Houplain directs series of Mastercard idents

Nexus Productions Director, Cyril Houplain, has directed a series of Mastercard idents commissioned for the Champions League.
The four idents feature black and white characters and red and yellow bubbles in 2D using hand-drawn cel animation, each portraying the various aspects of a football match.
The red and yellow bubbles, are used by Houplain to illustrate the abstract emotions and noise generated by passionate football supporters.
For example, in one ident, football managers from opposing teams are seen in their dugouts, watching their players and reacting to the game. Red and yellow speech bubbles appear above their heads, growing and shrinking in direct response to their reactions. In another we see some supporters watching a game on TV. They become progressively louder and more involved in the game until they are standing up and waving their hands in the air. Again, red and yellow speech bubbles rise up above their heads and the TV respectively, vying to gain coveted first place.
In all of the idents, the competitive red and yellow speech bubbles jostle until eventually they join together and form the well-known Mastercard logo.
Houplain said: “This was a very exciting project to work on as I was given the opportunity to be very free with the creation of the characters and how they acted. It was also great to collaborate with the two creatives behind the project, Martyn Smith & Mark Hurst. One of the most interesting aspects was actually trying to create evocative commercials about football without ever actually seeing the football itself. It was also good to create something about football that didn't feature the normal combative and competitive feelings we normally see in commercials but something that was more about the jokes and camaraderie that surrounds football matches.”
(CD/GB)