Nike Basketball Kobe 8 Protro Mambacita

Grateful to have been brought on by softpower.xyz to support their collaboration with Nike Basketball on a tribute animation for the Kobe 8 Protro “Mambacita,” released in honor of Gigi Bryant’s 18th birthday.

Under Softpower’s art direction, I contributed to early concept development and handled the full 3D execution of the piece. The animation takes viewers on a slow-motion journey through a kaleidoscope of butterflies — a central symbol in the shoe’s design — with a focus shift from macro detail to wide reveal.

In addition to the 3D animation, I also explored various butterfly wing designs to support the visual direction. This involved a process of hand sketching rough layouts and then using Stable Diffusion with ControlNet to iterate across a wide range of color palettes and pattern variations, helping to develop a look that felt both symbolic and visually rich.