Real Life FIFA Game

I'm a very big soccer fan and I follow MLS (Major League Soccer) religiously. A few days ago the new FIFA video game came out called EA FIFA 16. I don't know if any of you guys play any sports video games but the animations and movements that are involved in making the game is incredible. One of the improvements to the new FIFA game is that they had Lionel Messi come into the studio and they animated him while he did some tricks around the studio. They then took his movements and put into the game so while playing, his movements would be more real towards what he does in real life. It's explained more in this video:

I'm also a huge FC Dallas fan and to help advertise for the new game, the MLS channel decided to put head to head an FC Dallas player vs. a Vancouver Whitecaps player and have them do the games in the FIFA video game in real life. So in the video, they made it look as if they were in the video game but instead it's real life. I honestly thought for the first minute that I was watching a video game. I think it's a pretty cool video. You can watch that here:

Sports Graphics

Seeing as last Sunday was the Superbowl, I figured this week would be an appropriate time to talk about motion graphics in terms of sports. With lower thirds, wipes, bugs, and boards, sports is consistently paving the way with innovative motion graphics and animation.

As part of my internship last summer, I worked on broadcasts of the Cape Cod Baseball League for Fox College Sports. Before the first game, one of my responsibilities was to export the alpha transitions they would use to go to replay for our switcher in our truck. However what I found the most interesting about the graphics was how they did the score bug. There are many different ways to do score bugs. Here at Ithaca College on our football and basketball broadcasts for Bombers Live, we use a channel of our Chyron, a two channel character generator. However, this is not really ideal since it then takes away a channel that could be used for other things like lower thirds. At my internship, Fox actually sent us their own proprietary system called a FoxBox. This was a computer with software that would let you type in the score and the would output a key and fill channel to the switcher. The machine is also smart enough to know that three strikes make an out and other rules of the game. But what I think was probably the coolest thing about it was the fact that it had a serial data input that would read data from a radar gun and output the speed of the pitches. Fox isn't the only network with systems like these. Most others have similar things. Daktronics, the major company who manufacturers scoreboards also has equipment that allow you to take a feed from the scoreboard and use that in your broadcast.

How about some 3D

So I was scrolling through Facebook and I came across something that we were discussing in class. The basketball team, the Cavaliers, had taken the 3D effect idea that is usually used on buildings.

The effect was actually really cool. Now don't get me wrong I have always liked this kind of stuff. Making an immovable object look like it's moving and being morphed into something else. The effects that they had used truly blew my mind.

I have always wanted to learn how to do something like this. Even if it is just super simple, I have always wanted to do it. It would make for a cool party or concert intro.

This use of 3D effect you see in a lot of movies today. For example, a movie that I saw recently had used this: Now You See Me. It fit nicely into the movie because the movie was about Magicians and to make a scene like that, just fits well.

It takes a lot of work to create something like this. It requires projectors as and a lot of graphic movements in order to make the building actually look like it is being moved around and transformed. In this case, the basketball court was the object that was being transformed on. The breaking effect, the cubing effect, all of this is done with projectors and just calibration onto the basketball court. Absolutely amazing.

Since the video is on Vimeo I can't post the video like a normal YouTube video but if you click HERE, you can watch it.

ESPN: The Leader in Sports in Motion Graphics

Personally I am not a fan of ESPN's content but what I do like to watch for is their motion graphics that they incorporate into their programs. Watching SportsCenter,  I get bored with their content quickly but what never fails to blow me away is the different and complex motion graphics.
I don't ever think that I would ever have the patience to ever sit down and even attempt to create something like that but thats why the people who create these types of motion graphics get paid the big bucks and why I am a college student. With that being said, I know enough now about motion graphics that I can appreciate such complex motion graphics.

Brian McCauley: The Man Behind the graphics

This is just one piece that Brian McCauley has created in his 11 years of being a designer and animator. "A collective of designers and visual artists who delight in experimentation and thrive on collaboration. We create commercials, interactive, live action, VFX and finishing work, always keeping our clients goals in clear view. Blending a variety of design techniques, our key ingredient is the creative, which is the centerpiece of everything we serve up." This quote is from the About Page on Flavor.tv, the company that McCauley works for.
In my research, I did not find McCauley's name through Flavor.tv. Where I did find his work was through Graphics Mafia, "A Place for those who create Sport Graphics." 
Chicago Blackhawks Hit the Ice 2013 from Daily Planet ltd. on Vimeo.

Above is the demo reel for a motion graphics company called Arenamation. Arenamation specializes in creating motion graphics for sporting events. Basically if you go to a live sporting event, you will find Arenamation's work in use all over the place.

