Baseball IQ

New York, NY, USA

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MLB Networks / Baseball IQ
This is a show package I did while at Bl:nd for, at the time, an unnamed game show for the MLB Network. We went through the pitch and the production and delivery before we knew what the name of the show was, so we used some AE compositing magic in our delivery tool-kit so that MLB Networks could swap in anything in to the baseball card full screen graphics. That's why my version has the network logo, not the show logo.

I had the best crew for this one;

Storyboards: Roger Hom
Designers: Jeff Baghai, Jessi Esparza
2D Animators: Jeff Baghai, Akira Thompson, Jessi Esparza
3D Animators: Drew Arnold, Orges Kokoshari, Akira Thompson, Jonathan Lewis
Technical Director: Orges Kokoshari
Vfx Supervisor: Orges Kokoshari
Compositors: Carlos Foxworthy, Dan Soloman, Jessi Esparza
Riggers: Orges Kokoshari
Modelers: Orges Kokoshari, Dan Soloman
Intern: Pedro Messias

I was the Creative Director and Art Director, of course. And Nick Litwinko was the Executive Producer.

This was produced at Bl:nd NYC
Storyboards
by Roger Hom
Concept Art / Style Frames
A neat arrangement of vintage and collectable baseball cards are laid out on a surface. We push in to see greater detail in the cards just a gust of wind lifts the cards into the air. Dozens multiply, becoming hun- dreds...thousands of swirling cards. We push through the maelstrom, reversing our angle and watch as the cards come together to form a pitcher on a mound. The pitcher winds up, he throws and just as the ball is released his form collapses back into a swirling cloud of cards.
The cloud of cards rushes towards camera and, in a “bullet-time” moment, a single card blocks out all the others. In the still image printed on the card, we’ll reveal an iconic pitching moment from the MLB Networks footage archive.
The “bullet-time” moment passes and the cards reform into a home plate scenario, with a Batter, Catcher and Umpire. We see the batter swing and make contact with the ball causing the various forms to once again collapse into another cloud of cards. Again the cloud moves towards camera and we witness another printed card, this time depicting an iconic batting moment with treated archival footage. This action could play out to replicate a fielder, even a base runner in a completely unique and dynamic way... Ultimately concluding with a cheering crowd and our cloud of cards reforming into the MLB Network Logo.