A Slam Dunk with Luke McConkey
A Baller Collaboration
We teamed up with illustrator Luke McConkey to bring to life his illustrated personal project: sketched up concepts for @nikebasketball.
Luke was experimenting with perspective when we caught sight of his early sketches and decided it would be a crime not to see this character in motion. We bounced the project back and forth, jumping from 3D animation to 2D cel, eventually landing on an endless loop of slam dunkin’ fun.
Creating 3D Reference
We choreographed the animated sequence in 3D, giving us the ability to quickly test the camera movement and create our own reference material for the main character animation.
We output key poses from this initial 3D animated sequence, and handed them over to Luke, on which he quickly added his signature playful style.
From 2D to 3D, And Back Again
Taking Luke’s key poses, our 3D reference and several buckets of elbow grease, we worked to recreate his style into a full sequence through traditional frame-by-frame animation.
Sitting Courtside
The last step was adding a little atmosphere. The baller was looking fly, but something was missing… the court.
We asked Luke to produce a series of illustrated backdrops and asked sound designer Adam Legg to create an ambient sound bed that would capture the inner city, throw-down basketball vibes.


Credits
Illustration
Sound Design
Creative Direction
Ben Marsh
Character Animation
Jordan Pledge
Background Animation
Rosie Bowers