The principals of award-winning digital creative agency Ralph (www.ralphandco.com) are very proud to detail their latest project, the website www.iwillkickass.com, which makes deep and innovative use of Facebook(R) Connect. Launched last month, the site continues to attract and entertain thousands of visitors daily in anticipation of the April 16 release of “Kick-Ass” from Lionsgate.
“With the goal of creating an engaging, interactive, sharable website with social media at its heart, we worked very closely with our clients at Lionsgate to conceive the idea and produce all aspects of this project in-house, including design, 3D, development and social media integration,” said Ralph’s creative director Chris Hassell. “We also created an introductory promo video and the personalized trailer at the end of the online experience, which allows visitors to get their friends to vote for them. Although the concept is simple and obvious, we feel we’ve executed it extremely well, pushing all the technologies involved to their limits.”
Ralph was recently added to Facebook‘s Preferred Developer Consultant Program. Over the past two years, the agency has developed innovative Facebook applications for projects including “Saw VI,” AMC’s hit series “Breaking Bad” and AT&T, among many others, and the team feels that their “Kick-Ass” project is their most innovative use of Facebook Connect to-date.
On the campaign site, users are encouraged to login through Facebook to access their photos. With photos of themselves or their friends, either gathered from Facebook or via a webcam or photo library, visitors design their superheroes by dragging and dropping in 3D costume stickers, with numerous customization options to apply to all body parts. Next, they can choose from an array of weapons, and then use eraser, color and 3D tools to perfectly finish their creations. After inventing or auto-choosing a name, visitors see their superhero star in a customized trailer along with Kick Ass and other characters from the movie. Visitors are then encouraged to post the custom trailers to Facebook, invite their friends to visit the application and vote for their superhero. The winner will be chosen by Mark Miller and John Romita Jr. from the top ten superheroes with the most votes by April 9th. The winner will be featured in “Kick Ass 2” the comic.
“Kick-Ass” Promo from Ralph from Ralph on Vimeo.
“We also developed a huge 3D wall in Facebook where the created superheroes are gathered,” explained Ralph’s CEO and account director Jay Armitage. “There, you can view all the superheroes, filter and view just your own superheroes, or view just your Facebook friends’ characters on the wall.”
Working with a sophisticated software toolset that included Adobe‘s Flash 10, FDT Enterprise and Fireworks for the bulk of the site, and Autodesk‘s Maya and 3ds Max as well as Pixologic‘s ZBrush for the 3D elements, Ralph’s biggest challenge was in integrating the 3D functionality allowing visitors to scale, rotate, colorize, brighten/darken, blur and erase the wardrobe and weapon objects in 3D space. The solution came in finding a workable balance between the realism of the objects, and making sure that the application runs smoothly and efficiently on all systems.
“There are some really inspiring Facebook Connect-enabled sites emerging, and we’re excited that this site is amongst those setting a benchmark for future engagement sites and applications,” added Armitage.
Lionsgate‘s Danielle DePalma supervised the project along with Courtney Harris and David Hayes. Along with Hassell and Armitage, Ralph’s project team also included art director Michael Elkeslassy, account manager Natasha Wisdom, Flash development lead Tim Kendrick, lead designer Josh McCartney, motion graphics editor James Hicks and copywriter Gregor Stevenson.
Facebook(R) is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.
About Kick-Ass
"How come nobody’s ever tried to be a superhero?" When Dave Lizewski – ordinary New York teenager and rabid comic-book geek dons a green-and-yellow internet-bought wetsuit to become the no-nonsense vigilante, Kick-Ass, he soon finds an answer to his own question: because it hurts. But, overcoming all the odds, the eager yet inexperienced Dave quickly becomes a phenomenon, capturing the imagination of the public. However, he’s not the only superhero out there – the fearless and highly-trained father-daughter crime-fighting duo, Big Daddy and Hit Girl have been slowly but surely taking down the criminal empire of local Mafioso, Frank D’Amico. And, as Kick-Ass gets drawn into their no-holds-barred world of bullets and bloodletting with Frank’s son, Chris, now reborn as Kick-Ass’s arch-nemesis, Red Mist – the stage is set for a final showdown between the forces of good and evil – in which the DIY hero will have to live up to his name. Or die trying…
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, from a screenplay by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, and based on the comic written by Mark Millar and John S. Romita Jr. Lionsgate and MARV present a MARV Films / Plan B production.
More information on “Kick-Ass” is available online at www.kickass-themovie.com.
About Ralph
Lean, nimble, proven and oddly named, Ralph is a new breed of digital creative agency. Since launching in London in 2006, we’ve created some of the world’s most innovative and engaging digital content. For example, our 2007 viral campaign for the first season of “Dexter” earned BIMA’s Best Use of Viral Award, AdFreak’s Freakiest Advertising Moment of 2007 Award, many complaints from the public and several police interviews. After landing a BAFTA Craft Award in 2009 for our creative contributions to E4’s “Dead Set,” we opened new studios in New York and Los Angeles. And in 2010, we were named among the 49 companies in Facebook‘s Preferred Developer Consultant Program… although to be quite honest, we’re still just getting started. For more information, please visit www.ralphandco.com.
