Veteran and venerable Nexus directors Smith & Foulkes are back with a sweeping 2D stunner to promo the BBC’s coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics thru Y&R London.

Co-director Alan Smith: “There have been many memorable BBC Olympics title spots created over the years, so the pressure was on from the start to bring something special to the party. We tried to bring a new visual approach to portray the intense drama of winter sports.

From Nexus: “From the beginning, the ambition was to focus on the feeling that fear and anxiety induce in top level athletes rather than simply represent it as a physical monster.
 

 
“The creative focus became how to dramatize the negative emotions that must be conquered in order to succeed. This drove the team towards a more shapeshifting, morphing animation style.

“Smith & Foulkes researched live action filming techniques for action sports in the quest to achieve an authentic sense of movement through a 3D space and a team of artists at Nexus Studios worked to create the entirely 2D spot which was drawn and animated in a virtual environment using emerging VR cinematography software.

“Working in this way and with a perceivable depth provided the ideal testing ground and enabled the team to experiment at an early stage and consider different camera angles, just as if you were shooting in live action and with the sensibility of having a handheld camera.”
 

Agency: Y&R London
Executive Creative Director: Mark Roalfe
Creatives: Gavin McGrath, Jim Bolton, Psembi Kinstan
Producer: Kat Maidment

Production: Nexus Studios
Directors: Smith & Foulkes
Executive Creative Director: Chris O’Reilly
Producer: Tracey Cooper
Production Manager: Rebecca Archer
Animation Supervisor: Michal Firkowski
Art Directors: Alice Duke, Shen Yi
Design: Callum Strachan, David Feliu, Jamie Jones, Maxime Dupuy, Melanie Climent
Animation Lead: Bishoy Gendi
Animation: Duncan Gist, Hozen Britto, Ines Scheiber, Peter Lowey
FX Animation: Frankie Swan, Ines Scheiber
Clean Up Animation: Christina Nerland, Duane Uba, Giacomo Autili, Judit Boor
Compositing Lead: Abel Kohen
Compositing: Chris Moran, Daniele Baiardini, Elliott Kajdan, John Taylor
Edit: Dave Slade, James Alexander

Music Production: Native Music
Composer: Fred Ashworth

Sound Design: Anthony Moore @ Factory