One of my favorite niche weblogs, the animation-centric Cartoon Brew, has been praising the recent animated Guitar Hero II Xbox 360 ad, but it bought up some interesting info on the director along the way.

Editor Amid notes: "Gorillaz animation director Pete Candeland of Passion Pictures has turned out a visually stunning spot [.MOV, alt. YouTube link] for the videogame Guitar Hero II. It would have been even better if the animation of the guitar playing had been more closely timed to the music, but the superb drawing and movement of the two main characters, not to mention great inking style, makes this spot a winner."

Anyhow, Candeland's portfolio page on the site reveals that he did indeed work with Gorillaz creator Jamie Hewlett on the music videos to tracks like Manana and the awesome Dare clip, as well as a bunch of other neat animated vids, along with a whole bunch of collaborators.

[And also, I had the same reaction as a Cartoon Brew commenter, actually: "I saw this ad while skipping commercials on my DVR the other day and it was actually visually interesting enough that I went back, JUST TO WATCH THE COMMERCIAL." This is impressive! Score several to Activision for commissioning this.]