How Vinik Sports Group Electrifies Tampa Bay Fan Experiences

Vinik Sports Group, the powerhouse sports conglomerate behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, Amelie Arena, the Yuengling Center and others, is renowned for its innovative and visually stunning game night experiences.

Their in-house team of talented motion designers leverages powerful tools like Greyscalegorilla Plus for Teams to bring their creative visions to life. The team’s innovative use of technology, particularly 3D design and motion graphics, has captivated audiences and garnered industry recognition.

Engaging Fans from the Start

The Amelie Arena entrance features a new striking 3D exterior display, which has already become a Tampa Bay landmark. By leveraging 3D technology and advanced lighting techniques, the team creates visually striking experiences that captivate fans and elevate the overall game-day atmosphere.

The 3D exterior display not only enhances the arena’s aesthetic appeal but also serves as a dynamic platform for showcasing team animations, sponsorship packages, and promotes upcoming events.

It’s hard not to be amazed by the lifelike helicopter seemingly flying out of the building, a truly awe-inspiring sight that sets the stage for an unforgettable experience.

To create the eye-catching 3D experiences, the team relies heavily on Greyscalegorilla to elevate the quality of their work. Leveraging pre-built assets, like textures and materials, saves countless hours of work.

Delve into how Vinik Sports Group utilizes Greyscalegorilla to elevate their game night presentations, from jaw-dropping 3D animations to captivating real-time graphics.

How do you create an engaging fan experience?

We prioritize 3D for high-impact moments that will be showcased on television or large screens. For example, we might create a 3D animation for a key player introduction or a special moment during the game. For shorter, less prominent graphics, we often opt for 2D solutions, such as PNG renders with added effects in post-production.

During the game we’re getting statistics constantly — how fast a shot was, how fast players are moving, how many shots there have been — so there’s lots of tie-in to that as far as game presentation goes, and bringing that data in and finding interesting ways to present it to fans so they have access to a little bit more information.

For example, during pre-game skates, we display computer graphics featuring player statistics. We might show a player’s headshot alongside their season goal total.

How does Greyscalegorilla fit into your team’s workflow?

Our in-house team is project based, and we incorporate Greyscalegorilla in anything we can, honestly. It’s very easy to use. We create the in-house broadcast package for the Tampa Bay Lightning — title intros, promotional templates, lower-thirds, replay wipes — and any other extra requests for social, web, or something that airs on TV.

We rely on Greyscalegorilla to help us speed-up our process. We are a very fast-paced environment — for example, the next five days, we have three games. So sometimes we don’t have a month to create a project. Sometimes it’s one or two weeks. Sometimes it’s a day.

Can you share a specific example of how Greyscalegorilla has helped you?

When we were in the Stanley Cup championships, I remember lighting, texturing, and rendering the Stanley Cup logo and animating it up and down for one of our boards. I found out later that fans were taking photos in front of it, and, really, that is why we’re doing this. We are creating memories for our fans. And Greyscalegorilla makes that job easier.

What are your favorite Greyscalegorilla tools and assets?

I love the textures honestly. The frost surface imperfection textures are what compelled our org to acquire a Teams account, after I watched a tutorial on making realistic-looking frost utilizing Greyscalegorilla. I was able to use the textures immediately, adding frost to a floating puck that was flying across the screen.

Another example, I have a hockey helmet for our third jersey look, it’s a matte black, and I thought it would be cool to have the visor frosted up. So, I just opened up Greyscalegorilla and started plugging in frost textures. Now, every time we have a game and we’re utilizing 3D helmets, whether for us or our opponents, we can repurpose the effect.

So, obviously the textures are a huge help. We also use a lot of metal materials inside of Greyscalegorilla Plus. And I love the Area Light Maps that we can just plug in to add that extra spice. That’s definitely one of my favorites.

How do you balance creating a consistent brand look across all your graphics while also ensuring each game has a unique feel?

In the summer, we spend some time creating our “campaign package” that we templatize, with different elements for each game, and put on display for the fans. That’s what our signage helps with.

Take, for example, when we’re making bespoke assets for specific games. Like theme nights. 50% of our games are technically theme nights, and for all of those, there are bespoke assets created.

Every year we add another theme night. Hockey Fights Cancer night. First Responders night. Military Appreciation night. Halloween is a huge one. It’s increasing every year, so we’re making more and more bespoke assets and deliverables to display on screens throughout the arena and on the big external sign outside the arena and in marketing materials.

So, these themed elements, we add them into the previously mentioned “campaign package.” We essentially rebuild everything according to the theme. Lower thirds. Replay wipes. Title intros. Promotional elements. Any high-rez screenshots we can provide to our marketing team and its graphic designers to create a cohesive look. Again, Greyscalegorilla makes that job easier. It helps speed up our process so much.

Tell us about your “Best Theme Night” award. 

Winning “Best Theme Night” at the Idea Conference was a huge honor. Every NHL, NBA, and NFL team comes together after voting throughout the year for who’s got the best promotional video. It’s almost like, you know, the Oscars for sports.

We submitted the work we did for Gasparilla Night, which took place during Gasparilla Pirate Festival. It’s a popular annual event, special to Tampa, with parades and parties and the like, and, really, it’s just an excuse for people to dress up as pirates and have fun.

Over the last three seasons, we had a couple of games that lined up with the festivities. So, we had to find ways to convince fans to still come to the arena after partying all day. So, we created a pirate-themed 3D package that we submitted alongside everything else we do as game presentation, like video features and live activations. And then we actually won!

Ultimately, it’s work like this that has cemented our reputation as being among the top two NHL organizations as far as our game presentation entertainment. We’re second only to Las Vegas, but we always say it’s because they have all the money to buy all the toys, But we’ll take it, because, while we have a smaller budget, we do a lot with what we have. So, to be up here with them is a big deal for us.