Hip-hopping in NYC - New York Postings

Post, Sept, 2002

NEW YORK -- Psyop (www.psyop.tv) continues its distinctive animation style in the latest spot for Lugz Footwear, Arrow, which features hip-hop dancers in an animated, graffiti-filled New York City, showing off their moves and their new shoes.

Arrow reflects the urban popularity of the Lugz footwear as the spot opens on a Brooklyn rooftop with a man staring out at a rendition of the Manhattan skyline. The man begins to dance to the beats of DJ Funkmaster Flex. As he moves and spins, a line and arrow, with the texture and look of a marker's ink, trails his movements. The scene suddenly shifts to another hip-hop dancer in the middle of an empty city street as the arrow follows his movement before the line speeds off to another dancer on an elevated subway platform. As he spins on his back, time slows almost to a halt on a close-up of the Lugz shoe. The train pulls into the station and the man calmly stops dancing and gets on the train. The train pulls away and the image widens to reveal a Lugz bumper sticker on a column.

Psyop hand drawings were augmented with Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator, animated with SoftimageXSI and composited with Discreet's Flame.