UVA Basketball Opens

UVA_bBall_2b The University of Virginia hired me to make the opens to be shown on the screens in the John Paul Jones Arena before the home basketball games. I had to make separate versions for the men and women's teams. I also had to build the project so the media team at UVA could change the logos and the highlight footage.

To that end, I provided them with Photoshop, Lightwave and After Effects projects as well as video tutorials to show them how to make the changes. They provided the music, the footage, the team logos, and the animated 3D character. I made and animated the brick wall, edited the highlight clips and did all the After Effects work. [3D character object and animation by Erik Elvgren]

UVA_bBall_0 UVA_bBall_1 UVA_bBall_3

The Men's Open

The first part of the open consists of the visiting team's logo on the brick wall. Meanwhile, the visiting team's starters announced in the arena. During the open, the led display that rings the arena flashes in sync with the open and, at the end of the open, real flames are shot into the air and the arena screens switch to a live camera feed.

Also available at Vimeo

The Women's Open

For the women's open, I dialed down the grunge a bit and added some animated flourishes to give it a more feminin feel. We also changed the way we exited the "super shots" (where the player froze in time and the words popped on the screen) to accomodate the highlight footage we had. Most of the team was new this year so there weren't as many highlights to pick from and there aren't as many dunks in women's basketball.