Behind the Scenes of ESPN’s Animated Sports Alt-Casts

When ESPN floated the idea of creating an animated alternative broadcast for games, it was all about creating “magical moments in sports.” Instead of watching sports stars shooting hoops or scoring touchdowns, there was suddenly an option to see Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, Lisa Simpson or Mike Wazowski do the honors.

For Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN vice president of edit, animation, graphics innovation and creative production, this project is his baby. The animated alt-casts bring a different audience to sports, Szykowny said during a panel at Disney’s D23 convention last weekend.

“We took a bunch of technologies like live player tracking — we can track what the players are doing in the game and make our animated characters do the same things,” Szykowny said. ESPN brought Disney IP into the project and combined it with face-tracking and motion-capture technology.

ESPN studio host Drew Carter has been a live animated commentator...

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