UFC — Heart of the UFC

A UFC campaign about what a fight costs the people in it — the walk to the cage, the crowd, the moment of contact — with a CG heart at the centre of it as the image the whole film turns on.

What I heldSport

01 Look-dev

02 CG design

03 Lighting

04 Comp direction

CGI art direction across the campaign: the anatomical build at its centre, digital doubles of the fighters scanned and rebuilt, and the arena work the live plates sit inside.

The film

1:30

Stills

06 frames

The CG heart at the centre of the campaign, wired and lit in cold blue

A UFC fight-night newspaper lying on wet asphalt

A fighter pressed against the cage, gloves up, arena lights behind

A fighter mid-shout behind the chain-link of the octagon

The instant of a punch landing, sweat coming off the impact

The octagon from above, the canvas and the lit stands beyond it

Role

CGI Art Direction

Direction

Shapxo

DOP

Nikita Kuz

VFX / Production

Abyss Digital

Year

2025

Directed by Shapxo · VFX and CGI by Abyss Digital

Process

Behind the scenes

From a storyboard on a tablet to a digital double.

The on-set cut: the animatic reviewed trackside against the green-screen build, the monitor during a sparring take, and the scan work that the digital doubles came out of.