To launch season 7 of its reality-competition series, Ink Master: Revenge, Spike and 2C Creative created a visually striking campaign that featured both character portraits of the show’s hosts, judges and competitors, contrasted with billowing clouds of color.

“We really wanted to push the boundaries for how the familiar genre of tattoo shows is promoted, and it needed to be something entirely fresh and groundbreaking,” said 2C Creative Director Brian Eloe. “From the beginning, Spike really challenged us to create something never seen before, which also took a huge leap of faith on Spike’s part since we couldn’t fully demonstrate what it would look like upfront.”

While it would seem to make sense to create the spots fully in CGI, 2C decided instead to capture real ink elements in camera. The creative agency only had 30 minutes with each artist as part of a separate promotional photo shoot, but once 2C had those images, it matched them up with the custom ink elements that the team created.

“When we saw the natural movements of the ink and the secondary offshoot surprises, we realized we never would have imagined that in a CG simulation,” said Design Director Luis Martinez. “We were absolutely getting the real organic results we dreamed of and the color mix was indescribable.”

In post-production, the team merged the talent portraits with the custom ink-shoot elements, a process that required a long process of keying, masking and roto-scoping to get a seamless blend.

“With a focus on incredible art and great characters, Spike’s Ink Master has become a cultural phenomenon with ratings increasing each season,” said Terry Minogue, Spike’s SVP, brand creative. “For the launch of Ink Master: Revenge, Spike wanted to bring the outstanding art into the campaign itself. Working with the team at 2C was a collaborative process and the attention to detail throughout is evident in this beautiful creative.”

In all, 2C delivered one 30-second promo, as well as 20- and 15-second cut-downs and a complete graphic tool kit for use in the episodics throughout the season.

Ink Master, which will premiere on Spike on March 1 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, is hosted by musician, filmmaker and artist Dave Navarro and judged by tattoo icons Chris Nunez and Oliver Peck.

Credits:

Spike

Frank Tanki - EVP, Brand Marketing and Creative

Terry Minogue – SVP, Brand Marketing and Creative

Iness Pleuss, SVP, Operations Brand Marketing and Creative

David Phillips – VP, Brand Creative

Eric Jones – Creative Director

Andre Razo – Creative Director, Design

Michael Sutton-Long – Senior Art Director

Emily Scalfone – Project Manager, On-Air Design

Robert Monfroto – Production Manager

Patrick Hogan – Production Coordinator

2C

Chris Sloan – Chief Creative Officer

Brian Eloe – Creative Director/Live Action Director

Ben Frank – Senior Writer/Producer

Marni Wagner – Supervising Writer/Producer

Luis Martinez – Design Director

Dmitri Zavyazkin – Visual Effects Artist/Compositor

Carlos Lopez – Visual Effects Artist/Compositor

Andy Fernandez – Motion Graphics/Visual Effects Artist

Frank Quadreny – Director of Operations

Collaborators

Chris Webb - Cinematographer/Visual Effects Supervisor

Makoto Aoki - Ink FX Artist

Chris Stoerchle - Line Producer

Hector Espinosa - Senior Graphic Designer (Style boards)

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