Director Romain Chassaing’s talent for over-the-top action anchors this trailer for the upcoming Joshua/Ngannou heavyweight match in Riyadh with VFX, animation, motion design, and post from The Mill teams in Paris and Bangalore.

Alexis Baillia, VFX Supervisor at The Mill Paris: “We were approached directly by director Romain Chassaing to craft a multitude of effects for a two-minute film within a tight timeline of just a few weeks. Having collaborated with Romain before, I was eager to join forces again, as I hold his consistently rich and detailed imagery in high regard.

“The agency afforded us complete artistic freedom, with Romain encouraging us to explore and propose a plethora of ideas. This project proved to be both original and invigorating on multiple fronts, from its visual effects to its destination and the overall quality of its execution.
 

“This project proved to be both original and invigorating on multiple fronts, from its visual effects to its destination and the overall quality of its execution.”

 
Marouan El Bekri, CG Supervisor: “While on set, we conducted scans of the various characters to later recreate their digital doubles and to manage the transition between CGI and Pixel Art. We also gathered measurements and 3D scans of multiple environments for the production team.

“The challenge lay in seamlessly blending the aesthetics of pixel art and gaming with the live-action to achieve a cohesive result that resonated with the director’s vision. The artistic direction was heavily influenced by the graphic style of 90s video games, which worked to our advantage as the director, Alexis Baillia, and the pixel artists all shared a common nostalgia for these games.”

Watch the Behind the scenes video:

 
 

 
Client: Riyadh Season

Agency: Big Time Creative Shop

Production: Academy Films
Director: Romain Chassaing
EP: Simon Cooper
Producer: Tom Cartwright
PM: Rosie Pike
Director of Photography: Nico Poulsson
Production Designer: David Bersanetti
1st AD: Robert Thorpe
Costume Designer: Claudia Martins

VFX/post: The Mill Paris
EP: Fabien Leclerc
VFX Producer: Stéphanie Mollet
Delivery Post Producer: Antoine Ville
VFX Supervisor: Alexis Baillia
CG Supervisor: Marouan El Bekri, Valentin Lesueur
Shoot: Alexis Baillia, Marouan El Bekri
Editor: Manuel Coutant
Avid Assistant: Pauline Royo, Chloé Charrier, Naomie Dumas, Maïté Tamain
Grading: Arthur Paux
Grade assistant: Violette Madrid Labeyrie
Coordinator: Mathilde Cohen-Selmon, Milan Vicet, Alexandre Dupouy
Modeling/Environnement: Nicolas Du That Co, Arnaud Prat
Previz: Alexandre Sauthier, Hervé Anceau, Ganael Chevalier, Joellia Rose
Matte Painting lead: Alain Descamps
Matte Painter: François Belliart, Grégoire Cirade
Rigging: Marine Sisnaki, Alexandre Sauthier
3D Animation: Ludovic Martin
FX: Benjamin Lenfant, Enrique Gracia, Thomas Arsene
Lighting lead: Marouan El Bekri, Valentin Lesueur
Lighting: Jérémy Gravinay, Taye Cimon, Atiyyah Lallmahomed
Compositing lead: Vivien Ebran, Nicolas Derory, Ewan Rausentrauch, Laurent Launes, Patric Bennar, Gabriel Kerlidou, Loic Caer
3D Generalist intern: Allan Belazar, Tom Guéret
Flame Lead: Alexis Baillia
Flame: Jean Matthieu Sénéca, Valentin Gingembre
Head of Motion Design: Vincent Venchiarutti
Concept and pixel background lead: Fabien Barrau
Concept and Pixel Artist: Matthieu Fouchier, Victor Delorme, Alice Geoffriault
Layout Animation 2D: Geoffroy Barbet Massin
Character Pixel Animation: Louaï Benadda, Mathias Lachal, Benjamin Chaumeny , Nicolas Delorme
Motion design lead: Olivier Jarry, Alexandre Tarquini
Motion design: Julien Maurin, Hugo Guerrero, Julien Pinot, Candice Lambert
Motion graphics: Jean-Yves Parent, Max Loriot
Mastering and versioning: Jérémy Chicheportiche, Manon Baillet

VFX: The Mill Bangalore
Producer: Vikram Salvi
PC: Nividita Dakua, Dominic Xavier Chintada
Project Lead: Radhakirshnan R
Roto Supervisor: Kunal Bendke
Roto Lead: Kiran Jondhale
Roto: Sriram Parmeshwaran, Rohit Varadha Raj, Parthasarathy Rajaram, Kishore Sasane, Prasad Thorve, Rohan Sarkar, Sagar Suresh Ladi, Gangula Janardhan Reddy, Anish Kumar, Sushil Rajendra Jain, Vijay Kumar Shukla, Vishvajeet Kocharekar, Prabhakaran Murugan, Onkar Ghatage, Nitin Yashwant Thorat, Sudir Balram Jadhav, Rahul Chandrkant Jagtap,
Jagannatham Venkata Rakesh, Vilas Kailas Khiradkar, Sushil Palai, Ravi Kant Mishra, Makireddi Dasaradhudu, Shiji L S, Antony Bright K, Gourish Bevoor, Abhishek Yadav, Shaik Ravoof Basha, Hrushikesh Kadu, Anurag Singh, Hetal Agarwala, Raghvendra Singh, Sandeep Mishra, Anita Khandare, Suresh K P, Karan Sharma, Nilesh Kailash Netke,
Nagarjuna Sadhashiv Bhalerao, Shivani Kumari
Paint Supervisor: Sugumar S
Paint Lead: Mahesh Ravilla, Ganji Ravi Kumar, Yellamilli Sai Hari Sandeep, Kandala Maniteja, Gowthaman N, Arundeep R, Mohit Ghai, Rohit Lama, Prasanna Kumar Mandavalli, Amit Karnik, Shailesh Madhav, Avinash Sangate, Suraj Vilas More, Utkarsh Indis, Sagar Dasgaonkar, Sikandar Shaikh, Akshay Suresh Savardekar, Sachin Rameshwar Mundhe, Bairi Rakesh
Matchmove Supervisor: Elangovan
Matchmove lead: Ashwin Mahajan
Matchmove: Asif Mohammad, Suman Sahu, Chetan Balasaheb Kadam, Vishal Shirsat, Swayam Prava Nayak, Shridhar Bhat, Sushant Lavhande, Samsher Shaikh, Anuja Oak, Arjun Babu, Anirudh Krishna Kurve, Shubham Sah, Shreya Sanyal, Jaswant Singh Nikam, Puppala Vinod Kumar, Kiran Kharge, Tirupati Bhavani Shankar Derar, Nagendra R, Mahesh Wagh, Ram Kumar Sharma, Upasana Choudhary, Kishor Shivaji Apune, Mukesh Gavade, Mubin Munaf Qureshi, Rohit Kamble, Kunnath Madhu Aswathi, Swapnil Madhukar Chavan, Ganesh Sonar, Tanisha Kashyap, Santanu Bhattacharya
Compositing Supervisor: Nanda P V
Compositing lead: Rajesh S, Chilka Souji, Arunraj T

Music/sound design: BMM Network
Music Supervisor: Joseph Petitpain, Julien Cornuel, Théo Darcel
Voice Over: Gary Lyons