Every so often we get to work on projects that let us flex our creative muscles. Even better, when we get to work on something millions of viewers will see. This sort of thing has recently happened for Nate Vanderplas, our animator extraordinaire. AMC recently invited him to create an animated piece for their new show, The Walking Dead. Nate created the animated “outro” at the end of the piece – where you see a pistol being held in the foreground with blood running down it, while some gnarly zombies approach in the background.

Nate did a lot of Photoshop prep and animated this segment from the original comic book, The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman. It took Nate about 40 hours to create what you see–he started by breaking the artwork from the comic book apart from the backgrounds, and then had to animate the final product you see in the piece.  This work demonstrates Nate’s great talent for not only animating, but prepping difficult imagery for animation.

You can watch the entire animated teaser on AMC’s website below: