During my internship at Fresh Tape Media, I had the opportunity to work on aproject for their client, the WNBA, in preparation for 2025 All-Star Weekend.
Overview
Problem: Create large-scale LED animations that would play behind players during an official All-Star Weekend photoshoot. These animations needed to feel bold and flexible, while also functioning as visually pleasing background for the shoot. The animations needed to be adapted to 24 different players and two additional generic versions; while also seamlessly looping so the shoot wouldn’t have any odd cuts.
The only direction provided was a broad style guide with colors and typography — no motion system was defined. The animations had to balance consistency with customization, ensuring every player’s board felt cohesive.
The project had a quick five-day turnaround, which meant moving efficiently from style frames to final animation while keeping the work polished and scalable.
Solution: I designed and animated three abstract boards that set the visual foundation for the project. I created all style frames and built out the animations, while Katie Nehring handled versioning for the individual player names. By developing a flexible animation system, we were able to deliver 24 player-specific boards plus two generic options that worked beautifully on the 10ft LED screen.
Style Exploration
I started by translating the WNBA’s brand palette and typography into abstract style frames. The goal was to explore energy, rhythm, and visual impact that would hold up at a massive scale on LED.
V1
V2
Final Direction
Once a visual direction was chosen, I refined the look into three final style boards. Each design emphasized bold interactions of color and shape, balanced with clean typographic space for player names and team information. These were the basis of the animation.
Animation Development
I animated the initial template board, which became the foundation for all 24 player-specific versions. From there, I designed and animated two additional boards that could be used universally with basic WNBA All-Star branding. Every piece was built to feel energetic and fluid, but also paced slowly enough that it didn’t take away from the All Stars themselves during the shoot.
A key part of this process was using Colorama, which allowed me to transition my initial style frames from Photoshop into fully realized motion. Learning how to use this effect was a turning point. Not only did it bring the boards to life, but it was also the most relevant technical skill I picked up during the project.
Implementation
After the templates were complete, we versioned out 24 player-specific video boards. The key here was to maintain consistency across 24 unique boards while keeping the animation system efficient and scalable. Once they were delivered, Ashley Gutierrez handled videography.
The WNBA used the video board backdrops for everything from player introductions to interactive social content where they had players attempt to draw their team logos.
Results & Reflection
Across over 20 posts on all WNBA social accounts, the videos totalled over 3.5M views, according to Gondola.
The final boards created a striking visual backdrop for the All-Star Weekend shoot. Each player’s identity was highlighted in a bold, abstract environment that tied seamlessly into the WNBA brand.
This project challenged me to think about motion design at scale, it was great opportunity to explore how an animation reads on a massive LED screen versus a laptop, and how to design flexible systems that can be versioned efficiently. With only a broad style guide as my starting point, I was able to craft a visual language that was both expressive and cohesive.
Additionally, delivering the full system in just five days taught me how to balance speed with quality, and how to focus on the essentials that make motion design work at scale.