Katara Studios, FIFA
Denis Bouyer
Ben Leyland
Kiri Haggart
Nicole Blackwood
Denis Bouyer
Florian Petiteau
Olivier Pirard
Jeremie Becquer, Julien Becquer
Rob Aldis
Olivier Dubard, Tony Skeor, Ola Kolendo
Rayner Alencar
Leo Rezende
Jonatas Ribeiro
Jean Gui Culot, Ryan Mottershead
Thibaud Clergue
Merlin Perry
Merlin Perry, Claudia Vilcu
Denis Bouyer, Saskya Olsen
Clement Hofferer
Dean Boadana-Krone
Harry Woodley, Hannah Roza, Anita Gill
THE BRIEF
Feed Me Light were charged with bringing to life the official mascot for the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025™!
BOMA™ the Desert Owl is inspired by the legendary Serbian coach Velibor “Bora” Milutinović, the only manager in football history to lead five different national teams in five consecutive FIFA World Cup™ tournaments.
BOMA™ embodies the pivotal role of a football scout and is a playful nod to Coach Bora, whose career as both coach and talent scout has profoundly influenced football development in Qatar and across the world.
THE STORY
With a short turnaround time on creating a film that told the story of BOMA™, our animated narrative focused heavily on establishing a strong sense of environment and atmosphere, combining action shots of the character with flashback vignettes to illustrate the memorable moments inspired by the real life Serbian coach Velibor “Bora” Milutinović.
Setting the right mood for each of the flashback vignettes was important to create a distinct feel for each of the moments, and create a sense of visual variety within the overall film.
THE CHARACTER
Creating a mascot character full of appeal for global events is nothing new for us, but this time we had the added challenge of creating an anthropomorphic version of the real life 'Bora', so he needed to be instantly recognisable for football fans around the globe. This was made a touch easier by dressing our character in his iconic 80s shell suits and those famous large-framed glasses!
Incorporating this into our design of a Desert Owl inspired by the animal native to the Middle East provided us with a fun challenge, and it was a real pleasure giving 'Bora' his wings!
For the look and feel of the character, we wanted a 2.5D render style that made the most of the character's volumes and dynamic rig, while still retaining some of the graphic and illustrative appeal of his original concepts.
THE WORLD
When it came to creating the world of BOMA, we referenced the surreal beauty of the Umm Bab clay hills of Western Qatar, the surreal scenery is unique to the region and gives an epic jumping off post for the story, before moving into the bright lights and action of the stadium itself.
THE PROCESS
 |  | LIGHTING We wanted an illustrative look and feel to our character and world but to still utilise the 3D pipeline and volumes to integrate the character within environments. |
RENDERING Using rendered outlines we were able to test a sketched outline effect on our 3D models. | |
 |
COMPOSITING
THE ANIMATION
PRINT CAMPAIGN
