Football Manager19

This was a behemoth of a job. Directed & produced by Unit 9 Films we were brought in to handle motion graphics, graphic design and some VFX. Platform Post graded the footage, created the online edit as well as adding their own VFX work, in particular, the trophy shot at the end.

There were a whopping 30 shots that required motion graphics, vfx or design where we applied our trade. That’s a lot to do across just 2 minutes of film and around 4 weeks to complete.

GUI Elements

The bulk of the work was integrating elements of FM19 game graphics into footage, something we are totally comfortable with. We have done this many times before, most notably for app design companies in order to pre-visualise designs before apps get built and coded.

Future Proofing

The most interesting part of the job from a design aspect was designing how certain elements might look in the future.
Shot from the POV of a football manager, the film begins in 2036. The star of the video – the Wonderkid footballer – is retiring from an illustrious football career. Stood inside of his futuristic office, the manager turns on a Sky Sports news report of Wonderkid’s retirement ceremony and flicks it to the wall of his office.

Graphic Design

The roots of Grizzle lies firmly in graphic design – it was really nice to do some. For the magazine shot we were able to make our own spoof football magazines with titles such as GOL, SoccerLad and Der Tur. Even Stafford Rangers and Finkenberg FC (Austria) gets a mention in the designs. So far SEGA haven’t recalled them.

We used soft body dynamics inside of C4D to create the falling magazines and rendered using Octane for a super glossy finish. We designed the magazine covers using Adobe Illustrator – back to where we started for Grizzle.

The shot of the Newspaper report at 1:15s was another chance to get back to graphic design roots. The first headline we came up with was “WAT-THE-FORD”. Unfortunately, the client didn’t allow this iteration. Platform very skilfully placed the design onto live action footage.

VFX elements

The toughest VFX shot was the retirement party scene at the end of the film. We were not allowed to show any of Watford’s stadium in the background so anytime it popped up it had to be edited out. After matte painting out the foreground figures we could blur out the background. Then we placed our retirement party graphics onto the window, in order to create the final shot.