{"id":6101,"date":"2021-03-25T10:30:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T15:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=6101"},"modified":"2021-03-25T10:30:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T15:30:47","slug":"among-us-fan-video-animated-by-uw-stout-student-has-millions-of-youtube-hits","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/among-us-fan-video-animated-by-uw-stout-student-has-millions-of-youtube-hits\/","title":{"rendered":"Among Us fan video animated by UW-Stout student has millions of YouTube hits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Screenshot:
UW-Stout student Chloe McChesney created an animated video for the song \u201cGood to Be Alive\u201d by CG5. The video already has more than 10 million plays.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chloe McChesney loves to use color and avoid straight lines, creating soft and visually effective animation.<\/p>\n

McChesney\u2019s animation has created quite a following. The senior majoring in entertainment design-animation, which has been renamed animation and digital media, recently created an animated video for the song \u201cGood to Be Alive\u201d by CG5. The video already has more than 10 million plays.<\/p>\n

McChesney, of Chippewa Falls who graduated from McDonnell High School, said it took about 100 hours to create the nearly three-minute video, which is based on characters from the hit multiplayer game Among Us. In the game, crewmates on a spaceship work to hold the ship together and return to civilization. One crewmate is an impostor with the sole goal of eliminating the rest of the crew before the ship reaches home. The crew must find the impostor to win.<\/p>\n

\"Image
The animation is based on characters from the hit multiplayer game Among Us. \/ Photo courtesy Chloe McChesney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McChesney, who has the social media name Luximus, used Adobe Animate to create the video. She found out CG5, also known as Charlie Green, of Phoenix, Ariz., was looking for an animator for a video. McChesney had collaborated with another artist providing some illustrations for another of CG5\u2019s videos \u201cI See a Dreamer,\u201d which has had more than 17 million views.<\/p>\n

According to an online profile, Green, 21, has been working with digital music since he was 5 years old and uploading content to the internet since he was 10. He is self-taught in the industry and is the fifth Charles Green in his family. He launched his YouTube channel in 2014 and rose to prominence through original songs based upon popular video games and memes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI showed him a picture of the Among Us characters and he really liked the style, the roundness, the brightness and the expressiveness,\u201d McChesney said.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Chloe McChesney \/ Photo courtesy Chloe McChesney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

When it came to creating the video, which follows a yellow character, it was pretty much up to McChesney to create and interpret based on the song. \u201cI enjoy the comments,\u201d McChesney said of the YouTube site. \u201cSome think yellow was stupid. Some think yellow was in on it. That is why I left it up in the air. We were kind of playing off the idea sometimes in the game when you have too many people, you can have two impostors. It could be Yellow, or he could just be happy and oblivious to what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Passionate about animation\u2019<\/h3>\n

The video has caught on because of the popularity of the game and CG5 has more than two million followers, McChesney said. \u201cIn terms of my part in it, people like the style,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are no straight lines in any of my art. It\u2019s soft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesse Woodward, UW-Stout lecturer of animation in the design department, said McChesney is passionate about animation and eager to learn more about it.<\/p>\n

CG5 has become a unique channel, hiring and showcasing work from emerging artists, Woodward said. \u201cAs the collaborators are given a lot of artistic freedom, this was a great opportunity for Chloe to develop a creative story while pushing her style and animation skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodward said McChesney\u2019s work was professional. \u201cAs a polytechnic university, we strive to collaborate with the industry, bringing students and professionals together with hands-on experience,\u201d he added. \u201cI encourage my students to work outside of class and develop their own animation and projects. With this animation project, Chloe has shown the possibilities and inspires others to get out there and create something awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

McChesney created her first animation when she was 12. \u201cI was part of a fandom called \u2018My Little Pony Fandom,\u2019 \u201d McChesney recalled. \u201cI just kept working on animation and doing comics on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
McChesney creates many different types of artwork and does freelance work. \/ Photo courtesy of Chloe McChesney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She uses Luximus for her social media name, a combination of two Pok\u00e9mon characters, Maximus and Luxray. Pok\u00e9mon is a role-playing video game.<\/p>\n

McChesney wanted to study animation and UW-Stout was the closest university with the major. \u201cI heard it was one of the top schools for its art program and art animation major,\u201d she said. \u201cI figured going to UW-Stout would hone my skills more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humbling and thankful for experience<\/h3>\n

Having an animated video with millions of hits is humbling, and McChesney is thankful to have had such an opportunity and feedback on her work.<\/p>\n

Since the video has been released, McChesney has had so many offers for animation work she turned some down. \u201cThis just looks great on my portfolio,\u201d she said. \u201cI declined a lot of work because I have schoolwork to do. There are not a whole lot of artists who are given that chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

McChesney did include some Easter eggs, or hidden references, clues or inside jokes for fans of Among Us in the video. One in particular plays homage to the memes that have been created about Among Us.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
McChesney created her first animation when she was 12. \/ Photo courtesy of Chloe McChesney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The game has no sound or music, but fans, like CG5, have created music revolving around it.<\/p>\n

McChesney plays the game as well and enjoys the subterfuge. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to mess up people\u2019s thought process,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

McChesney, who is set to graduate in May 2022, said she always planned to work in a large animation studio but now may consider a freelance career. \u201cPeople seem to enjoy it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt all depends how the COVID-19 pandemic turns out.\u201d<\/p>\n

UW-Stout\u2019s animation and digital media degree in 2021 was ranked No. 1 in Wisconsin and one of the top 20 programs in the Midwest by Animation Career Review, an online resource for people aspiring careers in animation, game design, graphic design, digital art and related fields.<\/p>\n

By Pam Powers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chloe McChesney loves to use color and avoid straight lines, creating soft and visually effective animation. McChesney\u2019s animation has created quite a following. The senior majoring in entertainment design-animation, which has been renamed animation and digital media, recently created an animated video for the song \u201cGood to Be Alive\u201d by CG5. The video already has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[90],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-6101","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-stout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/6101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=6101"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=6101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}