Project brief: Every year during the height of March Madness, the NCAA launches a new campaign to reinforce its core mission. The ad agency turned to us to create a visually ambitious spot.

Approach: “Under Construction” creates full-scale construction sites in tiny N-scale (1:160) next to student-athletes in different college situations. The story conveys the idea that student athletes are under construction the entire time they are going to school, and ends with a massive (but small-scale) crowd celebrating the launch of a recent graduate into her first job. The creative team set out to create dense, realistic construction sites that could be viewed again and again and yet still reveal additional detail in HD compositions. The spot involved a two-day live-action shoot in Los Angeles. Production and post-production on the NCAA Campaign spanned from November 2009 through March 2010. Production, visual effects, editorial and finishing were all handled in-house. The production tool kit included Autodesk Maya, Photoshop, ZBrush, Flame and The Foundry’s NUKE.

Effectiveness: All of the beautifully executed vignettes of “Under Construction,” featuring crews and scaffolds that help “build” the student athlete, reaffirm NCAA’s main message: Participation in organized athletics is the best preparation for what may come after graduation, which more than likely will not be competitive sports.

Beautifully done. Such a nice concept with a strong idea: building your body, building your future. Great production values.