Tony Iommi's 'Stormwatcher' became a 2D animated tale of rat ghosts and pirate revenge

Turn Stormwatcher — an epic maritime track by the Black Sabbath guitarist with vocalist Jorn Lande — into a visual story that matches the song's scale without numbing viewers to storms and water.

Don't illustrate the lyrics literally: rat-ghosts of sailors murdered by a pirate guide a survivor through limbo, with visuals pegged to lyrics only occasionally.

TVPaint for characters and some rats, Blender for oceans and ships, Moho for more rats; a Hungarian team of five animators led by writer-director Daniel Gray, produced by Bálint Gelley, premiered the five-minute film on 30 September 2026.

The official video for the track premiered 30 September 2026. Iommi's team at Equator Music endorsed the result — 'the results speak for themselves' — after a production the studio called intensive but rewarding.

CUB Animation Budapest made the official animated music video for Stormwatcher, a track by Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi featuring vocalist Jorn Lande. Written and directed by Daniel Gray, the five-minute film follows a survivor through a world caught between past and present, guided by rats seeking revenge on the pirate who ended their lives — storm-tossed oceans, shipwrecks and supernatural imagery following the spirit of the lyrics rather than illustrating them literally.

The concept came together in about a day: Gray had spent several weeks drawing boats, mostly shipwrecks, so the maritime setting was ready-made, and from it came the central idea — a mass of rats as the ghosts of sailors murdered by a pirate, guiding a survivor back toward the battle to correct what happened, with the rats exacting their revenge as an all-conquering mass at the climax. Gray pegged visuals to particular lyrics from time to time 'as a way of stopping the film from flapping off into the wind,' and built in contrast so the epic moments kept their impact.

Production mixed tools: TVPaint for character animation and some of the rats, Blender for the oceans and ships, and Moho for more rats. The animation was created by Márk László, Nikoletta Veress, Patrik Pencz, Dániel Diószeghy and Gergó Burján, with László as assistant director and art director, Luca 'Sóska' Soós on design and Damján Lazin on compositing. Iommi's team, represented by Ben Baker of Equator Music, had wanted an animated treatment after the more filmic video for World Alone, and chose CUB's proposal because it captured the spirit of Iommi's music and Jorn's lyrics.

The lyrics were already intensely visual, so a literal translation would have desensitized viewers before the song's biggest moments; an independent narrative preserved the contrast.

The previous video had taken a filmic approach, so the client actively wanted animation — the open question was finding the right style and story, which CUB's pitch answered.

Serendipity supplied the starting point: weeks of shipwreck drawings gave Gray a maritime world before the brief arrived, collapsing the story development to a day.

When a brief hands you vivid source material, follow its spirit, not its letter: peg visuals to the source only occasionally, so the film keeps a narrative spine of its own.

The film premiered on 30 September 2026 as the track's official video. Producer Bálint Gelley described the schedule as tight but the team's enthusiasm made it 'seem like an easy ride,' and Equator Music's Ben Baker said the results spoke for themselves. No viewership figures were reported.