Cinemax’s new series Warrior transports viewers to 1800s San Francisco for a clash of cultures in Chinatown. Inspired by the writings of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, the series follows young martial arts prodigy Ah Sahm, a Chinese immigrant and hatchet man for one of the area’s most powerful Tongs. For the show’s opening title sequence, MethodMade created a nearly 90-second stylized piece of full CG content that channels overlapping explorations of cultural identity, hard boiled crime, and martial arts mastery.
Led by creative director John Likens, the MethodMade team worked closely with Warrior creator and executive producer Jonathan Tropper to narrow down a visual approach that would communicate the tone of the series. Tropper shared early footage from the pilot and scripts from subsequent episodes as reference. The MethodMade team collaborated with designer Arisu Kashiwagi, who ultimately developed a stylized aesthetic that featured key visuals from the show, martial arts movements, and notable locations, all within a minimal three-color palette. The dimensionalization of the characters and environments added depth and gave artists the ability to enhance the visuals with textures, brush stroke effects, and dynamic camera movements. To execute the designed visual approach, MethodMade used a combination of reference photography from San Francisco in that era, still photography from the set, and motion capture footage of martial artists in action. The sequence’s unique style and custom logo was ultimately expanded into marketing materials and served as the basis for the show’s visual identity.
CreditsClient Cinemax/”Warrior” Creative/Production MethodMade John Likens, creative director, design & animation; Arisu Kashiwagi, lead designer, art director; Wesley Ebelhar, art director, design & animation; Nan Wei, design & animation; Jeongyeon Son, David Derwin, CG artists; Adrienne Mitchell, executive producer; Emily Schaeberle, producer; Billy McMillen, coordinator. Music Reza Safina, H. Scott Salinas.
We Are Pi Rolls Out Trailer For Nike-Backed Feature On Athletes With Olympic and Paralympic Dreams
Amsterdam-based creative agency We Are Pi debuted the trailer for Crois Pas Qu’on Dort (Don’t Think We’re Sleeping in English), an inspiring feature-length story of three young French athletes in the lead-up to the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. The 90-minute French language film, which was developed and produced by We Are Pi with the support of Nike, will premiere in mid January 2025 followed by a release in theaters at the end of January. It follows three protagonists from Paris and its suburbs: Charles-Antoine, a runner with an intellectual disability who won Gold at the Tokyo Paralympics and is competing in this year’s Paralympics; and Leyna and Maysane, French twin sisters and heirs to their Laotian-Algerian family’s very own taekwondo dynasty who are coached by their father and dream of competing in taekwondo at Paris 2024. The athletes were followed by a film crew over the course of five years, recording how their stories, their lives and their sporting achievements unfold over time. The film combines the rawness and intimacy of their everyday lives with the audacity of their sporting dreams, with their stories culminating at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympics. Crois Pas Qu’on Dort was created with the aim of inviting a new generation of athletes in France into sport by inspiring them with the stories of our protagonists and the transformative power that sport had on their lives. The production began over seven years ago in 2017 with nearly two years of extensive casting sessions that involved viewing around 500 profiles of athletes. Two directors, Nick Walters and Lou Marillier, English and French, respectively, subsequently followed the selected young protagonists closely as they pursued their... Read More