Nice Job Andy

A few days ago, I went down to WENY-TV to talk with them about interning there next semester. I met up with Andy, a former IC grad, and he showed me some of the stuff that they do there. He told me that when I'm there next semester, we'll be covering a lot of high school basketball. He wanted me to get a glimpse at what it will be like so he showed me a reel of high school football from a few months ago. He bragged about how he made the opening in after effects before he showed me the video. I was ready to be blown away with what a TV "professional" could make. Then he showed me the video. Needless to say it was pretty cheesy. You can observe the cheesiness yourselves. Let's just hope I get better with after effects so I can make them a better opening next semester.

Music Video Project

I was brainstorming ideas for my music video project for class. Since I like sports and have a lot of footage of the football team I film, I was thinking of a way to incorporate that. I like the song, "Heart of a Champion" by Nelly for my project. For this project I would like to be moving through different layers of football footage. This song has a lot of great motivational lyrics that pertain to exactly what the footage is showing. For the lines in the song that are really good and tie in directly to the footage, I want to have just those lyrics come out overlaying the footage. Again, not all the lyrics will display on the screen, just the ones that have a lot of meaning to what the footage is showing. I don't want this to seem like a karaoke style video like most of the lyrical videos on Youtube are. I want to be sure to keep the motivational sports theme in it.

Sports Graphics

Lately, I've been editing some football highlight videos for a high school and I've been learning After Effects in class. It's unbelievable how many graphics you see in a day without even trying. All the time on television I watch Sportscenter and I just can't believe how some of the graphics look so sophisticated. As I learn more and more of After Effects, I realize that it really isn't as sophisticated as it looks on television. I looked for some really cool sports graphics to just get ideas of the design of some of them. Like the one I found below, I think this is a really attractive and well done sports graphic. I would like to try to create something like this by the end of the semester.

Promotional Graphic

This is a promotional video for a high school football team I did and for the seniors on the team. I am contracted by the high school through my company (Kaneff Productions) to film and produce highlight videos. I figured I would be creative and make this neat promo for the new season. This was created with Apple Motion. I did not feel comfortable enough yet to make the jump to After Effects to create a more sophisticated piece like this. All footage used in this was filmed by me as well.

Super Bowl Commercials

Since it is Super Bowl weekend and many people love watching the commercials, I thought I'd post a few new ones (that have "leaked" or been released already by the company) and old ones! Over the past two decades, graphics and animation have visually changed but the principle + usage of them have stayed the same = enhancing and improving the aesthetics of said commercials.

I have included three different commercials (1992 7-Up and 2012 Chevy are said to be Super Bowl commercials ... 1993 Chevy was only one I thought was useful). They are are not necessarily the best commercials, but I chose them because I thought there were some good(ish) examples in them!

Diet 7-Up 1992 = this Super Bowl commercial is completely created on vectors, shapes, and motion graphics. From the animated circle men, 7-Up liquid flowing, and human hand movement in the end, the whole commercial is created or enhanced by the industry-leading software (at that time). Watch it on YouTube

Chevy 1993 -- these graphics are very subtle and simple ... I had to watch this a few times to notice the actual graphic changes / After Effects (or a other program). I might be seeing it wrong, and all the supposed graphics are just simple non-linear edits. Watch it on YouTube

Chevy 2012 -- 20 years after the shown 7-Up commercial, graphics and animation editing technology have improved. Now we can ultimately create a whole new 3D, interactive, and unique world. This "2012 Mayan Apocalypse" world is most likely created via After Effects or other 3D video creation program. Unfortunately there was no "behind the scenes" or "making of" videos yet, but I would assume that they had the humans and Chevy vehicles in front of a green screen for x number of takes and then keyed in the fiery, hell, disheveled scene. Watch it on YouTube

Animation Technology in Sports

I was watching the U.S. Open a few days ago and noticed that animation is used quite frequently when it comes to replays and judging calls made by the referee. Tennis uses animation technology to help judge whether a ball is in bounds or out of bounds.

I haven't seen much of this technology in the past so I decided to look into it and found that it is a type of technology called Hawk-Eye. Hawk-Eye uses video cameras situated around the stadium. These cameras record the motion of the ball. Then, using special analytical software, Hawk-Eye is able to create an animation of the ball's exact position and movement in order to judge whether it was in or out. This technology has actually been used in professional tennis since 2006 but is now expanding to other sports. I found this article that talks about the history of Hawk-Eye as well as its future. This video also explains Hawk-Eye, interviews players about it, and has some pretty cool examples.