Afterwork Reunion (伍庭暐) - Project Progeny MV Afterwork Reunion (伍庭暐) - Project Progeny MV

This MV centres on the cross-generational evolution of music and visuals. The film translates the sonic shift from 8-bit electronic sounds to modern full-spectrum frequencies into a visual switch between 2D pixel art and 3D space — the image evolving in sync with the expanding soundtrack.

To realise the 2D animation sequences, the production team learned a game development engine from scratch and built a complete retro game. All 2D footage was captured as live recordings during actual gameplay rather than composited from storyboards, preserving the most authentic game perspective possible.

In an era of generative AI, this work chose to go handmade. Every frame of 2D character animation was drawn manually in Photoshop with no AI assistance whatsoever. The single cover art follows the same craft philosophy — hand-drawn to maintain complete visual consistency from motion to static image.

At the artist’s request to reference classic game Mega Man, the production embedded the series’ distinctive elements throughout — level aesthetics, UI design, and pixel movement. The central creative conceit: each monster in the game levels symbolises a contemporary music phenomenon. Fast-food music becomes the Burger Monster; the Emo character represents emo music; the Bored Ape alludes to lazy, low-effort releases; the Shadow Robot satirises the endless sonic copies flooding modern music; and the Grammy Trophy Monster stands in for mainstream pop.

As the protagonist defeats each monster, the film recreates the classic pleasure of side-scrolling games while blending 2D retro nostalgia with modern 3D visuals — a musical and visual experiment spanning both auditory and visual dimensions.