Creative studio Covert has unleashed a dazzling display of VFX wizardry for “Always Get Back Up,” the latest cinematic campaign for Lenovo Legion, Lenovo’s premium gaming brand. Developed in collaboration with WPP brand design agency Design Bridge and Partners London, the hero spot is part of a fully integrated 360° campaign celebrating the indomitable spirit of gamers worldwide.
Airing across TV and VOD, the :45 spot delivers all the firepower of a top-tier game trailer. Set to the adrenaline-fueled track “Big Dawgs” by Hanumankind, the commercial plunges viewers into a virtual gauntlet of genre-hopping boss battles.
A lone gamer — flanked by his digital and real-world crew — faces down a series of stylized villains pulled straight from the heart of popular game genres including Sci-Fi FPS, JRPG, Hero Shooter, Horror, Retro Rogue-Like, and Fantasy Action RPG.
Despite narrowly emerging victorious, the hero’s real-life apartment pays the price — hilariously trashed in the wake of his pixelated campaign. Watch below:
To bring this fantastical melee to life, Covert delivered an impressive 70 VFX shots, using both 2D and 3D elements. Under the leadership of VFX Supervisor Hasan Khan and CG Lead Oscar Hill, the team handled everything from character design to immersive environments.
“Each boss character has a bespoke look and characteristics respective to their genre, along with visual nods to familiar games,” explains Hill. “Some characters were close to the original concepts from Design Bridge and Partners while others changed quite drastically, as we collaboratively refined the character concepts and how they would present in a 3D world.”
That 3D world didn’t build itself. Covert deployed cutting-edge tools including ZBrush, Houdini, USD, and Nuke, while capturing additional footage using Gaussian Splats and Insta360 cameras to ensure photorealistic lighting and environmental fidelity.
“This multifaceted project fell right in Covert’s wheelhouse, combining our passions for video games and robust visual effects — animated cloth, fur, metal demon birds, a destroyed city apartment, you name it!” adds Khan. “It was an amazing experience collaborating with Design Bridge and Partners to make it all come to life.”
A longer 1:45 version of the film will appear across Lenovo’s YouTube, website, social channels, and community platforms, with each of the game bosses set to return in future product launches, content, and activations.
The broader campaign, expanding on Lenovo Legion’s “Reach Your Impossible” platform, includes cutdowns for social — each telling a character-driven story of perseverance. The multi-pronged rollout also features lifestyle photography, audio ads, OOH installations, retail displays, and immersive product launch events.
From boss battles to broken furniture, “Always Get Back Up” is a love letter to the grind — and the gamers who keep showing up for it.
CREDITS:
BRAND: Lenovo Legion
AGENCY: Design Bridge and Partners
- Creative Partner: Marta Swannie
- Design Director: Erik Brattested, Callum Mickelson
- Senior Designer: Daniel Cramer
- Senior Producer: Jane Rattle
- Head of Production: Christine Richter
- Client Partner: Jon Sloneem
- Senior Account Manager: Monica Yogaretnam
PRODUCTION COMPANY: A Running Commentary
- Director: Eric Lynne
- Co-Founder & EP: Alex Bedford & Ben Parkin
- Producer: James Fuller
- DOP: Russ Fraser
- Production Designer: Hatty-Ellis Coward
VFX: Covert
- Creative Director: Simon Dewey
- VFX Supervisor: Hasan Khan
- Shoot Supervisor: Hasan Khan
- CG Lead: Oscar Hill
- CG Artists: Aram Hakze, Adrian Russell, Cloe Adenot, Daniel Stenhouse, Farzad Nojumi, Lewys
- Rhodes, Pablo Focareta, Rafa Zabala, Remy Herisse, Robert Millin, Tammy Smith
- CG FX: Thanos Topuzis
- Motion Graphics: Dan Palmer, Ivan Hryhorjuk
- Matte Painting: Fabio Santoro
- Compositing: Alex Munteanu, Anastasios Agiakatsikas, Anselm Lier, Federico Funari, Lonni
- Wong, Nick d’Aguiar, Neil Alford, Philip Sorsoryan, Rich Watson
- Online: Rich Watson
- Stills Retouching: Andrew Walsh
- Executive Producer: Ben Dubois
- Head of Production: Anna Williamson
- Senior Producer: Kirsty Ratcliffe
- Producer: Rebecca Traversi
COLOR: Electric Theatre Collective
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