As the National Basketball Association playoffs reach the conference finals stage, many of the game’s biggest stars–including NBA MVP Steve Nash whose Phoenix Suns are still in the hunt for this season’s championship title–are featured in a Web-only video on nikebasketball.com. The slightly longer than a minute-and-a-half piece, What’s Your Game About, was produced by Nike Brand for interactive agency R/GA, New York, with design and animation from bicoastal Stardust Studios.
As we see the star athletes strut their stuff–some individually, others in concert with one another–on the court, their moves are accompanied by design and animation custom-tailored to match Nike’s Flight, Force and Uptempo brands. Among the players featured are Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli.
The piece has a pickup game feel yet is kicked up a stylish notch by the design and animation signifying the Nike line, with word elements that convey attitude such as “Change the game,” “Switch lanes” and “Break ankles.” Stardust’s work entailed the artistic use of Maya, Cinema 4D, and Adobe AfterEffects and Creative Suite.
The short was directed by Joseph Cartman and Harshal Sisodia of Nike Brand. Can Misirlioglu of R/GA served as editor/audio mixer. R/GA’s Nate Jenkins also was an audio mixer on the job.
The Stardust ensemble was headed by executive creative director Jake Banks, exec producer Eileen Doherty, senior producer Michael Neithhardt, art director/lead animator Doug Purver, art director Felipe Posada, animator Daniel Garcia and 3D artist Cary Janks.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More