How do they manage to make it look like its pasted right on the field?Its not like the line is drawn over the screen. Players obviously block segments of the line when on top of the location.
Computers.
It’s computer generated, and color keying is used. The colors of the grass and lines on the field are entered in so that the yellow line will appear over top of them. Anything else crossing over that line will knock out the yellow by virtue of not being the same colors as those of the grass.
Now if some team had perfectly grass-green uniforms, you might occasionally see chunks of their uniforms disappear under the line. And I HAVE seen odd dropouts of the yellow line, as an afternoon game in an outdoor stadium heads on into evening and the lighting on the field changes, and the engineer doesn’t update the color key quickly enough.
Sadly, the Jets do have that exact color, and when they wear their green on green home uniforms – which is pretty rare – the yellow line covers them almost completely.
It’s a neat trick, but overused. Personally, I wish they’d limit it to 3rd or 4th and short situations. But I have a related football graphics type of question: The standard top of screen graphic shows the score and the time remaining. The time counts down as play develops. What I want to know is: Is that graphic somehow mechanically or electronically linked to the official scoreboard clock? Or does the network have someone start and stop their own graphic clock to keep time with the scoreboard?
In a related question, how do they get the “tail” to follow the hockey puck?
They’re not linked. The game clock on the field is the official time, not the network graphic clock. The operator of the graphics equipment can change whatever needs to be changed, including the score and the time, should those things need to be changed.
Robin
Sensors are placed in the posts framing the glass along the boards. A chip is in the puck. The speed, direction and location of the puck can be calculated by trangulation from two or more sensors.
I hate the glowing tail. It was distracting. I think I might have liked it if they limited it to replays or color commentary illustrating plays.
As a very new football watcher (I’ve only been watching it for the past three years), I like the yellow line because it helps me to keep track.
Parkinson’s Law can now be updated.
Work expended is inversely proportional to the value of the objection. Trivial matters will consume large amounts of time and creativity; important matters will go unattended.
Are you in the right thread?
Thank you for info, leenmi.
I’ve seen broadcasts of Chicago Cubs games at Wrigley Field where you’ll see pieces of green cloth draped over the bricks in places. In theory, the viewer at home will see ads on those pieces of green cloth, using the same technology that produces the first-down line. However, if the guy who’s in charge of the ads isn’t paying attention, viewers at home will see blank green cloth. And of course, the players and fans at Wrigley Field just see the green cloth, too.
Anyone remember when the time/score/down graphic was first used? I watched SuperBowl X the other day, and was surprised at how low-tech everything was. They showed the score when going to a commercial, otherwise the screen was clean.
ISTR that FOX innovated this when they took over the NFC games from CBS in the early 90s. Everyone I talked to, after watching a game or two on Fox, mentioned how odd it was to see the score and other information on the screen during the game, but followed it up with “but I think I really like it.” And so it caught on.
It seems to me that FOX revolutionized football broadcasting in much the same way that ABC did when it got Monday Night Football.
Actually, I believe that when you see a CG clock rather than a windowed shot of the scoreboard clock, the CG clock’s time is being “read” from the scoreboard clock. I worked as a gopher for an ABC Sports production of a college football game in 1998. Prior to the game, a camera that was pointed at the main stadium scoreboard clock was being trained to recognize the numbers in the scoreboard display. This way the clocks were always in sync without requiring someone working a stopwatch in the truck.
Yeah, I used to hate having to watch a game for a half hour before realizing the score only as they headed into commercial.
The technology is pretty amazing. I’m in the ad business, and about 3.5 years ago, I saw a presentation from a company that had taken this technology to the next level. They had shots of computer-generated signage and other stuff that existed on TV but not IRL at the sporting event.
One cool thing was a realistic virtual blimp that even cast a shadow on the playing surface. Another was an archway sign over the track at a car race. Not only did the sign not exist IRL, but neither did the archway on which it was posted!
Basically, if you want some sort of computer-generated presence in TV sports, it can be created for you down to the last detail. And viewers on TV won’t know the difference. It’s that good.
SImilar technology was used in the Olympics to project competitor’s flags underneath the water. I remember seeing it done two years ago during skating events in the '02 Winter Games. That was pretty cool, because the image was washed out so it actually looked like someone painted a flag on the rink floor and then covered it with six inches of ice.
–Cliffy