Parkour Is Way Crazier When It’s Computer Animated

@zer0zen:

I beg to differ. The snotty french were just the first to give it a fancy name. People like Jackie Chan were doing this in movies WELL before it became a fad in Europe.

And if I bothered to do the research, I'm sure I'd find that the art came from ancient or feudal Japan/China were assassins like ninjas were actually trained to do this in order to quickly infiltrate fortresses and keeps.

Not to mention, the French had their references all screwed up. In the movie that made this popular, 'Yamakasi', they used the subtitle "The Samurai of the Modern Age", when in fact "Yamakasi" is an African word.

Anyhow, jerks that argue the difference between Parkour and "Free-running" are the same idiots who argue who would win between a Star-Wars and Star-trek ship.

Ian Baumel

This ad is NOT by Nike. It is by Big Lazy Robot Studios (Transformers movie.) It's on Wired for Pete's sake. Sheesh - do you do even the most basic fact-checking?

ZaidGadgetscenti

Anyone else get "Scud" vibes from this guy? This ad is proof that slick robot assassins running through nooks and crannies are bad-ass, and therefore marketable for feature films.

_Max

Max Nicholson

So where can i buy those robot legs put me down for two..

Mr Biggles_A Pirate against the tides

Not a big deal, but this isn't an actual nike ad, the creators themselves describe it as a "fictitious nike commercial". probably just for shits and giggles.

radiomouse

@costaricausa: Great character for a sequel.

Stephen Climpson

@glitch44: Thank you!

@SnehalataFonzie:

Mirror's Edge + Terminator

tiagoluz8

@tande04: Pfft, that's nothing that Will Smith couldn't do in I Am Legend :P

Haha but seriously, I've seen more impressive parkour before, with the exception of jumping down the elevator shaft, which is just suicide. (Grabbing a pole after falling 30-40 feet = dislocated shoulder.

michaelwiggins

Waiting for the day when video games reach this level of realism in real time playing..

@iamnomad:
Damn right. That movie honestly changed my idea of what an action movie is supposed to be.

@iamnomad: +1

SigmundTheSeaMonster

@dimsum4u: It's pretty obvious they did.

I agree with costaricausa. Mirrors edge to the t.

Jonah Van Tuyl

@Kaiser-Machead: Free commenting? Like with walls and obstacles? That'd be neat to watch.

@SysRq:
Actually, the cinematography, setting and even colour scheme bears a very strong resemblance to Mirror's Edge.

maybe nike developed the robot's feet.

lltaeho

@costaricausa: thats what i thought!

lltaeho

@Mike Ushak: Thank you, Captain Obvious. Obviously, if this was a real robot or a human capable of such movements, it would be more impressive.

Hello Mister Walrus

And Nike is buying it's way out, trying to be friends with robots! I KNEW IT! Thats way I always liked adidas :)

@weatherman: I honestly didn't feel that too much of the ad was outside the human capability. Basically the only difference here was the scale of the falls and jumps. But all the technical stuff of grabbing, rolling, climbing wasn't exaggerated.

Looks like a robotic Alex Mercer

ghackett

@Mike Ushak: I thought the same thing for the first few seconds, then I realized I am the robot. Well, not me per se but people who exercise.

Nike is trying to convey that feeling you get when you do something so well that it feels like you're a machine. But they missed that mark a bit by making some of those moves outside the bounds of what a human could do. It was almost a great ad, but it fell flat a bit when it became too superhuman.

@worst. giz commenter. ever.: I agree to disagree...but not in this case since I agree.

No one is gliding down elevator shafts cathing a bar then rotating back up above the elevator shaft opening. If there are any human captures then it's only in little pieces. I'm not impressed by the fake physics, even if a super strong robot could make the physics real. This might as well be a rendition of the first Matrix movie, robot style.

@Mike Ushak: Yeah I thought the same thing. The fluidity of real parkour is so much better than this CGI.

@nathantrumbull: I kept waiting to see Will Smith catch up to this thing. Then I was gonna' bitch about how that would never happen.

@i_prefer_sasquatch: Nike ad?

@SashaM: It is actually poignant commentary on the robot apocalypse. Most importantly, the scary bastards will be running across rooftops to get you and your family.

Ominae392

@j05hu4: I was thinking that too as I watched it. It would be a lot of work to animate the whole thing, just for a commercial.

The robots in I-Robot movie did much more amazing-dynamic stunts than this.
Actually, there are real videos humans more impressive than this. They might not dive 10 stories down but still more impressive.

Liked it. Pretty baddass.

--Core--

scary. i'm sure there are some fetishists who think this is totally sexy... uagh!

