Taking animation and design to the next level, creative collective Psyops team of artists wrote, directed, designed and animated SHOXPLOITATION, a new commercial trailer and a collection of four short films for Nikes Shox Neo sneaker that crosses the look and feel of blaxploitation movie posters of the 1970s with high-end Japanese style animé.
Psyop worked with writer Steve Raymond to craft four blaxploitation-style vignettes, including back stories and character profiles, each built around a specific Nike-sponsored star; Brian Urlacher (Chicago Bears) as Joe Freeze, Rasheed Wallace (Detroit Pistons) as Clutch, Gary Sheffield (New York Yankees) as Sledge and Clinton Portis (Washington Redskins) as Rush.
Coming up with taglines for each film, such as: Not a man alive would choose to walk a mile in this mans shoes! or They jacked everything but his shoes. Big mistake, and carefully mixing 2D illustrated backgrounds with in-your-face 3D action, Psyop gave SHOXPLOITATION the look of an animated graphic novel. They used a unique meshing of 2D, 3D and live action. To hone the look, the company worked with illustrator Brian Wood, of Channel Zero fame, developing graphic likenesses of the stars, a fictionalized urban landscape and a stunningly fresh purple, blue, black and orange color palette.
As designers, Psyop intensified the spots by paying careful attention to composition, environment and feel. As directors, they built the story through the performances, editing and camera work. In addition to the visuals, Psyop also produced the audio tracks built around musical arrangements by R2T2, and, in the case of the trailer, featuring the voice over talents of hip hop artist Ludacris.
Psyop has put out work that continually impresses, and overextends itself time and again in the best way possible, said Ryan Dunn, creative director, Nike. Not only because of their strength in design and animation, but more importantly because they have the ability to tell or communicate a story with a high success rate. That was a critical component to the SHOXPLOITATION campaign, and we are glad to say that Psyop pulled through. It's always positive when the group you're partnering with is making strides to improve and evolve the core ideas presented to them.
One exciting aspect of this project was the chance to develop the characters, write the vignettes and use our talents to start to tell stories, added Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick, directors at Psyop. It was also rewarding to take the street vibe look Psyop has pioneered and bring it to the next level, they continued. We combined music, voice talent, and a unique graphic presentation with a really strong concept to make the project stand out in this category.
They used SOFTIMAGE|XSI, flame and After Effects and Photoshop.
New York City-based Psyop provides visual solutions in motion for the advertising & marketing, video gaming, broadcast and music video industries.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
