When it comes to shaping the newest advances in technology for a specific business, it’s not enough to have cutting-edge software or a state-of-the-art hardware system. You also need to have the creativity to properly apply it to your field. That is why animators like Arash Rod are in such demand in many fields. They are there to bring that creativity and optimize the technology to the many different areas of application that exist in today’s economy.
When it comes to designing sports visuals, especially for chatbots, the key is an understanding of the fan base and the city where the team calls home. It’s important to design it to relay important information to fans. Still, it’s even more important to make the chatbot feel interactive, to actually feel like a representative of the team. This means creating images that fans can recognize and call their own. Sports are the pulse of their cities, and fans follow them rabidly, so you need an in-depth knowledge of the team’s history, current operations, and what their fans would need the chatbot for.
Feeling Like A Member Of The Team
One of the hardest aspects of designing a chatbot is to understand what fans may be using the system for. Most fans go to a team website because they are looking for ways to feel like a part of the team. They may be purchasing merchandise and tickets or looking up information on past or current players. Chatbots create a more interactive experience that lets the fan feel more actively involved in their team as opposed to just a passive observer.
Animators like Arash will use references to city history, like his project with the NBA G League Team, the Motor City Cruise. The team is from Detroit, a city with deep ties to the American automotive industry, so creating an image with a car as the main concept and theme hits home for Detroit fans. Fans immediately feel a connection to their hometown and the pride that they feel for their city with their team.
Other teams, like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, have long-standing mascots, Buzz and Boomer, that fans associate with their team. That’s why animators like Arash Rod used the mascots as the Winnipeg chatbots to help fans think they are talking to the team directly. Many mascots have a social media presence, so information can be relayed quickly if there’s a schedule change, merchandising sale, or fans want to know fun facts about the team’s history.
An excellent example of mascots with a deep background is “Buckets”, the mascot for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. The name is a nod to the city’s huge casino industry, but Buckets has also been given a personality and likes/dislikes so that fans can feel like they are getting to know him and, subsequently, the team. You can find Bucket’s favorite shoes, movies, players, and all sorts of facts on the Aces website. This has been meticulously designed by Mr. Rod to invite a two-way relationship with the fans so they can feel like they have something in common with the mascot and, thus, the team.
Some sports teams like to use a theme to inspire the animators to come up with something that represents the team. Mr. Rod was working on designs for the Jacksonville Jaguars and was given the ideas “claw” and “jungle.” It’s here that animators get to flex their creativity by coming up with the pose, coloring, and style of a design to evoke the connection between the team and what those themes represent.
The Future Of The Digital Space In Sports
There are many new, exciting ways to use AI in the sports world. You can generate sales leads at a much higher rate and build a more successful follow-up model. You can personalize merchandise shopping and opportunities through data collection or something as simple as last-minute seat sales. However, all of these are much less effective if the fans aren’t interested in the interaction. That’s why animators are so important to this new AI-driven business model. They are the link between the fans and their team, and by using creativity and research, they can make that experience as unique as going to the games themselves!
