Looking at what the company has right now.
The information has structure but lacks consistency and a single graphic language. Coming up with a list of what we need to develop:
race telemetry (from driver introduction to the results table),
personal bests,
technical information messages,
interviews,
full-screen charts and diagrams.
Inheriting the graphic language from other Dragtimes projects. Searching for shapes, type sizes and proportions by overlaying the information on top of broadcast screenshots.
Creating a set of standard styles and elements which will be used in all captions.
Apart from refreshing the current captions, we need to come up with new formats to keep viewers entertained and updated on all events of the broadcast. To get a better understanding of the subject, spending a weekend on YouTube watching recordings of the leading racing series.
Having watched enough, thinking about new formats that Dragtimes hasn’t used yet. Coming up with fact-filled splash screens and slow-mo video for technical interruptions and breaks.
Suggesting to illustrate speed telemetry and gear shifts when showing the view from the cockpit. Overall, the overlay structure will be multi-layered but simple: dark background, accents and text.
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To make sure viewers always understand what’s happening on the screen, preparing a group of small information messages that will be shown at the bottom left corner of the screen.
To fill longer breaks in the broadcast, placing several diagrams on the screen: race schedule, speed graph, visual representation of results.
In addition to large tables, creating smaller tables that will only be shown when needed.
To verify our theories, placing the captions in real-life environment by assembling a small video.
Art director: Everything looks good, but the animations need to be more attractive. Also, the client asks to help with directing the broadcasts. Which means we not only need to hand over the pictures, but also explain what has to be shown and when.
Choosing the best effects and animations for our recommendations. Creating appearance and disappearance effects for each caption block.
Adding some cool stuff such as growing arrows, car wheel drive animation and a live oven.
Getting rid of slower animations.
Polishing the appearance and disappearance effects.
Fine-tuning the accents.
Increasing animation speed to make it neater and less intrusive.
Updating the splash screen with the company’s refreshed logo.
Replacing old videos with fragments of recent broadcasts.
Grouping the graphics depending on where it will be used: context messages with technical information, race timeline, information overlays for longer breaks in the broadcast. Using the bottom part of the screen for messages from the first group. Trying to take up less height as the captions should never be more important than what’s going on on the screen.
Assembling everything into one final source file to make life easier for broadcast technicians.
Putting together a guide for broadcast directors explaining when and how to use various captions.
Handing over all the materials to the client which end up being used at the next stage of the competition. Watching the broadcast live and catching all the bugs.
Adding real data to the captions and preparing the announcement.
