Fox Sports Design

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Maybe it’s the speed, maybe it’s the power, or maybe it’s just the ear-splitting noise, but something about tackling a
new NASCAR project always inspires a lot of really interesting and fun ideas for us to dive into, and this year was no
exception. We’d been poking around with the idea of showing a world from underneath for a while, and Creative Director
Mark Simmons had been talking with Madrid visual effects house La huella about a collaboration that would take us
underground for a ten-second network ID.

“The underground idea wasn’t really going to work as an ID, but we loved the concept as a possibility for our College
Football package,” said Robert Gottlieb; Fox Sports Marketing SVP/Creative Director. “But the College Football timeline
was too tight, so Mark and La huella FX changed gears and started adapting the concept to NASCAR.”

The live-action scenes were filmed by Simmons in LA while La huella’s 3D team was off and running back in Madrid.
“This was one of the more difficult shoots we’ve ever undertaken,” said Simmons. “Safely suspending actors 14 feet
off the ground on a glass floor was a huge logistical problem.”

La huella’s team, led by Jérôme Debève, did an amazing job bringing this world to life with an array of beautiful flourishes
and wonderfully detailed nuances in every frame. “La huella was fantastic, this spot was full of challenges but they were
great collaborators,” said Simmons. Another key technical hurdle La huella faced was applying each cars “skin” to the car
models. “La huella nailed getting the skins outfitted properly on the CG cars right out of the gate;” said Bill Battin; Fox
Sports Marketing VP.

Visually stunning and featuring a seamless integration of live-action and 3D, it truly is a view of NASCAR that had never
been seen before.

CREDITS

Title: “Undergound”
Client: Fox Sports Marketing
Product: NASCAR on FOX

Agency: Fox Sports Design

EVP Marketing: Eric Markgraf
SVP/Creative Director: Robert Gottlieb
Creative Director: Mark Simmons
Live Action Director: Mark Simmons
VP On-Air Promotions: Bill Battin
Editor: Kirk Smith
Flame: Kevin Prendiville
Sound Design: Mic Brooling & Jim Mitchell
Music: “World Domination” by Ash

VFX Company: La huella FX

3D/2D Supervision
Jérôme Debève
Juan Antonio Ruiz

3D Artists
Antonio Lado
David Gonzalez
Gerardo Arpide
Miquel Angel Corominas
Vanesa Iglesias
Martin Contel
Cesar Eiji

2D/Post
Régis Barbey
Thiago Dantas
Ricardo Gomez

Story/Textures
Santiago Verdugo
David Escribano
Paco Rodriguez

Production/Administration
Marga Obrador
Paloma Fuentes