Sin City landmarks get a basketball twist

Together with Translation, we brought a slam dunk of creativity and a lot of attention for the inaugural tournament. We knew the NBA wanted to make a big splash, so we brought on two JIMMY artists particularly skilled in movement and realistic texturing to help. Their executions completely blew our minds, and those of NBA social followers.

The colossal Strat Tower, already dominating the Las Vegas skyline, was transformed into a larger-than-life basketball hoop. In our execution, we always look for an interesting POV experience, which is why we opted to film it from a helicopter. We booked our helicopter tour and got the pilot to circle the tower for an hour, which gave Nude Robot the perfect canvas to create his sky-high hoop.

Thanks to Ghost3Dee, the balloon signage of the Paris Las Vegas resort was morphed into a huge inflatable Wilson Basketball. Bringing this playfulness to the strip was no easy feat, considering F1 was happening in Vegas during filming, and most of the strip was completely blocked off.

In a dazzling display of creativity, Lady Liberty herself also received a baller makeover, temporarily trading her torch for a spinning basketball. We shot the plate footage from the skyroof of a moving car, which presented a lot of challenges with tracking. Luckily, Nude Robot is our tracking pro, and had no issues combining his VFX to create this whimsical, yet realistic execution.

And because it’s Vegas, we couldn’t miss featuring the legendary Vegas sign. The NBA is larger than life, and so is Vegas. Ghost3Dee did an amazing job creating a truck hauling in a supersized NBA trophy. He was able to recreate the trophy in 3D from a picture, the truck is all CGI, and he even removed a traffic light that would have been blocking this larger-than-life procession.

So far, the videos have clocked in 31.7 million organic views and 2.1 million engagements (that’s 7%!!!). The comments were overwhelmingly positive and in awe of the mixed reality executions.

Oh, and the Lakers won the tournament!