Following last years, Write the Future, Nike has created an edit of an interactive ad called ‘My Time is Now’. In which players from the past battle current players.

http://www.wk.com/campaign/my_time_is_now

Beautiful work from Fox Sports Design. Click more for the credits.

Via Fox Sports Design

It needed to be big, it needed to be epic, and it needed to kick you in the…. well, you get the idea. We were asked to create an open that would run before every live game on Fox Soccer. “We wanted to give Fox Soccer an open that was unique to their channel, and to give them something very aggressive and urgent to open their broadcasts with.” said Robert Gottlieb, Fox Sports Marketing’s SVP/Group Creative Director.

We turned to longtime collaborative partners and creative juggernauts Important Looking Pirates to turn our humble cocktail napkin sketches into a fully realized vision. “ILP did an amazing job bringing this idea to life for us,” said Matthew Waddell, Fox Sports Marketing / Creative Director. With Elias Arts delivering a propulsive original score that took the ID to the next level, the final piece is destined to be a signature piece of on-air branding for Fox Soccer as the fast-growing channel continues bringing US fans the best Soccer from across the ocean.

Client – Fox Soccer

Agency – Fox Sports Marketing

CMO – Eric Markgraf
SVP/Group Creative Director – Robert Gottlieb
VP On-Air Promotions – Bill Battin
Creative Director – Matthew Waddell
Producer – Lily Lam
Edit — Dylan Way
Flame Finishing – Thomas Downs
Sound Design – Mic Brooling / Chris Fina
Design – Ryan Zunkley

VFX – ILP

VFX Supervisor – Yafei Wu
VFX Producer – Måns Björklund
3D Lead – Bobo Skipper / Niklas Ström
3D – Jason Martin / Victor Carlander
2D – Adrian Dexter

Music – Elias Arts

Executive Producer – Ann Haugen
Composer – Michael Fraumeni
Creative Director – Dave Gold

Great work from Brian Girardin at ESPN

Beautiful work for SF Sports by boardsnaction

Via boardsnaction

Concept, Design, Directing and Post Production Supervision for a Sports Brand Design for a Swiss tv channel

Client: SF (Swiss Television)
Director and Designer: Manuel Messerli
Production: Greensky Films
Postproduction: Acht Frankfurt

International Eyes & Ears Awards: distinction for Best Lead-In Non Fiction

We can argue wether or not wrestling is a sport, but one things for sure. This spot is entertaining as hell. Fantastic job by Shilo. Hit the jump for the credits.

Via Shilo.tv

We are proud to be part of bringing to life the launch campaign for WWE’s popular SmackDown series on NBC Universal’s SyFy. Directed by Jose Gomez, these spots combine live-action 35mm cinematography with original graphics and VFX artistry to create short, powerful vignettes that cinematically render the signature moves of WWE superstars Big Show, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, and The Undertaker. As it has within so many historic Shilo projects, Jose’s passion for character development once again takes center stage in this campaign. “For me, it’s all about working out the story and character development by delving into the emotional side and personifying the fascinating characters we shoot.”

More info: bit.ly/BigMovesJG
Project Name: “Syfy WWE SmackDown” Director’s Cut
Film Location: Capital Milling Company Factory, Downtown Los Angeles.
Toolset: ARRI 35mm Motion Picture Cameras, Kodak Vision3 5219, Autodesk Maya, Maya Particles, Fume FX and Adobe After Effects.
Advertiser/Client: Syfy
SVP Marketing, Global Branding & Creative: Michael Engleman
Creative Director: Joe Loskywitz
Design Director: Brian Everett
Creative Executive: Steve Feder
Creative Director, Off-Air: Will Lee
Director Production & Project Management: Kate Leonard
Producer: Liz Gaffney
Production Manager: Miguel Rodriguez
Production Company: Shilo
City/State: Bicoastal, USA
Director: Jose Gomez
Director of Photography: Jonathan Sela
Creative Director: Jose Gomez
Associate Creative Director: Tom Green
Editor: Stuart Waks
Assistant Editors: Brian Bonus, Akira Chan
Writer: Nathan Caswell
Lead Designers: Ed Laag, Jon Lorenz
VFX Supervisors: Nathan Davies, John Cherniack, Walter Schulz
3D Animation Lead: Blake Guest
Lighting/Rendering: Erik Anderson
3D Tracking: Tim Turner
3D Interns: Ronald Edward Calica, Bun Iv, John Bloch, Ryan Corcoran
2D Compositing: Tom Green, Ed Laag, Jon Lorenz, Nathan Davies, Fabio LaMarche
2D Interns: James Camanyag, Stephanie Corda
Senior Producer: Hilary Wright
On Set Producer: Joyce Walker
Line Producer: Kelly Amato
Executive Producers: Tracy Chandler, Arthur Portnoy
Telecine Company: Company 3
Colorist: Rob Sciarratta
Music: Darrin Wiener
Sound Design/Mix Company: ECHOLAB
Sound Designer/Mixer: Gavin Little
On-Camera Talent: Big Show, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, and The Undertaker
V.O. Talent: Paul Kinney, Studio Center

