AppleTV+ Friday Night Baseball - 1st Season
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One of the highlights of my career was working with the team at Apple, leading Sibling Rivalry's motion team and creating the Apple TV+ Friday Night Baseball Package.
From concept to delivery, over the course of 3 years we created some of the most ground-breaking sports graphics all in the Apple brand and tone, successfully delivering hundreds of elements to MLB & Apple for opening day launch: May 7, 2022.
My Roles
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Motion Direction
Team Management
Motion Design
2D Animation
Design
Motion Behaviors
Toolkitting
QC & Delivery
Branding
Presentation
Concepts, Motion Behaviors & Direction
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Below are my original design and motion concepts. My idea was to create an Apple brand look playing off of the Apple's direction of Light and the Stadium lights animations provided by the Apple team. This look would end up being the overall package direction.
I created motion behaviors for type and logo animations and named them after pitches and other baseball terms: ie Riser, Slider, Cutter, Pop Up, Punch, etc. These contemporary kinetic motion behaviors became the foundation of the sports broadcast package for the first season and years to come.
Light Leak Concept Animation
"Cutter" Motion behavior - Logo Endtag concept
"Riser" Motion Behavior - Logo Animation
FNB22 - Final Deliverables Package
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We created a beautiful sports graphics package in the Apple brand for pre-game show, Live Game and Post-game show elements such as Show opens, Rejoins, Sales Front Ends, Billboards, Punctuations, Team Matchups, Team Transitions, Team v Team Matchups, Team v Team Monitor Loops, Player Front Ends, Player Profiles, Due Ups, Coming Ups, Analyst Breakdowns, Inning Transitions, Phrase Transitions, FullScreen Backgrounds, Monitor Fills, Slate Loops, Replays, Show Transitions, Insert Graphics, Mortises, Logo Animations, Bugs, Logo Loops, Whip-arounds.
Due Up
Inning Transition
Phrase Transition
Team vs Team Keyable
Scorebug
Sponsored Rejoin
Replay
Team Matchup
Organization And Delivery
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We developed hundreds of custom toolkits and templates to help streamline workflow and on the fly rendering for MLB and their Live Game teams. I created a naming and folder structure to help streamline a massive deliverable list. We provided Apple with in-situ reference examples for every element to expedite approval and show how each element would work in-game.
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AppleTV+ Friday Night Baseball - 2nd Season
A Major League Redesign
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In 2023, we were tasked by Apple to overhaul the Friday Night Baseball package. We enhanced Apple's innovative take on how to present modern sports graphics by adding live action footage, photogrpahy and expanded motion design.
Below are my original concepts, motion direction and behaviors pitched to the Apple team to show the Day to Night Sky concept. This direction ended up being chosen as the overall brand look for the new season of Apple TV+ Friday Night Baseball 2023.
My Original Animation Concept of Day to Night
"Slider" Motion Behavior - Logo Animation
Player Front End Concept
Concept - "Cutter" motion behavior - Rejoin Logo Animation
Open Animations - AppleTV+ Friday Night Baseball Season 2
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With the sky motif and day to night theme chosen as the direction, along with updated motion behaviors and animation, these Open animations became the hero logo endtags for the Pregame, Live Game and Post Game broadcast. It was so rewarding to take my idea from concept to completion.
Final FNB Here Logo Animation - Game & Post Game
Pregame Open - Endtag
Postgame Open - End Animation & Sponsor
On Air Elements- AppleTV+ Friday Night Baseball Season 2
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Our motion team created and updated hundreds of new elements for Pregame, Post Game, and Live Game deliverables. We also created graphics for the Live Studio show creating Monitor fills and more.
Open End Tag
Player Front End
Phrase Transition
Team Matchup
Team Transition
Phrase Transition
Whiparound
Pregame Sponsored End Tag
Inning Transition
3 Payer Due Up
Toolkits, Templates and More
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We delivered hundreds of toolkits and templates that allowed MLB to make quick updates to players, teams and sponsors, building off of what we created for the 2022 season.
AE Toolkit - Team Matchup Dropdowns
Team Matchup
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AppleTV+ Friday Night Baseball - 3rd Season
Maintenance & Update
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For the 3rd Season of Apple Friday Night Baseball, Apple asked us to update the skies and a few other elements but overall, Major League Baseball has been using the package for 3 years and is very self-contained.
My team delivered them an easily updated and scaleable system that considered potential sports changes (Trades, Logo Updates, Player changes, Team Updates, Winners, Championship, etc). MLB and Apple are happy thanks to our front-end toolkitting and organization.
Overall it was a huge win and an amazing 3 year collaboration!
Case Study video for 2023-24 Season
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Below is a case study video highlighting the 2023-2024 Friday Night Baseball sports package for Apple TV+. Internal Use only.
Credits (2022-2024)
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Apple Sports Team
Aaron Pollick
David Chun
Michelle Dougherty
Adam Wentworth
Neng Tea
Mike Arcangeli
Amy Wolpa
Aaron Pollick
David Chun
Michelle Dougherty
Adam Wentworth
Neng Tea
Mike Arcangeli
Amy Wolpa
Sibling Rivalry Team
Creative Director(s): Maggie Tsao, Burke Miles
Design Director(s): Maggie Tsao, Brandon Kennedy
Motion Director: Lucas Bell
Animators: Lucas Bell, Alex Gasowski, David Murray, Cyprian Saldon, Wes Richardson, Dan LoGuidice
Head of Production: Kathryn Henderson
Producers: Julie Zivic, Eric Goldrich
Creative Director(s): Maggie Tsao, Burke Miles
Design Director(s): Maggie Tsao, Brandon Kennedy
Motion Director: Lucas Bell
Animators: Lucas Bell, Alex Gasowski, David Murray, Cyprian Saldon, Wes Richardson, Dan LoGuidice
Head of Production: Kathryn Henderson
Producers: Julie Zivic, Eric Goldrich