Amazon Prime’s first Thursday Night Football stream went live Sept 15 with Imaginary Forces providing a fresh take on NFL game intros – a retro-flavored mix of 2D and 3D action which the studio will update for each week’s match-up.

From the team at IF: “Our lineup of designers, animators, and illustrators tackled Prime’s creative brief with a cinematic approach to create something untraditional for the NFL while using old-school design techniques.

“Referencing Saul Bass and Krazy Kat, we merged 2D cut-out drawings with 3D CGI to highlight the nostalgia of repping fans’ favorite football teams while rooting for Prime’s new features like alternate streams and real-time stats.

“With each week comes new easter eggs and a soundtrack to drive the visual. We interchanged the jerseys, and highlighted the stars and storylines to keep superfans fired up and freezing frames every Thursday night.”
 

 
Client: Amazon Prime

Production: Imaginary Forces
Executive creative director: Peter Frankfurt
Managing director/EP: Tiffani Manabat
Creative director: Grant Lau
Editor: Ian Gibson, Chris Hall, Marty Pugeda
Lead animator: Jahmad Rollins
Cel animator: Lyuben Dimitrov, Matt Everton, Taik Lee
Storyboard artists: Tyler Gibb, Jaclyn Bautista
Designers: Angela Zhu, Steve Fuller, Chris Salvador, Kathy Liang
Lead compositor: Ned Piyadarakorn
2D: Nader Husseini, Christian Arnsparger, Nick Baquero, Alphonse Swineheart, Lilly Lin, Ella Lee, Cindy Shon
3D: Kevin Sanchez
Animator: Nader Husseini, Christian Arnsparger, Lilly Lin
Illustrator: Tomoki Echigo
Technical director: Jake Ferguson
Previz: Siddarth John
Head of production: Ryan Burcham
Senior producer: Sean Sullivan
Assistant producer: Nic Luong
Coordinator: Aaron Carlos, Cameron Davison

Music: Foreigner “Feels like the First Time”