BBC skates on ice rings

The BBC is gearing up for this season’s big sporting event in Nagano, Japan, with a television documentary to be screened next week entitled The Essential Winter Olympics.

The on-screen graphics for both the programme and BBC Sport’s forth coming Olympics coverage has been handled in-house by BBC Resources.

Graphic designer Steven Aspinall created the title sequence for the documentary using pictograms designed by Landor Associates, which is responsible for the Nagano Olympics branding. The pictograms illustrate the sports which are represented at next month’s event.

‘I created a storyboard based around the different pictograms dancing across the Olympic rings,’ says Aspinall. In-house 3D animators Andy McNamara and Paul Kavanagh then crafted an animated sequence revolving around Landor’s brush-stroke figures.

McNamara and Kavanagh brought in Brian Larkin of Animation People to work on the 2D element of the graphics. Refractions and reflections of the skater moving around the rings of ice are intended to give the images more depth.

The background is the work of the 3D animators, who painted and retouched stills of snow-capped mountains.

The Essential Olympics goes on air tomorrow, Friday, on BBC2 at 6pm. Nagano – The Grandstand Guide to the Winter Olympics ’98 is on BBC2 on 6 February at 6pm. Olympic Grandstand will be screened from 7 to 22 February, on BBC1 at 1.50am.

Designer: BBC Resources

Client: BBC Sport