Rising from the surreal landscape of an incredible alien world, Nike’s reinvented running shoe, the Nike Lunar Epic Flyknit, was a product launch of galactic proportions. The visuals for the launch were meant to further elevate the innovative, weightless, futuristic technology of the revolutionary running shoe.

Together with Blacklist and a crew of otherworldly talents from around the world, we created this launch film for Nike’s new running shoe, and global Nike in-store installations.

It was an A-list team for the project, co-directed by Tendril and Frame. What was totally unique about the project for us was the global collaboration. Blacklist is in NY, Tendril in Toronto, Frame in Denmark, Nike in Portland, and there was a slew of freelance gurus dotted all over the world. In total we had Canada, US, Brazil, Germany, Slovenia, Denmark and the UK all on this project. This made it an explosion of deadly talents.

The experiment of extending the collaborative spirit beyond the walls of the studios to join forces on special projects allows everyone to learn and grow while making amazing work. It also fosters new creative friendships, allows for faraway travel, and pushes everyone to make the best work possible together.

One of the biggest challenges wasn’t that production was a global initiative; the challenge was mostly in creating the environment where the action takes place. Armed with photo references from Nike of Pariah Canyon in the United States (a place of insanely gorgeous flowing layers of rocks) we created an entire planet in 3D. This was no small feat – we did it by researching, experimenting, going back to drawing board some more, and then by exporting data back and forth between World Machine and C4D.