Production company Stardust Los Angeles was tapped by 180 LA to give its latest brand campaign for adidas Basketball a retro urban, illustrative twist.
Press Release from Stardust
Santa Monica, CA -- February 14, 2011 -- Production company Stardust Los Angeles was tapped by 180 LA to give its latest brand campaign for adidas Basketball a retro urban, illustrative twist. Directed by Stardust's Jake Banks, the two spots star Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose and Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard and take a stylized approach that highlights their unique personalities while touting the players' sneaks -- the adiZero Rose and The Beast. Stardust handled all animation, including traditional cel animation overlaid on top of live-action footage, and edited and finished the campaign, which broke January and February in China, France and Spain. Check out the campaign here: http://vimeo.com/starduststudios/videos
"Our team had a blast working with 180 LA on this campaign," said Banks, who directed both spots. "The agency is right next door to us, so the back-and-forth reviews process was literally that -- we had lots of fantastic face time and creative brainstorming sessions. This adidas campaign also harkens back to what Stardust is best known for -- illustration, street-style vfx and a fun, loose style."
"Fast World - Rose" highlights Rose's taciturn, yet intense personality juxtaposed against his superhuman speed and agility, in which bravado isn't necessary for him to get his message across on the court. "Fast World - Dwight" on the other hand, zeros in on Howard's loud outsized personality, which he tones down to quiet concentration on the court. The spot also touts his prolific social media presence -- 1,821,233 Twitter followers and counting! Both spots play with water color textures, graphical splashes of color, funky retro-style flourishes, '2 ½-D' animation (3D mimicking the cel animation technique), and integration of live-action snippets within the line-drawn animated world.
The production process entailed 180 LA handing off live-action NBA game footage to Stardust, along with audio clips of conversations with Rose and Howard. Stardust edited everything together in-house to build the story. Under Banks' direction, Stardust treated virtually every frame, hand-tracing and rotoscoping the material, building '2 ½-D' environments, then placing cel animation into the environments. Stardust used Adobe After Effects for compositing, Apple Final Cut Pro for editing, Autodesk Maya for 3D modeling and animation and handled clean-up in Autodesk Flame.
About Stardust StudiosStardust is a visually driven production company with offices in Santa Monica and New York that specializes in design, motion graphics and live-action. Its collective of designers, illustrators, animators, VFX artists, directors and filmmakers continually redefine creativity for commercial, on-air, music video and experiential projects. Led by Founder and Creative Director Jake Banks, Stardust is characterized by an authentic voice and willingness to experiment. The studio has worked with the globe's top ad agencies and brands on projects for HP, Nike, Sony, AT&T, Honda, Shell, Nissan, Ford, IBM, Nokia, Adidas, BMW, NYSE, LG and Microsoft, among many others. For more information, please visit stardust.tv or call Paul Abatemarco at 1-310-399-6047, or Mike Eastwood at 1-212-334-7300.
PRODUCTION CREDITS:Client: AdidasTitle: :30 "Fast World - Rose" & :30 "Fast World - Dwight"Airdate: "Fast World - Dwight" - Jan. 1, 2011; "Fast World - Rose" - Feb. 1, 2011Agency: 180 Los Angeles
Production Company : Stardust Los AngelesDirector/Creative Director: Jake BanksExecutive Producer: Paul AbatemarcoProducer: Alex MoreEditor: Mike Merkwan @ StardustArt Directors: Neil Tsai, Ling Feng, Jonathan WuDesigners: Bill Bak, Lynn Cho, Juliet Park,3D Animators: Brandon Thomas, Joseph AndradeLead Compositor: Giancarlo RondaniAfter Effects compositors: Trix Taylor, Chinfu Hsu, Marcel Pereira2D character animators: Jason Brubaker, Yasmin Joyner, Jason Carpenter, Jasser Membreno, Dominic Bisignano, Melvina Wong, Jahmad RollinsRotoscopers: Tiffany Germann, George Faul, Ivy Depies, Dana Robinson, Katia Levy
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