Very nice work from the team at Optimus. Thanks for sharing

From Optimus
UPS is helping Connor Sports transport their hardwood flooring for the NCAA Men’s Final Four from the milling factory in Michigan to the Superdome in New Orleans. To help convey the excitement leading up to the floor’s arrival at the championship, we created a series of animated sequences of 3D wood planks raining down and landing in the shapes of tournament brackets.
Optimus editor Mike Berg mixed footage of UPS trucks transporting the floor with stock footage and our animations to ultimately build to a field of 32 that fills into a full basketball court.

Agency: Ogilvy
Producer: Maria Xerogianes
Art Director: Dan Whelan
Copywriter: Eric Mayse
Design & Animation: Mark Butchko,
Mark Walczak
Animation: Morgan James, Donnie Bauer
Editor: Mike Berg
Assistant: Mark Czajkowski

Sr. Associate Producer: Lauren Connolly

Audio: Bruce Lash
Assistant: Katie Waters

Some great work submitted by Adam Schmisek for ‘Inside Pirates Baseball’ on Root Sports.

IPB GFX from Adam Schmisek on Vimeo.

Here are a few show animation elements I created for the Pittsburg Pirates weekly show "Inside Pirates Baseball." They wanted to incorporate pirate elements into their show. I used Cinema 4D to build the gold coins, flags, 3D text and ship wheel. I composited everything in After Effects including the smoke, fire, debris and the overall atmosphere/color.

Be sure to check out the Root Sports re-brand post from last year. http://www.graphicsmafia.com/2011/04/06/troika-for-root-sports/

Gorgeous work from Toch Studio out of Madrid Spain.

Nike ProCombatfrom Toch Studio on Vimeo.

www.toch.tv | http://www.facebook.com/TochStudio | http://twitter.com/tochstudio

Double You asked for a piece for its NIKE pro Combat interactive campaign, and we enjoyed doing it, and after that, we enjoyed even more playing with the ICE concept. This is the result and it is NOT a commercial work, so the music is just for reference.

Direction & Producction.
Toch Studio
Art Director & Motion.
Tavo, Juanma Mota, Holke
Music.
Carly Comando – BEAR
Agency.
Doubleyou
Client.
Nike

Tie Breakfrom Toch Studio on Vimeo.

www.toch.tv | http://www.facebook.com/TochStudio | http://twitter.com/tochstudio

Canal+ produced a Tennis program which concept was “Planet Tennis” and was called “Tie Break”. We recreated this concept visually with balls, textures and colors. Hope you like it!

Direction & Production.
Toch Studio
Art direction & Motion Graphics.
Juanma Mota, Holke, Tavo
Music.
Caleb Guzmán
Client.
Canal Plus

Breaking away from the shiny-metallic look of American sports branding and the cleaner simpler European style , Diestro produce a rare abstract spot for 360, a TV Sports magazine for TVC/esport 3.

360 opener from Diestro on Vimeo.

Sweet Making of video.

Very nice.

Jump is a design company that produces channel brands and programme identities for terrestrial, satellite and corporate television. Among some of their more recognizable work is the XFactor sequence and Who Wants to be a millionare opening among others.

