Dephy Sidekick
Launch campaign for Dephy's Sidekick, a performance shoe with a powered wearable attachment. Directed from concept and boards through CG production to the launch film.
Dephy builds powered exoskeleton hardware, and the Sidekick put that technology on a running shoe. They hired me directly to art-direct the launch: define the visual language, board the film, build the CG and deliver the spot that introduced the product to the world. There was no agency between us. I presented boards, animatics and cuts straight to the Dephy team through the whole build.
Launching a category that does not exist yet is a direction problem before it is a production problem. The film had to explain the system without a spec sheet and make it credible without a single borrowed frame. When it went live on YouTube, it carried that weight as the Sidekick’s public debut.
Art direction, end to end
Introducing a product category that didn't exist
Dephy came to me directly. The Sidekick is a shoe plus a powered exoskeleton attachment, and the launch had to explain the system, build credibility and make it feel inevitable, all in one film.
Research & direction
Credibility first, spectacle second
A powered shoe attachment sounds like science fiction, which is exactly the problem. The direction leaned into engineering truth: honest materials, mechanical detail rendered at watch-commercial fidelity, and light that reads as lab-meets-trail. If the hardware looks real, the promise gets believed.
Storyboards
The story of a system
Boards had one job: make the dock moment, the instant the Sidekick latches onto the shoe, the emotional center of the film. Everything before it builds anticipation, everything after it proves the payoff.
Animatic
Pacing the reveal
The animatic proved the film could hold its breath. The latch beat lands at the two-thirds mark, later than instinct says, and the edit sprint that follows only works because of that patience. I walked the Dephy team through this cut and the boards before it, and we agreed the timing before production began.
Animatic cut in Coveboard ↗, the AI-integrated pre-production and editing platform I designed and built.
Production
Engineering-grade CG
The full system was built and animated in Cinema 4D: exosuit frame, actuator assemblies, shoe mesh, strap hardware. The viewport pair shows the working scene against the finished frame, the distance the look development has to carry.
Delivery
The launch film
The finished spot introduces the product, explains how the system works and sells the feeling of running with it, in that order. Cut for launch with stills pulled for web and social. This film was the Sidekick's debut public showing, the first time anyone outside Dephy saw the product.
Launch frames
Key frames pulled from the film for the launch site and social rollout.