@i_prefer_sasquatch: And why does it have to stop for a deep breath at one point??

AreWeThereYeti

@AciSpades: Yeah, I think the simplest way to sum up the differences is that free-running is about form and parkour is about function. Free-running is more like an acrobatic performance, whereas parkour specifically focuses on efficiency of movement, rather than how it looks.

Kind of like the difference between Macs and PCs (*ducks*)

AreWeThereYeti

So if the shoes are good enough for robots, they are good enough for people? :)
I guess :P

Or is this commercial for a hoodie?! xD

When I was a kid, we just called it running from the cops.

The Brain

Hey Editors!
This is NOT a nike ad. This is a "Spec commercial inspired by NIKE" (taken from the vimeo description).

That means this is in no way sanctioned by nike, it was just (probably) done as a portfolio padding project that the designer could attach a big name to to make it more instantly recognizable.

LazyPanda

Why does it need shoes?

i_prefer_sasquatch

Mirror Edge, anyone?

costaricausa

Most of the moves that robot did is only slightly more extreme than a real person doing it - like David Belle.

ryan1524

@SnehalataFonzie: Yes, because Mirror's Edge totally invented free running. Thank you for that well informed comment.

reminds me of a recent Creative Recreation ad I saw on the web, just more extreme.

archdan

I'd rather watch David Belle in District 13. Real parkour action.

iamnomad

um..i wonder if the creators of this add ever played mirrors edge...

@Mike Ushak: I actually think that it is real. As it looks very motion captured for most of the action and edited to make the jumps extremer (I-Robotish). To animate it by hand would be way more difficult and time consuming. But this is just my educated guess and even not that educated...

j05hu4

@Dreadfish: I was just about to type that. The positions the robot takes during jumps and how it runs as well as somersaults to break the landing remind me of Alex's.

jbrandonf likes pie. And Dreamcast

@Thangka: But when will commentour become commonplace?

Kaiser-Machead

@DeadWriter: )from the vimeo page)

Music: The Prodigy - Warrior´s Dance

glitch44

While watching real Parkour, I like to belch, lean back in my chair, and go "Meh, I could do that, I just don't feel like it."

CaptainHoratioMcCallister

Copied Mirror's Edge.

SnehalataFonzie

It's funny sitting in case conferences in hospitals that involve parkour because someone thought it'd be cool to try and replicate what they see on the Internet. And of course, it makes for pretty X-ray pictures.

Though I doubt the people who end of in the hospital will enjoy it as much as I do. :p

@zer0zen: i'd say they're similar, but with significant differences :)

they just look the same sometimes but parkour is pretty strictly defined.

Would have loved it more if it were a person with prosthetic legs. Even if digitally done, I would have connected more with it.

Any clue as to the music?

...Then again, its much harder to actually run up a wall in real life than it is to draw someone doing it.

I don't think you have ever tried your hand at animating. ;]

Brian Agalsoff

@Mike Ushak: Nah, it's because it's not real it adds a lot to it. If would be just another Parkour without it. It woudn't be featured here on Giz and people wouldn't remember it as well - they wouldn't remember the Nike image as well.

trontron

Hood. No face. Just dark hole. Don't know about you but I find it spoooooky.

Yilia

I, Robot much?

wow amazing ad

vicsells

@AciSpades: Free Running =/= Parkour at all. == not true.

More like Free Running ~ Parkour.

Different, but significant similarities.

@Thangka: Since parkour originated in France, it is parkour. When it became more well-known and translated/explained in English, it was called free running.

Not everything cool comes from the English speaking world.

This is Free Running, not Parkour.

@Thangka: I was just about to say the exact same thing.

Free Running =/= Parkour at all.

That robot reminds me of Alex Mercer ([prototype] hoody + crazy parkour)

"without the limitations of, you know, human bodies and gravity and cost and animal rights and all that junk, the already-crazy spectacle of medieval fantasy battle (or "good vs evil") becomes even more amazing. This bit is from The Return of the King and features a computer-animated battle scene."

redkamel

@tande04: i agree with this disagree.

human limitations are crazy when they're surpassed. if this was a question of breaking certain animation limitations, then by all means, the headline stands.

worst. giz commenter. ever.

Wish people would stop calling free running parkour just cause the term is trendy.

Thangka

I disagree.

This way its just animation. No different then the Matrix or any other movie featuring computer "people" jumping around.

Watching some one actually able to do that stuff like in Casino Royal (who incidentally was the guy who "invented" parkour) now that is crazy.

tande04

is it just me or does the fact that its not real take a lot away from it?

Mike Ushak