Vegas Creates the Coolest NHL Experience with Greyscalegorilla

The Vegas Golden Knights hockey franchise regularly plays for sell-out crowds of 18,000+ in the T-Mobile Arena on the Vegas strip. Founded in 2017, the team quickly established itself as an NHL powerhouse, reaching the Stanley Cup finals in its first season and winning the Stanley Cup championship in 2023.

The team’s Entertainment, Experience and Production department is tasked with delivering exciting in-arena content that stands out from the surrounding spectacle of Las Vegas. The department’s three motion graphics artists offer a real-world example of how a Greyscalegorilla Teams account can streamline the fast-paced workflow required to create supercharged fan engagement.

CREATING HIGH QUALITY CONTENT AT TOP SPEED

Dan Senior is Sr. Manager of Motion Graphics for the Vegas Golden Knights. When he started with the organization, one of the first things he did was bring Greyscalegorilla into the org, having used the site throughout his career.

“Really, I just showed my manager — look at the amount of resources available to us here, and look at the quality of them,” Senior says. “All of the textures, HDRIs, and things like that. And just the ease of use in the Cinema 4D environment, to be able to iterate quickly, produce, and version out ideas very quickly.”

Senior’s team is tasked with creating eye-catching in-arena content and high-energy in-game moments like elaborate on-ice projections and on-screen noise prompts designed to get the crowd on its feet.

“Generally, the attitude is — bigger is better,” Senior says. “You know, the more things exploding on ice projections, the better. We have to constantly push ourselves in what we can achieve in the space of time that we have, and Greyscalegorilla assets offer the high fidelity and speed we need to flip these grand, high-resolution ice projections quickly.”

“I’m almost certain most NHL teams don’t do ice projections,” Senior says. “But they’re very much a big showy element of what we do here in Las Vegas, and they require tools you can rely on. Assets that are going to look good in any situation and work to a very professional standard. When you’re planning all of that out, where do you go to find the assets you need? When it comes to Greyscalegorilla, I know I don’t have to worry.”

MOTION GRAPHICS FOR MAXIMUM ENGAGEMENT

Senior Motion Graphics Designer Jalen Jones has been with the Vegas Golden Knights Entertainment Team since October, 2018. On top of theme-night, play-by-play, and specific sponsor-centric graphics, one of his tasks is creating content designed to engage and energize fans during games.

“We take the ‘entertainment’ part of ‘in-game entertainment’ very seriously. Our crowd is rowdy; anything that tells them to make noise, they’re pretty much going to make noise,” Jones says.

Jones is often tasked with creating multiple animated noise prompts that display on T-Mobile Arena’s massive screens during matches. To get them done and shipped for approval quickly, Jones depends on Signal, Greyscalegorilla’s proprietary Cinema 4D animation plugin.

“I’m using pretty much everything. All the Materials. All the Textures. A lot of the HDRI stuff. Light Kit Pro. Just the Library in general,” Jones says. “But Signal is my go-to for making noise prompts, because I’m able to animate assets without having to worry about doing keyframes myself. With Signal, once you figure out a certain look or animation that you want, you can take it from one project into another. And that saves a lot of time just when it comes to putting a project together.”

Saving time and steps is important in an industry defined by constant fan engagement, long seasons, and ever-evolving stakes. Jones and his Golden Knight teammates turn to Greyscalegorilla to keep them ahead of the game.

“Really, it just helps everything, whether I’m doing a little background animation or noise-prompt text jumping or a helmet nodding to the beat, it’s super helpful. That’s how the workflow goes using Greyscalegorilla.”