Director Leigh Powis and the VFX crew at Mathematic in Paris ensure sportswear company HOKA lives up to its name (derived from the Māori for “fly over the earth”) in this dizzying airborne adventure thru Anomaly.

From the team at Mathematic: “Drawing inspiration from the phenomenon of bird murmurations, we were tasked with reimagining that behavior in a captivating way, forming a flock composed of humans soaring through the sky.

“The process began with shooting the main talents on a green screen with parkour elements in Serbia. As for the CG flock, we scanned several talents and props in order to achieve high-fidelity realism in the final render. Furthermore, we motion-captured specific running cycles in order to enhance the authenticity of the animated sequences.

“For the environment, we recreated the Chamonix Valley in France entirely in CG. Every detail was carefully crafted, from the majestic mountains to the lush vegetation, resulting in a seamless blend of the live-action talents and the digital world they inhabited.

“The result is a unique and emotionally captivating commercial that took three intense months to create.”

Watch the making-of video:
 

 

 
Client: HOKA

Agency: Anomaly
Partner/COO: Josh Fell
Creative Director: Mindy Benner, Turan Tulay
Assoc. Creative Director: Fede Munichor, Joaco Lynch
Sr. Producer: Cameron Ford
Assoc. Producer: Laura Richey

Production: ProdCo
Director: Leigh Powis
Director Consultant: Ian Pons Jewell
Founding Partner/EP: Zico Judge
Executive Producer: Maddi Carlton
Production Manager: Jacqui Pringle

Local Production: Icon Films

VFX: Mathematic
EP: Hadi Dahrouge, Guillaume Marien
VFX Producer: Alan Portillo Moro
Lead Flame Artist: VFX Supervisor Fred Brandon
On-set VFX Supervisor: Clement Germain, Guillaume Nadaud
CG/Lighting Supervisor: David Labelle
Lead Flame Artist: VFX Supervisor Fred Brandon
Flame Artists: Fabien CoupezZ, Clement Germain, Samuel Roux, Hugo Aymerich, Chistophe Richard, Rime Murday
Previz Artist: Sebastian Eballard
Rig Supervisor: Guillaume Boudeville
Lead 3D Animator: Cyril Cassaigne
3D Animators: Maxime Brochet, Florent Gayot
Lookdev Digi-doubles: Vincent Hebrard, Tiziano Palumbo, Ludovic Sardin, Lorine Guyard, Mante Declerq
Lookdev Environment: Bruno Lesieur, Alan Bauge, Massimo Verona
FX Artists: Arnaud Gaborit, Djelloul Bekri, Thomas Van Maele
Lead Matchmove Artist: Adrien Delecroix
Matchmove Artists: Eva Clerc, Will Phillipps, Bogdan Mihajlovic
Compositing: Gabriel Kerlidou, Bertrand Avril, Roman Goncharenko
Motion Design: Daniel Rodrigues, David Pelletier.