CUB Animation Budapest Creates Epic 2D Animated Music Video for Tony Iommi’s “Stormwatcher”
Skwigly
CUB Animation Budapest has created the official animated music video for Stormwatcher, a track by legendary Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi featuring vocalist Jorn Lande. Premiering on 30 September 2026, the five-minute film brings together a team of Hungarian artists to build a dark maritime fantasy inspired by the song’s epic sound and vivid lyrics.
Written and directed by Daniel Gray, the film follows a survivor on a journey through a world caught between past and present, guided by rats seeking revenge on the pirate who ended their lives. Combining storm-tossed oceans, shipwrecks and supernatural imagery, the film takes the song’s maritime themes in a distinctive narrative direction, following the spirit of the lyrics rather than illustrating them literally.
Finding the story in the storm
For Gray, the challenge was to translate the scale and intensity of the music into a visual story while maintaining contrast throughout the film. The ocean was an obvious starting point, but it was important that the imagery retained its impact as the song built towards its more epic moments.
When I first received the music and lyrics from Tony’s team, my first thought was, ‘There’s going to be a lot of sea in this!’ When I started designing the story, I wanted to embrace the oceanic imagery, but also create a contrast, so that we could take the viewer into the epic moments of the song without desensitising them to storms and water.
The song is very epic and has very visual lyrics. We didn’t want to translate those lyrics literally. Instead, we wanted to follow their spirit and the emotions they evoke. We do peg the visuals to particular lyrics from time to time, as a way of stopping the film from flapping off into the wind and becoming its own thing, so to speak.
The central story emerged quickly. Gray had coincidently been drawing boats, particularly shipwrecks, for several weeks when the project arrived. Those drawings provided a starting point for the film’s maritime setting and, eventually, its central idea: a mass of rats representing the ghosts of sailors murdered by a pirate, guiding a survivor towards revenge.
Stormwatcher (CUB Animation Budapest)
The concept for the story itself came together quite quickly, over the course of a day. I’d been drawing boats for a few weeks, quite serendipitously, mostly shipwrecks, so I already had a starting point. From there came the idea of the rats being the ghosts of sailors who had been killed by a pirate, and of those ghosts guiding a survivor towards his revenge.
In the film, we have this kind of limbo, while inside the storm is aA current stormy reality. The sailor is travelling back towards the battle in order to correct what happened. At the end, the rats exact their revenge on the bad guy as an all-conquering mass.
Combining animation techniques
The production brought together different animation tools to create the film’s characters and maritime environments. TVPaint was used for character animation and some of the rat animation, while Blender was used to create the oceans and ships. Moho was also used to animate some of the rats, combining different approaches within a single production.
The animation was created by Márk László, Nikoletta Veress, Patrik Pencz, Dániel Diószeghy and Gergó Burján. László also served as Assistant Director and Art Director, with Luca “Sóska” Soós responsible for design and Damján Lazin handling compositing.
The result brings together character animation and expansive maritime imagery to support a story that moves between the physical world of the storm and a limbo in which the past can be revisited. The rats, central to both the narrative and its climax, embody the film’s supernatural dimension and provide a striking visual expression of its theme of revenge.
A collaborative production
The decision to use animation was a deliberate one. Following a more filmic approach for Iommi’s previous music video, World Alone, his team wanted to explore a different visual treatment for Stormwatcher. Finding the right style and story was central to the brief, with CUB’s proposal ultimately providing the creative direction for the finished film.
Ben Baker of Equator Music, representing Tony Iommi’s team, said:
Following a more filmic approach on Iommi’s previous music video, World Alone, we were keen to use an animated treatment for Stormwatcher. Identifying the right style and the right story was very important to us, and CUB’s proposal really captured the spirit of Iommi’s music and Jorn’s lyrics, telling a powerful and epic tale.
Working with Dan and the CUB team was a pleasure throughout. To a person, they were professional, responsive and extremely passionate. They put their all into Stormwatcher and the results speak for themselves.
Stormwatcher (CUB Animation Budapest)
For producer Bálint Gelley, the project was an intensive but rewarding experience. Despite the tight schedule, the team’s enthusiasm helped sustain the production from the initial response to the music through to the completed video.
Stormwatcher was a very intensive but rewarding experience for our team. From the first moment of hearing the song and falling in love with it, to seeing the music video come together week by week, it was an experience I’d be happy to live through again anytime. We had a tight schedule, but the enthusiasm of the team made it seem like an easy ride.
The finished film reflects a close collaboration between the studio and Iommi’s team, with the animation shaped around the atmosphere of the music and the emotional force of the lyrics. Rather than offering a literal visual translation of the song, CUB developed an independent narrative that draws on its themes to create a dark, epic animated world.