Think. Believe. Jump. Create.
Clients: Progress Productions and ECB
In the summer of 2021, a year later than intended, Progress Productions and ECB’s brand new cricket tournament The Hundred launched. And what a great success it was. From the moment the fireworks soared high over the Kia Oval at the opening Women’s game, with a DJ pumping out tunes around the stadium, people knew The Hundred was going to deliver.
HOW IT BEGAN:
Jump’s involvement in The Hundred began back at the end of 2019 when we were initially invited to pitch for the Event presentation graphics (those seen on the screens inside venues) and to create a digital kit. The Hundred’s visual identity had already been developed by Future Brand, as well as those for each of the 8 new teams competing. A style guide had been provided for anyone creating content and media.
Our winning concept utilised a well thought out motion theory that we designed and animated to show how we would bring the new brand to life. This became the life blood of everything we later went on to create.
Progress Productions were very complimentary of our pitch presentation after Jump had been awarded the tender. We had created a concept and design that was clear and consistent across each facet of the project. The presentation clearly led the viewer through this process, with animation examples backed by brand understanding.
George Meredith-Hardy – Senior Producer at Progress Productions
“It was clear from their initial response that Jump had fully understood the brief and had put a huge amount of effort into their initial proposals. This was further enhanced when they presented their vision in person and their enthusiasm for the project and excitement at the prospect of bringing The Hundred brand and individual team brands to life was clearly evident.”
The production of the graphics began at the start of 2020 and we immediately set up weekly snapshot meetings. We had completed the bulk of the design work before Covid 19 put the country into lockdown and the tournament was postponed for a year. We picked up work again as soon as the dates were confirmed for 2021.
We created a master spreadsheet that was shared with the client to keep track of graphic examples, designs and animations. This became a great source for checking what was signed off and understanding where everything was after such a long delay mid-project.
MOTION THEORY BRAND GUIDELINES:
Harry Handside – Art Director at Jump
“As designers and art directors we create rules and guidelines internally to give form, structure and logic to the graphics. This process happens in every design decision, and by the end of a project a set of rules of how a design will move will have been established. In the case of The Hundred, we had such a strong static brand to start with, creating a motion theory to encapsulate the movement of cricket into the new brand was the best way to connect it with the sport.
We often receive brand guidelines and visual identities that include details of font usage, colour palette, photography treatment etc. We expand those brand values and identities into movement. The way in which text or graphics appear on screen will create a further distinction of a brand’s tone of voice. That motion theory can be explored for every brand asset, until everything moves and animates with a consistency that is unmistakably owned and on-brand.”
The final Motion theory brand guidelines were supplied to the ECB digital team for them to use and also to distribute when creating content with other production companies.
DIGITAL TOOLKIT:
The digital toolkit, much like a broadcast toolkit, gives the ECB social / digital team a collection of templates and assets to produce consistently branded content.
We delivered an After Effects project toolkit that included editable lower third straps, highlights scoreboards, hero graphics, batting / bowling information graphics, feature titles, transitions, multi-line text callouts and endboards.
This was a complete package of elements to make digital video production exciting and brand empowered.
Harry Handside – Art Director at Jump
“As part of the motion theory we created a stretchy-text animation which gives a bespoke movement to the brand font, allowing it to shift left and right, much like the batters running in Cricket. A series of bespoke reusable words were also delivered as part of the kit.”
THE HUNDRED EXPLAINED:
The Hundred Explained sequences were created to introduce new audiences to the sport, whilst updating old audiences on the new format. They also serve as a piece of pure branded content that needs to carry the tone of voice and create an excitement in the venue or when viewed online.
We created 6 x VTs in total. Each focussed on a different and easy to digest aspect of cricket of The Hundred’s format.
As The Hundred was a new tournament, with new teams in kits that have never been seen before, there was no archive footage to rely on for creating content before the tournament began. So we leaned into a motion capture approach that created an extra dimension to the brand in a 3D environment with 3D cricket characters.