What a year for Troika. Check out all the sports work they did in 2011. Keep up the great work.

Jon Kaczmarski from Limerick Studios has helped on the rebranding of ACC Network with this look that is reminiscent of EJ Hassenfratz (eye Design) and Troika’s earlier works with ESPN and Sportsnet with a cleaner and shinier look. Great job Limerick Studios!

Saw this on Nick’s site Greyscale Gorilla. Be sure to bookmark his site and check it daily, great stuff.

Capacity

Great new package from Troika for SporTV in Brazil. Great job!

With the World Cup and Olympics on the horizon, the new identity for SPORTV, Brazil’s sports powerhouse, rises to the occasion. The goal of the rebrand was to express a uniquely Brazilian energy, diversity and passion for sport while elevating the brand to the world stage. The rebrand includes a refined logo, signature music themes, IDs and promo packaging and incorporates the wide world of Brazilian sports, from futebol to F1 to MMA.

Beautifully redesigned show package from Capacity.

http://www.capacity.tv/selectedWorks.html#/TotalAccess

In the midst of last season’s salary cap negotiations, while players weren’t even allowed to practice, we were hard at work developing a completely new show package for NFL Total Access on NFL Network. At the start of the 2011/12 season, we helped relaunch TA with a dark and aggressive new tone, complete with a logo redesign. The package is an energy-packed mix of live action and cg, spanning hundreds of painstakingly created opens, bumps, transitions and franchise segments. Sound design by our good friend, Echolab.

Be sure to check out another great project from Capacity and Echolab for Thursday Night Football.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2012 is well underway, following the record-setting FOX Sports broadcast for the rain-delayed 2012 Daytona 500, which drew 36.5 million viewers, and last Sunday’s equally sensational Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. For its on-air elements used to promote each race this season, Fox Sports Marketing Group turned to award-winning design and digital production company Thornberg & Forester (T&F).

NASCAR’s excitement draws from many fascinating and somewhat dangerous facets, and when they all come together in a race, the thrills are tangible across all the senses. T&F’s design system for this year’s NASCAR on-air package for Fox Sports extends diagonal patterns from NASCAR’s logo, along with other 3D design elements representing a myriad of interconnected pieces within a larger structure, to artfully reflect drivers, fans, broadcasters and racecars within each promotional piece. Project deliverables from T&F include a :30 promo, the main title for NASCAR on Fox, full-screen graphics for 12 tracks, IDs for 13 drivers, B-roll holders/animations, scanline tracking for specific cars, transitions, backplates and more.

“T&F produced some really unique and beautiful style frames that we loved instantly,” said Robert Gottlieb, Fox Sports Marketing SVP/Group Creative Director. Fox Sports lead creative on the project Josh Nichols added, “It was a really exciting challenge to translate such a cool pitch into a thirty second NASCAR promo.”

“Fox was looking for a fresh look for their NASCAR coverage this year,” said T&F creative director Frank Pichel. “They wanted to make something that felt new and different for them and for NASCAR. Elegant, beautiful, and subtle were all words that they used to describe what they were looking for.”

T&F presented several original ideas for the project, and two of the treatments generated the most excitement. Animation tests produced for both directions led to the final choice. “Fox really had faith in us to lead the way outside their normal zone,” Pichel added. “The main challenge was to make it feel unique and beautiful with such a simple palette of objects and colors.”

T&F’s artists used a combination of Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe After Effects, and Maxon Cinema4D for this project, and finishing was handled in Autodesk Flame by Fox Sports.

Along with Gottlieb and Nichols, credits for Fox Sports Marketing Group also include CMO Eric Markgraf, VP Bill Battin, executive producer Jason Dodd, editor Curtis Roen, Flame artist Simon Holden, graphic designer Ryan Zunkley and sound designer Chris Fina. T&F’s credits include head of 3D Vi Nguyen, executive producer Elizabeth Kiehner, producer Javier Gonzalez, designers Frank Pichel, Scott Matz, Adam Grabowski, Mike Burgoyne, Jorge Peschiera, Yuki Nakajima and Angela Zhu, and animation / compositing artists Mike Russo, Mike Burgoyne, Yuki Nakajiima, Jorge Peschiera, Frank Pichel, Keith Endow, Ken Krueger, Adam Grabowski, Russ Porchia and Joe Russ. Music is courtesy of Elias Arts’ executive producer Ann Haugen, producer Val Scinto, composer Michael Fraumeni, and creative director Dave Gold.

