Supercars Championship Brand Refresh
Brand Refresh | Created at Fox Sports
Role: Art Direction and Design
Producer: James Harrison
Editor: Paul O'Doherty (footage sourcing)
Fox Sports is at the forefront of Australian sports broadcast, the graphics department is always busy working on promotions and projects for the network. Despite this, there's always time to look for improvements in the network overall, and I saw an opportunity to give the Motorsports channel a much needed brand refresh. It has been three years since Motorsports were represented by the Fox Sports network with the graphics not experiencing any changes since. So when I approached the Motorsports division with plans for a brand refresh, they were excited to jump on the opportunity.
DESIGN PROCESS
The existing package featured typography, footage and heavily Fox Sports branded 3D models.
I wanted to strip it down and bring it back to the core of what makes Supercars phenomenal;
the speed, the chase and the glorious win.
the speed, the chase and the glorious win.
There is so much excitement and passion for the sport, I aimed to capture that through the 3D Supercar model which is an integral part of the broadcast package. As opposed to covering the car up with Fox Sports branding, I laid the Supercar bare with a glassy see through texture, showing the two things at the centre of every Supercar, the skilled master driver and the raw explosive power of the V8 engine. The transparent Supercar is then lit with an array of energetic orange lights, keeping it both visually energetic while holding true to the orange and blue colour palette that is established for Motorsports. The visual concept was also a nod to the research lab perspex car look and also keeps the 3D graphics grounded to a certain level of reality.
From this, rendered fly throughs and shots are used throughout the graphics package, to give the brand the visual excitement that it needs.
EXECUTION
There was a bit of 3D modelling involved in this project, for one the V8 engine being the centrepiece needed to be built, animated and lit from scratch. A fair amount of studying/referencing of V8 engine breakdowns and builds was required for an accurate representation.
The glass texture also highlighted geometry imperfections in the model and to achieve the level of refraction that I wanted, I needed to refine and remodel parts of the car. The nature of having 3D glass geometry and multiple 3D lights meant long render times, I mitigated some of these challenges with render passes for different lights, to allow for change on the fly.
For the opener, the 3D Supercar is integrated with footage, sourced with the help of James Harrison and Paul O'Doherty, which I edited to take the viewer on a high octane journey; the thrill of the race, the furious chase, the crash and the glorious sprint to the finish line. I sourced slow motion footage of the crowd to emphasise the speed of the Supercars along with using real engine sounds.
Unfortunately due to the Coronavirus, the broadcast package was stopped short and the plan was
change to defer its debut for the next season. As a planned broadcast package with the blessing of the Motorsports division and a self initiated project, I hope to see this one broadcast down the track!
___
Thank you!
