2XU - VECTR

From gym fanatics to elite athletes, everyone that exercises on a regular basis wants to perform to the best of their ability. This often means complementing physical activity with a healthy diet, sports supplements, as well as pre- and post-workout protein shakes.

But what about the clothes you wear? While many don’t stray far from a singlet and shorts, others choose more athletic attire that positively contributes to better performance, reduced recovery times, and enhanced levels of comfort.

This is true of the fitness and workout gear from 2XU, which places an emphasis on advanced materials and innovative technology.

Jumbla’s series of animations for 2XU utilises both photorealistic motion graphics and live-action VFX to illustrate the unique characteristics of its product range.

VECTR socks

In order to highlight how 2XU’s VECTR socks are bursting at the seams (excuse the pun) with novel features, our creative team thought a ‘deconstructed’ animation would be the right approach. That way, each piece of material could take centre stage and get the attention it deserved.

“We put the sock on an imagined turntable, presenting it from different angles,” Jumbla Creative Director Oz Smith said.

“The speed and motion of the time-ramped camera constantly changes, not only orbiting the sock but also providing additional perspectives of the finer details, which interrupts the flow on purpose.”

Close-ups of individual panels, which are removed from the actual sock and highlighted with a glowing quality, are complemented by text that explains what the technology is and how it works.

“We proposed using a strong depth-of-field effect to focus on the features as they are removed and highlighted, blurring the rest of the sock temporarily,” Oz said. “This meant the 3D render needed to be photorealistic with a high-resolution texture, lit by studio lighting.”

One little easter egg our creative team found time to include was a puff of air emanating from the sock when ‘anti-odour technology’ is mentioned.

MCS (Muscle Containment Stamping) clothing

Seeing as the MCS range represents the ‘next generation of compression’, it made sense to create motion graphics with a highly advanced, technical aesthetic.

“We felt that holographic/HUD-style graphics would illustrate how the technology works when the sprinter launches off the line,” Oz said.

“However, we also wanted to give the visuals a natural and organic feel, because the technology in itself is very ‘human’.”

To portray the notion that MCS lives and works alongside the human body, Oz and the team wanted to avoid harsh lines and stark transitions, opting instead for rounded shapes and glowing effects.

“Along with utilising contour-style graphics that wrapped around the legs of each athlete, we also added various layers to give the visuals, text, and numbers more depth,” Oz said.

The background was equally important as the foreground, as a darker setting enabled the neon-like graphics to really pop. Colour palettes also took precedence, using green for ‘go’ to show how MSC can enhance and sustain energy levels.

“Rather than filling the entire background with graphics, we wanted them to simply fade away,” Oz said. “This gives the indication that the technology behind the MSC range is actively affecting the athlete and not featuring arbitrarily throughout the scene.”