For more information on this project, please visit www.thornbergandforester.com.

The Mill is an amazing VFX company based in London, LA and NYC. Above is a sample of the the work they’ve done in CG crowd simulations used for stadiums. Be sure to check out their newly released show reel below.

Our award winning Stadium team has over 11 years experience and expertise. We can populate any stadium with fully realistic crowds – virtual fans that have artificial intelligence, giving them the ability to celebrate and behave as the creative idea dictates. As well as this, we have a Stadium portfolio that also includes bespoke, generic stadium assets so we can build you any stadium and fill it with any number of sporting fans.

Post-Production / VFX Company: The Mill
Mill Office: London

2012 Demo Reel

The Mill Showreel 2012 from The Mill Visual Effects Studio on Vimeo.

Some excellent work from Outsider and Brand New School for Tiger Beer. Would you expect anything less from these leaders in the industry?

LONDON – (Feb. 27, 2012) – The directors and producers from London-based production company and design studio Brand New School (BNS) are very proud to detail their latest project.  Developed in partnership with BNS’s London-based live-action production partner Outsider, advertising agency Iris Singapore and Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd., three stylish new campaign spots promoting the 2012 Tiger Street Football event recently began airing across Asia.

Tiger Street Football is a global tournament featuring fast, furious, ultra-intense 5-on-5 matches confined within a caged oval pitch. Teams from Asia, South America and Europe will compete in this year’s epic clash, leading to the Thailand National Finals on 9-10 March in Bangkok, where the winners will be named the world’s best street footballers.

“We’ve been fans of BNS’s work for years,” said Iris Singapore’s deputy creative director Clarence Chiew.  “So when the opportunity came around to do something that we’d never seen before, we called BNS and crossed our fingers hoping they weren’t too busy.  Working with Dennis and Jonathan was an inspiring process.  What we appreciated most was how proactive and enthusiastic they were in getting the details right.”
In its first collaboration with Outsider, BNS and directors Dennis Go and Jonathan Notaro created the campaign’s meticulously animated spots.  The first :20 showcases “Skill,” a second :20 presents “Speed,” and in the campaign’s :30, those two forces lock in “Battle.”  BNS also delivered high-resolution print elements for the campaign matching these three themes.

“The challenge from Iris Singapore’s Clarence Chiew, creative group head Jimmy Lee, creative Vincent Tay and producer Kim Lim was to dramatically show how street football is played,” said BNS London’s executive producer Kayt Hall.  “The vision began with illustrations they provided, and we were all mesmerized as Dennis and Jonathan  unveiled their interpretation of how the players and the environment would look, and how the unique animation style would use the players’ actions – and even the movement of their clothes – to convey street football’s fast-paced excitement.”

“Skill is from freestyle football, which is played with rhythm,” Dennis Go began.  “To me, the best representation for that is paint… the artistry of the player’s moves leave a brush stroke-like effect.  Speed is a very aggressive style of football, so that player is represented with shards and particles that break up.  He’s so fast even his own physical nature can’t keep up with him.”

With Outsider’s production team and director of photography Alex Barber, Go, Notaro, Hall and their crew shot live-action footage of skilled athletes on a green-screen stage for two days, using massive lighting and a crane rigs.  Shooting the players performing in athletic clothing for the purpose of tracking and rebuilding their clothes in 3D, the live-action footage was captured in different frame rates and shutter angles.
“My idea for the visual style of the animation was very connected to the players’ clothes, and the only way we could achieve the look was to build their clothes in 3D,” added Go.  With this in mind, based on edits of the live-action footage from editor Moss Levenson, the players’ actions were tracked, and their clothes were simulated and then animated.  Over the course of each spot, more animation was created in 2D to further integrate the animation and clothing into the live-action, with additional painting frame-by-frame to achieve the look.  BNS artists also built the urban environment the players exist in to be very stylized and virtually devoid of color, to allow the players to be the focal points of each spot.  Main artistic tools for the project include the RED digital camera system, Autodesk Maya, Maxon’s Cinema 4D, Adobe After Effects and The Foundry’s Nuke.  Final color-grading and finishing were handled at BNS using Autodesk Flame, and each spot features original music and sound design courtesy of Machine Head.

