Knockout Chaos – Anthony Joshua VS Francis Ngannou

The renowned boxers Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou will face off on March 8th in a highly anticipated 10-round bout…
Knockout Chaos "Anthony Joshua VS Francis Ngannou"
Case Study

The renowned boxers Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou will face off on March 8th in a highly anticipated 10-round bout in Riyadh. To showcase this global event, director Romain Chassaing enlisted the VFX team at The Mill Paris to create an epic 2-minute teaser seamlessly blending the real world with visual effects. The two boxers alternate between filmed sequences and 3D doubles, adopting a Pixel Art graphic style inspired by 90s video games.

As the two champions find themselves amidst an exuberant crowd, real-life footage transforms into pixels, catapulting them into an epic battle. With numerous twists and turns, the teaser boldly heralds the eagerly anticipated fight worldwide.

This film highlights numerous disciplines and skills of The Mill Paris studio, ranging from traditional 2D animation, including Pixel Art, to 3D and motion design for creating various assets, FX effects, and numerous backgrounds.

To learn more about the behind-the-scenes of our work, our VFX Supervisor, Alexis Baillia, and our CG Supervisor, Marouan El Bekri, provide further insights below.

Behind-the-Scenes

Alexis Baillia, VFX Supervisor said : "We were approached directly by director Romain Chassaing to craft a multitude of effects for a 2-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.Right from the start, we recognized the inherent challenges of the project: assembling a substantial and diverse team, sourcing experts in Pixel Art, and delivering effects for a 2-minute film within such a condensed timeframe.

Accompanied by CG Supervisor Marouan El Bekri, we visited the film set to anticipate any potential hurdles and to gather the necessary measurements and scans for the production team. Given the pressing time constraints, our meticulous pre-production efforts were pivotal to ensuring a smooth production process.

In terms of artistic direction, we drew inspiration primarily from the graphic style of 90s video games, as per the director's vision. This involved recruiting specialists in Pixel Art, a niche discipline practiced by few but often associated with the gaming industry. Led by Vincent Venchiarutti, our Head of Motion Design, we actively scouted for talent and we selected the right internal motion leads for the project. With such a substantial team in place, we designated discipline leads to streamline collaboration and workload distribution.

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. I am truly gratified to have played a role in this endeavor alongside the entire team at The Mill Paris, as well as our colleagues in The Mill Bangalore."

Marouan El Bekri, CG Supervisor shared "We were tasked with creating several CG elements, including characters, multiple luxury cars, and environmental features such as earth or clouds. While on set with the VFX supervisor, Alexis Baillia, we conducted scans of the various characters to later recreate their digital doubles and to manage the transition between CGI and Pixel Art. We 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 advertising world to achieve a cohesive result that resonated with the director's artistic vision.

The artistic direction was heavily influenced by the graphic style of 90s video games, which worked to our advantage as the director, Alexis, and the Pixel Artists shared a common nostalgia for these games. This mutual understanding facilitated smooth and efficient collaboration. Alongside these creative discussions, VFX producer Stéphanie Mollet provided the necessary organizational expertise to keep the project on track.

Throughout the project, we maintained open lines of communication between team members, whether they were based in Paris or Bangalore. Trusting in the abilities of our colleagues, we worked together to craft a film that we can all take pride in today. I would like to express my gratitude to the entire team and all the artists who were able to get involved."

Credits
Credits

VFX Studio : THE MILL PARIS

Executive Producer : 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

Editing: 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 Painting : 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 & 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

 

INDIA BANGALORE TEAM

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

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