The Cathedral High School Boys Basketball program, under the leadership of Head Coach Jason Delaney, sought to enhance their social media presence for the team during the season. Their aim was to move beyond traditional still graphics, which typically showcased the game's end score, to dynamic animated pieces highlighting various aspects from their starting lineup to game recaps. Their vision was to create content akin to what is commonly seen on major network sporting events but seldom seen at the high school level.

Recognizing the pivotal role of social media in engaging student-athletes and attracting attention from college recruiters, including discussions with esteemed coaches like Michigan State Head Basketball Coach Tom Izzo, the Cathedral staff approached me to help realize their vision. They understood the importance of leveraging social media for high school athlete recruitment.

The objective was to develop four distinct and recurring posts to be shared throughout the basketball season: Game Day, Recap, Stat Leaders, and Player Spotlight.

Credits

Client: Cathedral Boys High School Basketball

Website: GoCathedral.com

Research

Being a sports enthusiast for as long as I can remember, I've always been captivated by the graphics displayed during televised sports events. Whenever a new season kicks off, my attention gravitates towards the latest animated graphics rather than the game itself. To begin this project, I immersed myself in the visual styles of major networks like CBS, ABC/ESPN, FOX, and NBC, examining their modern executions. Pinterest emerged as my primary resource, allowing me to collect inspirational designs from fellow artists. I meticulously studied their layouts, contrast, and stylistic choices to inform my approach for this project.

Design

Armed with pencil and paper, I embarked on the design process through storyboarding—a method that may seem antiquated but remains effective for me. Drawing inspiration (pun intended!) from my Pinterest findings, I crafted a unique visual identity tailored for the Cathedral basketball team. Emphasizing high contrast in color, size, and text, I aimed to capture the essence of contemporary sports graphics. This phase was pivotal, providing a blueprint for translating my ideas into After Effects with efficiency. Additionally, I incorporated texture layers reminiscent of basketball courts, including the distinctive bumps of the basketball and the hardwood flooring, to enrich the overall design aesthetic.

Animation

I studied on how the sporting world of graphics were animated, which is very quick and showcases a lot in a very short amount of time. I leaned on other inspirational motion designers in the sporting industry, Justin Peterson and Connor Henkle, to make sure I followed the proper style for my end product. This was huge because this was my first-time creating sports animated content, so I really wanted to make sure I did this right on my maiden voyage. Hold keyframes, quick scaling effects and a lot of contrast were key to making this final package feel authentic.

In addition to making the animation work, I also explored "automation" for the first time as well. Motion Graphic Templates, or "MOGRT" for short, is a fantastic way to help automate re-occurring content to deliver quick turnarounds when, in this case, a game is complete. All of the heavy lifting was done in After Effects and once everything was ready to go, I exported the Mogrt to be utilized in Premiere because the client wanted music for each post. This was monumental because I was able to create every post seamlessly inside Premiere without having to focus on any animation after the Mogrt was created.

From changing the players jerseys from home to away to swapping out opponents' logos that were on their schedule were just a couple of things that I enjoyed the capability of this working method (see below).

Finally, I also offered what I considered a "One-Off" post throughout the season, and it would be one request per month. This would include a variety of different posts that with enough time, I could deliver custom content for the team. Examples of this are a player breaking a high school record to the head coach surpassing so many wins in his career. The two that were created for this season was a holiday greeting post for each of the players and a Senior Appreciation post.