For Outsider, the team consisted of executive producer Richard Packer, managing director Robert Campbell and producer Stephen Elgar.  Additional BNS credits include executive producer Devin Brook, designers Ricardo Villavicencio and Freddy Arenas, CG lead/technical director Meng Han Ho, 3D artists John Kalaigian, Ryan Lang, Ylli Orana, Spyridon Serbos, Freddy Arenas, Jerry Chow, Brad Walter, Aras Darmawan, Piotr Glabinski and Christian Day, 3D tracking courtesy of VramFX, rotoscoping courtesy of BotFX and Mark Leiberman, storyboard artists Will Rosado and Matt Robinson, Flame artists Blake Huber and David Parker, 2D artists Danny Princz, Eric Concepcion, Chris West and Fabian Tejada, and producer Ryan McRee.

For more information on Tiger Street Football, please visit www.tigerstreetfootball.com.

About Brand New School
With offices in New York, Los Angeles and London, Brand New School is a vertically integrated production company and design studio that delivers extraordinary media on all platforms.  Offering a new model for creative digital production, we are filmmakers, developers, designers, animators, editors, illustrators, and producers dedicated to driving communications to new heights.  Akin to leading academic institutions, our guiding philosophies prize experimentation and learning, and our commitment to discovering the best ideas for our clients is absolute.  For more information, please visit www.brandnewschool.com.

PROJECT CREDITS: Tiger Beer “Battle of Styles”

Spot Lengths: “Battle” :30, “Skill” :20, “Speed” :20
Other Deliverables: Also includes three print elements: 1 Battle, 1 Skill, 1 Speed
Air Date: “Skill” and “Speed” 2/16/12 — “Battle” 2/22/12

Key Tools: RED digital camera system, Autodesk Maya, Cinema 4D, Adobe After Effects, Nuke, Autodesk Flame

Client: Asia Pacific Breweries LTD
Marketing and Sponsorship: Michele Fernande

Advertising Agency: Iris Singapore
Creative Group Head: Jimmy Lee
Deputy Creative Director: Clarence Chiew
Creative: Vincent Tay
TV Producer: Kim Lim

Live-Action Production Company: Outsider
Executive Producer: Richard Packer
Managing Director: Robert Campbell
Directors: Dennis Go and Jonathan Notaro (Brand New School)
Director of Photography: Alex Barber
Line Producer: Steve Elgar

Design/Production Company: Brand New School NY
Executive Creative Director: Jonathan Notaro
Director: Dennis Go and Jonathan Notaro
Designers: Ricardo Villavicencio, Freddy Arenas
CG Lead/Technical Director: Meng Han Ho
3D Animation: John Kalaigian, Ryan Lang, Ylli Orana, Spyridon Serbos, Freddy Arenas, Jerry Chow, Brad Walter, Aras Darmawan, Piotr Glabinski, Christian Day
3D Tracking: VramFX
Rotoscoping: BotFX, Mark Lieberman
Storyboard Artists: Will Rosado, Matt Robinson
Flame Artist: Blake Huber, David Parker
2D Animation/Compositors: Danny Princz, Eric Concepcion, Chris West, Fabian Tejada
Editor: Moss Levenson
Executive Producers: Devin Brook, Kayt Hall
Producer: Ryan McRee

Music and Sound Design Company: Machine Head
Creative Director: Stephen Fletcher Dewey
Executive Producer: Patty Chow

Hey everyone. I’m sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’ve been quite busy with my day job. I’ve also added a little graphics guy to my family. I’m happy to announce that my wife and I had our first child 6 weeks ago. A happy healthy baby boy. You can expect to see his demo reel in 10 years.

As always  I thank you for reading the site, and I’m glad so many people have found this to be a great resource for sports graphics. I’ll continue to do my best to post several times a week and as always, don’t hesitate to share.