Winner Story

Future Genesis
by Revenant

When Kamp Grizzly and Oakley were on a mission to reignite the sunglasses brand, animation and VFX studio Revenant stepped up. “Future Genesis” is a cinematic rebirth of Oakley’s 1993 icon, Max Fearlight. Blending deep brand history with cutting-edge CGI, an original score and hyper-detailed worldbuilding, the project delivers a bold new vision for the brand. Dual trailers unfold a layered narrative, while custom storm effects, dynamic cloth physics and immersive textures amplify the intensity. Hear from the Revenant team about how they put together the futuristic spectacle that took home the Best In Show in 2024 for Online Film & Video: Animation.

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What sparked the idea for the project?
We were approached by Kamp Grizzly, an agency based in Portland, Oregon, who were working with their client, Oakley, to explore ways of rejuvenating the character Max Fearlight, originally created for their 1993 TV commercial.

Kamp invited us to collaborate with them on how best to approach this challenge. After reviewing the original material, immersing ourselves in research, and speaking with Oakley directly, we developed a new campaign concept — evolving Max’s story and introducing his daughter, Maxine, as the next chapter of the legacy.

Tell us a little more about the team that worked behind the scenes.
As Art Director, Alex Rych led the project day-to-day, with Kevin McCrae overseeing creatively from a distance. Alex was supported by our incredible Creative Supervisor.

We have an amazing core team in the studio — animators, generalists, and motion designers — who handled the modeling, lighting, texturing, and keyframe animation. To elevate specific elements, we also brought in a few specialist artists:

  • Urban Bradesko, a Houdini FX master, who created the super-storm
  • Steven Cormann, a digital matte painting legend
  • Antonio Esparza, a 3D sculpting and concepting ninja.

For the music and sound design, we commissioned Simone Vallecorsa (AKA AEPH), who crafted an incredible score that brought the whole project to life.

One thing that really stood out to us was how you created a very distinct atmosphere. How did you achieve this?
To answer this question properly, we need to go back to a project we created for Whydah, a Vietnamese gaming company that initially approached us to design a website for their new umbrella brand, Iron Sail.

After speaking with them, we explained that while we weren’t the right fit for building their website, we could instead create a standout animation — something that could live on their homepage and be adapted across all their social channels.

They agreed and gave us complete creative freedom to design a story and atmosphere that would reflect their brand values. We developed a bespoke trailer, handling everything in-house at Revenant, from initial concept through to final delivery.

This project ultimately became the inspiration for Oakley, leading to the creation of Future Genesis. It was through the development and lessons learned on Iron Sail that we honed the fine details, flourishes, and atmospheric touches that would capture audience attention in Future Genesis. When speaking with Oakley, we emphasized that in order to really make an impact, the piece needed to be inspiring, thought-provoking, visually striking, and moody enough to spark curiosity.

To achieve the desired look and feel, we invested a lot of time refining the environmental details — everything from the speed of the wind to the movement of materials and cloth simulations (CFX). In post-production, we pushed the aesthetic even further through grading, enhancing elements like noise, grain, dust, and lighting effects to bring greater texture and realism to the final piece.

Describe a pivotal moment or challenge you had during the animation and rendering process.
There were a few pivotal moments during the project, including the decision to create two trailers that would work cohesively together — one from Max’s perspective (the father) and the other from Maxine’s (the daughter). It was something I’d never seen done before, and it presented a really interesting creative challenge. Another major hurdle was figuring out how to close the projected image of the storm from Max’s perspective. We went back and forth on different ideas before finally landing on the concept of the Oakley logo forming a portal, which tied everything together thematically.

One of the biggest technical challenges we faced was creating the storm itself. We initially used Redshift to render the Houdini simulations — our usual workflow — but ended up switching to Arnold after repeatedly breaking Redshift due to the sheer complexity and size of the cache files.

Our ambition for the project was huge from the start. We were already thinking about how the campaign could evolve into something much bigger. We developed scripts for a seven-part series, charting the evolution of each character and expanding the world as the narrative progressed.

Another element that evolved during production was the bunker featured in the second teaser trailer (from Maxine’s perspective). We began with multiple iterations of a futuristic bunker but ultimately decided to design a structure that reflected Oakley’s actual headquarters in Los Angeles. Spending time at Oakley HQ, meeting their concept teams, and touring their production facilities gave us a deeper understanding of their brand and culture — allowing us to authentically weave those influences into the project.

This year, the Davey Awards is celebrating ideas from small teams that make waves and shape the future of our industry. What did you want your audience to feel, think, or do after seeing the video?
We wanted to evoke a strong emotional reaction from viewers — to make them feel for Maxine and create a sequence intense enough that they would genuinely question whether she would survive. We came close to pushing this even further but ultimately chose to balance the tension with a sense of realism, leaving a deliberate cliffhanger to set the stage for the larger campaign.

Our goal was to create a distinct world that felt true to the brand — unconventional, dystopian, and aligned with the spirit of the original 1993 commercial.

We also wanted audiences to notice the contrast between the characters. Max represents the older era of Oakley, while Maxine symbolises their evolution — a fresh, forward-thinking take designed to kickstart the campaign’s journey and pave the way for more stylised stories set within the same universe.

 
You don’t have to be Max Fearlight to be a hero to your team. Show them you recognize their hard work by entering your best projects in the Davey Awards. You can save with preferred early pricing if you submit by next Friday, May 30th.

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