The Tiger Woods Iconic Fist Pumps collection was one of those projects where the constraint became the concept. We wanted to celebrate his five most iconic celebrations, but couldn't license any of the existing photography or broadcast footage—every image had rights holders we couldn't clear, and Tiger's team wouldn't move forward without absolute legal certainty.
The solution turned into something more interesting than a straight recreation would have been. Each 15-second piece opens with an animated Tiger walking onto the course in his signature red shirt, then the camera pulls up into an aerial view revealing that the golf course itself—the fairways, sand traps, tree lines, water hazards—has been sculpted into the shape of that moment's fist pump. I sourced multi-angle reference footage, worked with an illustrator to create original concept art that captured the gesture without reproducing copyrighted material, led weekly legal reviews before our VFX team rendered the landscape transformations and character animation, then produced original audio with an external sound design vendor to complete each piece. We delivered 25 unique pieces across five visual treatments for a $100K+ production, launching in April 2022 with zero IP violations.
Credits:
Matt Graber: Senior Digital Producer
VFX: Stylo