ROG Xbox Ally, Project Kennan

Overview

Microsoft and ASUS partnered to launch the first Xbox gaming handheld, the ROG Xbox Ally, revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2025. The film opens on a glass block floating in a sparse, austere room. A pair of hands enters frame and begins squeezing and stretching it into the shape of the device, until the beat drops, the block shatters, and the Ally is revealed in macro. To avoid a plastic, generic CGI look, a good portion was made in camera: real hands working a physical object, sometimes a glass-like putty, sometimes a 3D printed mockup standing in for a stage of the modelling, with a detailed 3D model taking over for the reveal.

Discipline

Gaming & Fintech

Studio

LOBO Creative

Group

lobo.cx

Before the shoot

The board, and what it was tested against.

The film was worked out on paper and in look studies before a camera ran. The board carries the whole act, from an empty room to a device in two hands. Beside it sit the environment plates, a materials test, and the black and white studies that settled how glass should behave when it is pulled.

Storyboard panels, the empty room and the object appearing — The board. The room, then the object.

Storyboard panels, hands working the object into the shape of the device — Hands take over and the shape arrives.

Storyboard panels, the interface and end frames — The screen wakes and the film lands.

Studies, not guesses.

The look studies are shot in black and white so the only thing being judged is behaviour: how far the material stretches before it reads as glass rather than rubber, where the highlights break, what the hands have to do to keep it believable.

The environment was fixed just as early. A near empty warehouse, light grey concrete, industrial surfaces, rivets and lines running along them, so nothing in frame competes with the object.

Board

Full act, storyboarded before the shoot

Studies

Look studies, materials test, hand reference

Black and white look study, hands drawing the glass wide — Look study. How far it goes before it stops reading as glass.

Black and white look study, the material held at full stretch — Held at full stretch, lit hard from behind.

Environment plate, a near empty warehouse in light grey concrete — The environment. Empty, grey, and deliberately dull.

Materials test, a glass cube on a plinth — Materials test. The cube, before it became a device.

The film

One block, one continuous act.

Six frames, in the order they appear. The brief was to avoid a plastic, generic CGI look, so a good portion was made in camera: a real person's hands working a physical object, sometimes a glass-like putty, sometimes a 3D printed mockup standing in for a stage of the modelling. A detailed 3D model takes over only for the reveal.

Two hands holding the glass block in a bare concrete room — The opening. A glass block, two hands, and a room with nothing else in it.

One block, many materials.

The transformation reads as a single continuous act, but the object in frame keeps changing. Glass-like putty takes the squeeze and the stretch. A 3D printed mockup holds a fixed stage of the modelling so the hands have something real to push against. Alternating the two, then cutting to the CG model, carries the block to the finished device without the join showing.

The camera repeats to the millimetre. A robotic motion control rig pre-programs each move, so every pass of hands, object and light lines up frame for frame and can be layered in the composite.

Environment

Light grey concrete, industrial surfaces, rivets and lines. Brutalist and near empty.

Shot with

Robotic motion control rig, repeatable passes

The block bending under a thumb — The squeeze

Fingers drawing the grip out of the material — The grips pulled out by hand

The material closing around the shape of the device — The shape closing

The glass shattering to reveal the Nexus button — The beat drops and the block shatters

The finished ROG Xbox Ally handheld — The Ally, revealed in macro

Client

Microsoft, Xbox and ASUS ROG

Agency

Droga5

Creative director

Mateus de Paula Santos

Directors

Mateus de Paula Santos, Marco Wey, Gabriel Nóbrega

Live action director

Gabriel Nóbrega, Mateus de Paula Santos

Live action executive producer

Francisco Puech, Lucas Romero

Managing partner

Luis Ribeiro

Executive producer

Su Constantine

1st AD

Pedro Sokol

Production design

Borys Duque

Line producer

Anderson Boscari

Director of photography

Luqueta

Storyboard artist

Rafael Fernandes

Head of production

Marcelo Barbosa

Head of post production

Eduardo Silva

Producer

Vivian Neves

Editor

Pedro Falcone, Eduardo Silva

Compositing supervisor

Diogo Girondi

CG supervisor

Alceu Baptistao

Modeling

Marcos Smirkoff

Motion graphics lead

Marco Wey

Production and post

LOBO

Credits