Nike Give ‘Em Nightmares

Working for BlinkInk, under Raman Djafari’s direction, I was the main storyboard artist for two animated spots for Nike, along with Ed Smith, aka beatboxrobot, who came in to save the day during crunch time.

The concept: Kylian Mbappe is a nightmare to face on the field. Each spot starts with live action footage of players facing off against Mbappe, but as they’re overwhelmed by his skill, they’re sucked into the hellish animated nightmare world shows what it feels like to go up against his skills- his demonic speed and his powerful, game-ending kicks.

Speed

Strike

the cutting room floor

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the cutting room floor ✂

Everything below is stuff that that got cut that I wanted to document.

Strike extras

Earlier versions of the pitch for both spots involved more magical elements. For Strike, the script called for one super-powerful kick that transformed into a living flame surrounded by little demons. The transition from into animation was also going to have a ‘realty warping and twisting’ vibe. This was all me letting my inner animator take over.

I drew so much inspiration from the concept artists I was working parallel to, Janek Marzewski and Siana Sungee Park, so it was really exciting when moments I’d come up with in the boards were iterated on by them, as those moments became key compositions.

For example, this panel in Speed— the moment of anticipation before Mbappe surges forward— became the basis of this awesome painting by Siana. I wasn’t used to pushing perspective in this way, so it was realy cool to learn on the job and have it land so well.

The initial script for Speed had the players falling into a hellish abyss populated by demons and big scary eyes. It reminded me of the gate in Fullmetal Alchemist, so I threw in grabby hands to drag the players into hell. Janek & Siana’s art blew me away once again!