
(Above, respectively), Sabrina Demers, Andrew Benson, Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
The color script was done to plan the color scheme of the film. Our primary influence was colors used in vintage national park travel posters. Another source of inspiration we frequently cited was the color design in Robert Valley’s 2D animated shorts. We referenced the look of much of his work, particularly his music video for Metallica’s “Murder One,” for our concert area. Not only does the sunset reflect the look of the desert artwork we love, but it also mirrors the characters emotional state. Right before the characters fall off the cliff, the sky is bright red to show the tension of the moment. The changing skies over the course of the film is symbolic for the journey the characters take from becoming rivals to friends. After we had our first lighting critique, we decided to pull back on blue skies from the beginning because it was too drastic of a change for a 3 minute short film. Finalizing our colors, we decided to go with a much more simplified approach rather than shifting different colors every couple of shots.
Andrew Benson, Photoshop
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
FUN FACT: The amplifiers, Fender Benders logo, and almost all of the other stage props shown in the final shot of the film have ZERO textures on them. They are default gray shaders that are generated whenever a new piece of geometry is created in Maya. We left this task on the backburner and it was too late once we noticed. Oddly enough, we were very surprised and quite satisfied with the outcome.
The soundtrack of the film is an original song written and produced by Tim Henwood and performed by Australian hard rock band, Palace of the King. Ben found the band while looking through online music forums of modern bands with an 80s hard rock sound. It was unconventional for a Ringling film to be scored by a rock band and we feel that it really elevated the quality of the film. They were a joy to work with throughout the process and hearing the updates lifted our spirits.
On April 28th, 2020 At 11:40 PM (20 minutes before the due date)
The film was completed and turned in.
Ed’s 2020 Computer Animation Class End-of-the-year Zoom Toast
In March 2020, we unfortunately had to evacuate the Ringling campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this greatly interfering with our schedule, we were able to finish the film remotely from our homes. All things considered, we were very happy with the final result. The film was released to the public on August 28th, 2020. From its completion date to its release date, we have been extremely fortunate to compete in various contests and show our film in festivals all around the world. Other than the USA, the film has been screened in the UK, Russia, Spain, Italy, and Greece. The film was also selected as a Semifinalist for the 2020 Student Academy Awards in the Animation category (one of seven fellow Ringling animated films).
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop
Ben put together a 2D animated teaser video to generate excitement around the film’s release. The background is a callback to the unused microphone area. It was challenging to complete in 48 hours, but was a good exercise that was well received.
(Above) Ben Acevedo, Photoshop (Right) Ben Acevedo, Rough Animator
Making movies isn’t easy, and it takes a lot of time and patience. This is just a glimpse of the countless number of hours that went into making this film. There are a lot more drawings, models, and animations that were not used in the final cut. We really hope you enjoyed exploring our book and want to thank you again for contributing to the development of this project. The film definitely wouldn’t have been the same without your help. Keep on rockin! In the meantime, please enjoy some behind the scenes photos!
-The Pedal to the Metal Team
Our pre-production / story class of 2020!
Taken by our amazing production coordinator, Lauren Cash!
Š Copyright 2020 Ben Acevedo and Andrew Benson and Sabrina Demers