NBA Tipoff 2022: ESPN Enters Upcoming Season With New Graphics Package, Test of Sideline Pylon Cams The broadcaster collaborated with FutureDeluxe and Two Fresh on the creative refresh By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - 7:00 am
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The National Basketball Association has become a year-round phenomenon, and ESPN is returning to the hardwood with new creative and technological ideas in 2022-23. Viewers tuning in for the nationally televised games will notice refreshed graphics and animations as well as experimentation with new specialty cameras.
We stretched out and extended our look, says Tim Corrigan, VP, production, ESPN. We've been planning for this ever since the NBA Finals ended.
Different On-Screen Direction: New Animations and Graphics New NBA on ESPN graphics will make their regular-season debut during Knicks-Grizzlies on Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
After celebrating the league's 75th-anniversary season, ESPN will implement a new creative direction for the on-screen look. With new flavors, colors, and symbols, the profile is highlighted by new animations that will be interspersed throughout all broadcasts. Featuring Big Jerry, the silhouette of Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Lakers legend Jerry West that serves as the NBA logo, the package integrates real-life elements through black smoke, depth through metallic and bold logos, and iconography of the game, such as basketballs and the twine of the net.
The sequences and transitions are augmented by an extreme attention to detail: raised dots on the leather of the basketball, movement through cracks in the hardwood floor, curves that turn into the arch of a ball being shot. As for team-based animations, the inserts will feature the palette of each individual club and dynamic energy surrounding the player headshot or name.
ESPN's NBA production team have had some fun with the graphics package before. Along with the 75th-anniversary-centric package, last year saw two other instances of creative thinking: a Marvel-themed alternative broadcast of the Golden State Warriors-New Orleans Pelicans match-up on May 3 and the NBA75 Celebration Game between the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets on April 6. Each production leveraged out-of-the-box thinking and intriguing storytelling, both of which inspired this year's package.
Iconography of the game, such as basketballs and nets, will be featured in the new graphics package.
I think inspiration was pulled from a lot of places, says Corrigan. We have a lot of mouths to feed in terms of our studio shows, live game production, and our digital and social-media efforts. And we wanted to create a similar-looking brand.
The project was the result of efforts by ESPN's Creative Studios team: Creative Directors Lucas Nickerson, Tim O'Shaughnessy, and David Sparrgrove; Art Directors Alex Young, Brian Girardin, and Dale Harney; Associate Art Director Jeremy Simches; Senior Producer Marissa Dempsey; Producer Matthew Bernabeo; Realtime Development Manager Isa Bristol; Technical Director Tom Roseski; then-Deputy Editor Will Huang; Senior Concept Artist Jeremy Bond; Post Production Editor Adam Schaub; Edit Managing Producer Melissa Bridges; Supervising Animators Adam Konyndyk and Sung Sohn; Designer/Animators Amanda Wagner and Solinda Keth; Senior Animator Dave Traylor; Animator Richard Harrington; Coordinating Designer Jon Nagle; Graphic Designer Scott Dickens; Graphics Developer Sarah Buckingham; Motion Graphics Designer Kristin Beauchamp; Coordinating Designers, Motion Graphics, Jack Dempsey and Justin Linde; Senior Designer Lisa Rader; Designer II Aly Cleaves; Eric Nelson; and Jimmy Mora. Giving the production additional punch will be a new score accompanying the prompts, which was developed by Coordinating Director, Music, Claude Mitchell; Music Coordinators Andy Horvath and Manoj Gopinath; and Music Supervisor Alex Santana. The team collaborated with Two Fresh Creative Director Phil Guthrie and Executive Producer Scott Rothstein and creative studio FutureDeluxe.
Between the final visuals and what we wanted our vision to be, ESPN Creative Studios did an incredible job, says Corrigan. We wanted [the animations] to be contemporary yet bold.
ESPN's NBA creative direction is embracing dynamic movement, including cracks in the hardwood court.
After the ball is tipped, the live game production will also have a new graphics template. The first significant upgrade is a new-look scorebug at the bottom half of the screen. Promoting a simpler approach with team initials, dashes beneath to indicate available timeouts, and the game clock atop a white background, the rectangular box will be less intrusive than previous editions and will allow additional space for discussing team trends and other storylines.
Our goal in building out this package was to give some screen space back, says Corrigan. We still want to serve the viewer; when we can't drop in a full-screen graphic, we'll show information [at the bottom of the scorebug] as the game's going on.
Another goal was making the scorebug more personalized, using the teams' colors. In an age when franchises release new uniforms frequently, it's only fitting that each team's initials reflect the players' on-court appearance. This philosophy will be seen in lower thirds, player identifications, statistical graphics, and more.
Potential Pylon Cams: Football-Centric Cameras Could Be Integrated Inside participating venues, ESPN will continue to innovate with onsite broadcast technology. Corrigan and his crew are always looking to improve the way they cover a game, and, with the confidence and momentum gained throughout the season, the next step is the potential use of Pylon Cams near the intersection of each sidelin
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NBA Tipoff 2022: ESPN Enters Upcoming Season With New Graphics Package, Test of Sideline Pylon Cams The broadcaster collaborated with FutureDeluxe and Two Fresh on the creative refresh By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