MOTION CAPTURE:
The motion capture shoot was carried out by Centroid during the pandemic. It was made possible through remote viewing and a live link up to the motion capture studio via online feeds. We were able to watch the live action performance from multiple angles, as well as the CGI skeleton capture data.
Mark Fairless – Senior Animator at Jump
“Once we had been delivered the mocap data, we selected and tidied the actions we needed, and applied it to a range of rigged cricketer models. We created fully equipped male and female players that could be switched to become fielders, bowlers or batter. We also had alternate hairstyles to add character variation.
In parallel to this, we blocked out all of the camera moves for the scenes in 3D with static models. Then the fully animated characters were later dropped into these scenes. We developed the high contrast look in 3D, which was then composited in After Effects.
Once our characters were in C4D, we were able to create some extreme, dynamic camera movements that pushed the brand language further, and got us closer up to the cricket action than we ever could with a live action shoot or with archive footage.”
EVENT GRAPHICS:
There were eight different cricket venues in The Hundred, each with varying screen sizes. The decision was made to work to the latest and highest spec screens for the best image quality and information legibility. Smaller screens would become letterboxed using branding and logos.
Harry Handside – Art Director at Jump
“Presenting information on live event screens is a very different ball game to broadcast graphic design. The screens, although large, can be very far away from the audience for certain stands in a venue. Information needs to be clear and legible. The Hundred as a format is trying to simplify and entice a wider audience with an easier to understand system. The score data and the way it is understood had to replicate this from a design point of view.“
The agreed structure was that balls count down and runs count up, creating drama and jeopardy in the game, and a chase in the second innings. We used this structure to splitscreen our graphic approach, showing the two teams on either side and making it easy for the new audience to know where to find the information, if for instance they wanted to look away from the action to quickly check the score.
We created a full host of exciting stings and data fed graphics for 4’s, 6’s, Outs, Umpire decisions, Run chases, Win predictors etc. Each creating an impactful moment to raise the energy in the venue.
We also worked with the new distinctive team brands to create team lists and team specific venue moments. The design structure had to allow for very different and very vibrant brands to come together under The Hundred brand design.
SPONSOR PROMOTION FOR KP VTs.
KP are the main sponsor for the tournament. Brands for a range of crisps and nuts were seen on the players’ shirts. The clients wanted a sponsor-led VT to play in the venue for their ‘Everyone In’ campaign. This invites the younger audience to get involved with the sport and play cricket wherever they can. The VT laid out a short set of easy to understand mini game rules, all within the 3D branded world we had created for the main Explainer VT’s.
THE HYPE TRIBAL VTs.
The ‘Tribal Hype’ sequences were played on the big screen in stadiums before games. The animation was a combination of dancers and drummers who had been shot against a green screen. These were composited into our 3D branded stadium. The concept was to create a dance routine that would get fans in the stadiums on their feet and hyped before the first-ball countdown began.
Sam Clarke – Senior Designer at Jump.
“The shoot for the sequence had a few challenges. Our Art Director Harry Handyside was dramatically ‘pinged’ and unfortunately had to isolate at home for safety. That wasn’t going to stop him directing though. We set up a laptop with speakers in the studio with a live Zoom feed of Harry. He was still able to check shot framings and get an idea of each take as it happened. I was Art Directing on the studio floor with Harry feeding me any additional comments and direction. Great teamwork!”
Jump is hugely proud to have been part of the launch of The Hundred, particularly as much of the production took place under challenging circumstances with the global pandemic.
The tournament has been a huge success with a broadcast reach of 16.1 million, an overall attendance of 267,000 for the women’s games and 510,000 total tickets sold.
We can’t wait to see it back next year.
George Meredith-Hardy – Senior Producer at Progress Productions
“It has been a pleasure to work with Harry and the team at Jump on this project, and their commitment did not falter through development, postponement or any other challenges they faced, such as working virtually, having to direct the motion capture shoot remotely or last minute requests for additional graphics. We look forward to continuing to work with them on further development of the in-venue graphics package as we head into Season 2 of The Hundred.”
