Covert Brings ‘Boss’ VFX To New Lenovo Legion Campaign
Creative studio Covert recently contributed VFX to “Always Get Back Up,” an epic hero spot as part of a 360° campaign for Lenovo Legion, Lenovo’s premium gaming brand. Created in collaboration with WPP brand design agency Design Bridge and Partners London, “Always Get Back Up” celebrates the resilient spirit of gamers across the world, capturing the gritty experience of gaming as if it were real life. The hero spot will run across TV and VOD.
Set to Hanumankind’s “Big Dawgs,” the :45 spot depicts a gamer and his friends facing an onslaught of formidable gaming “bosses,” each representing a different gaming genre. Through sheer grit and the support of his battle squad — online and in real life — he defeats the biggest boss of them all. His triumph is not without cost, as the spot humorously shows his apartment turned to ruins.
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Covert, led by VFX Supervisor Hasan Khan and CG Lead Oscar Hill, brought its full 2D and 3D capabilities to create the character designs and environments. In total, they produced 70 VFX shots.
The game bosses featured in the spot represent a wide range of gaming genres, including Sci-Fi FPS, JRPG, Hero Shooter, Horror, Retro Rogue-Like, and Fantasy Action RPG.
“Each boss character has a bespoke look and characteristics respective to their genre, along with visual nods to familiar games,” explains Hill. “Some characters were close to the original concepts from Design Bridge and Partners while others changed quite drastically, as we collaboratively refined the character concepts and how they would present in a 3D world.”
Additionally, Covert provided on-set and remote VFX supervision to seamlessly connect the live-action shots with gaming setups. The crew shot additional content using Gaussian Splats and Insta360 cameras to scan and record environments at different exposures for lighting reference and photorealistic scenes.
“This multifaceted project fell right in Covert’s wheelhouse, combining our passions for video games and robust visual effects — animated cloth, fur, metal demon birds, a destroyed city apartment, you name it!” remarks Khan. “It was an amazing experience collaborating with Design Bridge and Partners to make it all come to life.”
All of the campaign’s game bosses will be rolled out across future Lenovo Legion communications, products, and experiences. A 1:45 film version will be hosted on Lenovo’s YouTube, website, social, and community platforms.
Building on Lenovo Legion’s “Reach Your Impossible” platform, Design Bridge and Partners produced cutdowns of the spot for social media — each with their own “Reach Your Impossible” story played out through one of three characters. The campaign also includes key visuals, lifestyle photography, a range of social-first/platform-native assets, audio ads, retail and product launch events, OOH installations, and more.
The technology used by the Covert team included ZBrush, Houdini, USD, and Nuke.
Agency: Design Bridge and Partners
Creative Partner: Marta Swannie
Design Director: Erik Brattested, Callum Mickelson
Senior Designer: Daniel Cramer
Senior Producer: Jane Rattle
Head of Production: Christine Richter
Client Partner: Jon Sloneem
Senior Account Manager: Monica Yogaretnam
Production Company: A Running Commentary
Director: Eric Lynne
Co-Founder & EP: Alex Bedford & Ben Parkin
Producer: James Fuller
DOP: Russ Fraser
Production Designer: Hatty-Ellis Coward
VFX Company: Covert
Creative Director: Simon Dewey
VFX Supervisor: Hasan Khan
Shoot Supervisor: Hasan Khan
CG Lead: Oscar Hill
CG Artists: Aram Hakze, Adrian Russell, Cloe Adenot, Daniel Stenhouse, Farzad Nojumi, Lewys
Rhodes, Pablo Focareta, Rafa Zabala, Remy Herisse, Robert Millin, Tammy Smith
CG FX: Thanos Topuzis
Motion Graphics: Dan Palmer, Ivan Hryhorjuk
Matte Painting: Fabio Santoro
Compositing: Alex Munteanu, Anastasios Agiakatsikas, Anselm Lier, Federico Funari, Lonni
Wong, Nick d’Aguiar, Neil Alford, Philip Sorsoryan, Rich Watson
Online: Rich Watson
Stills Retouching: Andrew Walsh
Executive Producer: Ben Dubois
Head of Production: Anna Williamson
Senior Producer: Kirsty Ratcliffe
Producer: Rebecca Traversi
Colour Company: Electric Theatre Collective
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