Working on this promotional animation for a website launched by the Football Association was an honour. The FA has a strong identity and is a great brand to work for. The central challenge to this project was that the website I was promoting was not yet functional; fortunately, After Effects is particularly well-suited to mocking up interfaces like this and adding animation to simulate a live website.
I modelled some 3D icons and a few other elements as a nod to the type of graphics that often feature in sports packages, taking elements from the brand guidelines and giving them an extra dimension. The multitude of different layers and sliding doors to reveal other scenes is used as a concept for the animation, reflecting the wealth and depth of the content supplied by the FA through this website.
One of the project's highlights was attending the voice-over recording at the FA's offices. The voice talent is Alex Scott, the ex-England and Arsenal player. Alex was just on the cusp of her meteoric rise as a sports presenter and pundit for the BBC. She was great to work with and took my direction well while simultaneously bringing her special brand of vitality that has since made her a household name. In today's world, companies often use artificial intelligence to produce voice-overs to save on costs. Still, the originality of a human voice and the ability to craft a genuinely unique and nuanced performance is as yet unmatched by AI. Long live the humans!
