Design and Concept: Eric Diga
Production Director: Eric Diga
Post-Production Direction: Bernard Ong
Producer: William Craig
Executive Producers: Jeff Wilson, Tom Vodick, Bob Vorwald
Producer/Editors: Ryan Johnson, Andrew Lennie
3D Lead: Michael Kislovsky
Motion Design/3D: Bernard Ong, Michael Kislovsky, John Long, Eric Diga

NFL “Football Freakonomics” 2011 Show Package from Eric Del Greco on Vimeo.

Brand consultancy and creative agency Troika has teamed up with Sportsnet, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., on a fully-integrated brand campaign across all five of the sports media entity’s platforms: tv, radio, digital, mobile and print. The brand offering, which includes a new logo, tagline, animation and graphics package, and theme music is set to launch concurrently with the start of the 2011-2012 NHL season.

Rich and multidimensional, the brand offering is designed to engage sports fans and provide a single source that delivers fans the content they want, whenever, wherever, on a local, regional, national and global level.

The overhaul began with Troika teaming up with Sportsnet’s in-house Creative Services team to evaluate their internal brand communication and develop a consumer tagline. Research was conducted through two-day on-site brand audits to build consensus from key department leaders and establish brand goals. From this intake, Sportsnet’s brand strategy was fundamentally shifted by establishing five attributes to support the new Sportsnet vision: visceral, excellence, robust, engaging and Canadian. These brand pillars are communicated through the new consumer-facing tagline, “Fuelled By Fans.”

A brand identity was built, beginning with a redesign of all Sportsnet logos into one cohesive system. The conceptual platform behind the creative, “Conduit,” was anchored in the network’s new position by visually fuelling the fan’s excitement through professional passion and spirited storytelling. The concept takes viewers on a journey through intricate circuits and light to build excitement and illuminate stories that are most relevant to fans in each region.

This concept was implemented across all aspects of the Sportsnet on-air identity. A new promotional system and insert system, including menus, lower thirds and transitions, was created to bring Sportsnet a cohesive set of navigational and in-game tools. Game packages, anchored with the home team’s oversized logo, were produced for 5 teams: Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators. The network’s daily news show, Sportsnet Connected, was also redesigned with the creative rooted in the “Conduit” design concept.

Gil Haslam, Creative Director at Troika, noted, “We wanted to take Sportsnet from a well known Canadian broadcast brand to a finely-focused multi-platform sports brand. The ‘Fuelled By Fans’ platform and subsequent creative execution built from this position allows Sportsnet to become an easily recognizable brand no matter how it is consumed, whether it be television, print or online.”

The Sportsnet audit, reposition and rebrand was a 10 month process that included a team of over 25 creative directors, writers, editors, designers, animators and producers from Troika. The project was built in After Effects and Cinema 4D and launched on Monday, October 3rd.

Production Credits

Executive Creative Director Dan Pappalardo
Senior Executive Producer Kristen Olsen
Creative Director Gilbert Haslam
Creative Director Whit Friese
Executive Producer Connor Swegle
Producer Jason O’Leary
Producer Taline Ghazarian
Associate Producer Chris Hill
Production Coordinator Chet Patel
Writer Craig Cleek
Writer Charlie Short
Designer/Animator Marc Juon
Designer/Animator Maziar Majd
Designer/Animator David Perry
Designer/Animator Brian Hwang
Designer Seton Kim
Designer Matt Lehman
Designer Federico Reinfeld
Designer Fraser Davidson
Designer Daniel Garcia
Designer Michael Arcangeli
Animator Jun Kim
Animator David Glicksman
Animator Jahn Hancock
Animator Greg Reynard
Animator Ted Gore
Editor Joe Denk
Junior Designer Vanessa Koch
Junior Designer Assist Michael Arcangeli
Design Assist Andrew Shin

*update*
The music for these spots (except the hockey) were composed and performed by Derek Cintron. What is immediately noticeable about these tracks is that they don’t have that digital band sound. Thats because Derek performed these instruments live, AFTER the spots were edited! Amazing collaboration and the results speak for themselves. Check out more of Derek Cintron’s work with DC3. It’s safe to say you’ll be hearing DC3 in stadiums and amphitheaters in the future, either touring them or at a sporting event on the jumbotron.

Carlos Serrao/Departamento: ESPN – Carlos Gonzales from Beauty & Photo on Vimeo.

Carlos Serrao/Departamento: ESPN – Sam Stosur from Beauty & Photo on Vimeo.

Carlos Serrao/Departamento: ESPN – Stephen Curry from Beauty & Photo on Vimeo.

Carlos Serrao/Departamento: ESPN – Michael Cammelleri from Beauty & Photo on Vimeo.

Carlos Serrao/Departamento: ESPN – Roddy White from Beauty & Photo on Vimeo.

GAME CHANGERS from BrightPhoton on Vimeo.

Fox Sports Net Pacific Life Pac-10 Basketball Tournament

We collaborated with FSN to continue their method of branding music and sports in the marketing of this year’s upcoming Pac-10 Tournament. We were excited to make our initial foray into the music video world utilizing the beauty and the talents of BG5.

Fox Sports Net NHL 2010

Check out more great work from Salt.

EA Sports NHL 2011 Bootflow from Troika Design Group on Vimeo.

EA Sports FIFA 2011 Bootflow from Troika Design Group on Vimeo.

EA Sports NBA Elite 2011 Bootflow from Troika Design Group on Vimeo.

EA Sports NHL 2011 Bootflow from Troika Design Group on Vimeo.

Sons of Blueland from mikeseehagel on Vimeo.

