POKEMON GO BEYOND
Go Beyond marked a new evolution for Pokémon GO, bringing Kalos region Pokémon into the game.
Role
Lead Editor & Motion Graphics Designer
Client
The Pokémon Company / Niantic
Brief
Announce the Gen 6 addition of Pokémon to Pokémon GO and publicise a festive seasonal event to a global audience.
Approach
I led post-production on two Pokémon GO Beyond films: a 3D animated global announcement made with Blue Zoo Studios, and a festive promo created quickly using stock video, VFX, 3D and 2D animation. As the lead, I edited the films, directed the sound design, and built pre-vis for the animators to follow.
Because of the fast turnaround, I had to manage a complex workflow to ensure everything stayed on track, including overseeing the localisation of these assets into more than 20 different languages. For the festive project, Truckloads of Poké Balls are coming, I focused on sourcing stock footage that could create individual city videos, which narratively all tell the same story.
Results
The campaign was a huge success with the fans and even picked up a Muse Creative award.
The Kalos announcement film hit over 1.2 million views, which was more than 2400% above the channel average. It got 17k likes and nearly 1.7k comments, with people comparing the reveal to a Smash Bros trailer. The Christmas campaign reached 360k views (620% above average) and got 9k likes. Fans really liked the look of it, with some comparing it to the classic Coca-Cola Christmas ads.
Evaluation
Working on Pokémon GO Beyond required managing two very different types of production. The 3D animation for the Gen 6 reveal was a much slower process with months of lead time; I led the post-production later in the process once Blue Zoo were close to delivering their assets. On the other hand, the Christmas campaign was a very fast turnaround. It was a reactive piece based on an idea directly from the product team for a special event, which we had to pull together in just a month to combine with the existing campaign.
Taking two very different approaches to get these over the line and seeing them both succeed was a great experience. Winning the Muse award was a nice bonus, too.