“Money for Nothing” Dire Straits video
Second only to “Tron”, this was one of the things that got me hooked on computer animation.
While the animation appears a little crude by modern standards, the video was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters and was considered groundbreaking at the time of its release. It was the first computer generated music video shown on MTV. The lead characters vaguely resemble a computer-generated Laurel and Hardy.
Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson created the animation at Rushes Postproduction in London, using a Bosch FGS-4000 CGI system. The animators went on to found computer animation studio Mainframe Entertainment, and referenced the “Money for Nothing” video in an episode of their ReBoot series. The video also included stage footage of Dire Straits performing, with partially rotoscoped-animation in bright neon colors, as seen on the record sleeve.
A short clip of two fictional, supposed MTV videos are also shown during the Money for Nothing clip, one displaying the song as “Baby, Baby” by First Floor, and the other “Sally” by the Ian Pearson Band (Pearson was one of the animators of the video).
The video was awarded “Video of the Year” at the 3rd annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1986.
I’ve added an embedded YouTube of the video “You Might Think” by the Cars that Fred mentioned in his reply. That was another video that got my interest in animation going… although I think “Drive” is their best song.
![Indy Mogul (alt) poster [comp]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/3027776092_f8c8836fc0.jpg)
![Threadbanger poster [comp]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/3027662798_915b90d3fb.jpg)
![Next New Networks INKY poster [comp]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/2878798303_57ff8570d3.jpg)
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On February 9th, 2007 at 12:00 am
So, I’m a music guy with animation *and* music stories. 1) My mentor is a guy called Dale Pon who, in 1981, was partners with advertising legend George Lois, and I was the first creative director of MTV. I hired their agency to rep MTV, and together they came up with the famous “I Want My MTV” campaigns. Little did I know how famous, until this song/video came out. 2) The very first Video of the Year at the 1984 VMAs was also an animation styled video (actually animated on the Qunatel Paintbox): The Cars “You Might Think.” Directed by Jeff Stein and Charlex, executive produced by my wife who was at Elekta Records.
On February 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Music videos like these were my childhood. I’m serious, mum would stick MTV on and sit me in front of it while she made the dinner. I swear it must of had some sort of impact on me seeing all that mad, experimental animation they had on there back then.