AL KASS | ASIAN CUP Sandman vs. Waterman

For one of our largest-scale projects to date we teamed up with Al Kass Sports Channels to create this epic promo for the 2011 Asian Cup. 

The VFX heavy spot tells the story of an epic battle between watermen and sandmen - characters that represent the fishermen and Bedouins that came together to build the Doha of today. The players make their way through the old, culturally rich and the new, architecturally iconic parts of the city ending up at the grand Khalifa Stadium for an epic showdown.

After months of concept development & pre-viz we headed to Doha for a 4 day shoot around the city. Since all the players would be created in CG it was critical to not only get plates for all the scenes but to capture HDR’s and comprehensive reference images for use in compositing. 

Next, our team flew to Los Angeles for the motion capture shoot. We worked with professional soccer choreographers and players to ensure authenticity in the CG character’s movements. 

After returning to Dubai and editing the live action footage and motion capture data we began the tedious process of particle simulation for the characters. Our goal was to create a hyper-realistic look for the sand and water that would reflect the true characteristics of the materials while using some creative license to dynamize their movement.   

In addition to the creative process this project allowed us to streamline our mocap pipeline, which we still utilize today after years of refinement. 

The result of months of hard work paid off with a very happy client and a project we’re profoundly proud of. And the awards were nice too. 

2011 PromaxBDA World Awards
Silver- Art Direction & Design: Special Event Promo
Bronze- Art Direction & Design: Sports Promo
Bronze- Special Project Award

2011 US International Film & Video Festival 
Gold- Entertainment Craft/Production: 3D

2011 PromaxBDA Arabia Awards
Gold- Best Sports Promo
Gold- Best Special Event Promo
Gold- Most Outstanding Promo of the Year

2011 Dubai Lynx Awards
Shortlisted - Film Craft: Special Effects 

Client: AL KASS SPORTS CHANNELS | Product: Commercial | Role: Concept. Design. Direction. Editorial. Grading. Animation. VFX. Music.

STORYBOARDS

ON-LOCATION PRODUCTION PHOTOS

FOOTAGE BEFORE AND AFTER