New Belgium Juicy Haze

New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger takes on the gaming community with this series of nostalgic 8Bit social media pieces. Returning to 8Bit was a fantastic challenge for our design and branding team.  The low-fi world brings a fresh perspective to our character who is typically rendered in 3D.  This time our visuals explore low-fi imagery as we re-imagine how the brewery’s spokesperson relates to his audience. Each element of this animated style was hand designed with the 80’s in mind. The overall look had to feel authentic, so every video element was built from scratch.

We began by researching how 8Bit games were traditionally done.  It became clear that they were made up of a library of interchangeable assets.  Working on a photoshop canvas, 100 pixels high, our team began to hand paint each element. For the Ranger, a custom 3d model was adapted to animate his run and jump cycle.  A selection of poses were then used as a base to paint the 8Bit version on.  Once all the pieces were finalized, it was time to bring them into a 2.5D space in after effects.  The final product was a successful adaption as this campaign received the most attention on the Voodoo Ranger social media platforms.