Interview With Luke Webster on The Nike World Cup Spot Featuring Ada Hegerberg

What was the most exciting part of working on this spot?

Undoubtedly, the most thrilling aspect of leading this project was witnessing the transformation of a simple concept into a grand spectacle. Taking an existing stadium and expanding it to accommodate a vibrant Norwegian crowd, complete with flags and flares,really added to the scale of the spot. The moment we saw the visual elements seamlessly merge with the live-action footage was incredibly satisfying.

What was the biggest challenge for you or your team on this project?

The most significant challenge faced by our CG team in this project was enhancing the quality and realism of our crowd agents, particularly when dealing with a large number of agents in stadium scenarios. Having worked on previous stadium projects, we recognized the need for substantial improvements in the way our crowd agents were portrayed.
One of the main challenges was achieving a level of detailing and authenticity in the representation of individual agents within the crowd, whilst still trying to keep the memory footprint of each agent down. This is a challenge as it compounds with the sheer volume of agents required in a stadium setting, making it difficult to maintain high-quality human-like characteristics for each agent.

What’s the best place to think when you’re struggling with your creative process?

The Shower. We all love a cathartic shower, don’t we..?

Who was your most fun collaborator from another location of The Mill?

Singling any one person out would probably be unfair to the rest of the team. So I’m going to cop out and single out all the leads I worked most closely with in Bangalore; Amit Patil, Setty Ashok Chakravarthy, Biswajit Tarafder, Shravan Srikanth & Vikram Salvi. each brought their unique strengths and expertise to the project, making the collaborative process incredibly smooth and productive, but enjoyable at the same time.

See the full spot and credits here