In the summer of 2024, Foot Locker aimed to create eye-catching social media content that would captivate and intrigue their audience. The goal was to produce assets that felt authentic and believable while making viewers do a double-take. With a tight timeline and limited budget, Foot Locker envisioned an over-the-top social media stunt featuring quick, TikTok-style clips showcasing oversized footwear in unexpected, eye-catching locations. These clips were designed to spark curiosity and leave fans wondering: how did those shoes get there?

New York

Chicago

The Solution

Given our tight timeline and limited budget, we knew we had to rely on pre-existing backplate footage since a full production shoot wasn't feasible. We focused on specific cities and scoured for footage that would best showcase the stunt while allowing for seamless tracking and integration of 3D elements. Using CAD data of the shoes, we carefully mapped and tracked the backplates to insert our 3D renders. By applying HDRI lighting, we matched the lighting, tone, and shading of the backplates, ensuring our 3D shoes blended naturally, making the compositing process smooth and minimal.

Sound Design

Beyond creating believable visuals, it was equally important for the sound design to feel authentic. We imagined how someone might react upon encountering these larger-than-life objects and recorded various responses, mixing and matching them to craft a convincing voiceover track. For background ambience, we blended pre-existing and AI-generated sounds, layering them seamlessly with the voiceover to produce a custom soundscape that matched the visuals as realistically as possible.

Initial Concepts

The initial brief was broad, with the main objective being to create visuals that looked authentic and believable. AI played a crucial role in the early stages, enabling us to quickly generate visuals for mood boards and reference materials during the ideation phase. Some of these AI-generated images were further refined and edited, resulting in high-fidelity concept art used to pitch our visual ideas. Here are a few examples of the early-stage concept work we developed during this process.

Role

Creative Direction

Tools & Resources

Photoshop

Cinema 4D

Redshift

Premier

After Effects

Client/Agency

Tool of North America / Foot Locker

Project Date

2024