Game opener submitted by Mike Seehagel. Thanks for the contribution Mike.

Sons of Blueland
Atlanta Thrashers 2010-2011 Game Opener

Animation: Mike Seehagel
Company: Saw Productions
Audio: Keith White
Narration: David Coles

Chicago Blackhawks – 2010 Game Opener from Daily Planet ltd. on Vimeo.

NHL Network ID from Dave Rogers on Vimeo.

Creative House: Click3x
Creative Direction: Bob English
Design: Brian Finney
Animation/Lighting/Rendering/Compositing: Dave Rogers
Producer: Christa Cox

Daily Planet recently completed the 2009 Chicago Blackhawks Hit the Ice in-game video and the folks there were kind enough to answer some questions about the process. Be sure to check out their other great work.

Chicago Blackhawks – 2009 Game Opener from Brad Chmielewski on Vimeo.

Daily Planet ltd. is a Chicago based editing and motion graphics studio. Recent works have included design, visual fx, claymation and cgi for local and national commercial advertising campaigns, broadcast television shows, music videos, web-based viral media campaigns, and brand identity packages.

Hit the jump to read the article

You’ve worked on the Blackhawks Hit The Ice video for the last couple of years, how is it working with the Blackhawks organization? Was this year different from last?
Working with the Blackhawks is a great collaborative process.  The organization allows us a good amount of creative freedom.  This year varied from last in that we always attempt to add something new while keeping the concept consistent over the years.  This creates the challenge of finding creative ways to top ourselves.

Did you start the project with style or storyboards?
We started out the project with five or six different style boards and a rough outline of a story.  From there, the Blackhawks requested animation tests of a couple of the different styles.  Once a style was locked down, we wrote a script and drew storyboards.  It was crucial that the style selected leant itself to telling a story within it.  It had to go beyond a graphic highlight reel.

How long did it take to complete the project from start to finish?
From the concepting stage to final delivery, the project took about two months.

Did Daily Planet handle the production as well?
Daily Planet did handle the production as well.  It included one full day of an on-ice green screen shoot and two half days of shooting in the locker room.  Since we’ve been on set with some of the same players over the years, there was a nice familiarity on set this year.

How many people worked on the project?
For the post-production phase, we had a team of about fifteen rotoscopers / animators as well as an editor and a sound designer.

In terms of the post production, was it all done in After Effects? What was your workflow like?
The bulk of the work was done in After Effects with prep work in photoshop and some effects work in Cinema 4D.  With so many animators and a tight deadline, consistency was key.  We had a style guide that people used, and we carefully checked what the scenes around each one looked like.  All of our animators worked from Daily Planet, so we easily were able to collaborate and check everyone’s progress.

Did you experiment with a technique or plugin that you hadn’t used before?
This year, we used Cinema 4D to have the players break into pieces when checked by a Blackhawks player.  This took some experimentation on our part to get it to look effective.

What kind of challenges did you meet that you didn’t foresee in the planning stages?
Our biggest challenge was having tight deadlines.  We compensated by bringing in extra freelancers when necessary.

If you could change anything, what would you do differently to Hit the Ice?
We are very fortunate to have worked on this project for a few years now and are very pleased with the process and result this year.  We really feel like we’ve streamlined the execution of the project and actually wouldn’t do much different.

What advice would you give a beginning or struggling moition graphic artist who is trying to create better work?
Study and replicate different  techniques and styles as much as you can.  Ask for feedback on your work as much as possible, and learn to address comments on your work.

New Sports and Entertainment Reel from Blue Sky Agency.

Blue Sky Agency

950 Lowery Blvd. Suite 30
Atlanta, GA 30318
v: 404 876 0202
f: 404 876 0212
www.bluesky-agency.com

Take a look at this article by George Johnson of ESPN, and in particular what he has to say about the Chicago Blackhawks pre-game jumbotron show. I should note that I’m good friends with everyone over there, and contribute to the graphics whenever possible, so its nice to read this.

13. Easily the best pregame JumboTron video package we’ve seen
Reverential yet modern, as current as Kane’s curls and as old-school as a Billy Reay fedora. The Golden Jet, Stan Mikita, Tony O, Mr. Goalie, Keith Magnusson, Pierre Pilote, J.R., Eddie the Eagle, Dipsy-Doodle Denis, Al Secord … what else could a slavish shinny devotee possibly ask for?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=johnson_george&id=4114044

Here are a few techniques that work great in these spots and I’ve linked to some tutorials that cover similar topics. Not to say this is the way Rezn8 created these spots, but at least you can play around with ONE way to get it done.

3D text in after effects

Ah the million dollar question. Well the oldest way that I know of is duplicating your layer and moving back -1px in Z-space about 40times and then pre-comping the layers. However Zaxwerks makes a very popluar plugin called 3D invigorator that allows you to manipulate simple 3D shapes, extruded splines and text right in After Effects. John Dickinson of Motionworks just posted his 3d invigorator tutorials to get you started. But I like Chad Perkin’s Shatter trick simple and doesn’t require any plugins.

Reflections

Try Video Copilot’s 3D reflection tutorial. Pretty simple tutorial, even adds a little blur to the reflection.

Compositing and tracking

Another Video Copilot tutorial, HUD (or Heads up Display) covers a similar subject. Except in March Madness video you would track the background (perhaps a chair) or any static element in the scene.

Sidenote, National TV did a great job with their site. If you’re familiar with this blog then you know that I absolutely hate flash websites. Rarely do they follow any of the logic that years of html has dictated and simple things like linking to a “page” gets left out of the coding. So, congrats National Television. For making a flash website thats actually a pleasure to visit and easy to share.