Horton

Battle of the Baddest: DOOH

‘We knew that with state-of-the-art scanning and high precision performance capture, virtual Fury and virtual Ngannou would look great and move realistically. Rather than using the tried and true visual and spatial trickery made popular on deep-screens, we made the fighters the stars, not the technology – putting them on a giant stage where they could address their fans on the street below. Tyson and Francis brought their unique personalities to the shoot, working brilliantly with the technology to get memorable performances that worked perfectly at the different locations.’

Horton, Executive Creative Director, UNIT9

The brief

The two baddest men on the planet, Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou, kicked off Riyadh Season 2023 by squaring off against each other in the ultimate boxing match – the Battle of the Baddest. To help drive global awareness, physical attendance and online streaming of the bout, we were tasked with creating a number of tent-pole activations to celebrate the epic showdown – including digital content for 3D displays in London, New York, Tokyo, and the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas.

London & New York

Tokyo & Las Vegas

The execution

With the DOOH content set to air in some of the busiest shopping and entertainment districts in the world, we knew we had to take things to another level. So to craft the most realistic 3D content possible, we created high-res digital avatars of Fury and Ngannou using 3D scans to immortalise their personas on the billboards in London, New York and Tokyo.

Capturing film-level VFX assets like this in a short amount of time was definitely a challenge, but it allowed us to integrate incredibly realistic digital characters that made the whole experience come alive for fans. Created using photogrammetry and mo-cap data from a single studio shoot with the fighters, we were able to capture not just the physical forms of Fury and Ngannou, but also their distinct personalities, characteristics and movements. These nuances allowed us to incorporate the two men as recognisable avatars into the 3D billboards – with Ngannou approaching the crowds below in his trademark cool and calm manner, and Fury bouncing forward with high energy.

London & New York

Tokyo

In addition to the 3D billboards, we were honoured to be amongst the first to create content for the trailblazing MSG Sphere in Las Vegas. Inspired by a zoetrope style animation, our concept for the Sphere played to the animated nature of the character’s looping motion and was designed to be viewable in 360° from all angles and viewpoints – from the ground right up to aeroplane level – for maximum impact.

The results

Located in some of the highest-footfall locations in the world, our DOOH content was seen by millions and helped fuel excitement for the biggest boxing match of our time by keeping the Battle of the Baddest front of mind for fans all across the globe.