From Leo AI: Pearl Jam's "Do the Evolution" is a seminal 1998 animated music video co-directed by Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn) and Kevin Altieri (director of Batman: The Animated Series). It served as the band's first music video release since 1992, marking a shift from their previous refusal to appear in videos by using animation to visually interpret the song's themes of human hubris and destruction.
The video was produced by Joe Pearson of Epoch Ink Animation, with animation outsourced to studios in Seoul. It took 16 weeks to produce, featuring over 100 artists. The four-minute animation compresses the history of the universe, depicting Death (as a woman) dancing through time as humanity evolves and engages in self-destruction, war, and oppression. It premiered on MTV’s 120 Minutes on August 24, 1998. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form, and was later remastered in High Definition for streaming in 2023. Widely regarded as one of the best animated music videos ever made, it is noted for its dark, nihilistic tone and pioneering 3D animation techniques for the late 1990s. An accompanying art book, Pearl Jam: Art of Do The Evolution, was released by IDW Publishing to document its creation.