Two marketers pitch a bold new condom World Cup sponsorship. After a booze-fueled scandal, they must outrun chaos to survive.
Future Associate delivered clean-up, clearance and compositing work across this Peter Farrelly comedy for Amazon MGM, a World Cup-set film that brought its own particular set of VFX challenges, from logo clearances on football jerseys to equipment removal across a range of locations and set-ups.
/ Logo Clearance — The Brazilian Federation Emblem
The largest single category of work on Balls Up was logo clearance. The film features World Cup sequences with players in Brazilian football jerseys, authentic-looking kit shot on set. The Brazilian Soccer Federation emblem on the shirts couldn't be licensed for the production, which meant it needed to come off every frame across every shot in which it appeared.
The emblem was tracked and removed across multiple sequences, replaced with clean shirt texture reconstructed from the surrounding fabric. The work required careful attention to the curvature of the chest, the movement of the jersey under performance, and any lighting changes across the shot that would affect how the clean patch needed to sit. Shot across multiple camera formats — ARRI ALEXA 35 and Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K — the resolution differences between setups meant each shot needed its own approach to maintain consistency.
/ Equipment Removal & Production Cleanup
A full pass of equipment and crew removal ran across the production. Boom microphones, a lighting rig with cables, a background crane, and boom shadows on performers were all painted out across their respective shots. A bounce board reflection visible in a character's sunglasses required careful clean-plating — tracking the reflection out of the lens while preserving the surrounding detail of the glasses and the movement of the actor.
A performer's underwear was visible above the waistline in one sequence and was removed using 2D paint and texture matching in Nuke. Road markings — a white bike lane line and a yellow bicycle graphic — were painted out of frame in a separate location shot. Split screen compositing was used to combine elements that couldn't be captured in a single plate.
/ Ship Sequences
A boat sequence required wake removal, the trail of disturbed water behind the vessel composited out to give the production a clean plate. A separate shot required paint-out of silver paint visible on the bow of the ship, which had been left from a practical on-set treatment and needed to be removed in post to match the intended look of the vessel.